Chicken politics

The hens are on strike! We haven't had an egg in over a month. After they're a year old, most chickens molt and stop laying in the fall. I was under the impression that Easter Eggers laid all winter, but ours must have missed that memo.

This is the first year we haven't had spring chicks, so that's why it's a new problem. (Chicks born in the spring don't molt until their second fall.) My homesteading friends tell me that a light bulb in the coop will keep them laying, but for several reasons we don't want to do that.

So, no eggs for a while. We're hoarding the few we have remaining. (It's amazing how long real fresh eggs will last.)



After Stewpot disappeared, I wondered how the other roosters would behave. Both had been extremely submissive, and Stewpot had let them stay near the flock, as long as they didn't, umm, try stuff.

Big Red, the Rhode Island Red, decided he'd like to be the new boss. It worried me. He began acting aggressively, and though I had so far been able to bluff him into backing down, I feared we'd have to butcher him. An agressive rooster that large was NOT something I wanted to keep.

Then one afternoon we noticed Big Red wandering alone in the yard, past the time that the chickens normally put themselves to bed.



There had been a fight. He'd lost.

The dark spots on his comb are dried blood. I figured he was now blind in one eye too. Plus, there must have been injuries we couldn't see, since he sat in a dark corner of the coop and wouldn't eat or drink. I thought he might die.



But he improved. Now he's eating again -- he loved this treat of chicken scratch I brought him -- and even opens that eye now and then.



Meet the new boss. His name is Eagle.

Throwing out the previously liberal rooster-inclusion policies, Eagle has changed the rules. Big Red is not allowed to stay with the flock. I'm not sure how that is going to work out.



His comb's a little odd. I can't decide if it's a rose comb, pea comb, strawberry comb, or some combination.

But he'll eat out of my hand. He's a very sweet rooster. I just hope he stays that way.