Rooster Update

I know you just can't wait to hear more about our chickens! The big news is that our roosters are learning to crow! A little while back, we heard some strange croaks and squawks from the chicken coop and figured one of the roosters had found his voice box but it was not going so well! A few days later I left the chickens out in the early morning. As they did their normal mad dash for the thicket, one of the Black Australorp roosters stopped, stood on tip-toe, and left out a real honest "Cock-a-doodle-doo"! I was as proud as a mama watching her toddler take his first step!
We still need to get rid of a few roosters. Two have found new homes, and one we found dead in the coop one morning. (Any ideas of what happened?) We now have four Black Australorps and three Partridge Rocks left. We may try taking some to auction this week just to give the others more room. We never planned to have this many chickens in the coop. The roost rail is rather full.
The chickens have been coming in the garden more this week. I enjoy watching them scratch in the compost pile and stand on the fence. They haven't done much damage but Ed has convinced me they are snipping off the young corn tops. He thinks we will need to begin penning them in. Yesterday Ed built a simple movable pen. Give us a few days to use it and see what we think of our design. Then I'm sure we'll be sharing about it here!