BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[fuzzi]

* More about the cockerels name bc Tomboy is not correct.
The right name would be Toy-boy.
But Im not sure if that sticks. I don’t like that name very much.

@fluffycrow , what do you think? I highly appreciate your thoughts on this dilemma.*

Thomas? Tommy Boy?

 

[BDutch]

Thank you, I'm honoured! I agree, Toy-boy would be odd. Not that I've ever shied away from an odd name, but toy boy reversed would be an odd name indeed .

Maybe you could shorten it to Tom?

Thomas? Tommy Boy?

My children cane by for a visit and we discussed what names to gove them. The Toyboy was not an option.
Bobby. The name of Tintins dog was. The 2 girls could have other strip dog names: Snoopy and Idefix.

Other names occurred after happy hour. Gin + Tonic for the girls, Whisky for the boy were favourite.

I need to sleep on it before I make a final decision.

 

[BDutch]

New breeding flock?
They look great!

Not in this part of Europe. Bantam Amrock are an established breed here for many years.
Its origin is the Plymouth rock.

 

[fuzzi]

Other names occurred after happy hour. Gin + Tonic for the girls, Whisky for the boy were favourite.

I need to sleep on it before I make a final decision.

I love those names!

 

[BDutch]

Because of your positive reactions and the humour in these names, I registered the chicks as Gin, Tonic and Whisky on Anymal.
So now its official!

Please let me know if the app is available in English.

Kraai

Janice

 

[fluffycrow]

I love the names as well, glad you went with those!

 

[Molpet]

Please let me know if the app is available in English.

https://any-mal.com/en/
Yes it is

 

[BDutch]

Time for a change
Yesterday when it was time for the chickens to return to the run before the end of the day, I scattered some scratch in the main run and called the flock to return home.

The 4 non-broodies/mamas came immediately and I closed them in to avoid quarrelling when the chicks want to return for the goodies too. I call them non-broodies instead of layers bc only 2 chickens lay at the moment.

It seems like the non-broodies , especially Katrientje and Kraai , always try to stop the chicks coming in through the door to the second (back) run. They stand guard at and prevent an easy and peaceful return of the chicks every evening.

After closing the non-broodies in, I scattered a few hands of grain mix in the second run for the 2 mama’s, Gin Tonic and Whisky.
It worked flawless.

Next step is that I wanted to change other quarrelling too and because the chicks are 2 months old now, its a good time to start roosting.
Quarrelling occurs every day now:

• at the pop door in the evening at roost time (chicks are not allowed in the extension where the 4 non-broodies roost)
• in the coop area (small coop/run + extension) in the morning before the automatic pop door to the run opens.

I saw an opportunity to keep the family in the second run where I made an opening to the new playhouse-coop. And the tiny coop stands in the second run too, in case they don’t want to roost yet.

After a while and filled crops, the family stood at the entrance to main run, wanting to get to their nestbox in the coop area.
The kids tried to go through the fence with a magic trick like on the station in the Harry Potter books.

Black was the first who must have thought the playhouse was a good place to sleep. Whisky was curious and went in and out. Ini mini followed in and out and in again, talking to the kids.
Whisky followed and finally after 5 more minutes Gin and Tonic gave up trying their witchcraft abilities, and went up too.
They all roosted and slept on the highest bar in the playhouse coop.

And this morning there was no quarrelling at sunrise.

Want to repeat this trick for 2 more evenings and hope the family will settle in the playhouse sort of permanent without my help. Expecting the mama’s to return to the extension in about a month. The chicks will have a good place to sleep in the playhouse permanently or until they are accepted by the hens as part of the flock. Only issue is safety. The run is daytime proof, but I fear it’s not very nighttime proof.

So one more thing I need to do is to move (reassemble) the automatic pop-door from the tiny coop to the playhouse. Unfortunately it has to wait until my shoulder has healed.

 

[MaryJanet]

Great news about the roosting!

How is your shoulder going?

 

[BDutch]

Great news about the roosting!

It didn’t work out as I hoped.
When the chickens got their treats they all went inside into the main run. I couldn’t divide the family/chicks from the 4 non broodies.

The family slept in the nestbox again. I was very tired last evenkng and went to bed early. I didn’t count the chickens and by husband who checked were the chick were sleeping didn’t miss Black.

This morning someone in our street send an app in our neighbourhood Whattsapp group with the question /finding a small chicken on her waste bin.

Black was not fine. She seemed hurt / in shock. My husband carried her home and we put her in the run with the other chickens.

I hoped she would get over it if she was safe and with her family / flock again. Took her inside. First I gave her some food (rice and mealworms) she ate good. She refused the water with apple juice. I did check if I could see a wound or something wrong. But I couldn’t. She might have hurt her hip, but Im not sure. I think it hurts when she jumps. She made a squeaky noise when she jumped of the table.

I put Black in the little coop now to recover from whatever is wrong. Hope some rest, food and water nearby is all she needs to recover.

How is your shoulder going?

I had really good news today. My shoulder is healing just fine. Surgery is not needed.
Time to start with fysio to prevent a frozen shoulder!