Rusty Bucket Farm

[fuzzi]

5/19 Updates:

Daisy is "done" with the Crazy 8 Puffs. There was no drama that I observed; she is simply off to forage with the other ladies and the babies seem to know they are not explicitly invited. They stick to one another quite happily, in all the shady and convenient places she's taught them to go. A very good momma. That's what, about 5 weeks of patient, steady mothering? I'm nothing but pleased with her performance.

I don't like posting without a picture, so here's Yorvir a few days ago, looking a bit more haggard as a full grown sire than he did as a spunky cockerel:
View attachment 3837815
Here's a compilation; the first one could be him but the rest definitely are him as he matured:
View attachment 3837816
He was never intended to be anything but dinner. We raised a batch of 21? 22? I can't recall, crossbreds from the neighboring farm. Buff Orpington over Leghorns. And he was one of the nameless cockerel crowd until my husband noticed he'd made himself the boss of the group. He got a name, just for fun, but his bossy personality did not seem unkind nor did he show any human aggression when most of his male siblings did. He became so tame and such a buddy to my husband that we had to make room for him. And I'm quite pleased with him... the first boy I've fully been able to turn my back on and trust he's not going to be tempted to flog me. A true sweetheart.

KEEP HIM!!!

A good rooster is a joy. I've had both good and rotten.

I wonder if my cockerels being raised by a flock of hens will be a little more...mellow?

 

[CoopBoots]

KEEP HIM!!!

A good rooster is a joy. I've had both good and rotten.

I wonder if my cockerels being raised by a flock of hens will be a little more...mellow?

Rusty is (I love him, of course, but) a rotten rooster in terms of human interaction. He drew blood yesterday. So I don't set much stock in his sons, and true to form, none of his sons so far have grown up nice. My broody raised all of them. However, I never invested much time in taming them so I don't know if handling could have made things turn out better despite their genetics.

Yorvir's sons are now in the making, so I'll definitely report in on how they mature for comparison. My husband is encouraging me to handle them more and test them out. Hopefully friendly genetics will do something for their personalities, but they are already fairly wild since I've been very hands off...

 

[fuzzi]

Rusty is (I love him, of course, but) a rotten rooster in terms of human interaction. He drew blood yesterday. So I don't set much stock in his sons, and true to form, none of his sons so far have grown up nice. My broody raised all of them. However, I never invested much time in taming them so I don't know if handling could have made things turn out better despite their genetics.

Yorvir's sons are now in the making, so I'll definitely report in on how they mature for comparison. My husband is encouraging me to handle them more and test them out. Hopefully friendly genetics will do something for their personalities, but they are already fairly wild since I've been very hands off...

I raised both Joel and Samuel without an adult in the coop, just me, lots of hands on. Joel was good, respected me and took care of his girls. Samuel attacked me, his hens (rough mating) and his chicks.

I'm not sure handling can overcome genetics.

 

[CoopBoots]

I'm not sure handling can overcome genetics.

That sure makes me feel better about how many of Rusty's sons I have voted off of chicken island! 5 so far, and probably Circle to make 6 soon. He's really got nothing going for him; he's the cowardly knife-in-your-back kind. Every time I have to catch a hen he takes a swing at my head through the fence! He only gets worse with time. It's really too bad, as he's a pretty thing.

 

[fuzzi]

That sure makes me feel better about how many of Rusty's sons I have voted off of chicken island! 5 so far, and probably Circle to make 6 soon. He's really got nothing going for him; he's the cowardly knife-in-your-back kind. Every time I have to catch a hen he takes a swing at my head through the fence! He only gets worse with time. It's really too bad, as he's a pretty thing.

Samuel was handsome, but a real .

 

[CoopBoots]

Samuel was handsome, but a real .
View attachment 3838742

He really was a stunner! You have lovely, lovely birds.

 

[fuzzi]

He really was a stunner! You have lovely, lovely birds.

Thank you!

