Ivory the Rooster: Day 665 *updates*

[77horses]

Thanks everyone!

Tomorrow Ivory will be making another trip to my father's house with me for the weekend again. I think he's been on more road trips than all of our other chickens!

An hour or so right after he hatched, he had to go on an hour long road trip to my father's house for the weekend and then back...That was a risky and scary ride because he had just hatched and I was worried he would get cold, but he had plenty of warmth in the car and I even brought a little hand warmer in a sock for him just in case.

Ever since then he has been going with me on the hour long trips almost every weekend. Now, I just put his box in the back of the car and he rides on my lap the whole way there. I call him my "Traveling Buddy".

He likes looking out the window, too! When we're going down the highway, when cars pass by he will be sitting in the window looking at them and I've seen some funny expressions people have made when they pass by!

Now if someone was a BYCer and they saw a chicken riding in a car looking out the window, they would find it normal. But for anyone else, it's not something you see everyday!

 

[77horses]

UPDATE: Day 97
Guess what? We're getting chickens! (My mom and stepfather). And Ivory, my young house-rooster, is excited too because this means he'll have his own coop and his own small flock of hens! Although they may be battery hens, which aren't the prettiest hens out there because of their poor condition (

Poor hens!), but I'm sure he doesn't mind! Both him and them will have to get use to each other eventually. We're building a coop this weekend (at least my stepfather is...I won't be able to see it until I get back over the weekend) and that means Ivory can stay here and instead of having him move to my father's house and only seeing him on the weekends, I can still see him everyday!

So he'll just be moving from his box to a new coop.

Pictures!

 

[Mahonri]

Just found this thread.

COOL!

That is one spoiled roo.

 

[MissJenny]

Hooray!!! I am jumping up and down with glee that ivory will have his own flock of girlfriends to fawn over him. Nice going!

 

[77horses]

Quote:

Haha! You can say that again!!!

Ivory's going for another road trip today to my dad's house, so since we've been having problems with making room for his huge box in the car, I'm gonna use a smaller box (if I can find one) as his traveling box.

Then he'll have one big box here and one big box there. Once he has his permanent home here in his new coop, I don't know if I'll still bring him with me over the weekends...He can obviously still come because he'll be by himself for a little while in his new coop (at least until we get him some of his own hens...That will be a big change for him because the only hens he's been around are the big girls in the different flocks at my dad's house, and they all chase him away and he's terrified of them!), but once we get him some hens I doubt I will be able to bring him on anymore (or at least not as many) road trips on the weekends because once he has established his own flock, if I take him away for the weekend it might cause conflicts. And I don't want to do that. It will be different not bringing him everywhere, and a little sad to be honest, but it's best for him to finally have his own flock...a.k.a finally "fly the coop"!

But anyway, can't wait to see how the coop turns out! It will be a complete surprise to me (and Ivory!) because I won't be here to see it built over the weekend.


Now I'm off to find a good temporary traveling box for Ivory!

 

[vnploveschickens]

Ivory has sure grown up to be very handsome. You have done a terrific job, 77horses!!

That is exciting to be getting a coop, and some girls for Ivory.

And don't worry, you'll have those new girls looking pretty in no time. You'll be taking very good care of them, feeding good feed, giving them lots of love, and they'll have real fresh air and sunshine too.

Keep us updated if you can!

 

[LyonFuzz]

Kudos to you! What a wonderful thing to consider adopting x-battery hens. I'm sure they love their new life with Ivory because he has become quite a handsome fellow!

 

[77horses]

UPDATE: Day 98

Ivory is getting more rooster-like by the day! Now, whenever someone walks up to him, he will make those clucking noises that a rooster makes when he finds a treat for his hens, and sometimes he will even put his wing down as if he wants to do a little rooster dance!

It's so cute!
Last night, while I slept outside in a tent (just for fun to test it out...although it rained and leaked and I got soaked!), Ivory slept in his box...Well, I got him a larger, deeper water dish because now that he's older, obviously, he drinks more water and I was always refilling his smaller water dish. But apparently his dish tips over easily because when I came in to check on him, he had dumped the entire thing and his box floor was soaked, his food was soaked (which he doesn't mind...he likes it when his food is soggy anyway

) and even he was wet! Because his brooder light was off for the night, he couldn't see anything so he was stuck standing in a puddle of water all night.

Poor Ivory! His stomach was completely wet and so were his feet feathers. So I dried him off a bit, refilled his water dish, and cleaned up the wet mess in his box. Then I sit down and come to BYC and as soon as I look away, guess what happens? Ivory dumps his water dish again!!!

LOL I guess I need to get him a new water dish then.

Oh and guess what?!?!?!? It is suspected that Ivory crowed for the first time yesterday!!!!

When I left in the morning for school, my mom said that before she left she thought she heard a strange crow sound coming from my bedroom!

I hope I get to hear him crow soon!

PICTURES: (Ivory all wet after tipping over his water dish...

I know, not the best pictures, but he never wants to hold still for me to take pictures in the morning.

)

 

[77horses]

UPDATE: Day 99!!! (almost day 100)

Ivory will officially be 100 days old this afternoon, which is around the time that he hatched on January 29th, 2010!

Guess what I woke up to this morning? A loud, horrible-sounding crowing sound coming from Ivory, who was sitting on the side of his box!

That was the first time I heard him crow, and to be honest, it sounded pretty terrible! No offense to Ivory, though. He looked pretty pleased with himself despite his practiced crowing!

It'll take some time for him to get the hang of it and learn his true manly crow.

This is the first time I've had a rooster start his first crowing while still in a brooder box, so it was a big surprise when I woke up and heard it.

The crow goes like, "UUURRRRR-uurrr!"

Just two kinda high-pitched syllables in the crow. I couldn't help but laugh because despite how bad it sounded, Ivory kept crowing his heart out because he was so proud that he had woken everyone in the house up!

He sat on his box and crowed about 10 times before finally stopping and acting like nothing had happened.

I guess I won't need my alarm clock anytime soon, at least until Ivory can move out into his new coop.

 

[77horses]

UPDATE: Day 107!

Ivory is sleeping out in his own coop for the first time tonight!!!

But to be honest, I'm really scared to leave him out there.

The coop is brand new and I know it's very secure, but it's pretty far from the house and he's never been outside all night before. It's gonna be kinda sad to go to sleep tonight and not have him in his brooder box near my bed for the first time.

But oh well, I'm sure he'll be fine. He's out there with a broody Bantam hen and her 3 chicks.

Ivory has been crowing still a little and he still hasn't quite got the hang of it.

But it's so adorable to watch him try to crow in the morning!

Wish Ivory (and the broody hen with her chicks) luck! This is his first night alone and I'm sure he finds it as different as I do because ever since he was born he's been living in his cozy brooder box. But I guess if he needs to mature and be a real rooster, he needs to adjust to living more on his own, as much as I may miss having him around in the house.

Good luck Ivory! See you in the morning!