Good news on that front, yes. Elly continues to improve and is regaining weight now. I'm going to start her on just a little bit of pelleted food today to see if that passes through her system unhindered now.
Unfortunately, I now have yet another bird in a hospital pen. My mom noticed yesterday that one of the Partridge Plymouth Rocks was particularly grouchy with the other birds. I figured it was She Who, who is always pretty severe, but this morning I witnessed Fancy being absolutely brutal toward the other birds at the food dish. After some observation, I also noticed that she has some balance issues going on, almost like she's dizzy. I suspect she's extra grouchy to prevent the other birds from taking advantage of her weakness. So, since the most likely cause that I can find for this 'dizziness' is ingestion of some sort of toxin, now
she's on Epsom salt to flush her system.
Elly is not pleased to have company again, apparently, because she's been yelling and cackling and carrying on all morning. Silly girl!
But, on the plus side, Reinette is fully integrated back into the flock now.
Callette is still angry with her for attempting to fight her the first day I brought her out, but so far she's not being as persistent as she had been at first, so Reinette is getting along fine.
In other news, yesterday was picture day for the kids! The Easter-egger crew is now about 5 months old, and the OEGBs are about 6 months old! So, without any further ado, here are the OEGBs!
I'm stunned at how handsome these boys have gotten, and the girls are becoming so, so sweet!
Rigel has surprised me the most with his looks. I was figuring on him just being a mostly white bird, and the picture seems to show that, but in person he's actually only white in his hackles and saddle feathers, while the rest of him is more of a creamy-beige color, darker than the picture shows. Of course, he ran his tail feathers under something while free-ranging, so they're stained across the top like the rest of the free-range boys.
Oh, well.
Anyway, now the Easter-egger babies!
(Fifi's not panting here; she was talking to me the whole time I was taking her pictures.
)
Of course, the boys were difficult. Titan only posed under his perch, where all the poop is in his pen.
(Recall that he's separated from the rest of the boys because he has it out for the smaller cockerels.)
And the rest of the boys wouldn't come near enough for more than just a single shot of them. I don't know what changed abruptly in Oberon, but he's suddenly quite afraid of me. Only thing I've done since my last post was catch him and move him back to the cockerel pen, so I guess that was traumatic for him.
I guess it's better than the aggression he was starting to show toward me, though...
Of course, the EE bantam boys won't let me get anywhere near them on a normal day, so...
Just as a small note, here, Puck's comb is more of a single comb than a pea comb. It's a little fatter than a single comb like it should be a pea comb, but has no 'peas' on the sides like Charon's or Titan's combs do. I thought that was kind of interesting.
Anyway, I think that's all for now, so... Enjoy!
She's on a strict hand feeding formula diet for now to make sure things are really, actually, truly moving, and then I'll get her back on pellets again before moving her out. No free-ranging for a while after that, either, because I think that's how she clogged up again, gorging on grass when I started taking her outside. Naughty girl scaring me to death!
Anyway, on the plus side, I've discovered that if I add just a little less water than I had been, Elly eats her formula out of a dish. No more fighting to syringe it into her!
