Nambroth love the updates - I'm coming to the conclusion that Derp is not a starer - she is a POINTER, like in hunting dogs. She is pointing out things of great interest(to her) and hoping others will appreciate them as much as she does.
Froggiesheins writes:
Wait Derp does "bark" doesn't she?Yes she looks just like a pointer pup in these pics.....good catch drumstick !!!
Love your group - fingers crossed that third time is the charm and Trousers is forever. The irridescent green in his plumage is beautiful.
The 2012 Autumn Adventures of Derperella and Friends
Well, it has been a while since the last in-depth update on how Derp and friends are doing. Perhaps I misuse the term "friends".. truly, now that they are adults and each has their own life, not all of the chickens are friends! The relationships are quite complex.
Who are all the players?
We have Moa, the barred rock. She is head hen, and a big-bosomed, blustery girl.
There is Lorp, the black australorp. Her nickname is the Evil Queen, and that's what she acts like. Your presence soils her day.
Kua, who was the broken-beaked pullet a year ago. A red sex link, whose main daily concern is finding as much food as possible and putting it directly in her crop.
Then Chickadee, the smart and somewhat evil genius of the group.
Willow, the Easter Egger, full of funny personality and nasal noises.
Coho, the fluffy, fru-fru Faverolles. Mostly powderpuff, sometimes a baguette, and all French.
Derperella, whom you all know and love.
Finally Trousers, the newest addition, a large cochin rooster. A gentle giant.
Right now is the Time of Great Molting. Chicken keepers know this time... the most silly of times, when chickens lose their feathers to grow in fresh, shiny new ones. Some chickens molt gradually, while some molt in a horrid explosion. It's as if the chicken gods looked down upon the hens, sighed, shook their wattled heads, and sent down a statical nuclear molt. One day your chickens are great, puttering around as chickens do, laying eggs, and having a grand time. The next day, no more eggs, bald chickens, and more feathers than a single bird could have ever possibly held on its body. Somehow chickens have learned how to break principal laws of physics and produced matter from nothing; there are obviously more feathers in my run and coop than could have been on the chickens themselves.
Molting seems to make chickens.. cranky. Suddenly, unsightly baldness and all of these horrid, itchy pinfeathers poking out! And, of course, this happens when the temperatures dip below freezing. Without fail. Why molt when nudity is beneficial, such as in the warm months? It is chicken logic to molt explosively when temperatures get frigid and simple things such as.. oh, having feathers... would be beneficial.
So, right now, I have cranky, grumpy hens.
Moa is the worst.
"I am half naked. This is so depressing."
A day after I took this photo, she lost the rest of her neck feathers and most of her butt feathers, all in one go. Good Job, Moa.
She's looking pretty okay now, having grown most of it back.
After Moa, Lorp and Chickadee are the worst. They are currently in the "stand around and glare at everything" phase of growing their feathers back in.
All three are right terrors, with tiny shrunken combs (this often occurs during a molt) and cranky attitudes to match that of a raging wolverine with a thorn in its backside. The other hens have learned not to get too close.
Here are Moa and Lorp, with new feathers growing in. Thank goodness.
Meanwhile, Sweet Coho continues to have problems. She has been the least healthy chicken of mine since the start, despite Derp having early problems. I love her dearly and would foolishly do anything to make sure she has a healthy life, but she and a few of my other hens have been lessons to me-- in rarer breeds, I will only consider getting stock from good breeders with robust stock! She's never been fully healthy, poor thing. When I got home from my trip earlier this month, I noticed that she couldn't keep her balance and brought her in to observe her promptly. I discovered that she had bumblefoot yet again; and in a new place. Oh, Coho! We did a surgery on it (I am quickly getting good at bumblefoot surgeries thanks to Coho) and I removed a very sharp kernel from her foot. The foot healed amazingly quickly, and she's back outside again after only a few days (I wanted to keep her out of mud and such with that foot till it formed a hard scab). Of course, now she has decided that she does not enjoy eating so much anymore, so I have been spending several hours a day checking on her crop and encouraging her to eat. The other chickens have noticed that she is acting strangely and the only one that remains kind to her is Trousers (more on him soon). Despite her hardships, Coho is doing reasonably well, and we make sure that she is not stressed constantly, as she is our sweetest hen. I often wish for the space, money and time to build a faverolles-only pen!
