Growing my little flock

[DonyaQuick]

The Beans are back indoors for a bit. It is -3F outside with -25F wind chill. Big chickies are ok with it so far, big cockerel brothers' combs are a bit chapped but not too bad. But the beans are smaller and just not as well feathered yet. Vanilla Bean still wants to go play outside. I think his little baby face needs to grow into his absurdly big comb and wattles first lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Main flock enjoying warm feed and berry mash. Somehow Monster's bigness is kind of hidden here...I think he's actually lying down in the straw to try to get to the mash plate.

Junior is doing well taking up the position as flock leader but still gets frazzled by it too. He's a good boy but sometimes it's like frustrations build up, he gets nippy, and then has a bizarre need to be squeezed. Yes, squeezed - not just hugged, but like hands and arms covering as much of him as possible including his head and holding him really tight. About 10-15sec into that he does a big sigh, relaxes, and is a calm boy again. Then he likes to be tucked under my arm and carted around while I do chores, even if I take him away from the flock. He'll just hang there with dangling legs happily watching whatever I'm doing. It's like he needs a thunder jacket or something. Junior is also still just fine with his much larger brother Monster. Sometimes they share rooster duties, other times they split it up. Monster usually escorts hens into the coop and sits with them while they lay eggs while Junior keeps an eye on things outside.

These two rooster boys have rather a lot of things to keep an eye on unfortunately...2 sharp shinned hawks, 2 red tail hawks, at least one bald eagle, a screech owl, and on top of that there's now a great horned owl if I IDed it right (it's a huge owl - never seen one so big). Both owls have been blatantly harassing the flock during the day which is quite weird. Obviously I am not letting anybody out to forage with this going on. The raptor influx this winter is getting absurd. Not sure what to do about it; didn't happen last year.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Squishy time!

 

[DonyaQuick]

The snow has all melted and it's unseasonably warm for a couple days, so naturally the whole flock has lost their minds a bit.

Yesterday evening...
Monster: *bites my butt and runs away*
Junior: *lightly pecks my shin and strikes a dramatic whachu-gonna-do-about-it pose*
Buddy (the boys' egg mom): *casually walks behind me and nails me dead center in the knee pit, making my leg fold reflexively and causing me to spill feed everywhere*

And then this morning...
Chungus: *aggitating to be let out of the enclosure*
Me: ok but you have to stay right here while I clean the coop.
Chungus: *happy chicken sounds around my feet followed by cracking plastic sounds*
Me: CHUNGUS WHY

Yes she tore out that corner off the plastic tub. It does not have food. It has never had food. It has never been associated with food. She didn't try to eat it. Just wanted to destroy something I guess.

 

[DonyaQuick]

These gloves were almost a good idea. Junior in particular likes to go for the bonus points, but the hens aren't much better.

And then after murdering my wrist and encouraging several hens to also murder my wrist, it turns into "now hug my fluffy butt, human!"

 

[DonyaQuick]

My LGD, Fluff, is finally being able to do her job with the chickens - which is much needed with the amount of predators in the area right now. Raptors, foxes, etc. stay clear of her. She has always been cool with chickens but was a bit too bonkers and full of puppy energy to trust free-running outside until recently (there's no fence; just a forest border around a good-sized field). I still stay out there with them when I let everyone out just in case. I figure with a dog, the big cockerel brothers, and me...it's hopefully a pretty safe situation for afternoon foraging when weather permits.

Fluff is really good with the main flock. The two Beans...not so much lol but that's not Fluff's fault. Coco Bean has some kind of weird dog fixation and wants to chase Fluff all the time.

Squishy and Scruffy (the white pullets) started laying this week. Squishy's first egg has a really cool texture to it, although just a one-off. Her other eggs are a solid brown. I think I will be adding this first Squishy egg to my small collection of extra-nice-looking eggs though.

I don't have a picture of Scruffy's eggs but they're tiny - about half the size of the ceramic eggs I keep in the nest boxes.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Weighed Monster today: 3.5lbs! At 12 weeks. That's probably Squishy and Scruffy combined. I'm going to end up with one of those scary big 10lb+ roos from this aren't I?

Ah yes, looking back at my 10lb roo prediction...well Monster is 7.2lbs now at just under 6 months old. Still growing. He was 6.8lbs a couple weeks ago. Not sure when exactly roosters finally stop growing but his mom didn't max out until a bit over a year old. So perhaps there's time yet lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Wind blew the main flock's run door wide open when I was trying to bring out a new waterer yesterday. Boom - chickens frolicking around the lawn. I had a sore hip from slipping on ice and didn't want to bend over 8+ times playing pick-up-chickens so I went back in the house to get some treats to rattle around to get them back in. Opened the front door to come back out and apparently they followed behind me up the path and I didn't know it. Took this pic from the doorway.

But wait, where's Chungus? Oh there she is, trying to dig into the house through the side...

Just got another foot of snow today so I don't think they will be doing that again for a while lol. Nobody likes snowy feet.

Also Vanilla Bean's new favorite activity is playing "can I fit in this space?" with every little nook he finds in the house. He goes in and lines up lengthwise to measure it while making weird little whisper noises.

I assume he's looking for nest areas for Coco Bean - something my other cockerels never had to do because the older hens already had an established routine with the nest boxes.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well, Junior has not had a very good day so far.

• Came to say hello when I was cleaning the coop. Very sweet.
• Gave me a little dance and danced right out the little open side door.
• Fell directly into the poop bucket.
• Poop bucket tipped over.
• Got his face slammed into deep snow as he spilled out of the bucket.
• Still apparently terrified of snow, so he just sat there playing dead until I picked him up and took him in the house to make sure he was ok.

And my husband wonders why Junior clamped onto his arm with the fury of a thousand snapping turtles not that long after. I'd be mad for a while too if I fell in a poop bucket and then got my worst fear slammed in my face like a cream pie. My husband doesn't interact with Junior very much so I guess there's some more training to be done on that front.

Poop bucket boy is fine by the way.

 

[DonyaQuick]

-2F right now after a high of only 4F. The Beans are having an indoor day for the sake of Vanilla Bean's face (he can only handle down to about 10F for any length of time). So this is what I get to deal with about every 2h because they can hear me working in my home office across the hall.