2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

I came home today and the EE was roosting on the outside of the pen. Not sure how she got out, but I was waiting for it and I figured it would be her. She was completely enjoying her little roosting area. I got to get the pen for inside done this weekend. I got bedding everyehere. I keep flipping it back into the cages. It is going to be fun trying to work around them. The only thing I'm sure of is Prince will be in his own crate while I do this. I may put the 4 younger ones in the duck pen while the ducks are in the tub. I think l will cut everything first then put it together super fast. By super fast it will probably take me all day...lol

 

[llombardo]

Oh and sir Duke has poopy butt, a bath and some soaking are in his future, that ought to be a fun experience.

 

[CannedMonster]

I put baby Winter and Pippin in the prefab run for some dust bathing today.
It’s been fairly warm for the last couple of days; high 30s and low 40s.
Poor Pip has been going stir crazy in the little rabbit hutch.
She even tried dust bathing in the nest box lol.
Winter has wing feathers now at 2 weeks old and is starting to get shoulder and tail feathers too.
She was very shocked and frightened at the outside world.
I watched them for a while and Pippin seemed to be kind of ignoring Winter so I took them back to the hutch after about 10 minutes.
I think this will be a difficult integration because Winter is going to want to be with the bantams.
Since DH is the one that puts them to bed I pretty much gave up trying to keep the bantams out of the big coop.
Only Itsy and Bootsie roost in there with the LF birds.
Cricket, Minnie and Mitzi go in the prefab which is where Pippin and Winter will go once Winter is feathered out.

Angus came over to the coop to check out Pippin and Winter.
I was doing some chores and he became very aggressive towards me.
I had to chase and push him away from me.
I think he would’ve flogged me.
He saw me carrying both of them to the prefab and Winter was screaming away of course.
I wonder if he thought I had harmed them?

I don’t think I’ll ever let a broody sit eggs this late in the season ever again.
It’s so hard to allow them to go outside and have the broody teach the baby natural behaviors and be around other flock members when it’s so cold.
I have to isolate them in the hutch in the garage.
And I think the warmer garage is causing Pippin to molt!
I keep finding her feathers; even wing feathers!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I put baby Winter and Pippin in the prefab run for some dust bathing today.
It’s been fairly warm for the last couple of days; high 30s and low 40s.
Poor Pip has been going stir crazy in the little rabbit hutch.
She even tried dust bathing in the nest box lol.
Winter has wing feathers now at 2 weeks old and is starting to get shoulder and tail feathers too.
She was very shocked and frightened at the outside world.
I watched them for a while and Pippin seemed to be kind of ignoring Winter so I took them back to the hutch after about 10 minutes.
I think this will be a difficult integration because Winter is going to want to be with the bantams.
Since DH is the one that puts them to bed I pretty much gave up trying to keep the bantams out of the big coop.
Only Itsy and Bootsie roost in there with the LF birds.
Cricket, Minnie and Mitzi go in the prefab which is where Pippin and Winter will go once Winter is feathered out.

Angus came over to the coop to check out Pippin and Winter.
I was doing some chores and he became very aggressive towards me.
I had to chase and push him away from me.
I think he would’ve flogged me.
He saw me carrying both of them to the prefab and Winter was screaming away of course.
I wonder if he thought I had harmed them?

I don’t think I’ll ever let a broody sit eggs this late in the season ever again.
It’s so hard to allow them to go outside and have the broody teach the baby natural behaviors and be around other flock members when it’s so cold.
I have to isolate them in the hutch in the garage.
And I think the warmer garage is causing Pippin to molt!
I keep finding her feathers; even wing feathers!

Sounds to me like Angus thought you had hurt them, I believe he was trying to protect them, you know as well as I do if he had of wanted to flog you he'd have done so despite you pushing him away, I wonder if he was warning you?

