We have a brooder on our hands, she’s always resting on the eggs and super defensive. She barely gets out to feed. I’ve never seen a chicken display such behaviors, she makes herself bigger as you get closer and makes aggressive noises.
It also looks like her big mama attitude has triggered other chickens in seeking comfort under her feathers.
We ordered 12 more Rhode Island Reds, they will be our 3rd “batch”. They are indeed a good breed in the cold. They arrived with their beaks trimmed which is 100% barbaric and we will never order chickens from this place again. The old timer farmer we had gotten them from thus far stopped doing it so we had to look for alternatives. It didn’t even occur to us that this could happen, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when stepping out of a personal interaction with a local farmer, and into one with an out of state large scale breeder. This shall serve as a great reminder to not ever do that for chickens and anything regarding food or animals. Fuck these guys.
The chickens were “gifted back to nature” last Winter. No egg production and a new baby in the house brought this shortcut we didn’t like taking.
I’ve updated the list of traditions and cultural artifacts I understood since moving to Vermont for the occasion. It made me understand how so many religions have the concept of sacrificing animals to deities, and the idea of offerings to gods in general. I heard the coyotes come from the next hill over the same night and rejoice at the bounty. I never had issues with coyotes, coincidence? I think not. Everything happening at night feels supernatural. It’s not the first time we take animals deep into the forest to be cleaned up, and this was likely a frequent occurrence in the lives of humans when religions popped up.
We’re populating the coop this time with Guinea Hens. Apparently they’re like guard dogs, but they also eat ticks, and snakes, and they require little feeding.