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

[speckledhen]

He is definitely broadening. I like the depth between his legs. Even Indy didn't have that.

 

[speckledhen]

Atlas's 3 1/2 week old sibling is getting shoulder feathers now. The beginning wing barring was sketchy but the new feathers are very regularly barred so I feel that his barring will be nicer than it at first appeared from the first wing sprouts.


Oops, caught mid-poop! Any way I can catch him still is the way I get him, LOL.


And we are getting the trim on, slowly. Still need to trim out the windows and get more on the front bottom across plus front middle seam. We are both hurting all over. I think this will be our last building we do from scratch together. It's just too much now, loading lumber, unloading lumber, toting it to the site, doing the construction, etc. This one was harder than any of the others were by far, just because of us, not the actual difficulty level, which it really wasn't at all. And dealing with twisted and cupped lumber is a PITA anyway. You can pick through all the stuff they have, get the best in the pile and it's still not straight, sigh. I just hate spending 4x what we spend to have someone else do it for us, and even then, it will have to be tweaked to function as a coop.

 

[drumstick diva]

I think Ladyhawke's daughter needs to talk to Atlas before he ends up in leg irons, a muzzle and pinless peepers - did I forget anything? Maybe it is just too much pressure being compared to other great roosters that is ticking him off. Or the girls giving him the cold shoulder.

 

[speckledhen]

I think Ladyhawke's daughter needs to talk to Atlas before he ends up in leg irons, a muzzle and pinless peepers - did I forget anything? Maybe it is just too much pressure being compared to other great roosters that is ticking him off. Or the girls giving him the cold shoulder.

He's not been that bad. He hates to be picked up and if you grab for him, he nips. Just now, I caught his two girls perched on the fence between their new pen and the old one. I said, "I'll get your girls, Atlas!" I went in, grabbed one and threw her back into his pen and he thunked her on the head. Then, as I reached for the other, she hopped into the old hens' pen and Snow went after her so I had to rescue her from a crotchety old woman. All this chaos going on, I almost expect Atlas to become aggressive toward me, but he doesn't. I want him to understand I'm helping, not hurting, his girls. So far, so good.

 

[drumstick diva]

Oh dear males(human) always used to thunk me on the head too - they thought it was cute - I Did not. Is it any wonder I am so short( 5' on tippy toes) My mother was even shorter, they must have thunked her a lot more often.

 

[speckledhen]

Today, I'm wondering what I'm doing with this breeding group. I don't really want or need to breed anything. So, I may not end up keeping Atlas for very long. It may come to a point where I rehome Rex and Atlas both and just keep Deacon for the laying flock's free range sentinel duty and put layers with my old hens and no rooster (except maybe my bantam Cochin Xander, who isn't a problem). Wonder if I could get it down to just the current bantam coop and the one we just built? That would be WAY fewer birds. My original plan was layers and no rooster, then we got Hawkeye. And the next year, I hatched the BBS Orpingtons and chicken math took over.

Now, years later, we are for lack of a better word, tired. Never want to be without my birds entirely, but I think getting back to half the numbers I have now would be best. And right now, I have 42, including bantams, but not including the little pullet I've named Sammie Jo (remember Dynasty?) out of Delia and Rex. I think I'm losing Delia, though, so she's a replacement for her mother.


As for Atlas's behavior, he really hasn't done anything terrible. I do not trust any young rooster his age and he's barely more than a baby with raging hormones at 23 weeks old. He hasn't been with me for years and proven himself so naturally, though I like him, I'm not attached to him like I am Isaac and I was Suede and Zane and now, we are so fond of Deacon, it's crazy. Deacon is such a goober and a lovebug. I am very fond of Rex, but not super attached to him like we are Deacon now so I could probably rehome him to a really good home if I felt I had to do so. He's trustworthy and a great free range flock leader.

Like all youngsters, Atlas will have to prove himself trustworthy.

 

[1muttsfan]

Cyn, it sounds like you maybe pushed too hard to get that coop done, and did not get the chance to enjoy the process, and the results (yet). Maybe you guys are just tired. Hopefully you will feel better about it all after you get a rest.

Same issue here this fall, looking at another long frigid winter I had to seriously consider just how hard I wanted to work this year. In the last few weeks I have pared down to what will be one pen when the 3 chicks I kept from the Labor Day hatch grow enough to add to the main coop. That actually leaves me with an empty coop! Which will NOT be occupied until spring.

I kept only my young Arkansas blue egg cockerel. Hope I don't regret rehoming my good boy Cream Legbar roo, although he went to a good home and I could get hatching eggs next spring if I wanted them. The other 3 cockerels will be heading to freezer camp.

 

[1muttsfan]

One thing I have found is that the work involved seems to be directly related to the number of separate pens more than the actual number of birds. Which is, in turn, directly related to the number of roosters.

 

[speckledhen]

Cyn, it sounds like you maybe pushed too hard to get that coop done, and did not get the chance to enjoy the process, and the results (yet). Maybe you guys are just tired. Hopefully you will feel better about it all after you get a rest.

Same issue here this fall, looking at another long frigid winter I had to seriously consider just how hard I wanted to work this year. In the last few weeks I have pared down to what will be one pen when the 3 chicks I kept from the Labor Day hatch grow enough to add to the main coop. That actually leaves me with an empty coop! Which will NOT be occupied until spring.

I kept only my young Arkansas blue egg cockerel. Hope I don't regret rehoming my good boy Cream Legbar roo, although he went to a good home and I could get hatching eggs next spring if I wanted them. The other 3 cockerels will be heading to freezer camp.

Quote:
Yes, we did push and even if I didn't have Atlas, moving the bantams to that new coop opens up their current one for the old hens, which is really far more suitable for them. My ultimate goal is to tear down the building that they and Suede's hens are housed in and have a better one built further from the house, behind the original garden space. Then, the original Clutch Hutch coop that houses Isaac and Rex's groups can be just a storage building. It is downhill and in winter, with ice and snow, it's treacherous for us at times, sliding down there, though it isn't all that steep, really, just a steady decline.

To complicate everything, my husband probably has a kidney stone, first in years, (coincidentally, so does Ladyhawk's DH, who ended up in the ER) and I have a dying hen, a young layer, in Zane's old cage. So, I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment. And I have to watch out for Dottie and her three chicks on range since they have no pen to be in, just the broody area of Suede's coop. It will always be Suede's coop though that sweet old rooster has been gone now for 2 years this month and little Xander has been watching out for his big women.

I agree about the number of pens! Waterers, feeders, etc, all need separate filling. Letting out one group to free range is easy, but rotating them, putting one up and letting another out, doing separate head counts, etc, can be hard some days, though I don't range every group every day. If I rehomed Rex with a hen or two and sold Atlas, then I'd only have Deacon and sweet old Isaac left as LF roosters. They are in the same coop, much to Ike's total disgust, but Deke is fast on his feet so it works out okay. Of course, with Ike being almost 6 years old, he won't be here too much longer, I'd guess. Deacon, the One Spur Wonder, isn't going anywhere. He's a hoot!

On a happier note, Robin, one of Rex's black pullets, laid her first egg awhile ago! It was a beautiful light beige egg with a sheen and nice shell quality, perfect.

Adding photos of the barred chick.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Atlas' tail is growing in beautifully! Take a break, you two worked hard getting that coop done so fast!