Thinking of trying an experiment.

[Mrs. K]

I love that I am not the only one, that plans and plans. A lot of the time it does not quite work out according to my plan, but hey, I am having fun.

Mrs K

 

[bobbi-j]

I love that I am not the only one, that plans and plans. A lot of the time it does not quite work out according to my plan, but hey, I am having fun.

Mrs K

And that's what this little project is all about! Well, that and maybe breeding a little heft into my flock so they don't ALL look like rubber chickens when we butcher!

 

[bobbi-j]

Don't forget that you can also do a gender shaped egg experiment with your hatch. I just love playing with the genetics of the flock!

That could be a fun game, too!

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, game over. My buff rock rooster was not in the coop tonight. I think he was last night, but I'm not sure. (I was so tired, I couldn't have told you my name if you had asked.) I did not let them out the last two mornings, but I did lock them up last night and I counted 25 chickens. Tonight I noticed he was missing, and counted 23 or 24. I came up with both numbers. What I do know, is my rooster is missing. It's been a bit chaotic around here since Wed. Ended up taking DH to the Dr., then to the hospital 1 1/2 hours away for an appendectomy that got complicated. So I stayed at the hosp. until yesterday, and my mom and son had been locking them up and letting them out. Neither of them would know to look to see who's in the coop or not. Anyway, our needy dog has been pretty much unattended for 4 days. I'm hoping it wasn't him, but after seeing him hide a dead hen in our grove last year, I will always suspect him first when one goes missing. (Although we were deer hunting in our grove last week and DH said he'd seen signs of a dead chicken. I glared at the dog, and he said, "Pretty sure it wasn't him - the remains were in a tree.")

So now my rooster options are the White Giant and EE cross cockerel that my broody hatched out last June. He's fairly big, but I really wanted that Buff Rock! I wouldn't be nearly so bummed if it had been the White or EE....

ETA - Just in case it wasn't the dog, I am going to keep them locked up for a couple of days.

 

[aart]

OyVey!
Hope your hubs gets better real soon...hang in there.
May never know what killed and what cached in tree...might be same animal, might not.
Sorry you lost your meatier cockerel...we plan, life laughs.

 

[Folly's place]

Bobbi, hope your hubby is doing well; what a surprise! I guess somebody else thought your buff boy was the best; so sorry. It figures, though. I had buff Rock pullets a few years ago, and really liked them too. We all do try to plan... Mary

 

[bobbi-j]

Thanks, Aart and Mary!
Hubs is healing. He came home last night and got the best night's sleep he has in over a week. Not only did he lose his appendix, they had to take part of the colon, and also noticed that his gall bladder "was packed with stones" so they took that, too. I told him he got a twofer. Bonus!

As far as the buff rock, I will probably never know what got him. We have a plethora of potential suspects (the dog being at the top of the list, but no proof). We have coyotes, raccoons, hawks, eagles (a nesting pair that lives less than 1/2 a mile from here on land that we farm so we get to watch the fledglings grow up - we think of them as "our eagles"), mink and an occasional fox (not so many as there were before the coyotes moved in). Oh, and a bobcat has been sighted in the area this summer. And a friend that lives about 15 miles away had one of her horses get attacked by what the DNR determined was a mountain lion - here on the Minnesota prairie! So yeah... they'll just have to stay locked up for a bit.

On the bright side, if I can keep my EE mix cockerel alive until breeding season, maybe I can put my green egg laying broody in with him and get some more colored egg layers...

 

[lazy gardener]

BJ, so sorry your hubby went through all of that. But, thankful that he had a good outcome. Not always so with such issues. Glad the GB is gone. That can also cause life threatening issues. Sorry about the loss of your roo. Was he the only one to go missing? Spring is coming!

 

[bobbi-j]

BJ, so sorry your hubby went through all of that. But, thankful that he had a good outcome. Not always so with such issues. Glad the GB is gone. That can also cause life threatening issues. Sorry about the loss of your roo. Was he the only one to go missing? Spring is coming!

Thanks, LG - you're right, it could have been worse. We're thankful it wasn't.

I wasn't sure if he was the only one to go missing. I was so tired when I counted last night, I couldn't figure out if I had 23 or 24 (I don't always count - I also check to see how many of which ones I have in there. "OK, the two white ones are here, four barred rocks - check, three buffs, OK...") But this evening when I went down to check on them, one of my older barred rock hens was outside the run, looking terrible. Lots of feathers missing - I know she was molting, but she didn't look that bad a couple of days ago - and also looks like blood on the back of her neck. It was getting dark, so I just let her in and will check on her tomorrow. She was moving fine, and went straight for the water. If I need to separate her, I can close off part of the coop. So maybe something had ahold of her, and the roo tried to protect her? My guess, anyway. I'll likely never know.

 

[Mrs. K]

Ugh! that is how it seems to go with this chicken planning or at least for me! And the predators ALWAYS take the favorite! Ugh!

Glad hubby is on the mend. And I don't think it was the dog! In my experience, dogs leave them close by, or you catch them playing with it. When they just up and disappear, something took it to dinner!

Go into lock down is a good idea!

Mrs K