Thinking About Roosters

I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about roosters lately. We scheduled our butchering day for next Saturday, so I’ve got to decide who gets to stay. We don’t enjoy butchering day. That’s part of why it’s so hard to get it on the schedule. However, the chicken coop resembles a circus tent these days and something has to be done.

Roosters have a job. Interestingly, we value our roosters for the very thing that society seems to have developed a dislike for, which is masculinity. (That could be a whole ‘nother blog post in itself.) Our roosters are expected to protect the flock from predators. Even though our chickens are inside a fenced yard, when they sense a threat (like a bear), those roosters will hustle all the hens into the safety of the coop. I’ve seen it happen. I can tell what’s going on out there by listening carefully to the sounds the roosters make. Free-range roosters have even been known to sacrifice themselves to predators for the sake of the flock.

A good rooster will seek out food sources and make sure the hens get fed. When I put food scraps out in the chicken yard, the roosters go over to the pile, check out what’s there, and make a specific noise to call the hens over. Some roosters will even parcel out choice morsels.

The roosters keep peace in the coop by inserting themselves between squabbling hens or by keeping younger roosters from hassling the girls. I like to watch my Buff rooster strut around like he owns the place.

These are all lessons that I want my roosters to learn. Some of them figure their job out faster than others. I’ve been out in that coop many times over the past couple of weeks, watching the juvenile roosters and trying to figure out who’s got the most potential. I only want two roosters. My Buff rooster holds the top spot now and he gets to stay. Initially, I thought the baby rooster from the Light Brahma mother would be a good one, but he’s been surpassed by a rooster out of a White Orpington mama. The White Orpington rooster is a fine specimen physically, and he’s also figured out what his job is. Even though he won’t eat out of my hand like his father does, he will come and stand next to me until I scatter some scratch grains around, at which point he calls the hens over. He spends his day out among the hens in the chicken yard and seems to have acquired a nice harem. I would keep him, but I have someone interested in taking him and I will be happy to see him go to a good home.

The other rooster I like is out of a Black Australorp mama. He is a beautiful mahogany color with black tail feathers. Like the White Orp rooster, he spends most of his time out in the yard. He seems to be a calming influence and gets along with his daddy. I think he’s going to be the one that I keep. He maintains his distance from me, but he’s never shown any aggressive behavior.

I’ve also got two juvenile purebred Buff roosters and I would like to give them to good homes, but no one wants roosters. I belong to a couple of local poultry groups on Facebook and it seems like everyone is trying to find homes for extra roosters. As much as I hate the thought, I think the rest of them are destined for freezer camp.

Not all aspects of homesteading are fun.

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I picked cantaloupes yesterday:

This is a variety called Minnesota Midget. They never get much bigger than a softball, but they are sweet and delicious.

I’m up to about 35 gallon bags of frozen tomatoes. I’ll keep going until a frost takes out the plants. I reorganized the storage pantry yesterday and moved older stock to the upper shelves to get used up. We’re down to six quarts of tomato sauce from last year’s batch.

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And I finally did some sewing. I finished sewing down the appliqué:

The instructions suggested invisible thread and a narrow zig-zag for the letters. I tried that and it was an unqualified disaster, so I switched to 50wt black Aurifil instead. I did a narrow zig-zag around the cursive letters, but for the plain letters, I did a simple straight stitch inside the edge of each letter. When I ordered the nonstick needles from Amazon, only the size 90/14 were in stock. That size worked fine for the blanket stitch part of the motif. To appliqué the lettering, though, I had to switch to a smaller size needle. The nonstick coating really does make a difference. I was getting adhesive buildup and an occasional skipped stitch with the smaller needle. I see that the smaller nonstick needles are now in stock at Amazon, so I’ll order a couple of packages just to have on hand.

The appliqué is done, though, and I am satisfied with it. Now I have to put the apron together. I ran the outside edges of the apron pieces through the serger, because that Essex linen likes to fray. The apron is lined and all the edges will be enclosed in the seams, but it’s good to be thorough.