It's been a quite a while! Here are some highlights of our flock's progress and drama so far. We are trending toward more of a mixed flock but still heavy on the wyandottes (get it, because they're a heavy chicken)
Percy was lost in his third year to ongoing issues with bumblefoot despite treatments. He was a very large rooster, the only chicken we've ever had suffer from this so far, I was sorry for him going through that and sad to see him go out of his prime so fast as he was beautiful and had a great temperament with me, the other ladies and other rooster. But we put him down peacefully once he started to have trouble getting around well.
The little barred roo was always very high-strung, overly anxious too my liking, with a rough wheezy-sounding crow and beginning to show signs of aggression being the sole rooster of the flock. So when my friend offered me one of Arthur's grandsons from one of our extra roosters who'd been crossed into her flock, I accepted this new alternative happily and they dropped him off that evening. He is some barnyard-mix of a potentially impure gold wyandotte rooster over one of her barred or black hens resulting in a single-barred gene rooster. He looks much like a black sex link rooster but on unusually tall light grey legs, with a rose comb. we haven't named him yet either. He is a far more fitting replacement for Percy, though, in type and temperament.
He took to the hens right away and they to him, his vocalizations are much more like the rest of our flock and he is a big, sweet boy with dark, messy barring. The little barred rooster tried with all his might the next day to defend his status and lost every fight to this new rooster but just kept coming back for more until he was winded and wheezing and too exhausted to continue each time. The bigger guy would leave him alone as long as he kept a little distance but he couldn't take a hint. For several days, he'd try, finally accepting a peripheral role with begrudging exhaustion only to become our first (and so far only
) casualty to a coyote while free ranging a few days later.
This may seem callous, but our roosters play an important role in our free range flock and he at least went out doing his job. Our losses have been very low for our area and I attribute that to having good cover, having other deterrents present on our land, keeping roosters who are calm but keep a good eye out, and letting our chickens free range naturally as much as possible from an early age to develop their instincts. Losing a second-rate rooster is far better than losing any hens or a top roo, and having a rooster or two really helps our girls live more secure free-range lives.
We still have Pebble and Stripe of our first wyandotte ladies at 6 years old now, with some others being shuffled to other flocks over the years. A number have gone to friends and family and its always fun to cross their descendants back into our flock with new genetics. We gained a lone ameraucauna hen from a family member who lost their whole flock in one night, save for her. She is a little survivor who lays a nice large blue egg reliably over our hot summer days, and has convinced me to add more of this breed, or easter eggers, into our flock to gain some of their traits in the next year or two.
We did have one of her eggs under our currently broody hen, Pebble's daughter and and the hen who raised Percy, four year old Mamacita. She didn't hatch the blue egg but is raising for us two mostly black chicks from our flock and four Wellsummer chicks that I swapped hatching eggs for. The black chicks look to be a male and female if their head spot and lack of are anything to judge by, but their other markings and features already have me very curious to see how they grow out. They're a result of our new rooster over our flock of wyandottes and one buff orpington. One chick looks to have a rose comb and the other a single comb so I think that one is likely to be from the buff. She is our rooster's favorite, and while our 'dottes throw the occasional single or pea comb its not very common. We had only one silver wyandotte, Arwen, with a single comb in the flock when I gathered the hatching eggs, as another candidate. I'd have liked to hatch a few more of ours, but I'm still very excited to see how these little ones turn out! Of course they're likely to be mostly black or get some incomplete barring, but they have such a mystery mix going into them. It's already a lot of fun to study the differences in their markings, beak colors, etc.
I will have to share some pictures, and other stories, like how Scarface and Mamacita got their names another time. I think that's all for tonight!
