Ornaments and Chistmas Lights

          There's a cold front blowing in that's supposed to drop the temperatures here to the 40s and 30s and bring rain to boot, so Mom and I are going to spend today inside putting up the Christmas decorations. (and baking cookies)


    After many tries and several site changes I finally got a good picture of all three of my knitted roosters. It was almost impossible to get a photo that wasn't too far away and still showed their pretty tail feathers and the rest of them, at the same time.

      I ended up having to get my mom to hold a branch from or tree while I took a photo. And spreading a bunch of gauzy fabric under my window with some between the roosters and my window to make the sunlight less harsh.    

   As you can see the black rooster in the picture has green eyes. He is a Christmas present for my mom and she said she wanted it to have green eyes. Unless someone orders a custom color the black roosters will have yellow eyes.  After this I will also be gluing an extra long tail feather she found while feeding the roosters onto mom's rooster. She was born in the year of the rooster so this is a good luck charm for her, too.   

 Here's a link to the listing: https://www.etsy.com/listing/169909098/rooster-ornament?

                  Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!

Rooster Ornament

     After a week long hiatus I'm back, sort of. Thanks to copious amounts of orange juice I'm not as congested, but I'm still getting chills and fevers and have developed a cough. My brain is a little  better, but unfortunately still isn't 100%. I am afraid to look at what I wrote last week. I was having trouble reading, not to mention writing, and wasn't making that much sense when talking. But am a little better.

   Anyway... I had most of the rooster finished last week all he needed to have his wings sewn on and for his tail feathers to be picked out and glued in. It drove me a little crazy-er, but I finally finished him.

   I sure wasn't which one to make first, until I saw the gold and black swirling Red Heart Fiesta yarn in my stash. I think it looks like a Golden Wyandotte which is why I crochet him a pea comb.
  The Pattern is a modification of my chick pattern with a comb, wattles, and an ornament loop crocheted on and of course feathers glued in. I used foam balls instead of stuffing, because it will hold it's shape better. I think they are perfect for Christmas and will be great for Chinese New Year. Which is a couple of year from now.
 
  Each rooster is 4" (10.16cm) tall from comb to bottom, 2.75" (6.985cm) wide, about 3.75" (9.525cm) from his beak to start of tail, and dangles 4.75" (12.065cm) from the ornament hook(included).
  Each rooster has 7 rooster tail feathers (from my own farm raised roosters) securely glued into place, is hand knitted out of 100% acrylic yarn and has a foam ball in the body and one in the head to keep their shape. Made in a smoke free environment.
  The pictures are of the Gold and Black version, but they are available in Gold and Black, Black, and Red. I will post pictures of the others soon.
  No two roosters will look exactly alike. Each is signed with a small 'J' on the bottom. Custom orders are available but I am limited to the color feathers I have on hand.    
  *This is not a toy. Allowing children or pets to play with a rooster ornament may result in damage to rooster and possible harm to pet or child.
     Here is a link to the listing so you can buy your own: https://www.etsy.com/listing/169909098/rooster-ornament


            Thank you for reading Bats Bizarre's offical blog. Have a bat-tastic day!     

The trouble with Roosters (Warning: it's awful)

    If you hatch your own birds or buy a straight run from a hatchery (a mix of males and females.) (Anyone else think it should mean a 'straight run' of either males or females? Anyway.) if you do either each chick has a 50-50 shot of  being a boy. If your luck is like mine it'll seems more like 70% when you buy a straight run, my theory being that more people buy all girls than all boys and the hatchery ends up with the exes of boys for the straight one shipments. Which is why I try to buy pullets (girls) when I buy chicks. There is still a chance of getting a boy when you buy all pullets, but I'd like to think it's lower than 50%.

     Unfortunately, we've been having a better than 50-50 shot at getting roosters when we hatch.  Three of Amy's chicks are most likely roosters, including that tricky Bared Rock. I won't stop hoping for hens until the caged birds crow, but I fear it's only a matter of time.

   The trouble with roosters is manifold. They don't lay eggs, they get into fights, bad tempered ones will attack you, and the worst one of all: they may kill your hens.
      We had a horrible time with Rhode Island Red roosters. When I was younger (9 or11) We put some young chickens in with the flock. Two were half Rhode Island Red roosters They "jumped" the hens, fond the weakest one and took turns jumping her until Mom grab one by the neck. The hen later died from her injuries. The rooster died immediately from his.
  Last year, we had two roosters that couldn't have been more than a quarter Rhode Island Red. We didn't know they had any Red in them until they got older and started looking exactly like one. When they were about two months old Mom and I went to feed the chickens and saw one of them on top of a buff hen. We put him in a separate cage and mistakenly thought the second one was a hen because it looked like the offending rooster had been jumping him as well. (his tail feathers had been ripped off.) While we were setting up separate cages I heard a commotion and saw that the second rooster was jumping the injured hen. The hen didn't survive. We later ate the roosters.

  So watch suspected roosters carefully. Rooster's often grow combs faster than the others and get taller faster. If you hear crowing remove them from your flock  immediately unless it's only one, its the one you plan on having as your rooster, and you have the hens in a large enough pen.  It seems worst with ones that mature early. (two month is early.) I've had roosters that were of different breeds and matured later and they were fine. But that might have been their temperament.

           Thank you for reading Bat's Bizarre's blog. Have a bat-tastic day!