Spitzhaubens don't go broody they said, Ha!

[Tankueray]

So I was planning to write up one of those panicked "my chicken is missing!!!!" posts but never got around to it.
Two nights ago, when trying to count my tree chickens, one was missing. She wasn't in the coop either. She wasn't there last night either, but I swear I saw her when I was giving out treats. I do have a cockerel that I sometimes mistake for her though. She likes to jump the fence and roam, especially in the early morning. She's not particularly defensive or aggressive, except for her constant "I'm a jungle bird! wreeak wreeak wreeak!" screaming. (Seriously, I had an Amazon parrot for 30+ years. She screamed at 120 decibels for at least an hour every day. This is just as annoying.)

She's my only white egg layer. The one white egg I've gotten was on August 29th. I've been hunting for a nest with no luck, so I just chalked it up to a young pullet, I have two EE's the same age that aren't laying consistently either.
I've seen the roosters mating her recently, surely I'll get some eggs soon. And then she was gone....

BOLO - Silver Appenzeller Spitzhauben hen 26.29 weeks old, last seen in the tree, maybe again at treat time 2 days later.

She's a serious treat hog, so I ate my Subway sandwich in the garden today:

Ha! There you are!
Gimme Gimme Gimme! Wreeak!
Where've you been?
Gimme Gimme Gimme! Wreeak!
<Enter rooster, downstage left.> Look at me! I'm so handsome! I want some sandwich!
Awww, look at you, so handsome! Here's a bite, don't give it to the girls.
Ha Ha! I'm only distracting you so she can get away unseen!
Hey, where'd the MIA Spitz girl go? Argh!

Fast forward a few hours, and I'm plucking the last of the cherry tomatoes and handing them out. She's a no show. After they're all gone, the EE's disburse and start looking for trouble to get into. And then I heard that undeniable broody scream. There's an EE on top of my bench. There's nothing on or under the bench, I already looked there. Well, there's a cattle tub full of compost and worm castings, but it poured yesterday, it should be full of water. But it's the only possible....

Really!!?

Okay, this is in a terrible spot and we're supposed to get rain. You're moving.
No! Go Away! Look how big and scary I am! I'm scaring you away!
Yeah, okay, come on missy.

2 hours later I finally found a spot she didn't completely hate. Oh, I forgot to mention that she has 19 eggs under her! They don't all fit. I have no idea how long she's been sitting, at least 3 days to a week. I really ticked her off tonight, so I'll have to wait until this weekend before I can try to candle them.

(Yes, the berries and live grasshopper were a bribe that she didn't care for. It's all fun and games until somebody finds your nest.)

The good news is that the only possible fathers are both SS Spitzes!

And here I thought I just put the last hatch of the year in lockdown. Sigh.

 

[DobieLover]

I wonder how she plans on getting her kids out of there...

 

[Tankueray]

I wonder how she plans on getting her kids out of there...

Funny how they never seem to think that far ahead. Honestly I think it's kind of like when they lay the first egg. They're like, "Holy crap, what was that!? HEY! HEY EVERYBODY! LOOK WHAT I DID!!!"

They have no idea why they want to keep their orbs but they're compelled to for some reason. And then suddenly these tiny exomorphs burst out and start wriggling under them. If they're (you're) lucky, a secondary maternal instinct kicks in and they care for the chicks, but sometimes they just get disinterested and abandon them early, like the hormones have worn off too early. (I just had this happen with two broody ducks, they totally don't care about the ducklings after 2 days and the little ones are just a small swarm following wherever the duck flock goes. They have to seek their own shelter and take care of themselves entirely...and they're very smart about it. I'm not sure chicks could be that self-sufficient in the first week.) Honestly, this Spitzhauben is the one hen I would expect to walk off. She's always been very selfish and a loner, and only hangs out with whichever rooster is going to cater to her before the other hens. She was the first to start roosting in the tree, alone. Hopefully she'll prove me wrong.

I just finished a broody pen that is currently occupied, but I plan on moving them to Momma's hoop coop once they're all in full ADHD mode. I moved the cattle tub to the other side of the wall from that pen, and I can slide the wall back and pop everyone in the broody nest once she hatches them. I had to do that with the first broody, she just would not allow me to move the eggs into the better nest, she wanted her metal nest box that none of the chicks could get back into once they got out.

 

[Silkie Princess]

How did this turn out?

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Very interesting story! How did it go?

 

[sourland]

Update?

 

[kurby22]

I’m curious too! Any little babies and did she mother them?

 

[The-White-Elephant]

So I was planning to write up one of those panicked "my chicken is missing!!!!" posts but never got around to it.
Two nights ago, when trying to count my tree chickens, one was missing. She wasn't in the coop either. She wasn't there last night either, but I swear I saw her when I was giving out treats. I do have a cockerel that I sometimes mistake for her though. She likes to jump the fence and roam, especially in the early morning. She's not particularly defensive or aggressive, except for her constant "I'm a jungle bird! wreeak wreeak wreeak!" screaming. (Seriously, I had an Amazon parrot for 30+ years. She screamed at 120 decibels for at least an hour every day. This is just as annoying.)

