Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, today was when I marked down to put the Easter-egger girls with Dante to start breeding for the Easter Hatch-a-long. So far... not so good. He got overly excited when I first put the hens with him and tried to chase them down until I intervened. Now Endymion, the hen I was most wanting to hatch from, is terrified of him and staying out of his reach on the perch, and Maggie is avoiding him like the plague, though at least not fearfully like poor Dym-Dym. Cressida is getting most of his attention because he calmed down before he traumatized her, too, I guess. He isn't being too rough on anyone right now, at least from what I'm seeing, but clearly his first impression was a lasting one for Dym and Maggie. I hope they settle down so that there isn't a repeat of last year's Dorking hatch. Worse comes to worst, I'll switch Dante out for Murphy this weekend and see if that helps. Endymion is a bit more familiar with Murph and even let him breed her last year when I put her and Reinette with Nadine so that Nadine wasn't one-on-one with a rooster. I was hoping for more blue-green eggers, but I'd really like for something to hatch for the HAL, even if they do turn out to be olive-eggers.



EDIT:

Welp. Change of plans. Dante had those poor girls so terrorized that they started the whole flock cackling in panic. I went out to find feathers everywhere, Endymion hiding on the perch again, and the other two out of sight. As much as I wanted my Dorker-eggers, I won't have my hens abused by their rooster.

I do have other options, however. I can try Darwin, though I expect much the same from him based on his behavior last year, unfortunately. There's Murphy as I mentioned above, but I really do want more blue-greens than olives in their eggs... However, they definitely aren't the only ones.

Winter may be a good option, for one. He really impressed me when he and Reuby placed themselves between a hawk and the hens last year, and it would pass on the bloodline for the possibility of more flock protectors, although the EEs themselves are a bit of a wild card. The big problem with this is that the chicks will likely have dark skin and flesh like him, and I worry that I'd have an uphill battle convincing my family to eat any extra / aggressive roosters from that hatch...

I could also try one of the Cochin boys, particularly Jasper or Roscoe. Either one should make some interesting babies, but I worry that they'll end up being too small or too fluffy to actually breed the hens and I won't find that out until the eggs fail to develop, too late to set other eggs for the HAL.

Tough call... I'm letting the girls rest after Dante's treatment of them and will make up my mind tomorrow or Friday.

 

[ronott1]

Well, today was when I marked down to put the Easter-egger girls with Dante to start breeding for the Easter Hatch-a-long. So far... not so good. He got overly excited when I first put the hens with him and tried to chase them down until I intervened. Now Endymion, the hen I was most wanting to hatch from, is terrified of him and staying out of his reach on the perch, and Maggie is avoiding him like the plague, though at least not fearfully like poor Dym-Dym. Cressida is getting most of his attention because he calmed down before he traumatized her, too, I guess. He isn't being too rough on anyone right now, at least from what I'm seeing, but clearly his first impression was a lasting one for Dym and Maggie. I hope they settle down so that there isn't a repeat of last year's Dorking hatch. Worse comes to worst, I'll switch Dante out for Murphy this weekend and see if that helps. Endymion is a bit more familiar with Murph and even let him breed her last year when I put her and Reinette with Nadine so that Nadine wasn't one-on-one with a rooster. I was hoping for more blue-green eggers, but I'd really like for something to hatch for the HAL, even if they do turn out to be olive-eggers.



EDIT:

Welp. Change of plans. Dante had those poor girls so terrorized that they started the whole flock cackling in panic. I went out to find feathers everywhere, Endymion hiding on the perch again, and the other two out of sight. As much as I wanted my Dorker-eggers, I won't have my hens abused by their rooster.

I do have other options, however. I can try Darwin, though I expect much the same from him based on his behavior last year, unfortunately. There's Murphy as I mentioned above, but I really do want more blue-greens than olives in their eggs... However, they definitely aren't the only ones.

Winter may be a good option, for one. He really impressed me when he and Reuby placed themselves between a hawk and the hens last year, and it would pass on the bloodline for the possibility of more flock protectors, although the EEs themselves are a bit of a wild card. The big problem with this is that the chicks will likely have dark skin and flesh like him, and I worry that I'd have an uphill battle convincing my family to eat any extra / aggressive roosters from that hatch...

I could also try one of the Cochin boys, particularly Jasper or Roscoe. Either one should make some interesting babies, but I worry that they'll end up being too small or too fluffy to actually breed the hens and I won't find that out until the eggs fail to develop, too late to set other eggs for the HAL.

Tough call... I'm letting the girls rest after Dante's treatment of them and will make up my mind tomorrow or Friday.

I would not give up on Dante yet. It can take a couple of weeks for them to settle in with a new rooster

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, I know, but I don't have that much time before the Easter Hatch-a-long. I'd rather not have my girls terrorized for that long, either, even if they would eventually get used to him. It just breaks my heart to see them like that.

I think I'm going to give Jasper a shot at it. He's small and much less likely to hurt or intimidate them, I hope.And, since the Mottled Cochin girls lay very light brown eggs, he shouldn't add too much of a brown color to his daughters' eggs... Although, seeing as Jasper just barely toes the line between a peaceful life and earning a spot in the freezer, his sons will probably have attitude problems. Oh, well.

