Down on the Farm

Our little farm is starting to come together. We have had so much fun working on our coop and chicken run this past week. Our flock now has 4 hens and a rooster. Our hens are Golden Comets and our rooster is a Silkie. This is gonna be an adventure for sure. We plan on allowing our flock to free range. The farmer that we got our hens from said that we needed to leave the girls in the coop for a few days so they will be sure to know that their food and water are in the coop and will return in the evening for their feeding on their own. He used this technique at his place, so that's what we did. The day we were gonna let them out, my husband was a lifting that morning for football and had our 15yo, our 13yo and our 10yo with him. I was waiting for the them to get home before we let the birds out. That meant that our 9yo, 5yo, 4yo and 11 month old was with me. We went out to remove the feeding tray from the coop. Somehow our rooster, Pepe, got out. I have something in one hand and the baby next to me. Suddenly I see Pepe charge at the baby and I grab him up by the arm and spin around trying to get away. The little girls begin to run around like crazy children and the rooster, obviously perceiving them as a threat with their wild behavior, starts chasing the girls who are running in circles and yelling. Now, we have about 4 acres of land and all of this activity was occurring in about 30ftX30ft area....not because we were in any kind of enclosure, but because apparently that's how a Mama with 4 city raised girls and a baby respond when a rooster is on the attack. I'm yelling at the rooster to get away and trying to now fling the baby on the trampoline because I'm afraid that Pepe thinks the baby is a snack and the girls won't move away from the area, which means I can't move away. I finally am able to grab a lid to one of our packing containers and shoo the rooster back into the coop. I was ready to have that bird for dinner at that point. I did not want an animal that I had to be concerned for my children. Since then I've come to like Pepe again...for now. Our oldest daughter seems to have a way with him and lets her pick him up and carry him around. So, hopefully we will gain Pepe's trust and learn how to keep him from getting aggressive. My true regret that day is that no one was able to record it....I'm pretty sure I could have been $10,000 richer with that piece of video! ;)