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I am totally dumbfounded by the antics of my chickens, today Roo challenged Lilah! Lilah was going about her business when Roo went over and bunted her, next thing they were bunting each other using their heads and necks, Lilah went off then a few minutes later came charging over to Roo and squared up to her for a bit then went off again, however through the whole episode Lilah still didn't peck Roo, not once but I wouldn't have blamed her if she had of - I'm like - really Roo, the only one who looks out for you takes care of you and likes you, you try and attack! I give up

Since the fight between Pedro and Jellybean, Pedro now chases and pecks Jellybean regularly to make sure Jellybean remembers her place, its so sad b'cos they used to be so close but from what I can see they are no longer friends. Today Pedro pecked Jellybean so hard it broke one of Jellybeans feathers clean in half. I don't blame Pedro at all though b'cos it was Jellybean challenging her which brought all this on and although Pedro is doing the chasing she seems more stressed than any of them, earlier while digging for worms she got swamped by all the beaks around her, pecking and shoving and one of my duck hens kept nudging her out of the way and did so a fare few times and it was like Pedro snapped - you know like when everything gets on top of you and then there's that one last push that makes you snap? It looked just like that - Pedro pushed back with such force she flipped the duck hen over and this is a duck way bigger than Pedro and who Pedro would usually never dare to challenge and I thought humanising or not, I know signs of someone on the edge when I see it so I decided to have some one on one with her, just she and me, I scooted the others out of the run (bar Jellybean who was in the nest box laying) I poured some water on the run floor to encourage the worms to come up then me and Pedro dug for worms together - I actually really enjoyed it - Pedro was in her element finding as many worms as she could without anyone chasing her, pushing her, pecking her or stealing them from her and I could visibly see how relaxed she was. The others didn't like it at all, they wanted in, but I kept it just me and Pedro for about 20 minutes or so then I opened the door and left them to it. Jellybean followed me indoors as she often does, she had a rummage around then I hand fed her some banana, before sharing the rest of it amongst the others and now all is calm and peaceful and has been for the last 5 hours and Pedro seems much perkier now and I believe I did the right thing by giving her some special treatment.
I'm wondering if Lilah and Roo will end up enemies like Jellybean and Pedro have become, would be sad if they do but I barely can understand our own politics without trying to understand chicken politics so I'm not even gonna try to work it out but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a very big change in the pecking order coming - guess I'll just have to wait and see

 

[Cbarr00]

RE: Cockerels, oh dear that is no good at all, the fact that they could do your children some real damage maybe re-homing is the way to go. Its a shame about your roosters being aggressive though, I bet your kids would have loved having a friendly rooster who lets them pet him, I've never had a rooster but I have experienced roosters so friendly they are like puppy dogs with feathers! There's one which loves being stroked so much that when you stop he nudges your arm with his head to let you know he wants more strokes, just like a lot of dogs do.
As for Pedro, I think you might be right, its crazy though bcos to us she is so loving, she chats away to us - which I love - and is always the first one to greet us. In the summer she would come lay with me on a sunbed and often fell asleep snuggled up on my chest. I don't allow my grandson to hurt, chase, tease or upset my pets (nor anyone for that matter) but being so young he (he's two) can be a bit heavy handed but she's as good as gold with him and with all of us actually. She greets visitors once she knows they are safe and will jump up on their laps for a snuggle, in fact she's one of the most loving, sweetest birds there is when it comes to humans, just don't know why she can't be like that with her own kind. Mind you, she is the smallest of all my birds bar one duck hen who is about the same size and that duck is the most aggressive towards the others and I've often wondered if their size has anything to do with it, like maybe they feel or are more threatened b'cos they are so small - who knows could be for any reason I guess.
I'm just thankful that none of my birds are ever aggressive towards us or any humans for that matter.

Ah. Stories like this give me hope maybe we can have a nice cockerel one day. Maybe I'll test it out with Bear a while longer. I'm hesitant about giving him away right now anyway because she has a full grown rooster and with a new small cockerel coming in I dont want him to be killed. Knowing her she won't integrate just throw him right in. I'll think I'll keep a while longer. Maybe with 11 girls he'll be more focused on them than what the hoomans do. Lol.

