Pipd's Peeps!

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Well, I think Neela's fallen off her rocker these days. Lately, she's been setting off cackling for no apparent reason and stirring the whole flock up. She's half blind, there ain't any way she's seeing something scary that the other chickens wouldn't notice first. Today, she's taken it up a notch and is instead randomly crowing! Seems like I sure do attract loony chickens here!!

 

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I finally put the boys up on Craigslist today (no interest from their post here), and had someone contact me in the area who is also working with silkied Cochins!! They wanted to trade males because they need new blood, but of course I have plenty of males as is, so I told them I'd happily let them take their pick of the boys if it would help them out. I'm just happy to see others are working with them!!

 

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Armada passed away rather suddenly today. Not sure what happened other than that she was not acting herself for a few days. No symptoms, respiratory or otherwise, other than having lost weight, and no symptoms in any other birds. She was a very unassuming hen without much interest in human contact, so I guess I just didn't realize how much weight she'd lost until it was too late. What a shame.

 

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Catching up on this past week, here. Monday, I cleaned out Rooster Row and rearranged some birds. All the cockerels moved into the central Rooster Row pen together. Unfortunately, it seems it's already proving to be too little space for all these boys, so I'm thinking I'll clean out the coop that the big roosters were living in and move the non-keeper cockerels out there until they sell. They should be safe there, but it hasn't been mowed around in quite a while now, so I'll have to do some outside work on it as well if I'm going to be hiking out there regularly.

Regarding those boys, I've come to a solid decision on who is staying, at least for the silkieds. Obviously, Wyatt, Levi, and Zeke are still keepers and, of course, Mack is still in the main flock as long as he behaves. I have decided that Black 1 will also be a keeper and that I'll instead rehome Jack. This decision was for a few reasons, primarily that Black 1 is already living with the other keeper boys, so no integration and no more pens than necessary occupied with roosters, at least not once all the extras go. Jack is such a good looking guy, but Black 1 is shaping up to be just as much of a looker anyway, and along with already living with the other males, he's younger and less likely to be past his prime by the time I need a backup to replace any of the breeder males.

Oh, and as an aside... the other person with silkied Cochins ghosted me. They'd asked for more pictures of one of the boys, and I sent them, and... nothing further. Guess he wasn't what they were looking for. Oh, well, I guess.

Anyway, with the cockerels in the central Rooster Row pen, I've split the right pen that Murphy was living in and put Rosey in the other side until he's finally out of here. Once he's gone, I think Winston will live there. Poor old man. I've considered trying him out in the main flock as well, but I'm hesitant because Mallow is getting along so well in there already and the OEGB boys have historically not been keen on integrating together in any capacity... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try, though, right?

Only other thing that really happened this week was that I went to the apple festival yesterday. I really only go to eat my way around the festival, which I suppose worked out okay this year, although my beloved apple dumplings were still not there. Second year in a row that that stand has been absent. How truly devastating!

Err, anyway, on the way home, like we usually do, we stopped by a local apple orchard and bought some apples for ourselves, and another big white pumpkin as a treat for the girls.

Check out Neela at the upper left, there, integrated back in with the other girls!


A couple hours later, and already this is what it looked like:

With everyone off free-ranging, Peanut Butter was happy to have it mostly to herself.

 

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Hmmm, starting to notice a flush to Gwenyth's face these days... Maybe I will actually have a pullet come into lay this year! She'll be 6 months old in a couple weeks.

