Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Very sad news to report....
Amid all the craziness this weekend, Mr Wonderful suddenly died. I am beside myself with grief. He was not just a pretty rooster, but our pet. He was fine Friday morning. In the afternoon I found him in the nest box. Odd but sometimes my roosters do that to show the new pullets where to lay an egg. (It's very strange, but yes, I've witnessed them doing it frequently and even singing the egg song when they hop out.) I pulled Mr Wonderful out of the nest and the silly rooster strutted away out of the coop.

When I returned after dark to put the roosters to bed in the garage, I found him dead on the ground under the roost in the tall run. No blood or obvious injuries. One wing was out like he may have been using it to push himself upright. His comb was dark purple. I saved some of his pretty feathers and we buried him in the backyard on Sat.

RIP Mr Wonderful.
2017-2020

Wonderful as a chick on left. (He always had that calm masculine presence.)
He did go through an awkward phase.

He grew into the most handsome rooster I had ever seen, and his personality remained sweet and gentle.
My fav pic (American Gothic) chicken style

Tidbitting for the hens

Even on cloudy days, he brought a little light and beauty wherever he went.

Even when molting and tail-less he was "Wonderful."

 

[Molpet]

Very sad news to report....
Amid all the craziness this weekend, Mr Wonderful suddenly died. I am beside myself with grief. He was not just a pretty rooster, but our pet. He was fine Friday morning. In the afternoon I found him in the nest box. Odd but sometimes my roosters do that to show the new pullets where to lay an egg. (It's very strange, but yes, I've witnessed them doing it frequently and even singing the egg song when they hop out.) I pulled Mr Wonderful out of the nest and the silly rooster strutted away out of the coop.

When I returned after dark to put the roosters to bed in the garage, I found him dead on the ground under the roost in the tall run. No blood or obvious injuries. One wing was out like he may have been using it to push himself upright. His comb was dark purple. I saved some of his pretty feathers and we buried him in the backyard on Sat.

RIP Mr Wonderful.
2017-2020

Wonderful as a chick on left. (He always had that calm masculine presence.)
He did go through an awkward phase.

He grew into the most handsome rooster I had ever seen, and his personality remained sweet and gentle.
My fav pic (American Gothic) chicken style

Tidbitting for the hens

Even on cloudy days, he brought a little light and beauty wherever he went.

Even when molting and tail-less he was "Wonderful."

Awww he was a sweetheart
So sorry for your loss, it's rough when they are so nice
I found a dead hen in the main coop Tuesday...no visible reason... I tend to lose some when the weather bounces up and down every year... another reason I don't name them

 

[homeschoolin momma]

So it's been awhile since I'veposted. Been really busy with....life. I was offered a promotion at work which I was trained for a few days and then took over to see if it was a fit. It's not too bad and I got a nice raise so I accepted the position last Friday. Now of course school is cancelled. Lol. But even with it cancelled,we still have to feed the kids in the community for the rest of this week and the time after spring break until we reopen. So since I'm now a cook, I actually have to go to work tomorrow. But that's ok as I'd rather be busy rather than sitting at home bored.

Chicken stuff:
Phoenix finally hatched one of the eggs under her. She continued to sit on the two dead eggs for over a week until the serama eggs from @Faraday40 gave me along with some orp eggs. Well, Sunday and today all 3 of Angel's eggs hatched and I swapped them out with the dead eggs under Phoe. She's been misbehaving towards them, especially the youngest of the three, so I've put her in the dark a bit til she settles down. Then one of the orp eggs hatched while at work today. I put the chick under her and she's fine while in the dark, but as soon as she sees it she targets it mercilessly. I don't think she's going to accept the orps at all. The other two orp eggs will hatch overnight. Not sure what to do.

@Faraday40 The orp egg that hatched was supposed to be from "Darling". I don't think the egg was from her. Since she is a lav and your roo is a lav, we should have a lav. But this is what popped out.

Complete with feathers on its shanks....

Any thoughts on it? Super sweet chick though. Just really wants to crawl up under you and snuggle. Kept running towards me while I was trying to take pictures! Noah took over snuggle duties once he saw that!

Angel's babies:

Two are cream white and one has a little more yellow. Two of them also have feathers running down their shanks. Not sure on that one either.

