What drama!Drama, drama, drama
1. Kid comes to me: you might want to check on your birds. Coop is wide open and their squawking a bunch. .... I left the big door open for airing the coop. Head out there. Cheetah is squawk/honking from the olive trees. More noise in the coop. Inside are Pear and Twirp, both on wall of nest boxes. Pear is yelling, to which Cheetah is replying. Twirp (who hasn't laid an egg yet) is in the box most of the pullet eggs have been in (had one on floor yesterday: only one not in a box). back to this in a moment.
Twirp
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2. The last several days, have had Thing go missing, only to find her huddled face first into a bush. First time this happened I thought she was dead. Not so, just huddled in, protecting her face. Brought her back to the olive tree (favorite shelter spot for all, but getting BARE) and most of the tribe "attacked" her. She ran, found another spot, buried her face, hunkered down and stayed put. Most of the pecks were to her back, some standing on her, no blood. Then they'd all head back to the tree or whatever they had been doing. 3 times the 1st day, again the next. I brought her into the garage for a good meal as her crop wasn't stuffed like the others. got her eating (she wouldn't drink out of a bowl, likes the nipples), then trimmed her crest so she could see better. She eats after the rest have settled down to roost (so does Storm), but doesn't do much ranging outside the coop. Not sure what's going here yet. Still doing observation. She is wanting to eat more oft he scratch/meal worms than the pellets, so I'm making sure some is where she can find it (after the others are going for most of it) BTW, she doesn't cluck or bawl. She HONKS.
Thing
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3. Back to the rest of the story. Thing isn't in the coop while the nest yelling is happening. I start looking around for her. (Yelling still happening). Check everywhere she's been before. Check farther afield. Still no Thing, but yelling has mostly stopped. Notice waterers are low. Good way to look around: get jug, start filling, making a circuitous route and keeping eyes peeled. Back into coop to top up the nipple bucket. Pear, the largest bird, is in the tiniest nest box (where the pullet eggs have been) and is silent. Twirp is on top of the nest boxes. Ordinarily, Twirp is a quiet little thing. Not then. SHE was yelling and it was coming out a worse HONK than Thing's is. Finish circuit for water, back to the coop for the last little bit in the jug, and spot Thing sitting under a bush on the opposite side of the coop (west side). Set down the jug and go to get her. She's NOT face fit at in the bush, but facing out looking around. Then she runs ....much less shelter, ok time to return to coop, let her go from there. Put her just inside the open big door, let her figure out what she wants to do. Twirp is now in an upper, roomy nest box, tossing and turning. I'll be going back out to see about eggs later.
Pear
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4. Cheetah mated with Thing. That brings the list of those I've witnessed to Splash, Cuckoo, Silver, and Thing. He grabbed Nellie and she ran in circles until he let go.
Nellie
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edit: wind picking up, blew the door open (i had closed but not latched). Twirp is outside, no egg. Thing is inside, settled, not face buried. Pear is still in tiny nest box, grumpy expression. She was kinda on her feet when I came in, but promptly sat down. caught a glimpse of an egg: blue. she lays brown. i could swear the box was eggless at the beginning of the yelling fest, but Twirp was semi-in the box, and I have no idea what color she lays yet (still don't know what she is)
I'm sure everyone else does too.
