So the Beast wakes me up around 8:30am so that I can go pick up the rooster so that he can see it and introduce it to the girls before he goes to church. Sure. Happy to do it. *Sarcasm here I hope you know* But I get dressed anyway and off I go after I grab a cup of coffee to take with me.
I surprise myself by finding my way there without using the Garmin. Hurrah...patting myself on the back for that! I was greeted at the door by the Princess, Gunner and Chewlee. Tara had just picked up Chance and she breezed out the door without returning my *Hello*. But she is a Christian woman so I just shrug it off. I loved the big grin on Gunner's face as he called me *Nana*. I think that is so cute. I pick him up to give him a hug then put him down. I then gave Chewlee a hug.
The Princess, Gunner and I go outside and get into the Golf cart, drive to my car so I can grab the container to transport the rooster and then head to the smaller coop where the roosters all are. Johnnycakes is fattening them up for eating in the next few months. You can only have ONE rooster in with the females so the other 11 are in the smaller pen. Yes, you read that right. They ended up with 12 roosters out of the 25 chicks. I think they are happy with the dozen that we gave them. More eggs....LOL.
So we are standing in the small coop and the roosters are running around like crazy and she tells me to pick one out...and she adds, *Pick one of the ones with a big comb*. So I am trying to look for one that doesn't have an injured but healed bad foot (another thing I was told not to pick) AND has a big comb. An impossible task but she finally offers to help me and grabs one that was near her. Perfect! When I talked about the girls possibly picking on him, she figured that he was older than they were so there shouldn't be a problem. We put him in the container and head back to the car to put it in the back, then head back to the house in the cart.
All this time, Gunner is on the Princess' lap *driving*. He had such a big grin on his face the whole time that it was just adorable. I had to laugh...couldn't help myself. We went inside and the poor Princess is trying to eat and making sure Chewlee has cleaned up her stuff she had in the sink and her plate she used for her breakfast. Gunner is upset because his mother won't pick him up so I say, *Oh, poor baby. Is mommy being mean to you? Do you want Nana to hold you?*
He puts up his arms and I picked him up while he hugged my neck and had his face buried in my chest. I rocked him a bit until he finally tried to get me to put him in one of the chairs by the counter. I knew the Princess didn't want him in the chairs so I told him *No* and put him down on the floor. He went over to the Princess and she started sharing her breakfast with him. She tells me he's already eaten four times so far and, *Look at him! He's still eating.* LOL. I figured if Chewlee had gone through two growth spurts this year, he was entitled to be a *growing boy*. I then said, *I'll bet if you planted his feet in the dirt, he'd grow like a weed!*
When Chewlee came over and stood beside me, I gathered her in my arms for a good *loving* as her mother calls it. When I said I should be going, Gunner actually started walking me to the door. I gave him a nice kiss (he offered first!) and then left to go home. I think he would have walked me all the way to the car if I had let him but not with the poor Princess still trying to eat her breakfast.
When the rooster and I got home (again, I didn't have to use the Garmin.), the Beast met me on the porch and took the container from me. We both went directly outside to the coop and let ourselves inside. I went into the barn for the cracked corn and started to spread it out and the girls, of course, rushed out. The Beast had let the rooster out of the container and he was strutting around in the unfamiliar surroundings and taking note of the girls.
One of the girls, probably the *head* chicken, came over and was starting to peck at him. He raised his ruff up (it was awesome) and flew at her with his feet but not with the intent of hurting her. He was just putting her in her place. She was very surprised at his actions and headed away from him. But she tried to intimidate him two more times before she gave up. After that, I was amazed at the following he had. I counted at least five of the girls who tagged along with him all day. If he went into the barn (we had closed the barn door and they had to use the doggie door), they all went in with him. If he came outside, ditto. We had more chickens outside at one time for longer periods of time than ever before.
I kept watch on the chickens for about an hour or so after the Beast left for church. Then I *had* to take a nap since I had not slept well last night and the early rise didn't help. It wasn't how I had planned picking up the rooster in my mind. I expected the Beast to wake me when he got home but he didn't. He just had a little time before he had to go take pictures of the home schooled kids from his church. They had a special party for picture taking. The Beast said the parents really hoped for individual pictures of their kids but they left them outside instead of making them pose for the pictures. I don't blame them since it was cold and windy outside. Only one girl posed individually. He got a really good group shot but he said after that they became *kids* and started playing outside. Typically, the cold didn't seem to bother them one bit.
The Beast told the parents that he would take individual pictures of them on a better day (when it is warmer and there's more sun!). But he got to eat since everyone had brought food to share including what the Beast described as *the BEST cupcakes ever*. When he told me about them, he added that he knew I wouldn't like them since they were slathered with very sweet frosting. He was right about that. I go into a sugar coma just SEEING those. No, not for me. BUT...the church ladies sent me a big bowl full of fruit...everything from blueberries, different types of grapes, pineapple, apple, watermelon, cantalope...you name it, it was included! When I say a BIG bowl, I mean a salad bowl like one you serve salad in for a family dinner!
I had no idea how fruit hungry I was until I started on that. Did I mention kiwi and mango? Two of my favorite fruits. I miss our mango tree we had at our house in Sunrise. *Sigh* I hate to admit it but I ate about half of it instead of dinner. To compensate for the lack of protein, I drank one of my Ensure's I still had in the fridge....LOL. I have to remember to pick up another six pack of those. The doctor wanted me to drink two of those a day...along with eating my meals. Mostly for the protein in it but who can afford that ?
So, when he came home from the photo shoot party, I told him about watching the chickens for a couple hours and not seeing any hostility from any of the girls. That made him happy. He had a problem getting them all into the barn for the night until I gave him a towel to use to help *herd* them in. He got the doggie door secured then and all the chickens are in together, including the rooster. Tomorrow we will have to check for blood or any injuries....just in case!
What I found funny was that, although the rooster is almost two weeks older than our girls, he's not as plump as they are and he still has pinfeathers on his tail area. I'm going to be curious as to how that looks when he's mature. I'll take pictures tomorrow if it's warmer and no wind. The chickens don't like the wind and will head for the barn and then huddle together. When the wind blew today at one point, we found them all huddled together with the rooster in the center. LMAO!!!
Time to go now. Love you all. Here's my thought for the day. Thinks good thoughts, say nice things, do good to others. It will all come back to you...that's Karma! ***Hugs***
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