Well, the little chicks are cute and all, but it's a real daytime drama here with the adults lately -- not to mention an interesting batch of chicken behaviors to note. Here's what's been going on with this motley crew of un-cuddly pirates in the jungle...
Dusty. After stubbornly sitting for longer than two weeks on nothing, I finally snapped her out of brooding by putting her on a cool piece of tile mounted on a table under a large basket during the day and putting her on a roost in the coop at night. She's fine now -- eating, drinking and bustling about, glad to be with her friends. Dusty is the most cheerful and laid back of the bunch. She has some feather breakage on the elbows of her wings from Lucio mating with her. Hopefully, she will go broody again after she lays her next clutch and I'll let her sit and hatch some babies before the rainy season hits. That would give her a nice long break from Lucio's "affections" and let her feathers grow back in.
Rusty. "You won't stick me with a bunch of squawking brats!"
Just as Dusty was snapping out of her broodiness, Rusty decided to give it a half-hearted try. She sat for a full day on her egg, stabbing at me with her beak if I came too close, so I sighed, took the eggs, marked it with an "R" and gave it back to her. A few hours later, I saw her walking around looking pissed off. I checked her nest and found the egg I had so tenderly marked missing except for some shell fragments, egg yolk smooshed into the ground, and poop everywhere. So much for that.
Enter Tina, the homewrecker.
Then, after eating her egg and shitting on her nest, Rusty decided to go back and sit in the same spot (after I cleaned it). I said, oh hell no, and put her in an open wire enclosure in the sun with the clan around her to keep her on her toes. It looks like Lucio has come back to her side (they've been inseperable for months), but actually he's eyeing Tina (front) who's come back into lay as is VERY willing to mate with Lucio.
The love triangle.
So now poor Rusty is really stressed out. She's still sort of broody in her mind even though she's with the clan. She's off lay and refusing Lucio's attempts at mating, but anxious about all the time he's spending with Tina. And now that Tina realizes she's the lead hen, she's not exactly exercising her power with benevolence. It looks like Rusty might even be moulting a bit, so I'm giving her some extra care and protein treats while she sulks after her man.
Patucha managed to produce this wrecking ball of a chick who at seven weeks is nearly as big as she is. Patucha has also been claimed by Lucio now, but he seems much more interested in hanging out with Tina. Which sort of puts a dent in the "chickens choose chickens who look like them" theory because of all the motley mutts here, Patucha looks a lot more like Lucio than Tina...
Lucio. At least my handsome fella here has become quite manageable when I treat him for fleas. Every 2-3 days, I see them start to accumulate on him, but now I don't even have to wait until full dark to go to the coop and take them off. He puts up a bit of fake fuss (in front of his ladies) but once I have him securely tucked in my arm, he thoroughly enjoys the preening, slowly stretching his head from side to give me better access to his comb and undersides of his wattles.
However, my partner Juan told me casually that Lucio ran up behind him the other day and flew at his legs. Not exactly surprising -- I'm the one who feeds him and tends to his fleas, so Lucio sees me as caretaker. All Juan does is chase Lucio off when he tries to mate with Butchie, who isn't completely mobile and sometimes has trouble getting up after Lucio mounts her. So to Lucio, Juan is a competition.
Anyway, we take stuff like that in stride. There's too much to really worry about around here than an eight pound bird. Juan told me he gave Lucio a good swipe when he flew at him and that seems to have made an impression. Yesterday, Juan gave Lucio some treats and they patched it up, man to rooster.
Thank goodness for Dusty. She can't be bothered by any of this and is training to win a gold medal in figure skating.
Have a great day, everyone!
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