d'anver lovers,discuss the breed and post some pics!

[bluenkimchi]

Pretty little biddies....the parents of mine are black and a cuckoo roo over all black hens...but ya that would make sense.....if d uccle were used at one point...thanks

 

[SchipAlong]

My girls have been co-brooding two eggs.
One egg hatched and the other has pipped, and both hens started pecking at the hatched chick. Zeste actually pulled fluff out. I tried removing Zeste from the nest hoping Sel would be more motherly, since she was reacting to the cheeping less, but she still (albiet much, much more gently) taps the chick if it tries to move towards the center of the nest where the remaining egg is.

Has anyone had any luck getting a rejected chick accepted after the remaining eggs have hatched?

 

[speckledhen]

My girls have been co-brooding two eggs.
One egg hatched and the other has pipped, and both hens started pecking at the hatched chick. Zeste actually pulled fluff out. I tried removing Zeste from the nest hoping Sel would be more motherly, since she was reacting to the cheeping less, but she still (albiet much, much more gently) taps the chick if it tries to move towards the center of the nest where the remaining egg is.

Has anyone had any luck getting a rejected chick accepted after the remaining eggs have hatched?

I have some hens who are just very stern, not actually rejecting the babies, but adamant that they get back under mama and they can peck a little hard sometimes. Are you sure she's hostile or just very stern?

 

[K Epp]

Hawks grrrrr!!!

Just when I was thinking about moving Rusty out of the flock because of his feather legs. He's earned his keep. I heard he and Gus pitching a fit. I look out and see he and Gus going crazy at something at the windows of their house. I grab the pistol and go running around the house thinking its the neighbors dog. It was a hawk. It was sitting on top of their house. I wasn't prepared for that. Those boys were mad and all 4 hens were cramed inside their next box. I left everyone locked up because I was going to be gone for the day.

Part 2: Yesterday evening I get home and go out to feed. I find one on my bantam Cochin dead. I go to tell the hubs and look out the window and that hawk was picking at the corps like a vulture. She had been dead a day. I must missed her at lock up the night before. It's hard to shooo them away the proper way where I live because of the houses around. Tried to shooo it away. It came back and was sitting in trees later. When my daughter was out feeding her rabbits. The hubs went to shooo it away but it was gone.

Part 3: I moved the bait last night to a more agreeable shoooing spot, but unfortunately it was gone this morning. ( I wasn't about to bring it in). All's been quiet today so far knock on wood.

Now my questions. 1.) I thought hawks dive down from the sky and snatched their prey not go through windows to get it. 2.) Do hawks eat dead animals that are already decaying? 3.) If it wanted the dead chicken why didn't it fly off with it? The chicken was killed about 30 ft away from where I found it. Then it didn't take it when I caught it eating her. This is a Redtailed. Shouldn't it be able to fly away with a bantam Cochin? Why didn't it go over the 4 foot fence?

 

[speckledhen]

Hawks grrrrr!!!

Just when I was thinking about moving Rusty out of the flock because of his feather legs. He's earned his keep. I heard he and Gus pitching a fit. I look out and see he and Gus going crazy at something at the windows of their house. I grab the pistol and go running around the house thinking its the neighbors dog. It was a hawk. It was sitting on top of their house. I wasn't prepared for that. Those boys were mad and all 4 hens were cramed inside their next box. I left everyone locked up because I was going to be gone for the day.

Part 2: Yesterday evening I get home and go out to feed. I find one on my bantam Cochin dead. I go to tell the hubs and look out the window and that hawk was picking at the corps like a vulture. She had been dead a day. I must missed her at lock up the night before. It's hard to shooo them away the proper way where I live because of the houses around. Tried to shooo it away. It came back and was sitting in trees later. When my daughter was out feeding her rabbits. The hubs went to shooo it away but it was gone.

Part 3: I moved the bait last night to a more agreeable shoooing spot, but unfortunately it was gone this morning. ( I wasn't about to bring it in). All's been quiet today so far knock on wood.

Now my questions. 1.) I thought hawks dive down from the sky and snatched their prey not go through windows to get it. 2.) Do hawks eat dead animals that are already decaying? 3.) If it wanted the dead chicken why didn't it fly off with it? The chicken was killed about 30 ft away from where I found it. Then it didn't take it when I caught it eating her. This is a Redtailed. Shouldn't it be able to fly away with a bantam Cochin? Why didn't it go over the 4 foot fence?

Could be the hawk started to fly off and the Cochin was struggling too much so she dropped down and started to eat it right there, Karen. I read once about a hawk that actually marched into a coop through either the pop door or human door, don't recall which, and since he was on the ground and at a disadvantage, was beaten to a pulp by the rooster in charge. So, they will do whatever it takes. Ladyhawk once found a dead hen, thought it was hurt by the more dominant ones who started to pick at the corpse. A couple days later, she found a little hawk up in the rafters of the coop, just biding its time until it could snatch another when the rooster was occupied elsewhere.

ETA: Good for Rusty! Those little guys are super alert, I've found.

 

[K Epp]

This one came back to the corps a day later. I think it may have something wrong with it. It has had plenty of opertunity to go after the LF and hasn't. There are 2 lg EE roos and 2 very big Brahma roos a pair of geese and ducks in that flock so they may keep it run off.

 

[speckledhen]

This one came back to the corps a day later. I think it may have something wrong with it. It has had plenty of opertunity to go after the LF and hasn't. There are 2 lg EE roos and 2 very big Brahma roos a pair of geese and ducks in that flock so they may keep it run off.

You may be right, could be it needs easy pickings. Not the normal redtail behavior, I'd say, to come back to carrion.


My little half pint male is doing fine. He has no feathers on the legs. The feather legged one is super friendly-he may be another Spike as far as temperament goes. He follows me all over the place, begging goodies. The largest one lost the couple of feather stubs on the legs or they were picked off. He's skittish but not mean. They're about 8 weeks old, I think. I really, really wish someone would get them so they could settle into a new flock before winter hits.

 

[K Epp]

I think both of mine are girls. Still no color in the porcelains comb.

 

[speckledhen]

I think both of mine are girls. Still no color in the porcelains comb.

I thought there should have been some color in that comb by that age so yeah, probably a pullet.

 

[SchipAlong]

Quote:
I think when the chick dried and started moving it startled them off the nest (I found them out pecking around in the run with one fluffy chick and one pipped egg alone in the nest) and interrupted the bonding process so they just saw a strange chick in the nest when they returned. I moved everything to a brooder box in the bedroom so I would be able to hear if anything went amiss. I was able to get them to sit on the egg by removing the hatched chick, then convinced them to sit on the chicks once it was dark out, but once morning came Zeste went homicidal again. I'm pretty sure she was going for the kill because she ripped out a beakfull of fluff. Thankfully though Sel has taken to them, but she's not the most protective mother. I was hoping to raise them in the coop, but Zeste is just too aggressive and all Sel does is puff up and yell as Zeste chases the chicks down.

On the plus side though, Sel's laid back nature means I can handle the chicks without any fuss. Sel not being upset by me means the chicks aren't afraid of me, so they're actually my tamest batch yet. Day two and they'll already climb into my hand.