Been quite some time since I updated this thread. Been a while since Lady Gaga and Erica's passing as well. Still, I can't fully realise Lady Gaga is gone. I expect to hear his annoyingly high-pitched crows in the morning, and see him flapping his wings surrounded by his girls and offspring when I visit the coops.
Can't remember if I mentioned it here, some time after the fox attack, one of Foureira's chicks disappeared. No sign of feathers, blood, or entry into their little broody coop. What happened to that chick still remains a mystery. A few weeks ago, a young hen died. She was Erica's best friend. The one I mentioned always being close to her, eating, laying, sleeping and dust bathing together. After Erica's death I didn't notice this hen showing sever signs of depression, so I wasn't worried, though kept an eye on her. One morning I found her dead under the roost bars/branches. Maybe something heart-related? Not sure. Her parents are much older, and are knowing no signs of heart issues. Neither are her siblings. I have no doubt chickens grieve deeply as well, so I'm not ruling anything to do with that either.
Despite all the deaths, life moves on. Foureira and her remaining chick now live fully integrated into the bantam group and pen. Foureira has got a young boy, who she is still watching out for. Ubon is still being raised by Ursula and Ocean as well. They all sleep in the olive tree that grows through their pen.
The (very) late April bunch (in other words, the Easter bunch) are growing a bunch as well. I believe the first pullet has laid. They're all at different stages of maturity, some have a while to go before laying. Hopefully at least one of those pullets will go broody next spring, alongside Galadriel. No incubator batches next year.
There's quite a few cockerels here now. With Lady Gaga gone, there is an open spot for a male. That might be a second male for the free ranging birds, or maybe Foureira's son will get to stay, as Lady Gaga's last son.
I suspect I owe quite a bit of tax. Here are to photos from this summer I keep coming back to. Terrible in quality, but mean quite a lot to me. One showing Lady Gaga looking out for one of his pullets (happens to be a daughter of his too) when they were in the process of figuring our free ranging and trying to balance going to their pen to lay eggs and going out to forage. The second one showing Kolovos trying to kick the youngsters from the roosts near him and his hens. One of the only times he'd peck a youngster (not counting the three times he tried to mate one of the very immature pullets, which I've yet to understand). As much as I love a really well taken, good quality photo, with a gorgeous bird posing beautifully, I find myself coming back to the photos where the birds are interacting with eachother, or showing interesting behaviour more often
