My tiny u.p. farm

I haven’t posted in over a week, because I went to California to meet my new niece.  Before I left, this was my garden (taken on 7/23/15):

I came back less than 7 days later and my garden had exploded:

The chickens are doing well.  We had planned on starting to cull some roosters when I got home. A couple on the shortlist have redeemed themselves for now.  We culled two on Sunday – one was getting very aggressive and had pecked my son, and the other was picking on the rest of the big roosters.  We will need to take out a couple more before winter, but the ones we still have are behaving better.  One of our youngest roosters, Wonky Top:

Wonky’s comb has been straightening out.  He has straightened out too – he was going to be one of the first we took out, because he didn’t get along with anyone – he was really skittish, and he fought with everyone. We had separated the roosters from the hens for awhile, and he would get picked on by the bigger guys, and then escape. Each time we caught him and put him back with the roosters, he would escape again, and then evade capture for most of the day.  I finally put him in with the hens.  He stayed there while I was on vacation. When I got back I thought my roosters were bored being over in their side (we had them in the grassless side because it was easier to get them in at night), so I put them with everyone again.  Wonky then asserted himself, pretty much saying “you’re on MY side now!” and he wouldn’t take any flack from the big guys.  Now he doesn’t seem so skittish, and he’s getting along with everyone better. So we have decided he can stay, for now.  I suspect he’s a Cuckoo Maran – I really wanted some Marans (the hens can lay darker brown eggs ) so if possible we may keep him for breeding. We will see.

I was planning on keeping certain roosters based on looks, for breeding purposes, but we are starting to cull based mostly on their behavior, especially toward us.  Our big Black Langshan rooster was one that we took out this weekend, since he flew up on my son and pecked him in the chest.  That was the deciding factor for him.  We were planning on keeping at least two – I read that if you have 3 or 4 they can get along better than having just two.  We’ll just have to play it by ear with them.

The chickens are enjoying their outdoor shelter – we allow them in the coop anyway, but this shelter was already in the part of the run that I have them in right now, so we left it (it’s a little large so we’d have to disassemble it to remove it) – they have learned they can go on top of it. That puts their heads only about 6 inches from the top of the fence.  They have not seemed to figure that part out yet though – I was worried they would jump out but nobody has so far.