That stinks that they're so mean. I wish I could take them but with my 9 girls I'm going to be full up here in my little yard. I'm just a crazy vegetarian who hates seeing people say to eat them lol. Makes my little heart sink. I'm not against people eating meat, my bf does and I sometimes cook it for him, I just wish there was something else you could do.
Today I planned to process half a dozen older cockerels (10-14 weeks old) to make room for some of the younger birds. Yesterday I was scoping out which birds to process. Picked six of them. Didn't mark them and didn't set them in a separate space overnight because it seemed so obvious which ones should go. Oops. Today when I went out to start culling the first bird was obvious. So was the second bird. By the third bird everyone in the pen was doing their best impression of a pullet. I wound up only processing three birds because I couldn't tell which of the remaining birds were male. As soon as I was done cleaning up after processing there were four or five obvious cockerels in that pen again.
Clever chickens.
I am sad to report that I had to dispose of my pretty splash blue laced red Wyandotte pullet yesterday. She started as a bad feather plucker with the other chickens, especially my sweet and docile Barnevelder. It got to the point that she was not only drawing blood, she was going for the meat. I removed the poor Barnevelder, medicated with BluKote and kept her segregated. Then the Wyandotte went for my Ameracauna and had pecked a hole at the side of the base her tail, too! Removed the Ameracauna to the hospital pen and medicated her. Called my son, he "culled" the cannibal and she is now buried out back. Couldn't bring myself to eat her, neighbor said no way, thanks anyhow. LOL
I tried upping the protein, gave them a flock block.....didn't stop that ****** bird at all. Makes me sad, she was a beautiful bird and laid nice big eggs. But, I will not tolerate that aggressiveness in my little flock. And giving her to someone else would have been a lousy thing to do to their flock.
The feathers on the Barnevelder are coming in pretty fast now and her nasty scabs on both sides of the base of her tail have almost healed up completely. She has continued to lay big dark brown eggs almost every day, in spite of her trauma.
The Ameracauna is nowhere near as badly injured and will heal up pretty fast, I think. She is missing her fluffy cheeks and the top layer of feathers on her back, but no bare skin is showing and no sign of blood there.
I was watching for the behavior this time and caught the Wyandotte in the act. I was pretty sure that even if I segregated her for a while, she would go right back to the same behavior as soon as she joined the flock. So, no more "Sticky". bummer
On a positive note, I sold all 11 of my chicks within 3 days of posting on Craigs List!! No more little peep peep peep in my bathroom now. LOL
well it sounds like you've been quite a trooper this week, dealing with the mean hen and then getting rid of the chirps in your bathroom lol. I think you'll do OK this weekend! as I tell my daughters, "go take a nice bubble bath and get a nice hot cup of tea with honey and lemon and if needed if its an emergency go straight for the dark chocolate fast!
okay!!.....that sounds like a plan, lol. I think I'm going to head for some dark chocolate right now in fact just to self soothe, giggle giggle.well it sounds like you've been quite a trooper this week, dealing with the mean hen and then getting rid of the chirps in your bathroom lol. I think you'll do OK this weekend! as I tell my daughters, "go take a nice bubble bath and get a nice hot cup of tea with honey and lemon and if needed if its an emergency go straight for the dark chocolate fast!
No need to wait for an emergency!
