My flock is growing up.

[Some Old Guy]

Yeah, I know, I need pics. Maybe I'll get a couple today.

The 7 ducks are their own little society. They come and go as they please, and pay little attention to the rest of the poultry. Of course, they are the oldest birds on the property, having hatched last November, 2023.

Everyone else has been raised together, in the same pen, same run, and free ranging together at about the same time. Banties were brought home from Tractor Supply the first week of March, Guineas shipped to me the second week of March, and Australorps shipped on the 20th of March. So, as I write this, they are all right at 4 months old.

The apparently dominant rooster is really the subject of this first post. Little dude has shown more and more reluctance to return to the pen at night. I go out near sunset, grab the fermented feed, scoop it out into several feeders, and holler, "Chick chick chick chick!" Some come running, others hold back, but pretty much everyone comes at least near the gate into the run. As a rule, the bully guineas are first in, and start gobbling the feed. Then a few of the more aggressive banties go in. At some point, the rest of the banties and the Aussies start filtering in. No, I don't try to enforce instant compliance. It may take half an hour for everyone to come in, and I'm fine with that.

That one black rooster has been the last to come in, for a couple weeks anyway. One or two black hens are next to last - they seem to be forming bonds, and he has a following of 5 hens for sure, maybe a 6th as well.

Four nights in a row, Big Black Rooster has pretty much refused to go inside with the flock. He wants to roost on top of the pen instead. My first reaction was to herd him inside, using my herding pole. The last two nights, he has frustrated me, refusing to go in the gate, so I resorted to the net. Corner the little guy, put the net over his head, reach in and pull him out. I get him under my arm, sit and pet him for a few minutes, and talk to him. He's pretty relaxed while I hold him, certainly not struggling to get away. When I'm sure that he's relaxed, I go to the gate, and gently set him on the ground inside.

He is a pretty Black Australorp, and he's bigger than the other Aussie roosters by a little bit. He can easily become my favorite. But, I'm just a little fearful that he is trying to assert his dominance over ME. I don't understand chicken psychology well enough to decide if that is the case or not. I'm hoping that he's just doing his job of protecting the flock.

Well, Aussies are dual purpose birds. The next two or three weeks will determine which purpose he is going to serve!

The birds are scattered to the corners of the property now, but I'll try to get a pic or two of Big Black Rooster to edit into this post. As I say, I think he's a really pretty rooster!

Not a very good pic, too pixelated, but there he is.

 

[GodLovesU]

Wow! I love that you’re keeping different breeds together!

 

[N F C]

Looking forward to pictures of your flock!

 

[Some Old Guy]

Last night, I went out to call birds into the pen. I'm gonna call Big Black Rooster Ulysses. After four nights of testing my will, it seems that he may have given up. He hung back with a couple hens, and watched all the other chickens go in through the run, and into the coop. After awhile, I picked up my herding stick, walked out around them, turned the stick horizontal to the ground, and approached them. The hens went through the gate, through the door, and into the pen. Ulysses gave me an eyeball, then strutted along to follow his hens inside.

On the other hand, I need to have a talk with him about his performance on the job. After turning the birds out this morning, I grabbed some hen scratch, and led them all down to the edge of the woods. I didn't go in the woods, just along the edge, scattering scratch feed. When I came back in the house, I found two ticks deciding where they wanted to attach themselves.

I mean, come on, guys. I'm only asking you to keep one acre free of ticks. Get with the program, guys!

The guineas really do seem to be the best for pest control. They spend the most time in the tall grass, snatching tiny little things from up high. And, that, of course, is where the ticks lurk, waiting to leap onto some nice warm legs, or a dog's back, or a deer's belly.

Here's a shot of Napoleon, the banty rooster. He's the rooster with the most character, IMO. And, he has two hens who follow him around, both with the same orange-red-black coloring.

 

[Some Old Guy]

Name change is due, I guess. Napoleon's name is being changed to Dumplins by my wife. As in, 'chickin 'n dumplins'. She had mentioned once before that it looked like he wanted to attack her. This morning, I had an early appointment, so she fed animals for me. She had no problems with any of the livestock, except for Dumplins. He attacked her TWICE! Of course, she was wearing short pants, so the attack left scratches behind.

Dear Wife swears that he is going in her pot just as soon as he's big enough.

How big is "big enough" for a bantie rooster? Mehh, I guess "big enough" is just as soon as he pushes his luck a feather too far.

Don't expect ME to stand between my wife and something she intends to kill. I may very well become 'collateral damage'! Any soldier will tell you that there is no such thing as 'friendly fire'.

 

[Some Old Guy]

Fresh egg here. There was another a couple days ago, but I think my son ate it. I think it's a guinea egg - pretty sure it's not from an Australorp. The only other reasonable possibility, is one of the banty hens. These eggs are much too small for the ducks, they've laid nice eggs ranging from medium to extra large.

Am I right?

 

[Some Old Guy]

I thought that I lost an Aussie yesterday. We had an appointment yesterday morning, so I turned the birds out early, and left my dog to "guard" them. Six hours later, we returned to find a LOT of feathers in the driveway. I just knew that I had one less Aussie in the flock.

Surprise, surprise, when it was time for the flock to come in to the pen, I still had all 15 black birds! Two roosters were missing a lot of tail feathers, and another was missing some. It appears there was a battle for dominance, and it got pretty brutal.

