There is nothing more awesome than hearing a rooster crow at sunrise while sitting on your front porch early in the morning with a good cup of coffee and someone special! I really can't think of a better way to start the day.
I have this pleasure every Saturday and Sunday thanks to Chris and Jorge (yes, that's pronounced "hor-hey" just like the name in Espanol). His name comes from a funny combination of his lineage and a Keller Williams song :O)
Jorge the rooster came to live with us at REF a few weeks ago. In a nutshell, we have eight hens and after a few months with no rooster around, they became depressed.
Enter Jorge...
Yep, he's the cock of the walk at REF. He is VERY protective of his ladies, but nice to people at the same time...My son can pet him.
Since we have had chickens, nearly EVERY random conversation we've had with people always comes to....Don't yall have problems with snakes? Yall better watch it going and getting those eggs...
We live on a small farm...we have TONS of places for snakes WITHOUT chickens or eggs. Barns, sheds, ponds, woods, creeks and a river on our property. In ten years, I can count on one hand the number of snakes that I have actually SEEN on our property. NONE of those have been around the barns (knock on wood).
So, YES...We are well aware that we have somewhat of a Club-Med for snakes. Hopefully they won't start realizing that...Then we will have more of an Auschwitz for snakes.
Taking into consideration the fact that the area where our chickens are is VERY active almost around the clock is enough assurance that any random snakes won't come around. Goats, cows and a mule are around that coop 24/7...People, including kids are around that area everyday - sometimes multiple times a day.
Yeah, we're all still carefull, but when you have Jorge on patrol, the snake issue really doesn't bother me. Jorge averages killing a squirrel at least once a month. Yep...a squirrel a month. We have a ton of squirrels around too and we all know that squirrels are scavengers...Let me just say that both of the squirrels that attempted to snatch up some scratch corn were laid to rest in the floor of the chicken coop - They looked like they had been sprayed with some kind of pellet shot. Needless to say, Jorge proudly hovered over each one until it was removed.
Going forward, if anyone else wants to know, NO we haven't had snake issues and as long as Jorge is around I'm not going to stress too hard. If one rooster can take on and finish a friggin squirrel by himself, then I really don't think he would have a problem pecking the ever lovin daylights out of a snake.
Viva Jorge...Te Amo amigo!
