Bill

Yesterday... I almost said today but I suppose it's 1:30 AM. Yesterday Bill bit me. My rooster and I have never clashed before and although I don't pat him unless he is in the coop, we seemed to have a pretty good relationship. Especially in comparison to the rooster my husband once owned... Roy. Roy was evil. Evil roosters become supper, it's quite simple. We had one roo we thought was a chicken and he turned out to be an evil thing, my husband and I killed him and ate him. Killing him was my first experience with anything like that, but I will post about that another time. I think if I have any readers they should understand my views on animals and meat etc, so there will be a whole post on that sometime very soon.

Anyway! Back to Bill! My hens were hiding out in their coop during this horrible snow storm we had. The coop we have is not exactly meant for chickens to live in. It's for sleeping and laying eggs. So yesterday/today I determined that I was going to get the chickens out of the coop. Bill and B.B. were already outside and two girls were in the nest boxes so I went in the coop to shoo the last two out. I didn't touch the girls but one of them usually gets her feathers ruffled very easy and started screeching when I walked towards her. Bill ran into the coop and jumped up and bit my hand! I had a glove on but it still bruised and broke a little skin. Had I not had my gloves on I'm sure it would have been a nasty bite. When he bit me, I swatted him and knocked him sideways. Then when I went outside he gave me the cock eye and made noises like maybe he might do it again (noises like Roy used to make) and I swatted him again for it. I knew I couldn't let the rooster think he was the boss so I chased him to the shed and paced around in front of him for a bit not letting him go anywhere. Then I left him alone. I came back out and cheerfully gave everyone some treats and water and then proceeded to shovel for them so there would be a clear space by the shed, one by the coop and a path to each. Well apparently shoveling is evil because Bill, Arlene and Go Go got themselves stuck in a thorn bush trying to "escape" the "evil" shovel. After that I was public enemy number 1.

I earned back a little trust when I came out with everyone's fav snack... Cheerios. When I buy Cheerios, I buy huge boxes because they are my breakfast cereal of choice and their favourite snack! So anyway, I hope I won back some hearts. I haven't written Bill completely out. He was likely grumpy from being in the coop all day and thought I was hurting one of his girls. But as I've said before, evil roosters turn into supper so, I hope he's a good boy or he may have a replacement and a long walk off a short pier heading his way.