Market Farming

[Lee Lawton <llami AT teleport.com>]

> Do any of you trim your rooster spurs??  (Question came up during a
> chat this morning.)

 I raise chickens for eggs. Haven't yet (after 3 years on the farm) had to
put anyone to death, with one exception. I raise Dominique chickens and
Araucana chickens. The Dominiques were the first domestic chickens to be
brought to the US by European settlers. They were recently considered to be
a "rare and endangered" breed by the Livestock Breeds Conservancy. They lay
brown eggs and are the nicest chickens, calm and self-sufficient as they
scratch their way around their big pasture. As opposed to the Araucanas, a
descendant of a Peruvian game bird, which are nervous little fighters. They
lay blue-green eggs, which sell very well at the Farmer's Market, and are
reputed to be lower in cholesterol than regular eggs.

The one exception, as mentioned above, was an Araucana rooster. He was very
large, and absolutely refused to let me in the chicken coop after he reached
maturity. One day I was bending over to get the eggs out of the nests, and I
felt something land on my back. It was HIM, landing with his 3-inch spurs
out. Whew! Next thing, he started flying at my face. This was a bird who
could do serious harm, and since I had no plans to have surgery, I knew I
had to get rid of him.

One day, as I collected eggs, he came in the coop as usual, pretending to
peck at food on the floor, while he eyed me out of the corner of his eyes. I
had a big heavy-duty plastic bucket in hand, which had just been emptied of
chicken feed (organic of course!). I whacked him with the bucket when he
came at me, which would have been enough to drive every Dominique in the
place into the far corners of the pasture. Not Attilla. He came right at me
and I hit him with the bucket again. Again he came at me, shaking his head a
bit, but otherwise unfazed. Now, I am not a person who will hit *anything*,
but here I was, whacking this rooster as hard as I could, and here this
rooster was, taking it on the chin, so to speak, and coming back for more.
Suddenly, the thought of cock fights came into my mind, and I remembered
that those roosters would always fight until death. I knew I would probably
be the one who died there in the chicken coop, and I threw the bucket at
that g-d rooster and backed out of the coop at quick as I could while
Attilla
did his best to kill that bucket!

My dad came to visit two weeks later. He likes to hunt, and I don't. Well,
Atilla has gone to the next world, and I don't miss him a bit. My Dominique
rooster has tail feathers again, and I haven't heard any complaints from any
of the hens.

Farming is fun!

Lee Lawton
Over the Rainbow Farm