Rusty Bucket Farm

[CoopBoots]

8/26 Updates:

Barely a month from hatch. Is it possible? Where did the time go?!

Daisy looks to have, well...

1. Originally brown:

2. Black/Penguin:

3. Dark brown/black:

4. Buff/Yellow A:

5. Buff/Yellow B:

If you are done guessing, I'd say that's 3 girls and 2 boys. Quite disappointing on the brown one, too...

Sorsha's are buck-wild, as per usual. She was done almost two weeks ago. Talk about throwing them to the wolves! However, it works. They are thriving and sneaking what they cm get from the other broodies and chicks.

1. Originally brown (excuse the quality, but boy is still written all over it. Comb says it all):

2. Buff/Yellow A:

3. Buff/Yellow B:
Not pictured, but almost definitely male

Finally, Jubilee's set:

1. Blurry but dark-Buff male:

2. Blurry pale male:

3. Gorilla pale male:

I originally typed "Godzilla" but my phone corrected me and they both apply. You can't tell here but the thing is massive. MASSIVE. Must be some grand-spawn of Rusty because he isn't lugging much Leghorn around at that size!

4. I seem to have missed the other likely male.

Finally, Salty's:

1. Ginger? Very Yellow in this light, I need better photos. Looks girl to me:

2. Black, still looking female:

So optimistically, 6 girls out of a batch of 14? Not banking on it but I've at least got a shot.

In more sobering news:

• Chicken Jane left us the night I had to put her to bed.
• The wandering peahen seems to have gone missing.
• We've had a recent campaign versus the local raccoons. I won't detail it for the squeamish but we have hopefully put a dent in the local threat level, at least for the moment.
• Yorvir has a cough, which I'm not at all enthused about. No discharge, no throat gunk or mouth gunk visible, no noticeable smell or change in activity levels, but interrupted crows and grumbling sounds when he breathes. I thought it was stridor at first but it's been 2 days now... keeping an eye on him.
• The spring cockerels are crowing, which I guess isn't actually bad news. I'll get pictures soon. They are becoming more handsome by the day.

It has been a trying year overall. I'm really for less eventful times in the flock.

 

[CoopBoots]

9/26 Updates:

Molt is getting into gear and eggs, which had picked up due to a break in our summer oppression, are very low again.

The summer hatchlings had to mostly be locked up due to fence flying. Of the remaining well-hehaved babies, we lost one pullet to a persistent red-tail hawk. So now all 6 remaining girls are locked up and the boys, for better or worse, will have to rely on Yorvir and Gubbles' warnings.

One of the spring cockerels is good with human handling and not too interested in the hens, so he's joining the guardian crew (at least temporarily). The other three are scheduled for freezer camp unless someone stops to buy one. I've not had that happen once yet!

My health hasn't been the best and now I've got a cold, so unfortunately no pictures to illustrate things. I'll get some when I can.

 

[CoopBoots]

One of the spring cockerels is good with human handling and not too interested in the hens, so he's joining the guardian crew (at least temporarily).

We've called him Smokey; he is Blue's only genetic offspring. You can see based on posture alone that he's not behaving like a rooster yet. Avoidant and submissive, yet calm enough to catch and handle. A no-drama bird. And I'm obsessed with his red and black/iridescent plumage

The other three are scheduled for freezer camp unless someone stops to buy one.

Daisy and Yorvir's son. The personality of those two (both being tame and human-loving birds) NEVER comes out in their offspring. I'm so disappointed but it is what it is. This boy is the dominant of the three cockerels and is ready to snatch hens and exercise dominance. A hard no based on personality and behavior. He does (in my opinion) have a better body type than Smokey who is all lanky neck and stilt legs, but my only concern is personality and flock fit.

The other brothers slated for sale/cull:

Nothing very notable about either, except that Yorvir and Rusty's daughter are the father of the lemon cuckoo (if you can call his faint coloration that) and Peppa and Ding Dong are the parents of the barred red. Neither has a good personality and I'm not a fan of the round looking back of the lemon.

Of the latest hatch, I have two more boys that ended up cuddly?! They change like the moon but these two come up curiously and allow handling quite easily.

Daisy's light brown and barred; we call him Owl for now:

Chunky/Gorilla:

Like the bigger lemon cockerel, he's clearly descended from one of Rusty's daughters but has none of the darker brown in the wing feathers and tail. I question if Owl and the other brown-barred one are also from them as well, because otherwise WHERE is all this barring coming from?! Yorvir has one barred feather in his hackles but otherwise looks solid. I have several hens possibly descended from the old Barred Rocks hens but as girls they didn't get the barring... So do they also carry barring? I also have the one "pure" Black Sexlink which of course has the same issue: descended from barred mothers but not getting barring themselves. I think they must be able to pass it on somehow because I only have three hens from Rusty; all the rest are solid-presenting colors!

Typical result of trying to photograph Gubbles, who is in a TERRIBLE molt:

Yorvir wanted attention, too:

Daisy's molt is almost done; she looks speckled with the occasional worn out feather left in her darker, new coat:

Salty is probably halfway done; never expected the little half-Leghorn to be such a stellar mom!

Jubilee did not choose to be photographed but she, like the other broodies, is wisely getting a slow but steady molt in. They seem to do it better than my other birds, with less obvious lethargy and discomfort.

No new bad news; Yorvir's cough cleared with no other obvious symptoms and I'm still at a loss as to what causes it. Given I'm such a small backyard keeper it isn't very impactful but I'm not planning on selling birds anymore without mentioning that fact first. Just because it isn't causing problems here yet doesn't mean it couldn't be an issue for their flock.