well, so much for my hopes of having bbs cochins (for now)... something got my blue girl today. she was just coming up on POL, looking very nice.
I got home and let the dogs out, my youngest std poodle, Sunny, starts wandering around behind the coops up into the woods. since he's an avid egg-eater i have a tendency to follow him by sight to see if he can tell me where the girls are hiding eggs. instead i find a mass of blue feathers spread in about a 4' circle. no body. but then he went over to the fence line, and there was what was left of the carcass (legs wings neck and body cavity, all cleaned of meat) hanging from the barbed wire. I wasn't sure if it was the pullet or roo, but turned out to be the pullet...
from what i can tell, she was killed where the feather pile is, and then snagged on the fence when whatever killed her tried to take her with it.
the roo's just fine. but i don't have any girls to put with him now, so do i keep him in the hopes of finding another blue girl in the next 3-6 months or sell him off with my other excess roos and start over in the spring? my only hens are the self blue (for sale with her roo) and 4 in my mille fleur pen. and a ton of mille fleur chicks. (plus some silver laced, buff barred, red and partridge)
suggestions? (and no, shipping a bird isn't an option right now since i'm out of work until the end of November).
I got home and let the dogs out, my youngest std poodle, Sunny, starts wandering around behind the coops up into the woods. since he's an avid egg-eater i have a tendency to follow him by sight to see if he can tell me where the girls are hiding eggs. instead i find a mass of blue feathers spread in about a 4' circle. no body. but then he went over to the fence line, and there was what was left of the carcass (legs wings neck and body cavity, all cleaned of meat) hanging from the barbed wire. I wasn't sure if it was the pullet or roo, but turned out to be the pullet...
from what i can tell, she was killed where the feather pile is, and then snagged on the fence when whatever killed her tried to take her with it.
the roo's just fine. but i don't have any girls to put with him now, so do i keep him in the hopes of finding another blue girl in the next 3-6 months or sell him off with my other excess roos and start over in the spring? my only hens are the self blue (for sale with her roo) and 4 in my mille fleur pen. and a ton of mille fleur chicks. (plus some silver laced, buff barred, red and partridge)
suggestions? (and no, shipping a bird isn't an option right now since i'm out of work until the end of November).
