Gideon's Got a Girlfriend! Gideon's Got a Girlfriend! She Isn't Pleased!

[speckledhen]

Terrorist Cougar, LOL. Since Gideon's horizons are expanding, he isn't concentrating just on Tiny, it seems. He puffs out his chest, picks a target and dances his heart out around her, LOL.

 

[sumi]

And what does Isaac think of all this? My head boy gets very upset when the youngsters flirt with his ladies. The young boys have perfected the art of the quickie. No wonder my hens look so rough

 

[speckledhen]

Isaac pays him no attention at all. If a girl is yelling, Ike runs to see why, but when he sees Gideon, he just stops. It's like he knows his hens can handle a kid like that, but Tiny has a hurt leg and I think Gideon caused it. She is in the broody pen for a rest from his lovesick attentions.

Oh, Gideon went after my bantam broody hens out with their 2 day old chicks yesterday. He escaped when DH was putting the flock in and dodged around me and poor little Aimee flew into his face defending her babies. He was so nuts, we had a hard time getting him back. If he continues to be such a spazz, he may find himself at a new home. He's not aggressive, just too energetic for me. I'm not up to chasing a hormone-crazed loony Delawegger all over this mountain.

 

[sumi]

Sympathy... a hormonal teenager can be a nightmare. I recently rehomed one myself. It's much more peaceful here now.
I'm going to have to cut back radically on my flock soon. We're moving

. Most, if not all the roo's will have to go, quite a few hens... I have so many individuals that are special to me. It's going to be difficult. I'm not quite ready to get rid of my top roo. I raised him in the house, he's 2.5 years old now and such a big baby! I simply adore him.

 

[speckledhen]

How far are you moving, sumi?

 

[sumi]

We're emigrating to the UK, but we need to stay somewhere while we're waiting for our visa applications to get processed. Which, I've been told takes about 2 months. In total the whole process, getting our paperwork in order, applying etc will take 3 months. So we're going to stay with MIL for now, which is just across the road from us. But the set-up there + it being a temporary arrangement, means I can't take all 61 chickens with.
I know the sensible thing to do would be to just sell them all now, but since we're staying an unplanned extra 3 months I'm hanging on to them a bit longer. I'm way too attached, I know.
We got 3 weeks to make a plan and build a temporary coop and run. And turn the barn into something resembling a flat.

 

[speckledhen]

The UK!? That is some move. May I ask why? If you don't want to say, just ignore me. Just curious.

 

[sumi]

My DH's parents are both English but he wasn't born in England. Which means he's got dual nationality, but in order to get our son English citizenship we need to live in Britain for a few years. We figured with the situation in South Africa as it is we'd like to give our son more options and a British passport will open many doors for him. We may end up staying there permanently. Things are getting bad here. Which is sad as I love this country. It used to be an awesome place to live. But I'm looking forward to the change of scenery.

I'm already looking at chickens breeds, as we don't have a 10th of the breeds you guys have in the US and UK. I can't even get RIR's here without spending an absolute fortune. There are so many interesting sounding breeds though... I'm going to need some help choosing one (or two, or three)

 

[speckledhen]

Of course, I wish you all the best with everything surrounding your big move. Hopefully, you'll not disappear from BYC! We'd miss you!

 

[sumi]

Thank you. I'm actually glad I can take BYC with when I go. I remember from my previous move abroad, how much I valued anything familiar, even some product brand that I recognise is precious when every thing is different and strange! And Europe and the UK is completely different from here. I think BYC is going to be a huge comfort for me while we're finding your feet over there!
And, like I said, I'm going to need some help and info when I'm buying chickens there. I really don't know anything about most of the breeds you guys talk about. We have such a limited selection. When I told an egg customer I wish I had some colourful eggs for them for Easter he thought I meant painted eggs and when I told him some chicken breeds lay coloured eggs he looked at me like I was barking!