I'm so sorry for your losses
@Perris and BDutch. It really seems to have been a trying week for many of us here. And hope
@Shadrach starts feeling better soon too. The allotment pictures are so lovely to see every day.
My black frizzle mama hen Dusty went missing two days ago. I suspected she was hiding from the literal cockerels-jumping-on-anything-moving orgy that ensued here a week ago today. That situation has been rectified, but poor Dusty did suffer a tear under one wing. After almost three hours of searching, I found her crouching under a tree in the forest. She came to me willingly (I had some pieces of beef to lure her with) and let me carry her to safety where I could examine and treat her. The wound is clean and beginning to close, will need time to heal. She's eating and drinking and laid an egg yesterday. She's in a large hospital pen outside under a roof where she can be with the group but safe behind the wire. Her two five week old chicks are perched on top. They are very independent and doing fine. For now, Dusty seems grateful for the peace and chance to rest.
It's been a week of big changes for my chickens and the effects are still unfolding. Now I completely understand why
@TheFatBlueCat gives away cockerels at 4 months. Fortunately, this time, I was able to re-home (with a good deal of effort) two out of the three 5 mo olds I had and they didn't end up as sopita de gallo. But next time, now I see why I could have done this sooner.
I'm new to this cockerel business and because the universe likes to play jokes on me, somehow out of the last six chicks who hatched here, 5 out of 6 were male. That's like a 6% probability, but never mind. One of them, Lucio's hatchmate Paco, died. So I had 10 month old Lucio and 5 month olds Tobias, Segundo, and Solo.
Honestly, I was expecting some chaos to erupt, but didn't know what that would look like and I guess I had to see it for myself. First, all the cockerels started to crow, and I was like, this isn't so bad... They didn't fight. Solo was obviously the strongest and most fearless and the other two made way for him. And Lucio dominated them all of course. But I only have five hens of laying age and one 5 mo old pullet, and I couldn't see keeping a ratio of 5 hens and 4 raging hormonal cockerels. So I had a plan, but the situation was remarkably peaceful for a time -- until it went ka-boom.
Then the cockerels started wanting to mate, chasing the hens and so forth. But they were pretty subdued about it. And I was like, well this isn't so bad...
What I wasn't counting on was that all of the hens were either emerging from a broody phase or mothering chicks. I had 3 broodies -- which I managed to break by closing off their nest -- and two mamas. No eggs for almost a month. So none of the hens were flashing that bright red color that shows they are coming back into lay.
Well, in one day, four of the hens started doing just that. And the cockerels went absolutely beserk. It was like utter pandemonium. A bench clearing brawl at a hockey match. The Jerry Springer show. The hens crouched willingly for the first few hours, then they were running form the hills. There was a even a four on one pile up on poor Patucha (who somehow is not injured or defeathered at all) and after one day of that madness I said, well, the fun is over.
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The Hooligans on their last day together.
That night I moved Segundo and Solo about a kilometer up the road to our gringo neighbors where my partner Juan had converted the bottom section of their water tank tower into a very handy coop. The next morning my employee Maribel arrived with two very cute 9 mo old pullets for Segundo to start his tribe and took Solo to her grandmother's keep to breed him. He won't live forever there, but it's a good place (where Ive gotten all my healthy chickens before being able to hatch chicks here) with plenty of free ranging outdoor life and more importantly, plenty of hens.
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When I was lamenting to my employee Maribel about having to split up the cockerels, she took a look at Solo here and said her grandmother would take him. I thought she meant for soup, but she said no, he was a good "raza para criar" -- a good "race" for breeding. So I asked her, oh, what breed is he? Knowing they are all mutts. And she said "bien enorme!" Which means "really good enormous!"
We can still hear Segundo crowing now and I visit him and his ladies. Everyone is ok, the hens are laying again, and Tina is weaning her two chicks.
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Tina's chicks.
But sadly, Dusty was injured in one of those mating melees and will need some time to heal -- and a good saddle that stays on after that. And Tobias, the cockerel I kept because he seems so calm and thoughtful, has been tidbiting his little heart out trying to win ladies, with some success. Lucio is surprisingly tolerant and clearly relieved that the competition had been reduced to one short legged little guy.
But then two nights ago, Toby left his coop and went to roost in the senior coop with Lucio and the senior hens. Prima, the pullet, stayed in the juniors coop with Dusty and her chicks. I was surprised that Toby would go to be the low man in the senior tribe, but I suspect the number of hens over there he can try to chase down in the morning is a factor. He also seems a bit traumatized by the changes and definitely afraid of me. I really dont want them to feel unstable, but that situation was bound to get out of hand, and I guess it will take some time for everything to settle back into some sort of routine. Anyway, sorry for the long post, and there's more to the story, but it's been quite another lesson in just how fast things happen in chicken time...
And yowza, I'm exhausted.
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Toby. "Should I stay or should I go now?"
don’t blame yourself for not being thoughtful all the time.
. She didn’t turn up again later or at roosting time.
Of course I blame myself for loosing both pullets now. It’s just too dangerous for young pullets in my garden nowadays.
But, that's more of an indication of my stubborness than it is of good health.
