d'anver lovers,discuss the breed and post some pics!

[4HDad]

Funny story about a broody hen (or atleast I think so). The other night my son came back in the house from feeding his animals (rabbits and chickens) and said "Dad, one of my d'Anver hens is acting weird. Will you come out and take a look at her?" This also worried my wife some, so off we went.

On the way I have him describe what she is doing/not doing. "She is sitting in the nest box and won't get off. I waited for to lay the egg and get off the nest, but she isn't doing it. I reached in to check, but she won't even move when I put my hand in the box." Through all of this he is very agitated and I can tell he is worried about his hen. He loves his d'Anvers.

I explained I thought she just went broody and checking her out confirmed this. At the time she was setting 2 eggs. (As of last night she had 3.)

When I got back in I had to explain what was going on to my wife.

Wife: "If we end up with more chickens, I'm going to kick you in your shins"
Me: "As long as it's just the shins, I can live with that."
Wife: chuckling "Which ones is it? Is the d'Anvers or the others?"
Me: "The d'Anvers."
Wife: "That's OK. I like them. They're cute."

 

[4HDad]

Speckledhen, Sorry to hear about Angus. It is never easy when we face the loss of one we have gotten attached to.

BBF, Not good to hear about the 'coons in the house. Good luck with getting rid of them.

 

[speckledhen]

Geez, now Carly is acting broody! Why do two of my three D'Anvers go broody at once? And will Penny follow suit? Next weekend, I plan to put Lucy, Mina, Opal and Misty into that pen. They may not be happy to meet Aimee and Carly for the first time in their broody state!

 

[Backwoods Bntms]

I know what you mean, About all of mine are broody. I have two setting on the same eggs in the same box.

jj

 

[mccaff mama hen]

My gut instinct was right. Angus is dying. His color is bad, he's weaker and his crop isn't working. I think the crop stasis is a result of whatever the issue was before May 25. He's been in that pen before and ate grass and it never affected him this way, so it may have ever been the main issue. Darn it.

Oh I'm so sorry about Angus!! That's so sad!!!

 

[NanaKat]

Cynthia...so orry to hear about Angus.

4HDad...cute story.

 

[speckledhen]

Angus died about 2:30 a.m. Such a sweet little guy, he will be missed. Something was wrong inside and the crop was a secondary issue to that, a symptom of his body shutting down. We fixed the crop, it was reduced and pliable, and he was perky and alert for three days, then he took a turn for the worse.

I'll have to decide what to do about my D'Anvers, to keep Aubrey or not. I still have Little Man in there, and Carly and Aimee have eggs under them, though only three pure D'Anver eggs, two of Aimee's and one of Penny's, since most of Aimee's chicks seem to be pullets. Carly has two of Shadow's and Aimee has one of Shadow's so more Coch'Anvers on the way (sorry, JJ, we rather like them, LOL). I may decide to keep no roosters in that coop and let keep the little hens I have plus one by one, add older hens who deserve a break from roosterly attentions, like our Sunny who lives there now. Still undecided.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

well... I sure hate to hear that, he couldnt have asked for a better mama while he was here though

 

[speckledhen]

Thanks, Aubrey. I thank you for sharing him with me. He was really something. He had that bout of pneumonia as a small chick and no one else was even affected by that wild weather cycle so could be his lungs were compromised and as an adult, it just caught up with him. Or maybe he had a small heart defect, who knows? Hard to say. I realize that folks who have hundreds of breeders don't become attached to their birds like I do and even I don't become super attached to all of them, but this guy was just different. He has set the bar high for my bantam roosters, no matter what the breed.

The 10 week old cockerel crowed twice, first time ever, when he saw the new pullets I just added today, LOL...and Aubrey jumped right into his face! I was afraid he'd been hurt. Molly ran between them. Guess he was telling him to back off of the new girls, not to forget who was in charge around there.


Adding pics of the newbies added to the coop today, Mina (14 weeks), Lucy (12 weeks) and the Coch'Anvers, Opal and Misty, who are the same age as Lucy-those three were raised by Penny and Aimee and recognized Penny right away. She, on the other hand, seemed to know them, but told them right away that she was through being their mama.




My co-broodies, Carly and Aimee. Carly is a first-timer, though Aimee helped raise Lucy, Opal and Misty so she's doing the quarterly broody deal.




Odd observation about the Coch'Anvers. Misty has sparse foot feathering and no vulture hocks. Opal has very lush foot feathering, better than her Cochin mother, and vulture hocks like her D'Anver sire.

 

[NanaKat]

So sorry to heart about Angus. He had a wonderfu lloving home. I get attached to far too many of mine too and it hurts to lose one.

There is something about the personalities of the bantams...they think they are bigger than life itself!

A few of our d'Anvers babies that hatched April 28 are actually trying to make crowing sounds...now that seems totally impossible! I can see the little roo comb now so it's easy to tell them apart.