My last choice will be Winter because of what I mentioned with the dark skin / flesh and convincing my family that the extra cockerels from the hatch are, indeed, edible. The girls are used to him because he's part of the main flock with them, so if they don't like Jasper, they should at least let Winty breed them... Right?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Ready for more adventures in chickening?

I was getting ready to move Jasper over to where the EE girls are now and see how he would do, but decided to go ahead and trim his fluff butt first, just to be sure. He had some poopy butt feathers as well, so I figured it was another good reason to go ahead and give him a trim. As it turns out, he had had a cecal dropping right before I picked him up that had stuck to those poopy feathers and got EVERYWHERE. Y'all know what a cecal dropping is, whether you know it or not--those really nasty, pasty, stinky droppings that they have every now and then. Yeah. It was gross.

So, after getting the dried poo out of his feathers, I figured he would need a bit of a bath for the mess that that cecal had made. It's pretty warm here, FINALLY, so I went ahead and just used the water spigot outside. Once he was rinsed off and I squeezed out as much of the water from his feathers as possible, I put him back in his pen for a second and had to grab a pic. He was NOT happy. (Don't worry, he's drier now )

Anyway, I've been having some dizzy spells all morning, so I haven't gotten back out there to try him out with the EE girls just yet. I'll probably end up doing that this afternoon at some point... Or maybe I'll wait until tomorrow. I really have been super dizzy today for some reason.

 

[ronott1]

Ready for more adventures in chickening?

I was getting ready to move Jasper over to where the EE girls are now and see how he would do, but decided to go ahead and trim his fluff butt first, just to be sure. He had some poopy butt feathers as well, so I figured it was another good reason to go ahead and give him a trim. As it turns out, he had had a cecal dropping right before I picked him up that had stuck to those poopy feathers and got EVERYWHERE. Y'all know what a cecal dropping is, whether you know it or not--those really nasty, pasty, stinky droppings that they have every now and then. Yeah. It was gross.

So, after getting the dried poo out of his feathers, I figured he would need a bit of a bath for the mess that that cecal had made. It's pretty warm here, FINALLY, so I went ahead and just used the water spigot outside. Once he was rinsed off and I squeezed out as much of the water from his feathers as possible, I put him back in his pen for a second and had to grab a pic. He was NOT happy. (Don't worry, he's drier now )

View attachment 1709133


Anyway, I've been having some dizzy spells all morning, so I haven't gotten back out there to try him out with the EE girls just yet. I'll probably end up doing that this afternoon at some point... Or maybe I'll wait until tomorrow. I really have been super dizzy today for some reason. View attachment 1709138

Nice job! He will have better fertility now

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thanks! I hope so.

I just moved him over with the girls. I was really expecting Maggie to be sassy with him, but she and Cressida both looked at him like they didn't even recognize him as another chicken, and then hopped up on the doghouse in their pen to stare at him. He is rather round and fluffy, but I would think they'd be used to that with the Cochin gals. Oh, well.

Endymion, meanwhile, stared at him for the longest time and he stared back... And then, suddenly, Dym-Dym flared up her hackles and kicked his butt around their pen for a few minutes! Now she's in the nest laying for the day and Jasper's doing his best to try and woo the other two gals with all the fancy sticks and rocks he's finding to chirp about. I think I'll give the poor guy a bit of a break and throw some scratch grains in there so he actually has something appealing to chirp about for the girls.

 

[drumstick diva]

Guess a rooster's life isn't as easy as it would seem. Wish Jasper good luck.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yeah, poor guy's got it rough with Endymion in there! I kept an eye on him off and on all day and he seemed to be doing well, other than her picking on him. I did notice he had a bit of a squinty eye by the late afternoon. I suspect Dym-Dym socked him one. They seemed calmer by the end of the day, and were all in their little section of the coop together, so... Progress!





Day 14 egg report! I saw a tiny foot in Egg Y!! Went to grab my phone for a picture, but baby Y had moved her little foot just far enough away from the shell that the camera in my phone wasn't picking it up. Still, another amazing part of incubating.

Everyone looks good, I think. Air cells are developing normally, maybe a hair on the small side so I opened the vent a little more. It's getting crowded in those little eggs! Egg G seemed awfully still, so I put a question mark on it, but I did see some slight movement before returning it to the incubator. Whether that was movement from me rotating the egg in my hand or from baby G shifting around, I'm not really sure... But that definitely wasn't enough for me to pull the egg out, so back to the 'bator it went. Monday is lockdown, so I'll check again then.

With that, I'm wiped. Good night, y'all!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, I tried with Jasper, but it was not working out for the timing I need. After all that time, he was still being chased around by the hens and making no headway. So, looks like it'll be Silkie mixes for Easter. The girls are much more relaxed with Winty in with them, so here's hoping he's getting the job done.

Since Winter's part of the main flock, I locked just Reuben up last night so that Wint and the girls could perch where they're used to. I just set up a small dog crate on top of the broody-buster hutch (currently in use ) with a perch for him to sleep in. This morning, I rounded up the three girls and Winty, then opened up the crate to help Reuby out, but he didn't want my help so I let him go. When he flew down, well, he landed in a rather regrettable location--the poop bucket I use to scoop out the dropping trays. Poor guy doesn't look too pleased. Maybe next time he'll accept some help.

Anyway, today's day 18 for the eggs currently in the Octagon, so I'll be candling and locking down tonight. Fingers crossed for lots of tiny babies!!

 

[itspebbl]

Can't wait to see the little Easter Silkies