by Pa Rock
Farmer in Winter
One Saturday morning last spring I visited the local roadside poultry swap and came home with between two and three dozen young chicks that included several varieties of banty chickens and a few guineas. It was an oddball assortment. Soon after I went back to the swap meet and bought an adult, full-sized rooster - Ralph - to take charge of the chicks and keep an eye on them as they got acquainted with my large yard - which I refer to as a "farm."
Ralph did his job exceedingly well and many of the little birds managed to reach maturity, though banties are small even when they are full-grown, and the adult guineas were also smaller than Ralph. But we have lots of predators in rural areas, and the little birds began to get picked-off by hungry varmints.
By the time winter was approaching, the poultry census was down to just Ralph and three mean little banty roosters and three guineas. But then one night I forgot to close the door to the chicken coop, and something got in and made off with the boss. Over the next few weeks predators eventually got two more of the little roosters, leaving only one, but that one was so terrifyingly mean that I figured nothing would ever even try to get him. The little tyrant would attack me as I was feeding him, always trying to spur the backs of my legs.
This past Thursday morning as I went out to let the little mean guy and the three guineas out of the coop for the day, he was especially vicious - to the point that the guineas finally interceded to keep him away from me as I scattered some feed.
His behavior was getting to the point to where I was going to have to do something, but by noon nature had interceded. I walked out to the coop to check on things, and and a hawk suddenly flew up from the adjacent old and weedy garden area. The hawk perched on a tree branch and watched me as I poked through the area that he had flown from and found the headless body of my terrorist banty rooster.
The problems was solved, but I felt bad - as though I had lost an old friend - even if he was an inveterate bully.
The three guineas, who are all smarter than average farm fowl, were in the coop and perched high in the rafters. The banty rooster had probably stood up to the hawk and tried to fight him, but guineas are smart enough to realize that sometimes the best way to win a fight is to just not show up.
Ranger Bob told me there is no such thing as a chicken hawk, and I am sure that he is right. But there are definitely hawks that eat chickens, regardless of what they call themselves!
It snowed most of the day yesterday in southern Missouri, a heavy and wet snowfall that covered the ground but without much accumulation. Today we have about an inch-and-a-half of the white stuff of the ground, covered with a thin, but very hard, varnish of ice. It's wintry and pretty, but I am more than content to sit inside and enjoy the view from the warmth of my living room.
Needless to say, the bird feeders are hopping this morning!
If I were an ambitious sort, this is the type of day on which I should be sifting through on-line seed catalogues and ordering a few packets for indoor germination - so that I would have plenty of seedling plants when the urge to begin digging in the dirt hits in April - as it always does. In fact, I just may do it!
My good neighbor, Jack Pew, from Noel, Missouri, always said to plant lettuce and spinach seeds directly into the garden or flower beds on Valentine's Day - and that's coming up within a month - and radishes can go in not long after. Then the seedlings for other things like tomatoes and peppers can go in after the frosts have ended, and corn can be planted sometime in May or early June.
When spring arrives, and it's not that far off, maybe I will even buy a few more chicks. Who knows!
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