As for Roo is she reaching POL? Maybe that's causing her to take on Lilah and want to move her way up? I know once my teenagers reach POL its gonna be chaos everyone trying to figure out the new normal.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Ah. Stories like this give me hope maybe we can have a nice cockerel one day. Maybe I'll test it out with Bear a while longer. I'm hesitant about giving him away right now anyway because she has a full grown rooster and with a new small cockerel coming in I dont want him to be killed. Knowing her she won't integrate just throw him right in. I'll think I'll keep a while longer. Maybe with 11 girls he'll be more focused on them than what the hoomans do. Lol.

As for Roo is she reaching POL? Maybe that's causing her to take on Lilah and want to move her way up? I know once my teenagers reach POL its gonna be chaos everyone trying to figure out the new normal.

I did wonder about Roo but I think she's still too young - she will be 18 weeks on saturday - I read that Buffs don't usually start laying until they are 35/40 weeks

 

[Cbarr00]

I did wonder about Roo but I think she's still too young - she will be 18 weeks on saturday - I read that Buffs don't usually start laying until they are 35/40 weeks

That sounds like way too long. I thought the norm was around 18+ weeks.

Just did a quick google search and found most BO begin to lay around 20+ weeks. I'm betting that's what's got her behavior like this.
ETA: have her comb and wattles developed/reddened recently?

 

[Anna Ranieri]

That sounds like way too long. I thought the norm was around 18+ weeks.

Just did a quick google search and found most BO begin to lay around 20+ weeks. I'm betting that's what's got her behavior like this.
ETA: have her comb and wattles developed/reddened recently?

She doesn't have much of wattle development yet and her comb is very light pink, and she still has a 'chick' look about her, although she is growing super fast and is biggest out of all my girls already.

 

[CannedMonster]

She doesn't have much of wattle development yet and her comb is very light pink, and she still has a 'chick' look about her, although she is growing super fast and is biggest out of all my girls already.

The pecking order takes longer and stays in a constant state of flux when humans constantly interfere.
Unless there’s a lot of blood it’s not necessary.
It can be hard to watch for us as humans (especially at bedtime) but it’s what chickens do and have always done.
I only interfere with Frodo as he is unhealthy and not able to defend himself from Angus and Oliver.
I used my stick when the younger ones were integrated at 2 -3 months old.
I haven’t used the stick in months.
They all have their little spats and chases, etc. but I don’t interfere with it anymore since a seasoned BYC veteran told me my interference causes it to take longer.
There’s plenty of room for the lower ones to get away and plenty of things to hide behind and get out of the line of sight.
Also there’s a minimum of 2 feeders and 3 waterers.
The smaller your yard is the less number of birds you can have without stress causing more fights than usual.

Even after the pecking order settles down for a while it can still change.
Lower ranking birds may decide to try for a higher place.
The higher ones want to keep their place.
My lowest ranking Wyandotte pullet actually pushed up the pecking order to 2nd place and even challenged Red.
She wasn’t successful against Red though.
It’s absolutely true that they can change the pecking order at POL.
My flock is in a state of flux right now.
Many pullets are extremely close to POL.
I know Angus is beginning to think of them as his more and more.
I know I’m going to have to split them into 2 (or 3) flocks but I need another coop.

Roo could end up lead hen one day.
You never know.
It all depends on their confidence level and how bad they want it and whether they can cause the current dominant ones to submit.
Mine have pulled some feathers out almost every day (with 23 birds something is bound to happen each day) but it really has never gotten bloody.
I just don’t know about ducks...
They seem aggressive and bossy.
I wouldn’t want to keep them with chickens myself unless there was tons of space and a way to separate them.

I actually enjoy watching the sparring and little tifs they have.
It’s like a dramatic soap opera with catty actresses and characters lol.