Growing my little flock

[2ndTink]

I'm glad Goobs is back to himself again. Bigfoot and Sasquatch are so beautiful

 

[DonyaQuick]

Look at those fuzzy feet!

So soft too! I wondered when I first got them whether the cochins would get their feet all dirty and nasty with those feathers, but somehow they always have the cleanest little feather duster feet.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Morning coffee and hugs time with main flock. Big ol' Buddy on the left who finally wrapped up her molt, a scratty molting Meep in the middle, and mostly-molted Chungus on the right.

And Scruffy marauding in circles around the chair looking for lap space (there was none so she went onto my head instead lol).

Meanwhile, Mr Vanilla Bean had a small surprise for me with this molt - he's having a bit of a color change on his tail! More dark tones on the big tail feathers and some interesting saddle feathers with a chocolatey color on the interior. Still the same cream color coming in elsewhere. Very interested to see how this turns out with him.

 

[fuzzi]

You have such a pretty flock!

 

[DonyaQuick]

That panicked moment when somehow you stole the whole bread and you try to be all casual but oh no they saw it GO GO GO GO

 

[fuzzi]

When I opened the shed door yesterday afternoon a humongous cockroach ran across the floor...not fast enough. I offered it to the flock, in a cup. Martha was the first to investigate, took it from the cup, and RAN!

 

[DonyaQuick]

Been doing polar vortex prep for the past 3 days...getting extra wind breaks up by grommeting a lot of shower curtains and other plastic sheeting, adding straw and more straw in the runs, and adding extra thick layers of shavings inside the coops. Coco in the back there is still wrapping up her molt so she appreciates the modifications.

Poor Vanilla Bean has bandage boots on in the photo because he turned up with a couple of little cuts on the bottoms of this feet a few days ago. He'll be fine and probably never actually needed the bandages. I removed them them this evening, I was just super paranoid while I was trying to figure out how he did it. 99% sure now that it was a ridge on the coop ramp that had a fragment freshly broken off, so that ramp is wrapped in rubber mat now.


Meanwhile, Mr Squeak (the white one) thinks that straw is the best thing in the whole world. He's so much more hyperactive than Tengu. I've ended up doing this weird thru-mesh, water-sharing setup with them to get away with just a single heated base; so far it's working out.

I've seen a positive change in their interactions since the extra winterizing. I realized in the process of it that they both actually had limited line of sight to the main flock, which of course has hens. It was just through a couple feet of fence at quite some distance. Surely that would be too little too far away to be significant?? Maybe not. I'm not going to test that hypothesis just yet, but boy will I feel stupid if that limited visibility of girls was the issue this whole time with these two getting along...all of a sudden they are definitely being calmer during supervised together time.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Nnnnaaaaaggghhhhhh I was SO CLOSE to getting through this early season polar vortex garbage without problems.

Problem #1: Little Fuzzy decided it was the perfect time for a catastrophically hard molt. This is her good side. Her whole rear and most of her legs are just pink. So obviously she is in the house for however long it takes her to not have massive bare patches.

Problem #2: Goober got excited by the snow billowing about this morning, wouldn't stop messing about in it, got his face wet...so yep, now we've got some toasted tips that are probably a bit sore, and that prompted him to sulk in the coop the whole rest of the day and go on hunger strike...unless he's in the house. Then he will eat. So now he knows how to play me and he's in the house because I don't want him starving himself when it's <20F outside.

 

[DonyaQuick]

OMG...Gooobie has a giiiirl frieeeend

I've been keeping Little Fuzzy in a bedroom and Mr Goober in my home office, since they are not from the same flock; they haven't seen each other since they were babies, and hens are typically terrified of a new roo appearing out of nowhere. Despite that, I was less careful about enforcing their separation in the house than if it had been any of my other roos, since Goober has a rather incredible history of completley ignoring hens - like to the point where I have really wondered about him lol. Apparently the aloof floof attitude is very appealing to Little Fuzzy who has been enthusiastically woo-wooo-ing at him whenever she hears him, and she persistently wants to go over to him when he's roaming about. That's gotten him dancing for her. I'm supervising their interactions, but he has not tried to jump on her once...so I still wonder about him I guess lol. I may be letting these two stay together. I have had to say the phrase "hey, be nice to Fuzzy!" an awful lot lately with main flock. Her legs are a little odd, so she doesn't run well, but she has a very sweet disposition. And Goobs has very little vision on one side, so he can't be around spicy hens. Little Fuzzy is going to be away from main flock for long enough with this molt that she'd have to reintegrate...so...maybe she doesn't have to do that.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Goober has two modes: force of chaos bombing around the house, and this...

He's doing a good job right now of making me feel really guilty for having ordered a flat panel coop heater to try to get him and his girlfriend outdoors more during the day and re-acclimating to colder temps. None of my other roosters are as riddiculous a holding pet as he is.