Crowing

Our chicks are now 12 weeks old. (They are as many weeks old as I am pregnant; isn’t that handy?) They look like chickens. They’re very pretty. I’m still working on the pictures, promise.

Anyway, we’ve heard feeble teenage crowing attempts for weeks. It sounds like a chicken with a head cold. “Er…er…ERRRRRR!” And we don’t spend hours out in the pasture, so I’m sure there has been crowing before now, but today, we heard a rooster actually crow. The full “cock-a-doodle-doo” and all. It was fun!

Since all 13 of our roosters look alike, it’s difficult to tell who’s crowing, who’s nice, who’s too agressive, etc. I can still tell who Crazy is (though he’s getting bigger and his feathers are growing back – I think he’s less picked on in the bigger coop), but that’s it. It’s less than four weeks (!) until we send all but one lucky fellow to Freezer Camp, and I have no idea how we’ll choose who to eat and who to keep. I should start going out there with different colored permanent markers and marking the promising ones’ heads, or something. None of them are so aggressive that they jump on me or attack me, but the more curious roos will peck at my boots or try to jump out when I open the door. I’ve read that they start to get very rowdy around 16 weeks, and they’ll especially start to fight with each other over who’s Head Roo. Which is why 16 weeks is a good time to butcher your heritage breed chickens; long enough to get some size, but not too long that they’re tough or fighting all day.