Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yesterday, Princess Isodel and matronly Debra Jo passed away, just a few hours apart. Both had been ailing for totally different reasons, so it came as a bit of a surprise to find that both had gone so close together. Izzy, some of you might recall, came in due to apparent heat stroke and simply never recovered. I believe Debra Jo had ascites, though I don't know what caused it. I will miss Izzy's curiosity and that big beard of hers, even if I only knew her for a short time. Debra Jo had been with me for so long, though, that it's just strange not seeing her out in the flock. She was my Barred Rock with spurs, the tough gal that no one messed with, the hen obsessed with eating snow, and always the one to lead the way out into the woods for free-range time. She was still trying to free-range far and wide lately, in spite of her ailment, though it was clearly hindering her. Rest in peace, sweet girls.




This week is proving to be quite dreary anyway. We've had so much rain, and the mosquitoes are absolutely horrid right now. A few days ago, I had to rescue poor little Frannie, who had prolapsed in a bad way. Those of you who don't know what that is (and even those who do), please take the time to look it up so that you know what to do should this happen in your flock. I was able to act quickly as a result of my foreknowledge of the ailment, and luckily had the supplies needed on hand in my chicken first aid kit. I have never regretted putting that together!

Meanwhile, my number one pick for a keeper Red Dorking cockerel is acting off and his comb is shrunken and droopy. Should he not recover, that means that the only Red Dorking cockerel left for keeping is the one whose colors are so far off that he doesn't look anything like he should. I was going to keep him as a backup anyway, but now it looks like he will be my top keeper. I've also pretty much settled on keeping the rose comb Dark Dorking cockerel, as he's become a curious and sweet young man as he matures. The cockerels have been free-ranging together with the hens so that I can test how their behavior will be, and so far they have not made it easy on me ruling out any further cockerels from my possible keepers list. None of them act out or misbehave, and the worst I've seen them do is scare the pullets away from the food dish, with some question as to whether they were doing so on purpose or just looking to eat. They're also all quite good with people, never giving anyone a threatening glance so far and keeping a respectful distance. I wish some of them would just turn mean or something so I can decide!

Anyway, hopefully we'll eventually see the end of all this rain so that I can do more picture taking and such for the thread. Until then, I'm staying in out of the mosquito swarm.

 

[itspebbl]

So sorry about Debra Jo and Izzy! I hope your Red Dorking cockerel improves!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks. The good news is Mr. Rooster Boy seems stable at the moment. He's gotten a little more color to his comb, but it's still wilted and small. He and the other boys run around together fine, so I'm going with the hopes he'll pull himself through this. If not, that means my decision has been made for me on keeper boys.

The bad news is the one BCM boy I was considering keeping bit me the other night, unprovoked. That's not behavior I'm okay with. I can be understanding if he was cornered or if it could have seemed like I was being aggressive toward him, but all I did was carefully reach toward the sickly Red Dorking cockerel who was perched next to the BCM, not even going near the BCM, and he lashed out. I have to move slowly and carefully or those boys will scatter, so there's no way it could have looked threatening. So, my keeper list is down to the sickly Red Dorking, the Red Dorking whose colors are off, the rose comb Dark Dorking, and the dark gray colored Dark Dorking. If the sickly boy doesn't pull through, I guess I'll have my three keepers! If not, I'll have to decide between the two Dark Dorking cockerels because I just don't think I can manage keeping both. And that's a hard choice, because I like the rosecomb boy's personality, but boy is that darker colored one a GORGEOUS young man!

So far, though 'Vander' clearly has pointed saddle feathers, he's not acting very cockerel-like, so it's very likely he'll be able to blend in to the flock without any objections from Reuben or Winter, meaning he's likely staying as well. If he gets along in the flock, then I'm not concerned about having one extra. Of course, all said, that will put me up to more than 10 roosters, when I was planning on either breaking even or lowering my numbers from the 8 I had before...



In other news, I'm a little bit concerned about Perdita after the past few days. She has always gotten along fine with her bad leg, but lately she's been sitting a lot, and she seems to be struggling to use that leg now. I'm concerned that she may have just gotten too heavy to use her bad leg anymore. If that's the case, she's almost certain to have no future in the big-girl flock. She can't be dragging herself around out there where she might hurt herself, where the roosters might hurt her because they don't know any better, where she could be trampled or picked on by the bigger hens, etc. That isn't to say that I won't keep her as long as she's spirited and willing to live, but she may have to become a house chicken and be kept in a pen where she doesn't have to go far for her food and water, and where she's got nice, soft bedding to sit in. Of course, this is something I'll have to run by my parents, so we'll see what happens with that...

