Not certain what happened with Red and his mom. Lety buried Red before I knew he had passed. I saw his mom. There was no wounds and she appeared healthy. Lety said they were not eating and lethargic yesterday and when she went to check this morning they were dead.
Not certain what happened with Red and his mom. Lety buried Red before I knew he had passed. I saw his mom. There was no wounds and she appeared healthy. Lety said they were not eating and lethargic yesterday and when she went to check this morning they were dead.
I'n so sorry to hear about your loss - and all the other trouble this week. I hope you get a bit of time off around the Holidays, and have a chance to mourn, and then enjoy time with your remaining flock & family.
Thanks BG, I'm off until the 1st now. Tomorrow I am preparing for Sunday dinner for my kids then Monday or Tuesday I'll go visit my buddy with colon cancer. I need to pick a young rooster to take over Red's tribe and I have 2 prospects in mind.
Based on the poop on the tray under the roost bars a bunch joined the Buckeye there not long after this pile-up scene. The Secret Lives of Chickens!
Fresh fluff too!Those are some fluffy derrières
Not certain what happened with Red and his mom. Lety buried Red before I knew he had passed. I saw his mom. There was no wounds and she appeared healthy. Lety said they were not eating and lethargic yesterday and when she went to check this morning they were dead.
Shaking those new tail feathers girls! They are looking fabulous
Oh man, that’s a sharp peck!! Ouch! If you think your chickens think of you as a person (I don’t mean as a human, but rather as someone of consequence to them, with social weight), then I would treat her as though you were a chicken yourself. Another chicken would pose stiff, growl, and end up pecking HER on the back of the head for such insubordination. She does seem to give you plenty of sounds and poses for warnings… so I would “threaten” her with a “peck” while she’s getting ramped up, rather than wait until she’s actually pecking.Diana drew blood today when I had my hands bare and down by the litter trying to get fluffy butt pictures late this afternoon. I'm generally avoiding having my hands bare and near her but she was fast.
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It's interesting though, too. She gets herself worked up and gets more anxious and seemingly scared, growling and keening, and then bolder. She sees my hands as some kind of threat when she's like that.
At the same time she is otherwise always near me and interested in what I'm doing, likes to jump on my back, head, etc., I would say she's almost too concentrated on me. She takes food - pellets - and treats from my hands without attacking them. Sometimes she'll peck the back of my hand looking for food, but it's not a real bite like this kind of attack.
Anna is similar in hanging around but calmer and doesn't have this aggressive side. Tedi is around too, calm, cooperative, dominant along with Diana when it comes to food and treats but is more detached about engaging with me than Diana or Anna overall.
What should be my approach with this? I'm thinking now just withdrawing, changing what I'm doing, changing the dynamic. And I can pick her up and hold her and walk around for awhile, once or twice recently it seemed to calm her down and afterwards she let me finish the work I needed to do with wary eyes on my hands but no attacks. (Zip ties on the run, gotta have bare hands. I could have kept her and the other Spuds out of the run too just to do that.) Once I tried just holding her down and I was very sorry I did that, that was not good, it made her more prey-scared and growly.
I also wonder if bringing treats before I try to hang with them might be part of the problem, though I bring three separated bowls she might be getting too excited and her competitive blood going and it spills over afterwards into the attacks on my hands? Thinking cat-psychology here, does it transfer?
Mittens in winter now - she sometimes pecks at them but she's not all wild about it like when my hands are bare. What about the summer though? Lol!
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