At some point, I'm going to have to decide who gets culled, and who doesn't. Luckily, there have been few attempts by the roosters to dominate and/or mate with the pullets. With those attempts, the pullets submitted quickly, so no damage done. That will change soon, as the boys mature.

 

[Some Old Guy]

I started life thinking that girls are silly. The older I grow, the more firmly convinced that girls are silly.

Napoleon, or Dumplins, chased after my wife again a few days ago. I says, "Well, he's still pretty small, but we can make chicken and dumplins if you want."

She says, "Don't you hurt that chicken, he's CUTE!"

I says, "Cute? I thought you hated him?"

"No, he's cute, he thinks he's as big as any of the other roosters!"

OK, so now Napoleon is cute. "Alright, if you go outside in bare legs, carry a water sprayer with you, and dose him with some water."

"Well, the only sprayer I have is filled with vinegar!"

"Vinegar won't hurt him, it will just season him a little before we put him in a pan."

"You're not putting Dumplins in a pan!"

Fast forward to today, we are waiting for the mail lady to bring a package. Instead of checking Informed Delivery on the internet, she decides she wants to walk to the mailbox. She grabs her spray bottle, Napoleon sees her, and runs under my Trailblazer. Dear Wife returns, and informs me that her package isn't there yet. Ho-hum.

20 minutes later, I check Informed Delivery, see the package has been delivered, and tell her to go get her package.

"I'm not going out there! I already braved the little psycho once!"

"I thought you said he's cute?"

"He is cute, but he's a psycho!"

I just shut up, and reminded myself that girls are silly. No man can win one of these arguments.

 

[Some Old Guy]

So, I found some time to just sit, and mess around on the computer. I look out the window, and the guineas are doing some strange head bobbing. Weird . . . I get closer to the window, and watch them for a bit. It's tall grass, over their heads really, but they keep reaching up and bobbing their head this way and that. Ahhhh - rye grass. I haven't mowed that part of the yard in over a month. The rye is going to seed, and those birds are reaching up, stripping seeds and eating the seed. Cool, free food!

Over the past few weeks, the guineas have turned into bullies. They chase at the other fowl, scaring them away from food, or just for fun. Yesterday evening, I heard some squawking and fluttering, and had to investigate. HAH! A guinea tried that intimidation routine on an Australorp rooster. When I got there, the Aussie had mounted the Guinea like he was going to mate it. Guinea is squawking, fluttering around, trying to escape, but the Aussie remained firmly mounted, with a beak full of Guinea neck skin.

I expect the guineas will grow more selective in their bullying, avoiding the larger birds at least. Their bullying hasn't worked on the mallards at all. Guinea runs at a duck, the duck just starts quacking and runs right at the guinea. The duck, being heavier and more mature, ends up intimidating the guinea, who runs in a different direction. He almost convinces everyone that he was actually chasing a bug, and not a duck.

Oh yeah, the ducks. I finally cleaned their nests of all the eggs that didn't hatch. Not one duckling to show for all the mating and egg laying. The ducks are mating, so perhaps we'll get another chance soon.

I am finding more guinea eggs, so I'll put a dozen in the incubator soon. I'll use the older, proven incubator this time. Looking forward to a few keets in a few weeks.

Think I'll go walk around the yard, and procrastinate some of my chores again . . .

 

[Some Old Guy]

The importance of clean water. I'm not sure if that's a statement, or a question.

If you have a dog, you have put out clean water for the silly mutt, only to watch the dog run past, or even through, the clean water, to slurp nasty water elsewhere. My dog especially loves manure tea, from the garden. Ick, nasty! Get out of there! Turn your back, and there she is again, slurping the nasty.

Cats . . . pretty clearly show a preference for clean water, but like dogs, they will sometimes walk past the clean, to drink from a mudhole.

Poultry? Well, the ducks (mallards) really don't seem to care. They don't show a preference for clean or dirty water. If it's wet, they like it. Mud holes are a huge duck magnet, because they hope to find food in the water.

Guineas? I've not seen them drinking nasty water. They aren't real picky, but I've not seen them drinking really nasty liquids.

The chickens show the strongest preference for clean water. Given two to six sources of water, they will usually go for the cleanest water, or at least the second cleanest. No mud, no manure tea, nothing really nasty.

For this reason, I don't change out all of the water bowls every day. The livestock just doesn't care about clean water! There are 8 waterers or water bowls scattered around the yard. I rinse and refill half of them each day. The other half, I'll just run some water into them, to top them off.

Wading pools - I started out rinsing and refilling like every other day. Two pools, clean one pool per day. Ducks didn't show any preference for the cleaner one, so I started experimenting. I can leave a pool uncleaned for a week, and they just don't care. I decide for myself that the water is just too nasty to look at, and change it for my own satisfaction. Ducks just don't care. Of course, the ducks have free access to all the other livestock's water, so maybe they drink clean water, and only play in the nastier water. Maybe.

Goats and sheep demand clean water changed out every other day, minimum. They just won't drink from a mudhole, seldom drink out of the creek, instead coming back up hill to get clean water. If they can't find a bowl of clean water, they will spill a bowl, then hang around, waiting for me to fill it.

Anyway, I've learned not to obsess over the water I keep out for animals. There is always fresh clean water available, with older, along with less clean water, and there is always some water that is going nasty. Each of the animals are free to gravitate toward whichever water they prefer.

No, mosquitoes are not a problem. Those ducks are quick to clean up any critters that might be spawning, including tadpoles. If it moves, it's a tasty snack. If it doesn't move, it may still be a tasty snack, so they have to check.