Catching up.

I haven't felt much like writing over the last year ... this has been a really rough year.  Loosing children to anger is beyond comprehension. 
Our neighbor has been hatching our baby chickens the last couple of years.  They have this wonderful professional incubator that does all the work for them.   I brought her 42 eggs, We got 70+ chicks back from her.  She decided to add some of her eggs to the mix.  YIKES They were so cute when they were small ... but now that they are getting bigger we just don't have the room for them. They are stinky and nasty and need a LOT more room.  We are going to start butchering them off or selling them or something!!!!  We need the room.
Several years ago we "rescued" three chickens from some kids who got them at a festival and didn't realize chickens require work.  One of them died but we still have Pee Wee and our Rooster Bubba.  A few weeks ago I was putting the chickens to "bed"  but could not find Bubba.  I could hear him.  He was under the shed and crowing ... but his voice sounded small and meek.  We could not get him to come out.  All of our sheds are on skids so there is a space for chickens to get under them.  Phil decided to dig him out but we were able to coax him out after a bit and didn't have to big him out. 
When we got him out from under the building we realized how awful he looked.  His tail feathers were gone and he looked like a broken man.  He was hardly able to walk. 
We realized that he must have been in a fight with our other younger rooster "Rooster Cogburn".  We carried him into the chicken yard and knew that we were correct.  The two instantly went at one another again.  We separated them for safety and kept them apart for the next week.  Bubby would cower when he walked close to the fence where Rooster was caged.  In fact he would not even walk close to the fence for days. 
We tried to sell Rooster and tried to give him away.  No takers.  In the end we decided to butcher Rooster and keep Bubba.  I never really realized the drama in the chicken yard until this experience.