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

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Some of my birds have become cantankerous during this year's molt. Many are molting very hard, harder than I've ever seen it before. There are half chickens everywhere.

Some of my turkey hens too have started to show aggressive posturing towards me. We permanently removed the worse offender, but now another one is doing it. She keeps it up and she will see the inside of my freezer too.

Have you seen more crabby birds too this year?

You must be busy tending to everyone. Old birds sometimes require more care, and consideration. I got a few old guys I'm not sure if they will survive the winter.

 

[speckledhen]

Some of my birds have become cantankerous during this year's molt. Many are molting very hard, harder than I've ever seen it before. There are half chickens everywhere.

Some of my turkey hens too have started to show aggressive posturing towards me. We permanently removed the worse offender, but now another one is doing it. She keeps it up and she will see the inside of my freezer too.

Have you seen more crabby birds too this year?

You must be busy tending to everyone. Old birds sometimes require more care, and consideration. I got a few old guys I'm not sure if they will survive the winter.

Crabby towards me? Hmm, well, not really. Tessa has always been pretty "don't touch me" and she will bite me if I insist on petting her, but that's fairly normal. She and Lizzie quit laying and they were the only ones in Atlas's pen who were. Bash and Atlas and Hector all have been as sweet as normal toward me. Tiny is no more cranky than usual. So, I guess everyone is about the same, as far as being crabby, but some are not feeling very well from their first molt, especially Bonnie and Betsy. I noticed Bonnie earlier, but I've noticed that as Betsy is fast growing in her feathers, she is acting like she feels off-kilter a little. The Brahmas have also quit laying except for Bailey and the Cora, the pullet. I've been taking Bonnie and Brandy (who is having a hard time getting back into the groove with her fellow coop-mates, post chick-raising) into the hospital cage to make sure they both eat and drink well, then they go back and hide again.

Tending to the oldsters can be draining and frustrating. I try not to lose my cool with them when I put a pan of feed and water (one of the double sided dog bowls) for Snow and Amanda, they immediately stand up, which then leads to going backwards away from the bowl because of lack of control of their bad legs, and getting shavings in it. Then, the other girls want to eat out of their bowl and not the regular feeder, including Tiny. We go through it several times each day. And I have to keep checking for pests on them, too. It can be tiring, for sure. As much as I'd miss those two sweet old gals, in a sense, it will be a relief not to have to cater to them. But, I have one of the blue Rocks, Neela, almost as bad off as they are, though she can still walk. The downside of them living so long is they get old-age problems like that.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The dirty turkeys are crabby at me. The chickens at each other, and just in general.

My old little d'uccle sits on the edges of the water and food bowl because he can't see well. He poops in them constantly, so lots of water changes. I could try other containers but he seem more content feeling the bowl edge, otherwise he can't find the stuff.

I understand the relief part.

 

[speckledhen]

The dirty turkeys are crabby at me. The chickens at each other, and just in general.

My old little d'uccle sits on the edges of the water and food bowl because he can't see well. He poops in them constantly, so lots of water changes. I could try other containers but he seem more content feeling the bowl edge, otherwise he can't find the stuff.

I understand the relief part.

Tiny is like that. I can put a 1 foot in diameter blue bowl on the floor in front of her filled with food and she follows my finger to find the food. Her eyes are getting worse with age, it seems to me. She is so frustrated and gets scared easily because she cannot see well, so that explains some of her aggression, IMO. She is less like that with me than Tom, but it's because I pick her up and baby her and call her My Tiny Girl and pet her and tell her I know how hard life is for a tiny blind chicken, LOL. Yeah, I pour it on thick and she eats it up. She'll flog him. Crazy chicken. I have to make sure I say her name so she knows it's me and not him, but I think she can see well enough or hear the difference in our footsteps to know anyway. I am amazed that she is almost 8 years old. Hen has more lives than a cat.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Tiny is like that. I can put a 1 foot in diameter blue bowl on the floor in front of her filled with food and she follows my finger to find the food. Her eyes are getting worse with age, it seems to me. She is so frustrated and gets scared easily because she cannot see well, so that explains some of her aggression, IMO. She is less like that with me than Tom, but it's because I pick her up and baby her and call her My Tiny Girl and pet her and tell her I know how hard life is for a tiny blind chicken, LOL. Yeah, I pour it on thick and she eats it up. She'll flog him. Crazy chicken. I have to make sure I say her name so she knows it's me and not him, but I think she can see well enough or hear the difference in our footsteps to know anyway. I am amazed that she is almost 8 years old. Hen has more lives than a cat.

 

[Leahs Mom]

So sad about your injured girl!

I'm loving hearing the stories of taking care of the "oldsters".

@oldhenlikesdogs
I never considered the idea that they may not lay optimally if hatched at the "wrong" time of the year! I think later in the season makes sense as I try to imagine how a hen would do it if she was in a natural setting. I imagine sometime in the late spring would be the time if they were truly accustomed to being in the "real world". So all of that would make sense.

Last time I got chicks it was in June and it sure made more sense!

@speckledhen
Can those girls that you feed in the double pan make a little step up? I try to keep all my water pans on some kind of platform so they are above the shavings. If they could step up that would make your life a little easier! But I'm guessing that they can't with their leg problems.

 

[speckledhen]

So sad about your injured girl!

I'm loving hearing the stories of taking care of the "oldsters".

@oldhenlikesdogs
I never considered the idea that they may not lay optimally if hatched at the "wrong" time of the year! I think later in the season makes sense as I try to imagine how a hen would do it if she was in a natural setting. I imagine sometime in the late spring would be the time if they were truly accustomed to being in the "real world". So all of that would make sense.

Last time I got chicks it was in June and it sure made more sense!

@speckledhen
Can those girls that you feed in the double pan make a little step up? I try to keep all my water pans on some kind of platform so they are above the shavings. If they could step up that would make your life a little easier! But I'm guessing that they can't with their leg problems.

No, not really. They each basically drag one leg behind them. They can haul it up under them like a crutch and stand sometimes, but it takes supreme effort to do that. I wish I could come up with some good system for feeding and watering old, crippled hens/roosters. A rabbit bottle may work, but those seem to drip and I'm not sure they could maneuver into position. Basically, they lay on their sides, sometimes, with both legs out to one side.

 

[speckledhen]

I put Zara back in with her normal group. Figured if I left her in with Atlas, I might have one more injured hen. I put the two Brahma boys and MaryJo over in the little 4x8 coop where the younger chicks had been living. MaryJo cannot fly out of there, HA! When she lays an egg, maybe then she can go in with Hector and be more happy about it. Now, let's hope I sell at least one of the two Brahma cockerels soon so I do not have that situation to deal with when their hormones start raging.

 

[speckledhen]

My late crippled rooster, Zane. What a guy! He even liked chicks and all the broodies trusted him around their babies, even if they were not in his former flock. He lived in a cage inside the Orpington coop so he could see stuff and out windows, had his own bowl and waterer and Gypsy visited him regularly. Those two were best friends, hatched at the same time. That means Zane would have been 10 years old next month, too. He died at just over 4 1/2 yrs old, crowed his way out of the world, literally.
Before we built a permanent cage there, he had one of the dog crates. And Gypsy would lay her egg beside his cage when we let her in there.

Being "Uncle Zane" to Shadow's chicks:

More Zane. I said he was the chicken love of my life.

And he was the first chicken I held after I could get in a wheelchair and roll out onto the deck after I broke my ankle. My baby boy, such zest for life he had. This picture was taken in 2012 and that's the year he died, just a little while before Suede did.

 

[speckledhen]