Pipd's Peeps!

[Crazy Maizie]

@pipdzipdnreadytogo How are you doing? ❤

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Still feeling pretty numb most of the time. Still can't look at her pictures. Still hurting when I walk past where she liked to curl up or sprawl out to nap. It's tough.

But life keeps moving and the chickens are hungry every morning. Thank goodness for that or I'd not even get out of bed some days.

I sincerely appreciate that you cared enough to check in on me.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Keiko is home again. We had her cremated. It's hard to imagine that such a larger than life personality could fit in such a tiny box. The surreal feeling of this past week of not seeing her all the time has been replaced with the reality that she really is gone for good, and that wound feels fresh all over again. It hurts so much.


It's been pretty quiet with the birds, so I don't have much else to post. I did finally get some interest in my extra boys and sold the Marans cockerel from Easter this morning for a nice $10! Sounds like he's going to a great place with 9 hens all to himself. I hope he behaves himself and has a good life there.

But, other than that, not much is happening on my end. Getting close to time to get update pictures of the kiddos, and I did get some fresh oils for soaping last week before everything else that happened, so I should have some better things to post soon, I hope.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The two extra Fawn Silver Duckwing OEGB boys went to their new home yesterday. Sounds like they'll have it made there, as this buyer was very excited to meet them and told me he already had a pen set up inside for them to hang out in in bad weather and was brainstorming their names and everything. I'm happy for them, and that I'm down a few more roosters!

Mallow, who'd been living with those two boys up until then, was acting lonely yesterday afternoon once they'd gone, and I felt bad for him so I did some rearrangements this morning to give him some buddies. Initially, I put the Barred Rock bantam boys with him, which seemed to work out fine after the boldest of them duked it out with Mallow and soundly had his tail handed to him. Mal is tinier than them already, despite being around 5 months older than them, but he's a spunky little squirt for sure!

Not long after that, though, I was finishing up dishing out the feed for the morning when the unnamed Chocolate Mottled Orpington boy tried his luck with either Amaretto or Armada (I couldn't tell from the distance they were away from me). Since he is absolutely GIANT in size, I decided he was no longer safe to be in the main flock with the bantam girls because of that, so he and his brothers, Rayburn and Dawson, needed a pen to stay in until I get the Guinea coop fixed up and ready for them. So I let Mal and the Barred Rock boys loose and put the giant floof boys in that pen. It's a bit cramped for those three BIG boys there at roughly 10x10 feet, but it's only temporary until they have their own space.

And Mal seems pretty happy with himself now, in with the big flock. It's a bit chaotic out there because I also pulled the silkied Cochin cockerels from their pen and plopped them out in the main flock, and of course the Barred Rock cockerels were let loose along with Mal, but it's nothing the girls and Reuby and Wint can't handle, I'm sure. They were already making sure the boys minded their manners before I came inside from finishing the morning chores.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I forgot to post about this last night when it happened, but I've now been witness to the youngest female chicken to crow that I've ever even heard of, at about 13 weeks of age, just two days shy of 3 months exactly. Normally, if someone told me their 13-week pullet crowed, I'd tell them that they certainly had a cockerel on their hands, but this was one of the Barred Rock bantam pullets so I know beyond a doubt because of their coloration and their development compared to their brothers that these two are pullets. I don't know if it was Finnie or Skeeter, but one of the two attempted to jump up on the pole of the tarp cover in the chicken yard last night at roost time, missed, and when she hit the ground she let loose this high-pitched squawk of a tiny crow in her excitement! Now I'm wondering if it will become a regular occurrence from whichever one it was, or if it was just a one-off because of the circumstance!

She joins the ranks of Rangi, my Ancona hen who regularly crows in the morning alongside the roosters, Rose, my late Sebright hen who crowed instead of singing the egg song after laying, and Sybil, my oldest OEGB hen who crows fairly often especially when she's molting, as well as a few of my other girls now and in the past who have only once or a few times in their lives decided to belt one out. For some reason, I seem to attract crowing hens here.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

My brahma crowed a little a few years ago, but she hasn't for awhile. Now, we have a 4 mo polish cockerel that crows enough for all.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I'll bet that was a sight to behold, a Brahma hen crowing! I don't know why, but Rangi just seems to feel the need to sing along with the boys most mornings--except she sings more of a "SQUAWK-AWK-AWK" than a "cock-a-doodle"!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I'll bet that was a sight to behold, a Brahma hen crowing! I don't know why, but Rangi just seems to feel the need to sing along with the boys most mornings--except she sings more of a "SQUAWK-AWK-AWK" than a "cock-a-doodle"!

It was like she had something stuck in her throat. Not a complete rooster crow, but a crow none the less. She usually did it in the morning after coming out of the coop.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Sounds exactly like Rangi; not a real crow by the sound of it, but definitely what she's intending to do! Rangi only does it once or twice first thing in the morning when it's still a bit dark and the boys are trying to raise the sun. Then she comes flying off the perch to the floor of the deck just outside the coop, flaps to pump herself up good, crows one last time... and then goes on with her day as any normal hen would, as if none of that even happened. She's an odd one, to say the least.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

My darling Dandelion Fluff has had a small prolapse for the past two days. It hasn't seemed to interfere with her eating and pooping, but I could feel an egg coming along in there this morning when I reinserted it again and I'm not sure if the prolapse was there before her last egg two days ago, or if it occurred because of that last egg somehow. Here's hoping she's able to pass it fine. She's in a hospital pen in a dim room for now, with the hopes she'll stop producing eggs for a bit after this one.


Also, to follow up on my last few posts, I caught Findlay in the act of crowing the other night, though that doesn't necessarily mean that it was her the first time. It was another case of her flying up to something and missing, then squawking out a little baby crow when she landed. What a strange set of pullets these Barred Rock bantams are!