Is Ellie Mae Smarter than the Average Chicken?

We have never raised and became attached to a chicken like we have Ellie Mae.We will need to come up with another plan on how and where to keep HIM. Yes,it turned out He was indeed a rooster, after weeks of calling him Ellie Mae.Several of my blogger friends had similar cases where they had named pets and found out later in the game that they were the opposite sex from what they originally thought.They left the name as it was, so we are doing the same.(although he gets called lots of other things when he get on our nerves,which is quite often)He thinks he is a house chicken,which of course, he was until he outgrew the cookie jar.Then he was a garage chicken until it became unbearable to use the garage without someone(ME)cleaning for a day.Whenever the coffee drinkers are here, he jumps on their laps wanting whatever he thinks they are eating.He gets to be more worrisome than cute.He paces from door to door wanting in the house to get a snack.
Today being Flea Market Day,although we do have a slight rain here,Pop took the other 4 roosters,which we had raised from chicks, out of the main pen,in hopes of putting Ellie Mae in with the hens.(Pop had hopes of finding someone at the Flea Market who needed roosters, since we don't have the heart to kill and eat them,being pets,you know.) Well. the plan for putting Ellie Mae in with the hens, is not working out so well,yet. I took HIM and a pan of house scraps to the chicken pen,turned the hens out in the pen,gave them the scraps to scratch around in, and came out,closed the gate, and went back into the house. I worked around the house for about 5 minutes, then I decided to open the door to take a peek at how he was doing with his new flock. In the house he came.How he got out of the pen,and that quick,is a mystery to me. I'll try cropping one of his wings, just in case he flew over the fence.You'll just have to watch for an update to see how this unfolds.

One Cheap Brooder

I thought I was done with raising baby chickens for this season, but low and behold, a neighbor dropped by yesterday, knowing how I can't turn anything away that needs a home, with one baby chick. It seems his Mom had a hen to hatch off only one, and she didn't care to work with just the one chick. The son doesn't even have chickens. Some of his family do, but not him, so why he offered to take it in the first place is beyond me.None the less, I ended up with the the chick. We had just went through the setting process with our second hen this season, and she had no luck hatching any babies, so we gave up on her and broke up her nest.I thought perhaps,she might take in the orphaned chick, but Pop said it had been too long, and she wouldn't accept it now.If She had still been on the nest setting,maybe she would have.Hence, I needed to come up with a brooder for the one baby chick. The neighbor couldn't stand the constant cheeping. That's why he gave it to me. Now I must find a way to keep it from driving me insane with the constant cheeping.I knew I needed to keep it close at hand,since I was to be it's sole caregiver, and I really didn't need another chore.I had a huge glass canister that wasn't being used at the moment, so I put it in that. I put paper down, since it kept slipping and sliding on the glass bottom. I gave it a little cornbread from supper last night.I put a jar top in filled with water ,a thermometer, and now I needed a "Mother Hen" for it to snuggle under. Wah lah! The feather duster.A perfect Mother. It slept quietly all night under one small light over the counter. No cheeping all night.Now I need to come up with a name. The grand children had already gone home by the time the neighbor brought the chick by, so they will be Sooooo Happy!They love babies of any kind. Now I only wish he had had two chicks.One for each grandchild.