Finally caught up from Easter break... so much cuteness!!!
I am so tired of the mud, even the grassy lawn is soggy and gross. The poor chicken run is a mud pit and it stinks so I opened up the fence to let them free range in the grass. it always makes me nervous because we don't have a fenced yard so three's nothing stopping them from visiting the neighbors or going out in the road.
Had a scary moment today with the rooster... normally really sweet and showing no aggression towards us at all, but this afternoon he went after my 3yo. I think she scared him because she was running down the hill near the chickens (which were out in the yard again) and calling to her big sister. I was across the yard and carrying the baby so I couldn't get there before he jumped up at her twice. She wasn't hurt, just scared and now she's afraid to walk near him. I think they need more social time with us after a long winter of basically being out there alone. I had Evie give them some scratch grains. Anything else I can do (or help the kids do) to get him to chill out? He'll be in a stew pot and I'll lose my chance to expand our flock naturally if he doesn't calm down. DH will not stand for any aggressive birds.
So Romeo has been pretty rough on the hens lately too... we only have 4 girls and I'm thinking he needs some more ladies. I had noticed some roughed up feathers on the hens backs a while ago, but today one of the BAs was rearranging her wings and I saw she actually has some bare skin under there. Someone here bought saddles or something for their girls a while back... where do you get them? are they hard to put on/keep on?
One last question for Wing or anyone else who breeds rabbits... we bred ours for the first time a few weeks ago so se should be due today/tomorrow. I put a nest box filled with straw in her cage 2 days ago. She hasn't done anything to indicate she's getting a nest ready... and she pooped in the nest box despite me putting in in the corner opposite her normal poop spot. I'm worried we screwed up and he's either not pregnant (they were together for 2 days because she wouldn't let me pick her up to put her back in her cage), I did th nest box wrong (nest box from TSC, just stuffed with straw), or I have this (probably irrational) fear that we got the bunnies mixed up and the nest box is actually in with the male. I tried to feel their bellies yesterday when I was giving them snacks but I couldn't distinguish anything... should I be able to feel anything obvious if the doe is pregnant?
. We built our nest boxes usually and depended on breed size. We haven't had rabbits for maybe 10 years, but we always did the return to cage and doe would growl if she was prego. That wasn't 100%, but pretty reliable. You don't want the nest box in too early, a couple days before. If she isn't prego, just try again. Examine him too to be sure there isn't an issue. We had something like a split shaft once.
