Progeny from heroic rooster

[sakerobot]

Things might be getting a little better, though we're still keeping Apollo separated until the new coop and Alcibiades are closed, at which point Apollo gets to roam around the yard, with some company from the gray roosters.

Whatever issue he had with Adonis seems to have been resolved - the other day the two of them were standing right next to each other by the fence, seemingly just chatting, no umbrellas. And this morning as Adonis was coming out of the coop, Apollo decided to jump off his roost and it almost looked like he was going to hit him, he instead flew past and landed right next to him. Adonis for his part thought nothing of it and went on in good spirit - this would've definitely been an opportunity for a fight.

Apollo has been getting some mating action before starting with Alcibiades. This morning he mated with two hens, and for a couple minutes wasn't far from Alcibiades with neither provoking each other. At one point they both crowed at the same time, which apparently angered Apollo who ran at Alcibiades, who in turn walked away. A few minutes later they started a fight, which resulted in Apollo being separated.

There's a thin enough gap in his holding cell that apparently allows some of his hens to squeeze through and pay him conjugal visits. The four Arctic Blue Eggers seem to all be his, and the chick from the blue egg might likely be his.

We used sandpaper to dull the spurs on the three warring roosters to reduce bleeding. Some were pretty sharp and would be dangerous to handle without long sleeves and gloves.

Chansey's holding pen now has two hen-sized entrances so that she can take them out whenever. So far they have been staying in the pen, which might go on until better weather returns around Wednesday.

These are poor trailcam quality images, but some are so amusing that sharing them feels obligatory:

Will try to get some clear pictures of them soon to see their progress. They'll actually be 2 weeks tomorrow, and they're developing wing feather patterns:

 

[sakerobot]

Looks like we know who the Brahma's child is.

In the below two pictures, the chick on the right that's under the nesting boxes has leg feathers:

The middle one in the below picture at first makes me think of a young Speckled Sussex, but the leg skin doesn't appear to be any lighter than the others and there isn't an eye mask that 2 week old ones have.

 

[sakerobot]

Yesterday we discovered Alcibiades covered with blood, and he was having some kind of a war with the gray roosters. We collected him and brought him inside to heal. One side of the wattle was the source and it had already stopped bleeding.



Meanwhile we released Apollo to see how he would do without Alcibiades present. He got into a scuffle with Aristotle which lasted about a minute with the latter conceding. Then there was a brief confrontation with Adonis, which interestingly Apollo conceded and has been avoiding Adonis since.



This morning Apollo and Aristotle preformed a reenactment of yesterday's battle with identical results. Apollo isn't being bossy, and is making a point of avoiding other roosters. I've let him remain in the yard after watching for an hour and feeling confident in his decision-making. So far my confidence has been paying off. I saw Adonis trying to boss Apollo a bit, which Ares quickly ended by chasing Adonis off. It seems Apollo has Ares on his side, which is very good.



We placed Alcibiades into what used to be Apollo's holding pen. We'll probably just apply the same treatment to enhance his modesty. Unlike Apollo, Alcibiades can be quite tricky to catch, and very loud.



I think this is overall good, with Alcibiades originally lower in rank there's not as much of a ladder of reaffirmation to climb as Apollo had to face.



Chansey and the chicks have decided to celebrate being 2 weeks old by going out for the first time today. The rest of the chickens are treating it like they've always been a part of the flock. Pictures: