“He was a sucker for sunflower seeds.”
There’s a problem I didn’t anticipate about catching chickens with a fishing net: They seem to have an instinctive aversion to them. I can enter a chicken yard filled with birds that could never possibly have seen one before in their lives, and if I’m carrying a net they’ll all promptly lose their minds and want to be immediately elsewhere. Landlady’s Brahmas are no exception.
They also can be counted on to forget all about it if I spread sunflower seeds. They’re addicted to the things. So this morning I had to cage up one hen and one cock. If it weren’t for the plucking I’d have been choosing a hen at random, but I took the one that has been the worst victim. No malice involved here, I’m just culling the hen I assume is lowest on the social order.
The cock, on the other hand, Ol’ Marlon, he was chosen with malice, spite and pleasure. I don’t expect the one remaining cock to learn any lessons from this, but you and I would find it an easy one to absorb. Do Not Mess With That Guy.
Technology!
The Brahma hens are docile enough to be easy to catch. But I knew Marlon wouldn’t come without a fight, hence the net. And the sunflower seeds: He dove in with the rest, and by the time he knew he was in trouble the net was already in place and he ran right into it. A quick twist of the mesh and he didn’t have any choice but to come along quietly.
Did the sunflower seeds have hulls or not? Another thing is that since the birds like the seeds, why not grow some? They should do really well there, since they love hot weather. The more you could grow, the less chicken feed you’d have to buy. Sunflower seeds are a powerhouse of nutrition for man or beast. And properly dried, left in the hull, they can be stored for a long time. That’s why I asked about the hull.
Yeah, Landlady brought a big bag of them that’s nearly empty now. The Brahmas love’em so much their pellet intake has dropped dramatically. They scarf them down hull and all. And yes, I now have some sunflower seeds I’m going to plant in the next couple of days.
We plant all sorts of sunflowers here…but the best one that grows in full sun/heat..no water is the Mexican sunflower. They grow like freakin trees. They’ll grow to about 15 ft. then fall over and root and grow another 15 feet. Bloom til hard freeze but don’t start blooming til late fall. The birds love them. We have folks that come and cut seed heads for their birds. This might be one that’s really suited for your area. I’ll be glad to send you some seeds if you’d like to give it a try. We’ve not actually planted them in several years…they just reseed. We are constantly pulling them out of unwanted locations in the spring
Shannon
Me want!