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Dwindling Dominiques

The remaining Dominiques have lost their freedom. They are back behind bars in the fence.

These have to be the most worthless chickens in the entire world!  There are three hens and they don’t lay worth a darned.  They had been laying in the egg boxes and then while I was in MO last month, they decided to start laying on the floor of the coop.  I’d find an egg every day or so.  I quit checking the egg boxes and yesterday I happened to open the box lid and there were 7 eggs in there.  I had no idea how long they had been there so I tossed them all.  One of the hens decided to go out in the woods and set out there.  I figured something would get her but no . . nothing did!  She would come home every morning and every evening and get food and water.  After about 10 days, she began staying home longer and longer and then last week, she decided to just stay home.

There were three roosters.  Albert decided to get his morning exercise by chasing me when I let them out.  He’s in the freezer now.  A couple of weeks later, Wilbur decided that his goal for the day was to kill Roscoe.  Poor little Roscoe doesn’t bother anyone but he was constantly on the lookout for Wilbur.  Saturday I told Vince if he didn’t butcher Wilbur, I was going in the house to get my pistol and kill him myself.  Wilbur is now in the freezer.

Harold lived to see another day because he took off and ran into the woods.  Vince though he would never come back but . . he did.  I was having to wash my front porch down two or three times a day and when the temps dropped down below freezing, I had no intention of getting out there and hosing down the porch, so the Dominiques are back in their pen and as far as I’m concerned, they can all end up in the freezer and I will not complain!

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Comments

  1. Reading your post I just had to laugh out loud (on a challenging workday). “Wilbur is in the freezer” – just imagine this sentence out of context and the police would be knocking on your door. Thanks for cheering me up – I needed it!

    • I couldn’t have said it any better! I really needed some humor after a really bad day. You did not disappoint with this post Judy, i really needed it today!

  2. Dominiques are cluster layers, they lay eggs to sit on them. Probalby somewhat like the silkies. If you keep collecting the eggs they will keep laying for a while until there are enough for a nesting or they just give up that idea. Your girl in the woods could haven lost her eggs to a opposum, skunk, raccoon or any number of other animals. Some will only eat their fill and leave the rest, some just keep on eating. Most of those wouldn’t get the hen if she is fiesty enough to avoid them. Probably a good idea to pen them up now. They would keep stealing nests until you have more babies. No sure that’s what you want.
    Hugs!!!!

  3. It sounds like the wild, wild chicken west out there. Bounties on chickens LOL!! If you don’t get along with the sheriff, OFF WITH YOUR HEAD! and into the crockpot you go! Omg I can’t stop laughing. I too needed that laugh. Thanks for lifting my spirits.

  4. We have three hens left…Six year old hens! They are free range…how they avoided the coyotes, who knows. Skunks and Snakes will take eggs and chicks. We still have 5 geese and 4 ducks (penned up). They lay twice a year…but rarely do the eggs hatch…and when they do…something gets the chicks. Next nesting season, we will seperate the geese and ducks, and pen off the setting pairs. You can tell which male is the setting parent…they stay close to the female on the nest, and will sometimes take over for her. If we get rain…we may try goats again. We will have to build seperate shelters and pens for the mothers, as they will kill the other babies that aren’t theirs.
    Wish we had more rain…would make the decision easier.

    We had 19 roosters (bro in law bought us 45 chicks…half were roosters)…Hubby & his brother took care of all but one…Big Daddy…gosh I miss that big old rooster….the others became aggressive…as did the one we had after Big Daddy was gone…Lon took care of him (yep freezer fodder, lol).

  6. You and the chickens make me laugh! My daughter also keeps chickens and is forever having “situations”. Good luck!

  8. Chicken and dumplings sounds good to me!! Stinkin’ critters! I’m laughing my head off over here, by the way! I’m picturing ol’ Albert getting his exercise! 🙂

  9. OMG! Judy, I need your help here! I read your heading, Dwindling Dominiques, and figured I’d be reading a sad story of some critter zeroing in on your poor chickens. I settled down with a cup of tea to read your grim tale. Sadly for me, when I hit your first, “He’s in the freezer now!” I had a mouthful of tea. It sprayed everywhere! Thank goodness I wasn’t drinking hot chocolate! I’d be on the lookout for a new computer! I think you may need to add some kind of a CAUTION symbol before those entries that might cause accidents during the reading! P.S. You really need to compile your stories into a book, illustrated with your beautiful chicken and cow photos! Thanks so much for the laugh!

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