Poor Suede. He's your big beautiful blue, right?
Yes. He is so handsome when he's feeling himself. I hate seeing him like this. He is "greatly diminished". Although I do find his little chattering and chirping/cooing to me when I'm in the bathroom very cute. I honestly think he's lonely and bored in there. He likes to have ambient music with running water and bird sounds playing when I'm home, but I have to take my phone to work. :/
Those dissolvable vitamin/ electrolyte packets may help perk him up.
I picked some of those up yesterday at the feed store when I was buying the wire to finish the runs inside the barn. I was out there until after midnight yesterday with a flashlight working so I forgot when I went to bed, but I made him up some this morning.
Was he attacked by something?
Oh yes, Golly the Hormonal, Destroyer of Poultry, Bane of the Submissive, Lord of All He Surveys, did it. Monday morning the roommate called me to say she thought Golly was beating up one of the chickens. I ran out there in a bathrobe and rain boots. Before I even got out of the mud room I could hear the 15 pound feeder slamming into the aluminum sides of the house and Golly's enraged screaming. I popped into the hen house to find Suede cowering in the corner with Golly ripping out feathers, his face covered in blood, beating him with his wings. I just snapped and grabbed Golly behind the head and pulled him out of the house with "controlled force". I rescued Suede and looked him over. His comb was a little bloody and he was missing some feathers but appeared to be fine. I opened the pen up onto the yard so the birds could spread out and get away from the geese until I was home from work.
It rained all day and was in the high 30's. I got home and Suede was out by himself dripping wet. I popped him up on the roost and left the pen open to the yard. It was too wet for the dogs to be in the big back yard. Next morning Suede was on the roost and looking better. Came home from work and Golly was attempting to bully him off the perch. I locked the pair up in the tractor to give the chickens a break from the hormones. Each evening I'd go out and he'd be on the roost with everyone at bed time. Saturday I got home from picking up the White and Silver-laced pair (who are absolutely gorgeous in person) and he was on the roost. I'd been picking him up when I got home from work and putting him out on the ground where he'd eat and drink. But of course bot feeling himself the younger cockerels and Hollywood were picking at him so he'd run off screaming like he was being murdered.
Anyway, I picked him up and carried him out into the pen and he just wouldn't put any weight on his legs. He just laid there. I stood over him to make sure no one bothered him and the roommate brought me a small bowl of food and water. He ate and drank for what I can assume was the first time in days. He had a blister forming on his breast from sitting on the roost all day and night. After he ate his fill and drank I moved some birds around. New birds in the tractor, geese locked out on the yard, and the old flock in the original chicken pen. I took him inside and gave him a warm bath in the sink. we took him back to my bathroom and blow dried him until he was mostly fluffy. He liked being supported with the "wind" on his breast. He'd raise his wings and flap a little bit.
I set him up in the bathroom with towels down first, covered with potty pads. He's got food and water and a heat lamp should he choose to use it. I made a barricade out of luggage to keep him contained and rolled some towels to keep him steady. He seems to be doing a little better. I really think Golly beating him up sort of broke his spirit. And then with the other males picking on him, he just gave up. I think he's enjoying his time in the house getting babied.
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On the note of the new birds, They are really nice looking. I did some digging on the royal family and while Victoria's mother's name was also Victoria, she was a Duchess. So the new Silver-laced hen is Duchess (II). The White Orpington does have slate legs rather than white/pink like Odette and Derek, so I'm going to have to look and see what that means. I suspect she is Dominant, rather than Recessive White, however she was hatched from the eggs that produced the Silver-laced hen. The young rooster will be a year old in March and is larger than either Hollywood or Sterling's son (that I've been calling Sterling...he sounds just like his father when he crows). He's absolutely beautiful. I've decided on Caspian for his name.
Moving on to the barn, I got all three pens completed minus cutting the gates for two of the three pens yesterday. My hand's were just super done at 12:30 last night. I got the fence posts, but I'm going to wait until the end of the month to get the second roll of wire to fence in the runs off the barn. When I get home from work today I plan on mounting the front portion of the barn across the top in the clear panels a lovely friend brought me as well as cutting the two small sections that need to be added to complete the visual barrier on the portion of the dividing fence over the concrete slab in the back. Then I've got to dump a nest box in each one, set up the feeders, waterers, and roosts and I should be good to go.
I didn't get any pictures last night of the barn because it was dark, but I'll be sure to grab some today provided it's not raining. there was a light mist/drizzle when I came into work this morning. Once I can get the stuff done this afternoon I'm going to move all the chickens over into their respective pens and let the geese have the original pen with access to the fenced yard for grazing during the day. They've been breeding a lot lately and she's scouting out a place for a nest. I'll have to pick up a bale of hay after work today.
