Me too......glad to meet you
Congrats on the chick Wild
Pretty hens SoS
Vfem.......WTG
Hope everyone had a good day and fun at WCA for those who went......
I had a grand day visiting a most wonderful BYCer and crew
My mom was out planting until dark
We got 54 eggs today
Waiting on the WCA report........ MARY ????
VFem... YUP the silkie is a rooster...... he is yours whenever you are ready.
Do I get pictures yet?!
I wanna know if I wanna keep him or if he can goto my friend Stephanie. I always try to put my friends first, but since my hens are so lonely... how mean of me not to wanna get them a new gentleman! hahaha
This morning Mom came out first thing to help me dust and worm the last 3 houses. The rest are already done. I opened all of those and feed everyone breakfast.
JJ, my big cochin rooster, sleeps with the 4 standard cochin hens, but spends his days with the 10 layers in the 'newbie' house. All lots are open for freeranging so he can go with whatever flock he wants too. As soon as the Cochin coop is opened he heads out to the other end of the property. Everything was normal as far as that went. As we were treating the girls one at a time I saw JJ lose his balance and almost fall. He then spent a few seconds between sitting and standing. I walked over to him, but he got up and was fine and then went with the 5 hens that we had done. We finished up the last 5 and were moving to the big layer coop when Mom yelled. JJ was up in the yard flopping. I got to him and he was on his back. I turned him over, but he was completely out of it. Mom picked him up to see him closer. She could feel his heart. His heart would flop 2-3 times then stop a couple seconds then flop again. It wasn't the normal 'pop' of a heart beat you feel with a bird. It was a 'flop'. That is the best way I can describe it. His heart was giving out on him right there. We talked a minute about what to do and whether or not he could pull through this. There was no way. The time between the heart flops was growing. Mom took him over to put him down, but didn't make it. He died before she got him over to the wood shed.The big cochin boys have a tendency to have heart problems. I have never had one more then 2 years. JJ would have been 2 this summer. His dad, Jerry, died at 2 as well. One of my hens will be 2 this summer, the Twin Hens will be 4, and Noel will be 6 come June. I hope to hatch a few eggs from them this summer, but I doupt Noel will lay much of anything and one of the twins has started laying softshelled eggs.
Because I am sentimental about my birds, I have very specific places to bury. The big cochins I have lost over the years are all together along the fence behind their coop. The problem is that there are trees there and the ground if full of roots. It took half an hour of digging with the posthole diggers to finally lay him to rest.
I am glad I held back his best son from last year. I still haven't named the big Boy, but he is magnificent. If I could get motivated to start showing again I know he would be a champion.
Matt
Been trying for days to post pics of my newest chicks mama hatched on Thurs. still haven't gotten the hang of all the new stuff, but these are Bantam cochins..
