Ribh's D'Coopage

[Ribh]

Sunrise at the beach, Avon, NC. From my trip there a few weeks ago.
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Wow! Thank you for sharing. That is rather special.

 

[Ribh]

Yesterdays storms came with a severe weather warning so Mhari got shoved back in the big coop with everybody else. I don't like lone chickens when our weather turns nasty. She promptly got back in a nesting box. Consequentially she was the only dry chicken when it came to roosting time. Lavender looked like a wet dishrag. Everyone else was in various states of damp & bedraggled. As it isn't possible to dry everyone off they had to go to bed in that state. Only the bantams had gone to roost when I went out @ 6pm but everyone else was milling round in a state of distress. I lifted aside the curtain & Patricia promptly led the way upstairs with everyone else hot on her heels. The wind may have been putting everyone off.

We got quite a bit of largish hail as well as a huge amount of rain but the coop sheltered everyone well enough from the worst of it. I may need a shower curtain I can roll up to create a sheltered wall for when these sort of storms roll through. It's been a long time since we've had so much bad weather all @ once.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Thank you. It's fairly easy. the pattern is just rows of alternating stitches. The 2nd row has a long drop stitch to form the pattern.
It's 2 rows of the plain colour, 2 rows of colour, 2 rows plain with the long drop stitch.

This is awesome! She makes it look doable, even for me!

 

[Ribh]

This is awesome! She makes it look doable, even for me!

Finding someone who understands how to tutor well on video is a huge bonus. Some people go really fast & that is not helpful. There is a man [FiberSpider] who is an excellent teacher. Some of the loveliest patterns are impossible for me either because I can't make head or tail of the accent, they don't speak English & the subtitles are c***, or they think they are the Scottish Express with a deadline to meet. I've persisted with one or two things I was really keen to make but it was frustrating with lots of unravelling.

 

[Shadrach]

Scary that the molters go off on their own like that. Do the roosters protect all the pullets and hens, even if they are not in lay?

It's interesting that there are changes in rooster behaviour when the hens are no longer laying. The roosters still protect the hens, keep lookout etc but when it comes to feeding them, forget it.
When the hens are moulting and when they are not laying it's everyone for themsleves when it comes to food, especially comercial feed times.
The smarter junior roosters take this opportunity to try to attract hens, the seniors are no so possessive. A couple of the roosters here are having a slow moult and this makes them a bit pissy anyway. There isn't much "after you dear" going on here atm, much to the charinge of some of the hens. Bracket for example is particulary put out that Punch isn't letting her have any treats he finds.
Winter here is rest time for the roosters. To be fair, they work hard for the hens most of the year and will go hungry in order to feed hens.
My friend with the Fayoumies is having to feed up a few of his roosters atm because some have releid very heavily on foraging and not even shown up at commercial feed times. The hens seem fine he says but he is concerned about a couple of his less experienced roosters.
None of the roosters here are suffering I might add, but if a hen sticks her head into a feed bowl while the roosters are eating she'll get a peck.
But, regarding tribe protection I haven't seen anything that suggests they are any less attentive.
The roosters here are much more casual about pullet protection in general. Once a pullet starts laying it's a different matter and the competition between the roosters to impress POL pullets is quite funny.

 

[Ribh]

It's interesting that there are changes in rooster behaviour when the hens are no longer laying. The roosters still protect the hens, keep lookout etc but when it comes to feeding them, forget it.
When the hens are moulting and when they are not laying it's everyone for themsleves when it comes to food, especially comercial feed times.
The smarter junior roosters take this opportunity to try to attract hens, the seniors are no so possessive. A couple of the roosters here are having a slow moult and this makes them a bit pissy anyway. There isn't much "after you dear" going on here atm, much to the charinge of some of the hens. Bracket for example is particulary put out that Punch isn't letting her have any treats he finds.
Winter here is rest time for the roosters. To be fair, they work hard for the hens most of the year and will go hungry in order to feed hens.
My friend with the Fayoumies is having to feed up a few of his roosters atm because some have releid very heavily on foraging and not even shown up at commercial feed times. The hens seem fine he says but he is concerned about a couple of his less experienced roosters.
None of the roosters here are suffering I might add, but if a hen sticks her head into a feed bowl while the roosters are eating she'll get a peck.
But, regarding tribe protection I haven't seen anything that suggests they are any less attentive.
The roosters here are much more casual about pullet protection in general. Once a pullet starts laying it's a different matter and the competition between the roosters to impress POL pullets is quite funny.

Now that is interesting about the Fayoumies. My biggest foragers are the ones most likely to lose condition as they would rather forage than eat the commercial food. I wonder what would happen if I could actually totally free range those girls...?

 

[Shadrach]

Now that is interesting about the Fayoumies. My biggest foragers are the ones most likely to lose condition as they would rather forage than eat the commercial food. I wonder what would happen if I could actually totally free range those girls...?

The Fayoumy keeper and my friend in Finland with the land race breeds say it takes three generations for an introduced breed or a prviously captive breed to learn to cope with a new enviroment fully free ranging. Picking safe nest sites, working out what is and what isn't good to eat, where to roost. The most interesting thing for me is how long it takes them to take flight and get in the trees in the event of a predator attack. Only two that I can think of here will do this. It is apparently a survival feature that has been forgotton for some reason.

 

[Ribh]

The Fayoumy keeper and my friend in Finland with the land race breeds say it takes three generations for an introduced breed or a prviously captive breed to learn to cope with a new enviroment fully free ranging. Picking safe nest sites, working out what is and what isn't good to eat, where to roost. The most interesting thing for me is how long it takes them to take flight and get in the trees in the event of a predator attack. Only two that I can think of here will do this. It is apparently a survival feature that has been forgotton for some reason.

Thank you. I find these insights quite fascinating. Because I do have a mixed flock I am very aware of the differences in those chickens that seem closer to the wild & their more domesticated sisters.

 

[drstratton]

Yesterdays storms came with a severe weather warning so Mhari got shoved back in the big coop with everybody else. I don't like lone chickens when our weather turns nasty. She promptly got back in a nesting box. Consequentially she was the only dry chicken when it came to roosting time. Lavender looked like a wet dishrag. Everyone else was in various states of damp & bedraggled. As it isn't possible to dry everyone off they had to go to bed in that state. Only the bantams had gone to roost when I went out @ 6pm but everyone else was milling round in a state of distress. I lifted aside the curtain & Patricia promptly led the way upstairs with everyone else hot on her heels. The wind may have been putting everyone off.

We got quite a bit of largish hail as well as a huge amount of rain but the coop sheltered everyone well enough from the worst of it. I may need a shower curtain I can roll up to create a sheltered wall for when these sort of storms roll through. It's been a long time since we've had so much bad weather all @ once.

Glad everyone came through it okay! Is your bad weather done for now?

 

[drstratton]

Finding someone who understands how to tutor well on video is a huge bonus. Some people go really fast & that is not helpful. There is a man [FiberSpider] who is an excellent teacher. Some of the loveliest patterns are impossible for me either because I can't make head or tail of the accent, they don't speak English & the subtitles are c***, or they think they are the Scottish Express with a deadline to meet. I've persisted with one or two things I was really keen to make but it was frustrating with lots of unravelling.

I hate tearing out my work...it's so disheartening! I have learned a lot from online tutoring, but like you said, some are better than others!