 

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I decided to sit down, really study the standard for Cochin bantams, take some notes, and then go out and assess the birds in the Corner Coop. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while, as I didn't really look them over much before moving them all over there, and just haven't yet. After considering all of the factors and really looking them over, I've decided that I will cull Washburne and Juniper from that group before I start hatching in the spring, and possibly Bella as well, leaving Harley, Coco, and in the near future (unless she develops a major fault of some sort) Trixie as the Corner Coop girls. Gwenyth will move there with Trix, too, if and only if I'm confident I can tell her eggs apart from the Cochin girls' eggs so that they aren't inadvertently hatched when I don't want to or sent along with silkied Cochin eggs if anyone purchases them from me. Please note that the cull girls will go to my mixed flock, not to a stew pot or to someone else's farm. I'm too attached to the three of them already, and there's plenty of room in the mixed flock for a few more hens. Next year, I hope to sell the culls off before this kind of attachment sets in, though I have a feeling that's going to be much easier said than done.

I'm thinking at some point between now and spring hatching that I will start a new thread for the silkied Cochins to post pictures, interact with people involved with Cochins, and possibly raise awareness of the variety and get more people interested in them. Obviously I'll continue posting in this thread as well, particularly regarding the rest of my flock, but I feel as though I'm alone here most of the time and missing out on potential advise from those more experienced with this whole breeding and selecting toward the standard thing. I'll post a link here when I do.


In other news, I took pictures of the kiddos today, both the Easter girls (at just under 6 months old) and the June babies (at around 4 months old). I decided after the frustration of trying to get the boys to pose that I was going to forgo pictures of the birds I've decided not to keep. The struggle just to get the keeper boys to pose was enough for me, not to mention Gwenyth!!

Anyway, here they are! First up, the Easter girls. Here's Gwenyth--you can see she was on the move even here!

Miss Trixie, who posed perfectly, of course

And here are the 4-month-olds, starting with the lovely Athena

Freia, who was also fun to catch up with to take a picture of

Miss Boba, the shy one

Inara, the beauty

Ottilie, just look at her! It's really too bad her foot feathering isn't great because she's so pretty as well!

And the boys, starting with Levi:

Mack. He's developed a limp again as of today. Not sure what to make of that, but I'm pretty sure if he ends up unable to walk again that I'm just going to have to put him down.

Wyatt, who must have been in a fight with one of the other boys because he's got a big scab on his other wattle

Zeke, who was very sure he didn't like me looking at him so closely.

And, lastly, our yet to be named Black cockerel:

The boys are all still jammed in together in Rooster Row because I can't find the double-bladed weeder to knock back the big weeds around the other coop and assess what other work needs done. I'm determined to get that done this weekend, with or without the weeder, it'll just be a bit more work for me without it. But there are entirely too many cockerels in the Rooster Row pen at the moment, as evidenced by Wyatt's new battle scars, so it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

 

[Shabby Chic-Hens]

I decided to sit down, really study the standard for Cochin bantams, take some notes, and then go out and assess the birds in the Corner Coop. It's something I've been meaning to do for a while, as I didn't really look them over much before moving them all over there, and just haven't yet. After considering all of the factors and really looking them over, I've decided that I will cull Washburne and Juniper from that group before I start hatching in the spring, and possibly Bella as well, leaving Harley, Coco, and in the near future (unless she develops a major fault of some sort) Trixie as the Corner Coop girls. Gwenyth will move there with Trix, too, if and only if I'm confident I can tell her eggs apart from the Cochin girls' eggs so that they aren't inadvertently hatched when I don't want to or sent along with silkied Cochin eggs if anyone purchases them from me. Please note that the cull girls will go to my mixed flock, not to a stew pot or to someone else's farm. I'm too attached to the three of them already, and there's plenty of room in the mixed flock for a few more hens. Next year, I hope to sell the culls off before this kind of attachment sets in, though I have a feeling that's going to be much easier said than done.

I'm thinking at some point between now and spring hatching that I will start a new thread for the silkied Cochins to post pictures, interact with people involved with Cochins, and possibly raise awareness of the variety and get more people interested in them. Obviously I'll continue posting in this thread as well, particularly regarding the rest of my flock, but I feel as though I'm alone here most of the time and missing out on potential advise from those more experienced with this whole breeding and selecting toward the standard thing. I'll post a link here when I do.


In other news, I took pictures of the kiddos today, both the Easter girls (at just under 6 months old) and the June babies (at around 4 months old). I decided after the frustration of trying to get the boys to pose that I was going to forgo pictures of the birds I've decided not to keep. The struggle just to get the keeper boys to pose was enough for me, not to mention Gwenyth!!

Anyway, here they are! First up, the Easter girls. Here's Gwenyth--you can see she was on the move even here!

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Miss Trixie, who posed perfectly, of course

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And here are the 4-month-olds, starting with the lovely Athena

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Freia, who was also fun to catch up with to take a picture of

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Miss Boba, the shy one

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Inara, the beauty

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Ottilie, just look at her! It's really too bad her foot feathering isn't great because she's so pretty as well!

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And the boys, starting with Levi:

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Mack. He's developed a limp again as of today. Not sure what to make of that, but I'm pretty sure if he ends up unable to walk again that I'm just going to have to put him down.

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Wyatt, who must have been in a fight with one of the other boys because he's got a big scab on his other wattle

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Zeke, who was very sure he didn't like me looking at him so closely.

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And, lastly, our yet to be named Black cockerel:

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The boys are all still jammed in together in Rooster Row because I can't find the double-bladed weeder to knock back the big weeds around the other coop and assess what other work needs done. I'm determined to get that done this weekend, with or without the weeder, it'll just be a bit more work for me without it. But there are entirely too many cockerels in the Rooster Row pen at the moment, as evidenced by Wyatt's new battle scars, so it needs to be done sooner rather than later.

love your NN girl. she's so pretty!

 

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Haha, she's something, anyway, the little creep! I do quite like how she's grown up, though. I was just looking at her baby pictures earlier today! Can't believe how much she's grown. She looked like a grumpy old man when she first hatched

 

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Well, I couldn't find the weeder, couldn't get the mower out, couldn't find much of any help with any of it, so I finally gave up this afternoon and grabbed a hoe and just whacked down the overgrowth around the far coop with that. Didn't quite get it done today, but I should be able to finish it tomorrow, assuming I'm not hurting too much from what I got done today. In the coop, itself, I fluffed up the bedding and removed some of it in a corner that had gotten wet somehow. I'll have to get the step ladder out there and take a look at the roof again to see what's up with that. Should be an easy fix. After all that's done, then I should finally be able to move the craigslist boys out there and give the keeper boys more elbow room in their Rooster Row pen. Phew! Almost there!

 

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Done and done! It's certainly not the prettiest coop in the world, but it gets the job done. Hopefully this setup will end up being temporary and next year I'll be able to replace the roof with a proper, angled roof, get the walls sanded and primed / painted, and maybe even redo the attached pen. For now, this is how it looks.

The boys have a whole lot more elbow room with the non-keepers moved out here now. I started to second-guess my picks, so I sat down and wrote all of them out with their strong points and weak points, and that helped me to feel more confident. So, Zeke, Levi, Wyatt, and Black 1 remain my keepers, and Blacks G1, G2, and 2, Choco 3, and the presumably mixed color Blue all moved out to the far coop. Here they are already checking things out and poking around.

I didn't take a picture of the keeper boys, but it's a lot more relaxed in that pen without as much of a crowd in there. I'm even hearing more crowing now that there aren't so many boys that they push each other around when they try to. Now all that's left to do for them is think of a proper name for Black 1.


Oh, and we had a bit of a scare with a hawk today. Looked like a red-tail, but it all happened so fast that I barely registered what I saw. It swooped in on the girls while they were free-ranging in the woods, but didn't get all the way to the ground and took off immediately. I was in the house and saw it leaving and had to rush out to make sure everyone was safe. Not a feather turned, just a bunch of scared hens. I went ahead and herded them back in to the covered part of their run for the rest of the day, just to be safe. Rotten hawks, starting in already. I'd been planning on covering more of their run anyway, so I suppose this is more reason to set aside some time for that now.