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The story of my doomed and failed cuckoo project:
I started by buying a cuckoo pair 3 years ago. Ziggy and a male. They were very nice but the male inexplicably got some kind of paralysis disease and I had to kill him. Ziggy I bred with a black male and got Stripes, a healthy single barred cuckoo cockerel. Ziggy developed an on-again-off-again illness. I normally kill whatever gets sick but I wanted to breed her to a Dominique bantam male so I just tried to isolate her somewhat. Last year I got Nate the Dominique bantam. All I needed was a single pair of their offspring to continue the project.
Ziggy rarely ever laid eggs. I finally managed to hatch three cuckoos this spring, but they ended up all being cockerels. In September she finally laid a few more eggs. She finally seemed to get over her illness. One of the eggs was fertile and developing under a broody Silkie in the coop. Then a fox came into the coop and killed the hen on the ground and the egg died far in development. Ziggy stopped laying eggs due to a molt.
Today Ziggy was sicker than ever. Even Nate’s eye looks questionable. I finally killed Ziggy. I’m tired of making exceptions for her and trying to coax eggs out of her. I’ll get rid of her sons soon. I don’t know what to do with Nate. Is he sick or is it just an eye infection?
I don’t know what was wrong with the original cuckoo pair. They both seem extremely sickly.
 

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