She's my only white egg layer. The one white egg I've gotten was on August 29th. I've been hunting for a nest with no luck, so I just chalked it up to a young pullet, I have two EE's the same age that aren't laying consistently either.
I've seen the roosters mating her recently, surely I'll get some eggs soon. And then she was gone....

BOLO - Silver Appenzeller Spitzhauben hen 26.29 weeks old, last seen in the tree, maybe again at treat time 2 days later.

She's a serious treat hog, so I ate my Subway sandwich in the garden today:

Ha! There you are!
Gimme Gimme Gimme! Wreeak!
Where've you been?
Gimme Gimme Gimme! Wreeak!
<Enter rooster, downstage left.> Look at me! I'm so handsome! I want some sandwich!
Awww, look at you, so handsome! Here's a bite, don't give it to the girls.
Ha Ha! I'm only distracting you so she can get away unseen!
Hey, where'd the MIA Spitz girl go? Argh!

Fast forward a few hours, and I'm plucking the last of the cherry tomatoes and handing them out. She's a no show. After they're all gone, the EE's disburse and start looking for trouble to get into. And then I heard that undeniable broody scream. There's an EE on top of my bench. There's nothing on or under the bench, I already looked there. Well, there's a cattle tub full of compost and worm castings, but it poured yesterday, it should be full of water. But it's the only possible....
View attachment 2850858

Really!!?

View attachment 2850859
Okay, this is in a terrible spot and we're supposed to get rain. You're moving.
No! Go Away! Look how big and scary I am! I'm scaring you away!
Yeah, okay, come on missy.

2 hours later I finally found a spot she didn't completely hate. Oh, I forgot to mention that she has 19 eggs under her! They don't all fit. I have no idea how long she's been sitting, at least 3 days to a week. I really ticked her off tonight, so I'll have to wait until this weekend before I can try to candle them.
View attachment 2850861
(Yes, the berries and live grasshopper were a bribe that she didn't care for. It's all fun and games until somebody finds your nest.)

The good news is that the only possible fathers are both SS Spitzes!

And here I thought I just put the last hatch of the year in lockdown. Sigh.

I wish I had a hen! I only have a rooster.

Those are really white eggs!!

 

[Tankueray]

How did this turn out?

Very interesting story! How did it go?

Update?

I’m curious too! Any little babies and did she mother them?

Well folks, the news isn't good, but it's not what you think.

Only nine were fertile, and she hatched 5. One was (I think) crushed by her a few days later. I snuck an Ameraucana chick from the incubator under her too. She definitely wasn't as good as my white Ameraucana momma, but she did okay. She did run off and leave them often, but maybe that's a Spitzhauben thing, and it prepared them for what was to come.

Around the first week of November I started losing chickens. I think some teenagers first, then a few of the smaller adults. I had an Owl and a Hawk that had perched less than 20 feet from me a couple of times, so I thought it was them, and I spent a painstaking amount of time rigging up netting in a grove of mesquite trees, beefing up the electric fence, and installing cameras. I think it was maybe the 5th when one of the cameras spotted a Bobcat around 1am. He strolled through and didn't mess with anything, but regardless of who it was, I had a problem.

He stalked me. He ate more chickens during the days when I was there, outside all day, working on coops and things, than when I was at work all day.

Because she kept running off and leaving them, 5 chicks went down to 2. I'd recently gotten 23 Ameraucana chicks and they were in the outside brooder/broody pen, so the last two were put in there to keep them safe. She didn't like that much, but she didn't want to stay in there with them either. Then my youngest Spitz rooster went missing. Then the middle one (one of the fathers), and finally my oldest rooster. She also went missing shortly after.

Punky, Ramone, Billy, and Prince (Ameraucana). R.I.P.

Just before Thanksgiving, I barely saw an attack in time to chase after him into the woods and across the creek. I had no weapon on me but I just took off running anyway. I found what was left of my Silver Spitzhaubens and various other poultry, and under a tree I saw the mangled body of the Chamois (Greenfire chick delivered in August) that he'd run off with. I went to pick her up to bury her, legs astray in the air, neck all sideways and upside down, eyes still wide open. As I was walking back with her in my arms, she BLINKED at me! I got her in the house and looked her over, there was one puncture mark in her armpit. A few days in sick bay and she was good-to-go! Small favors.
(She's the one in the back on my head, below.)

I got off work early the day before Thanksgiving, and I bought an AR15. Somewhat predictably, they are not as easy to hunt as deer are. Luckily, a friend/neighbor/the guy I contacted to help me dial in my AR, is a licensed trapper. (I do kinda wish I'd known that before spending all that money on the gun, but hey, I was eventually going to get around to buying one anyway.) One of the mongrel cockerels had to sit (safely) in a trap as bait. I felt awful for him every morning and evening when I checked his food and water, he knew what he was there for, and he begged to be let out. I think it took maybe 4 or 5 days before the cat was in the bag. My friend came over and took care of him and left the traps out for another week just to be sure, without the chicken as bait this time. A skunk was all that wandered in.