Of my two Pippins eggs that hatched, after a week, I can say oneis a silkied serama and one is smooth. All are still white or cream. I thought seramas didn't breed true colors! White is the only color I'm getting!! We need to get some hatching eggs from wvduckchick and get some color in here

Also @Faraday40 I am really sorry about Mr. Wonderful. He truly was the best roo. He was always so gorgeous no matter what and such a gentleman. I know your going to miss him. I hope his sons continue to live up to his reputation and inherit he best qualities. I really think you need to have Taji come and stay for a spell this spring/summer. He really is a gentleman and quiet guy. Not at all like Jake.....even though since Jack has come along, Jake has mellowed out quite a bit in the crowing department. If Taji had his own set of girls in the tractor coop, I'd bet you'd never hear him. And a crow collar would practically mute him if he did as his crow just isn't that loud. Well, to me at least. I think it would be wise to get some more slo chicks going and growing up since they take so long to mature. Mr. Awesome can take over in the later summer once he's closer to a year old.

 

[Faraday40]

@homeschoolin momma
Adorable chicks! The serama's feathered shanks make sense. Teddy had that when 1st hatched but it disappeared sometime before he finished feathering. Never came back. Some of his offspring also had that & just like Teddy, it disappeared. Most of my seramas are white-ish / cream. I sometimes get gold and only twice got gray. I agree about the desire for more color variety.

As far as the orp chick..... I have no idea. I've heard of it happening sometimes with imported orps, but I don't recall seeing it. (I'll go back and carefully look at chick pics of Mr Wonderful and his offspring. ) The fuzzy shanks would likely go away with age, but preferred not to select for breeding stock. Only my silkies have feathered shanks & feet! It certainly wasn't a silkie egg. LOL
The chick's color could be explained by
1. Mr Wonderful x Darling = a black lav split. (both lavender & lacing would likely not show) It was certainly possible since I didn't separate into breeding groups. I only knew the daddy had to be an orp roo.
2. Lav rooster x black/lav split or laced pullet = would also give black chicks. I could have been wrong about the maker of the egg

Hopefully, the other orps will hatch out lav. I've got some eggs due around the 30th. If Phoe doesn't adopt them for you, I could try sneaking them under Coge. She's on a few eggs now. I plan to just add her to the brooder and allow her to mother everything from the incubator plus whatever she hatches. One serama egg was accidentally added, so I marked it and am allowing it to continue.

The agriculture club at my son's school was supposed to watch the chicks hatch tomorrow. With all the schools being closed, that won't happen. There was a humidity drop over the weekend (dropped down to 23%) and the teacher spotted an early pip today. If the hatch doesn't go well, I'm sure they'd be happy to accept extras.

 

[Faraday40]

BTW- Here's an example of highly feathered serama shanks. By 4 weeks it was completely gone.

 

[Molpet]

Here is some good over my head sciency stuff on the virus.

Interesting
But even though he simplified it it's still over my head too
Basically they don't know for sure yet

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Here is some good over my head sciency stuff on the virus.

Very good and well done video. I think it's a good direction for the doctors to look into trying to help the ones who are getting sick (which is the older population....those who already have pre existing conditions and are on the ace inhibitors already) I also read a medical journal article that what giving similar reasons as to why children just don't get sick. Basically said its something on their cells the virus just cannot attach itself to. Thats why no child has died from this yet, even in China. I can only hope the doctors look into this receptors and ace inhibitors theory more closely.
(I had to take micro biology in college. Wasn't my favorite class then, but more interesting now that I'm older)

 

[homeschoolin momma]

BTW- Here's an example of highly feathered serama shanks. By 4 weeks it was completely gone.
View attachment 2053844

The one on the right is what two of the babies looks like. Guess you know who the daddy is for sure!

 

[Justso]

Very sad news to report....
Amid all the craziness this weekend, Mr Wonderful suddenly died. I am beside myself with grief. He was not just a pretty rooster, but our pet. He was fine Friday morning. In the afternoon I found him in the nest box. Odd but sometimes my roosters do that to show the new pullets where to lay an egg. (It's very strange, but yes, I've witnessed them doing it frequently and even singing the egg song when they hop out.) I pulled Mr Wonderful out of the nest and the silly rooster strutted away out of the coop.

When I returned after dark to put the roosters to bed in the garage, I found him dead on the ground under the roost in the tall run. No blood or obvious injuries. One wing was out like he may have been using it to push himself upright. His comb was dark purple. I saved some of his pretty feathers and we buried him in the backyard on Sat.

RIP Mr Wonderful.
2017-2020

Wonderful as a chick on left. (He always had that calm masculine presence.)
He did go through an awkward phase.

He grew into the most handsome rooster I had ever seen, and his personality remained sweet and gentle.
My fav pic (American Gothic) chicken style

Tidbitting for the hens

Even on cloudy days, he brought a little light and beauty wherever he went.

Even when molting and tail-less he was "Wonderful."

Really sorry for your loss!

 

[homeschoolin momma]

@Faraday40 The other two orps hatched last night. Just as black as the first. I put the other chick with those two as i cant trust Phoe with them right now. Will try again tonight. Will get pics when i get home.