Willow, the Easter Egger, has quickly turned into one of our favorite chickens. Her personality soars sky high, and she is a riot. She is one of the chickens that most clearly expresses herself and lets you know just how she is feeling, and has a nasal, little growly voice. You might think that her poofy cheeks/muff/beard would make her look a bit like the goofy faverolles faces, but no. She has her own thoughtful expressions that are entirely different than Derp and Coho.
She is quite the pretty hen!
She is very thoughtful, all the time.
Chickens, and moss. Two of my favorite things ever.
She started to lay about a month ago. To my great joy, her egg is a nice pale olive green! The color I was most hoping for. I am delighted to have green eggs now.
You are probably wondering how Trousers, the new rooster is going. Last I reported in, he was still in quarantine! Well, about a week and a half ago he was allowed out of quarantine. I decided it was time to start introducing him to the girls.
I had plans on doing this slowly. Allowing him to see them through a fence while they ranged, then ranging them together, then finally if all went well.. he could go into the pen, with supervision.
It was a good plan.
It didn't happen.
On the morning I was going to slowly start my plan, I noticed that I needed to clean his crate. Well, I figured I'd toss him outside, while I cleaned and fed the girls, and then take care of his crate. I put him outside, and he moseyed over to the chicken run, seeing the hens. He got pressed up against the fence, and did a tiny little rooster dance. "Uh-huh," I thought. "Here we go. Rooster hormones." I scowled to myself, and went about my poop board cleaning duties. I ignored him for a moment as I shuffled around in the coop, but when I next looked outside.. he was causally browsing grass away from the pen. Weird.. he was acting pretty causal.
Still, I went about my chores. Still, Trousers continued to be a strangely mellow and low key sort of fellow about seeing new (mature) hens for the first time.
My scowling lessened. Interesting.
On a whim, I brought him into the chicken run with me. I steeled myself-- any moment now I'd surely have to pick apart some sort of nonsense, I'm sure!
But.. nothing happened. The hens acted like he'd been there since day one, and he acted as if the girls didn't concern him one bit. Willow immediately decided that he was HER rooster, and commenced gently bossing him around.
I thought... well. This is great! But maybe he's just not mature yet. Maybe he's not feeling his roosterjuices flowing. But I cannot really believe that-- he is doing all of the mature rooster things. He crows. He mounts the hens (so slowly and kindly!). He does a tiny rooster dance. It's all there... just without the madness, the crazy, the rocket powered insanity.... I was used to high-strung, energylegs, completely nonsense roosters full of energy and gonads. This was.. a departure.
He is pretty huge. It's hard to remember that he's only six months old and that he's gonna get bigger! Well, fill out more, anyhow!
What would you call his color? He came from a breeder and the owner said that the eggs were supposed to be black, blue, and splash.
Here, he is getting some treats for Kua.
It's only been about a two weeks but his attitude has been so wonderful. If he remains like this I will be so, so happy. All of the girls like him, even Derperella (and she's always been scared of roosters). I caught her preening his face sweetly the other day.
"Oh Hai Giant Rooster. We are friends nao, okay?"
What about Derp, these days, anyhow?
What, indeed!
Not much is new in Derperella's world. I wish I could say that she's been on silly adventures, but really things have been pretty normal for her, aside from her goofy expressions and mannerisms. She hasn't laid an egg since May, but she's not molting... perhaps she'll never lay again. To be honest I'm surprised that she laid eggs to start with, given her strange and broken childhood! Even if another egg never passes from her fluffy body, I will keep her here and keep her happy until the end of her days.
Derp still loves Chair.
Derp has seemingly moved on from Grill for now. Maybe Grill was just a childhood crush? Only time will tell.
Derperella found ice. IIIICCCCEE!
*STARE*
Derperella found glove! GLOOOOVE!
(It looks like she is pecking it. Not so. She gently held the tip in her beak for a few minutes. No one knows why.)
Derperella found Egg. EGGGGGG!!!
*STARE*
Now Presenting: The many faces of Derp.
Looks like your barred rocks had molts like my girl Debra Jo did.