 

[CoopBoots]

5/23 Updates:

We've been spending a little time with "Baby Boy", the most developed cockerel of the Crazy 8. My husband thinks he's the right mix of bold but friendly, like his father, but jury is still out. We'll keep trying and see what happens as his hormones start up; shouldn't be long! The rest are all hale and healthy. Even Peppa's little Rusty-baby is growing by leaps and bounds!

Since I never introduced my outcast from the bonus flock, here is Helen:

I've never seen a chicken adapt to a new group so seamlessly. She is submissive to the established girls in Noodle's flock and her only attitude is to support them if a random pullet sneaks into their private area to avoid Yorvir's romancing or to steal food. They already accept her while the pullets bring out their territorial instincts. Quite fascinating to me, as I expected at least a little trouble bringing in a complete stranger! Chicken Jane, the adoptee from my neighbor's flock, still had to go through a bit of hazing before peace ensued.

Anyway, Circle is slated for freezer camp, probably this weekend, just due to being a poor candidate with MANY fresh cockerels deserving their chance and space continuing to be a commodity. I feel badly about it but he's had his shot. Need to just get it over with...

 

[CoopBoots]

June 24th Updates:

Not good. I'd been holding off on updates until I had decent pictures to show, and with summer activities eating up my schedule I hadn't had a good opportunity to shoot any photos. But too much is going on to hold off longer for such a reason.

The day started with husband, in a fluster, letting me know we had a morning emergency. Apparently someone didn't go to bed last night and was in the yard, free, looking ridden hard and put away wet. Too scared and wild to let him near her. So I staggered out of bed myself, went to survey the bonus flock (who was the first group I locked up the night before) only to discover nothing at all amiss. In frustration I went on to grab water, since I was out anyway and it promised to be a hot day, only to find one of Rusty's girls completely disheveled. It was his daughter, Peaches.

They always put themselves to bed no problem and it was already quite dark when I'd locked them in; I haven't the faintest how or why she wasn't inside by then! Feathers everywhere, in three different clumps. She didn't look bad, at a glance, but so far I've found two nice "bite" chunks -- one on her bare back (bare from her hyper-submissive mating behavior, which left an easy target) and one almost just between her legs. Her remaining feathers were wet and slobbery like they'd been chewed a bit.

I've sprayed with veterycin? twice, as deep as I could get it in order to rinse things out, and isolated her in my coolish dark garage. It's still plenty warm for shock treatment and should keep the flies off of her. Handling to investigate is QUITE difficult as she is still completely energetic and ready to fight me, and I'm worried about her ripping her injury between the legs larger during her resistance. I can quite easily see her muscle when she's angled correctly.

She's a poor patient for wound care and I haven't seen her drink at all, but she's had moist bread (with sugar water first, for shock, then just water) and willingly consumed an egg and a half plus her all-flock crumble. I've given her just enough light to eat and drink as she likes and I check her often. I think I'll need to get an antibiotic in case of deeper infection due to puncture, and possibly do some wound packing with triple antibiotic if I can get husband to help. I need to re-read some advice from here to make sure I'm on the right path, though. It's been a minute and this is the worst injury I've had 2 years in...

Does bad luck come in threes? Rusty's other daughter, Puffy Muffin, caught herself in the hawk netting and was stuck in the sun for an unknown amount of time today after the first disaster. She's still quite mobile and drinking on her own but I worry she's worse off than I've guessed and needs further attention. I just barely have time for what I'm already doing! I could really do without a third emergency today...

As for more general updates, Daisy is back to brooding and has 4 eggs this time. Three from bonus flock and one from Rusty & Salty. Yorvir is completely sick of the crazy 8 and chases them completely out of the run most mornings... Catching them is becoming quite the chore. My husband still likes Kloud but I'm a fan of the bigger but less comb/wattled out boy, Chad. He silent crows out of fear of Yorvir, who indiscriminately doles out doses of rooster discipline the moment any of the 8, pullets or cockerels, don't move away fast enough.

Chad, finishing his silent crow, with two meek sisters trying to hide behind him:

Kloud, looking very rooster. His gold is coming in strong:

 

[CoopBoots]

7/3 Updates:

First pip!