He was 28lbs. I'm 5'3". I don't really know for certain how many he got, but the total missing was 36.

During the summer, I had a large batch of Ameraucana and Spitzhauben chicks killed by domestic cats, so I looked up the Spitz seller and asked her to send me some more eggs not long before the bobcat came. She lets them all mingle outside of breeding season, so I ended up with some great color projects to work with. One of the cockerels is pure white, and sadly, one of the Greenfire pullets that the bobcat got was also pure white. But that's okay, white can be done in one generation, so I'm excited about the possibilities with them.

The Ameraucana chicks and their two Spitzhauben brothers stayed safe in the outside brooder. Yep, they're both boys. I'm up to my eyeballs in roosters right now, and I just purposely hatched some Ketawas and Longcrowers hoping for roosters.

My beautiful, sweet, self blue Ameraucana rooster became the head of the flock and was beginning to become an absolutely awesome roo, when he too passed away last week. I am really devastated over that. But again, I just had 4 chicks hatch from him and white Ameraucana momma, and she just went broody again with a few eggs and some that I'll slip under her from the incubator, so he too will live on. Albeit in black split to lavender and recessive white, which will be a pain to sort out, but I'll happily do it to get another roo like him.

And hopefully one or both of the Spitz boys turns out like my oldest rooster, Ramone. This is Ramone on a branch about 25 feet in the air. He flew up there. I'm not kidding. I watched him do it more than once. (Chickens can't fly, they said!)

Well, that's all there is to the story of my 2021 breeder flock. Only 4 breeders and two Easter Eggers survived. The ducks fared a bit better, I lost 2 hens, 4 drakes (which was actually a blessing), and all of the previously mentioned abandoned ducklings, but I hatched 5 more in the incubator and OMG, they're all girls!

I've had the steel delivered to build 20' wide by whatever fits long rotational grazing runs. I still have to build them all by myself, but as long as I can get through winter without another polar vortex and spring without coccidiosis, everything will be okay.

Thanks for hanging in for the whole story, here are a few pics of the next generation!

 

[CrazyCochin]

That is hilarious! Are you gonna hatch them all even with the other batch on lockdown?

I myself have a pullet (she may not even be laying yet) that went terribly broody, probably the broodiest pullet I have had. (Next to my blue Wyandotte).
We had to give in and give her four eggs to sit on, and out of the four eggs, three should hatch in three days. She has been very dedicated.

So I was planning to write up one of those panicked "my chicken is missing!!!!" posts but never got around to it.
Two nights ago, when trying to count my tree chickens, one was missing. She wasn't in the coop either. She wasn't there last night either, but I swear I saw her when I was giving out treats. I do have a cockerel that I sometimes mistake for her though. She likes to jump the fence and roam, especially in the early morning. She's not particularly defensive or aggressive, except for her constant "I'm a jungle bird! wreeak wreeak wreeak!" screaming. (Seriously, I had an Amazon parrot for 30+ years. She screamed at 120 decibels for at least an hour every day. This is just as annoying.)

She's my only white egg layer. The one white egg I've gotten was on August 29th. I've been hunting for a nest with no luck, so I just chalked it up to a young pullet, I have two EE's the same age that aren't laying consistently either.
I've seen the roosters mating her recently, surely I'll get some eggs soon. And then she was gone....

BOLO - Silver Appenzeller Spitzhauben hen 26.29 weeks old, last seen in the tree, maybe again at treat time 2 days later.

She's a serious treat hog, so I ate my Subway sandwich in the garden today:

Ha! There you are!
Gimme Gimme Gimme! Wreeak!
Where've you been?
Gimme Gimme Gimme! Wreeak!
<Enter rooster, downstage left.> Look at me! I'm so handsome! I want some sandwich!
Awww, look at you, so handsome! Here's a bite, don't give it to the girls.
Ha Ha! I'm only distracting you so she can get away unseen!
Hey, where'd the MIA Spitz girl go? Argh!

Fast forward a few hours, and I'm plucking the last of the cherry tomatoes and handing them out. She's a no show. After they're all gone, the EE's disburse and start looking for trouble to get into. And then I heard that undeniable broody scream. There's an EE on top of my bench. There's nothing on or under the bench, I already looked there. Well, there's a cattle tub full of compost and worm castings, but it poured yesterday, it should be full of water. But it's the only possible....
View attachment 2850858

Really!!?

View attachment 2850859
Okay, this is in a terrible spot and we're supposed to get rain. You're moving.
No! Go Away! Look how big and scary I am! I'm scaring you away!
Yeah, okay, come on missy.

2 hours later I finally found a spot she didn't completely hate. Oh, I forgot to mention that she has 19 eggs under her! They don't all fit. I have no idea how long she's been sitting, at least 3 days to a week. I really ticked her off tonight, so I'll have to wait until this weekend before I can try to candle them.
View attachment 2850861
(Yes, the berries and live grasshopper were a bribe that she didn't care for. It's all fun and games until somebody finds your nest.)

The good news is that the only possible fathers are both SS Spitzes!

And here I thought I just put the last hatch of the year in lockdown. Sigh.