 

[itspebbl]

If she needs to be a house chicken, maybe she can keep Crashie company
Sounds like you are gonna have a hard time choosing your keeper cockerels!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That would likely be what happened if she did become a house chicken. As of today, to my complete surprise, she's back on her feet again, though still limping more than usual on her bad leg. I wonder if she just tripped or something and had a minor injury? Here's hoping she continues to improve, as I think she'll be happier outside and mobile than she would be inside and crippled!

And yup, definitely going to be hard to choose. It's a bit pathetic, but I may have kind of, a little, maybe, slightly... named the four cockerels that are left on my possible keeper list. I'm sure now that I'm keeping both of the remaining Red boys (assuming the sickly boy gets better, and neither turns totally evil at some point before wintertime), but I'm still not sure if I'll keep one, both, or either of the remaining Dark boys that I've been considering. I've got plenty of time to decide, so I'm trying not to rush into deciding just yet. Anyway, on my red boys, I really like the two named Dante and Dmitri together. I'm thinking the more reddish boy will be Dante and the sickly boy will be Dmitri (EDIT July 27: Changed my mind. Dmitri doesn't suit him. His name is Darwin.). On the rosecomb Dark Dorking, I really like Theodore. For the very dark colored Dark Dorking, I like Tulio. Soooo.... That happened.

I've been wanting to take pictures (if the mosquito horde ever settles down, though I may just have to tough it out) so I'll try to get update pictures of them while I'm at it when I do. No guarantees, because Tulio is a wizard at avoiding me. But if I do manage to get some pictures of both of them, then y'all will see why I can't decide between Tulio and Theo, because they're both so handsome.

EDIT: Okay, I have the pictures, but I'm struggling to get them to upload. I'll get them posted ASAP.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, after a fight to get the darn pictures to upload, here are the keeper cockerels! First, the two that are definite keepers. Here's Dante, who actually turned out to be the difficult one. I thought I had gotten a good shot of him, but it didn't turn out once I pulled it up on the laptop, so here's the best I got of him:

And Dmitri. You can see he has the proper black chest and red coloring compared to Dante. However, notice his comb compared to his brother's. Other than that, he seems fine at the moment... EDIT July 27: Dmitri didn't suit him, so his name is now Darwin.

Now, here are the two I can't decide between. First, Tulio. Hubba hubba, right? This picture doesn't show his slatey blue color very well, but you can kind of see it in his chest here. He's the only one that's been crowing every day, too. A bit full of himself, I think.

And here's Theodore. I love that inquisitive expression he has here. I have no idea what he did to his tail, though!

Just a few other pictures I took while I was out there. I was trying to get a picture of Abra like the one in Post 1195, but bigger so that I could enter it for the 2018 calendar, but this is all I got.

Here's Roha being jealous that I'm not giving her my full attention:

I interrupted Malcolm and Trudi on a date, apparently. Malcolm disapproved of this.

And this strange looking duck has been hanging out in the duck pool for a while now...

 

[itspebbl]

Wow! You have some gorgeous boys there!
Are you going to try to hatch some more of Trudi's eggs one day?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I know, how's a gal supposed to pick out of that batch of boys!

I was hoping to hatch from Trudi this year (or, at least hoping she would brood and hatch some), but that fell through and I think she's done laying for the year. Maybe next year, but I have plans for other things, and I've really been wanting to focus on hatching more silkied Cochins and some Dorking babies from my own flock in the spring. I might let her brood again and see if she can get some hatched, but it all depends on the timing when it happens, how she does at it, and how many eggs she lays. So, that's a big ol' maybe.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Hope all is well. I promise you I've been reading your thread, just haven't had much time to reply lately with my busy work schedule :/ Cute pics, love the green mystery duck . How's Crash been doing, out of curiosity?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aw, well no worries, I certainly understand about a busy schedule! Haha, that green duck is hilarious, too! I emptied the duck pool the other night so that I could refill it, and the next morning when I went to do so, it was sitting smack dab in the center of where the pool always sits, like he didn't know where it went because he left it right here!

I filled it up, and he was happy to get back home. Since Trudi and Malcolm don't seem to mind sharing, I've just been letting it stay.

Poor little Crashie is super moody right now, going through molt. She dropped all her wing feathers and has these HUGE pin feathers on her wings now that are driving her nuts. She's very touchy and sensitive right now, poor baby! Wish there was something I could do to help her out!