The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[1muttsfan]

Seems like you got to do more than doom-and-gloom stuff. After all, it's OK to prepare for hard times, but bad for your karma to constantly expect them

 

[speckledhen]

Cyn I absolutely love your accent too! I will watch your new video in a minute.

I am gonna get my post from th Minnesota thread quick cuz I don't wanna retype it. Got some possibly scary news

Thanks, Isaiah. Oh, my, I read it, your poor cow! That is very scary. Lots of rabies in this county here. Had a llama with it once, I recall.

Seems like you got to do more than doom-and-gloom stuff. After all, it's OK to prepare for hard times, but bad for your karma to constantly expect them

I think it's great to prepare as best you can but gee whiz, you gotta live, too, not just prepare for horrors to befall you. It's hard on the soul! But, I like chickens and I love quilting and creating things so if someone doesn't care about those, they can skip those and wait for a video that is more to their liking. I happen to think chickens are the perfect homestead livestock animal so there!

 

[speckledhen]

Sadly, we will be losing Mary. Will have to do a necropsy to see if we can figure out why.

A breeding question: Hector's tail is very low-riding. I have Rowena, whose tail is way too high. She is part Stukel Rock, being Atlas's sister, with decent barring (since she got all her feathers in, I was reminded she wasn't too shabby in that regard), but smaller bodied than I like. What if I put her with Hector? His size and lower tail may offset her size and too-high tail angle. Maybe worth a shot?

 

[Wyatt0224]

How do you know you will lose Mary? Is there no chance for her to pull through? Poor girl, I hope she's out of her pain soon.

 

[speckledhen]

How do you know you will lose Mary? Is there no chance for her to pull through? Poor girl, I hope she's out of her pain soon.

She has quit eating. Her color is purple, comb shrunken, she closes her eyes more than they're open. Her belly is getting larger, so something is very wrong inside. Her poop is not poop, it's all urates and green and matted to her butt feathers (we got it off, of course). She is not egg-bound, nothing I can fix, unfortunately. I am so sad. I really thought she'd rest a couple of days and then be clamoring to get out of that cage, but the fact that she seemed so relieved to be in it was a big clue that she was hurting badly.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

So sad to hear. I am curious as to what has been wrong with her poor girl. So sorry.

 

[speckledhen]

So sad to hear. I am curious as to what has been wrong with her poor girl. So sorry.

Thank you, Lisa. I'm completely bummed out by this. And it's MARY, why super young, beautiful Mary? There was nothing wrong with her that I could tell and she was laying just a week before I noticed something was wrong with her. I know she was because I got three eggs in one day from the three girls.


I'm seriously thinking of giving Rowena to Hector and maybe either Lizzie or Tessa. Tessa is molting badly right now so I'd have to wait on her to get over that, but Ro looks awesome and she's being a bully to my older hens. Even Georgie gets out of her way. She'd be singing a different tune with Hector.


ETA: My husband just went out to dig a hole for her. He actually called it two days ago, thought she was dying. I said I wasn't ready to say that yet, but he was right.

 

[speckledhen]

Here is Rowena, Atlas's 3 yr old sister. Her tail angle is way high, almost Leghorn-ish, her size is not as big as it should be, but her barring isn't bad. She has a 5 point comb and excellent wing carriage.

 

[1muttsfan]

I think Xander may have an objection!

 

[speckledhen]

I think Xander may have an objection!

Maybe, but he has Maretta now and four more hens in his pen. Dusty will probably go soon, too, so he'll lose his last "big butt" gal. Everyone else will be happy to see Ro go, or, at least, the four older girls whose space Xander's crew invaded will. She's little but she's really bossy. I let Hector, Jill and Thea out and was crumbling biscuit for them and put Ro out. No fights. The two younger girls looked bewildered at why she was out there, though they remember her from when all the young ones ran with the adults, before Hector and Apollo were so amorous. Hector flirted and Ro ran, but he was gentlemanly and held back.