CoopBoots
Crowing
- Aug 31, 2022
- 774
- 2,955
- 316
Welcome to Rusty Bucket Farm!
This is Rusty, age unknown, maybe 5ish:
We adopted him after his first life as a pet came to an end. He's kind of living out his retirement with us, although we managed to get a handful of lovely chicks from him this year. Looks like a Niederrheiner or a variant of Cuckoo Orpington, but the original owner didn't seem to know.
Rusty's 1 y.o. wives, aka The Golden Girls:
We started with nine hatchery quality Buff Orpingtons and are down to seven; seemed like fatty liver issues so we revised our policy on scraps and mostly avoid them these days. Tough lesson.
Rusty's broody mama, Daisy, who hatched seven of his babies this year (6 out of 7 were boys, yikes):
She went broody twice as a pullet and once again as a hen. Two of three clutches saw success but clearly Rusty is struggling to keep up with his young trophy wives!
The Next Generation:
John Luc Peckard, with his hatchmate Peaches staring from the background (I have nearly no photos of her). His brother Riker is not pictured but is nearly identical, if less developed. His other male hatchmates were too numerous to keep. All of them are broody raised and almost wild in comparison to the rest of the flock!
The last of Rusty's broody hatchlings is Circle, raised as a singleton by the same hen:
He's the image of his older brothers, Peckard and Riker, just a few months younger.
We had one artificial hatch from Rusty this year, an additional pullet named Puffy Muffin (ignore Marshmallow stealing the limelight here and Rusty coming to tell me off):
She has developed MUCH faster than her broody raised sister, Peaches, but they share that very slight barring from Rusty in their pretty buff coats. Puffy is a huge, outsize pullet who is already larger than her Buff Orpington dam. I'll get an updated picture later for comparison but she is easily the largest girl in the entire flock despite just coming into lay.
Fresh Blood:
Meet the Buff Orpington x Leghorn mixes from the farm down the road! No relation to my OG flock:
Yorvir is the handsome boy in front. The girls came in red, brown, white, and black.
Kazooie:
Yuri:
Marshmallow:
Peppa:
Salt:
Noodle (intractable wry neck or injury since chickhood):
There's one additional red pullet called Jubilee who has mostly escaped from photos this far.
Anyway, that's the crew! Current goals are really just around managing Rusty as an old man; keeping him happy and as leader of his flock despite the new boys I'm keeping as back-up. I adore him for himself mostly, but I can't deny I'm very interested in the traits I see in his offspring (heavy-set, FLUFFY birds. I mean you can FEEL the difference when you touch them; it's incredible how soft and thick the feathers are. As far as maturity, they develop slowly. Eggs are light brown to cream and seem to also tend large? Trying to observe for this a little more closely). I do want to keep eggs around and promote a multi-generational flock that reproduces via natural brooding.
Given my hatch-rates for this year, if I don't bring in outside birds for a while I doubt I'll deal with overpopulation going the broody route. However, I'm trying to be considerate of just how many birds I can regularly do health checks and treatments for, plus coop improvements and maintenance.
It's a big job but I love it. I'm head over heels for them. May we have many happy and healthy years ahead!
This is Rusty, age unknown, maybe 5ish:
We adopted him after his first life as a pet came to an end. He's kind of living out his retirement with us, although we managed to get a handful of lovely chicks from him this year. Looks like a Niederrheiner or a variant of Cuckoo Orpington, but the original owner didn't seem to know.
Rusty's 1 y.o. wives, aka The Golden Girls:
We started with nine hatchery quality Buff Orpingtons and are down to seven; seemed like fatty liver issues so we revised our policy on scraps and mostly avoid them these days. Tough lesson.
Rusty's broody mama, Daisy, who hatched seven of his babies this year (6 out of 7 were boys, yikes):
She went broody twice as a pullet and once again as a hen. Two of three clutches saw success but clearly Rusty is struggling to keep up with his young trophy wives!
The Next Generation:
John Luc Peckard, with his hatchmate Peaches staring from the background (I have nearly no photos of her). His brother Riker is not pictured but is nearly identical, if less developed. His other male hatchmates were too numerous to keep. All of them are broody raised and almost wild in comparison to the rest of the flock!
The last of Rusty's broody hatchlings is Circle, raised as a singleton by the same hen:
He's the image of his older brothers, Peckard and Riker, just a few months younger.
We had one artificial hatch from Rusty this year, an additional pullet named Puffy Muffin (ignore Marshmallow stealing the limelight here and Rusty coming to tell me off):
She has developed MUCH faster than her broody raised sister, Peaches, but they share that very slight barring from Rusty in their pretty buff coats. Puffy is a huge, outsize pullet who is already larger than her Buff Orpington dam. I'll get an updated picture later for comparison but she is easily the largest girl in the entire flock despite just coming into lay.
Fresh Blood:
Meet the Buff Orpington x Leghorn mixes from the farm down the road! No relation to my OG flock:
Yorvir is the handsome boy in front. The girls came in red, brown, white, and black.
Kazooie:
Yuri:
Marshmallow:
Peppa:
Salt:
Noodle (intractable wry neck or injury since chickhood):
There's one additional red pullet called Jubilee who has mostly escaped from photos this far.
Anyway, that's the crew! Current goals are really just around managing Rusty as an old man; keeping him happy and as leader of his flock despite the new boys I'm keeping as back-up. I adore him for himself mostly, but I can't deny I'm very interested in the traits I see in his offspring (heavy-set, FLUFFY birds. I mean you can FEEL the difference when you touch them; it's incredible how soft and thick the feathers are. As far as maturity, they develop slowly. Eggs are light brown to cream and seem to also tend large? Trying to observe for this a little more closely). I do want to keep eggs around and promote a multi-generational flock that reproduces via natural brooding.
Given my hatch-rates for this year, if I don't bring in outside birds for a while I doubt I'll deal with overpopulation going the broody route. However, I'm trying to be considerate of just how many birds I can regularly do health checks and treatments for, plus coop improvements and maintenance.
It's a big job but I love it. I'm head over heels for them. May we have many happy and healthy years ahead!
Thanks for sharing!!
. I quite like him but I never really trust a rooster. The pullets generally like him. I'll learn a lot more about him next spring.
He might almost be as crazy about them as I am, now!
