The New Flock 2021: Back to Basics

[oldhenlikesdogs]

What color would you call Iris? Is that like a blue Partridge?

Rayne is gorgeous.

 

[speckledhen]

I think she'd just be considered blue, but the lacing showed up irregularly. Blue chickens have lacing but she just has an abundance of it. I can't see how it would be Partridge. She has to be a buff x splash cross. She sure is pretty, though.
Rayna is so pretty, wish I had more like her.

 

[speckledhen]

Update on the youngsters who are now 20 weeks old. Mace lost the tip of one of his comb points in a battle with Bumblebee. Guess he grabbed an unwilling girl and paid the price. Lesson probably not learned, LOL. Iris has shown a bit of interest in the nests and you can see her wattles are pretty pink and now dropping a little bit.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They're gorgeous.

The only roosters I ever had that will fight is my bantams with the bantam cochins being the worse. They are feisty boys that are full of themselves. Small, but mighty.

 

[getaclue]

They're looking so good. I love the nice assortment of colors too.

 

[speckledhen]

My little guys generally get along well, with an occasional tussle between Gunnar and Forrest. Gunnar bows to Bodie as do all the others. Bodie is a great flock leader, keeps good order, breaks up fights between hens and Gunnar and Forrest. If he's slow to intervene, usually, if I say "Bodie, make them stop!", he runs into the middle of it on command. Smart boy. And it's rare that Magnus gets into anything with anybody. They don't harass Mace too badly so far, but he's only making some preliminary grabs at the girls who are fully capable of taking care of themselves, it seems, from the missing tip on his comb. I remember that fight, had to pull him and Bee apart. She was teaching him a real lesson.
Gunnar is interested in the big Barred Rock girls that run with them during the day, but Bodie keeps telling him to leave them alone. He just flirts anyway. Those girls feel, as did my big Orpingtons about little Xander years ago, that the little roosters are not worthy of them. They roost in their respective pens at night so they're still not truly one group. I hope they will be one day. I have too many bantam Cochin boys in there, especially with Mace becoming mature. They are really good boys. Unlike the mature roosters, Mace doesn't like to be picked up, but he doesn't bite or anything. Iris does and she's stubborn. She's a little spitfire like Bee, who I think is her mother. They act just alike.
All in all, the bantam Cochins have been a real joy. The EE girls have been a royal pain. Except for ultra flighty Shelby, they're all sweet, but a bit nutso. Rayna, the brown and blue hen, is my favorite. She's larger bodied, calm and will come to me when I call her, lets me easily pick her up. Layla beats up on her all the time so there's a rivalry there. Layla looks so much like my late Gypsy, but she doesn't have the personality (which I never expected, of course). She's sweet, they all are, really, but they're not snuggle bugs like Gypsy was or for that matter, June was later in her life.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If mine go at it, it's always in spring. Winters are long here, and spring brings out their hormones.

I've got a few too many boys too. Thankfully they are easier on the hens so I can run a few extra boys without it being a problem.

I'm glad you are loving all your little ones. They really are the best breed.

 

[speckledhen]

Sounds like Luna blew an air sac. She's wheezing and I found the birds eating a brittle-shelled egg, which seems like hers. Could be she strained to pass the egg or someone grabbed her while she was on the nest (Mace may be guilty) and she was struggling to lay and battling at the same time. She may be fine in the morning after some rest. That happened years ago to one of my Ameraucana hens and she was okay the next day. Scared me to death

 

[getaclue]

Fingers crossed for Luna. I hope you can report that she's fine.

 

[speckledhen]

Fingers crossed for Luna. I hope you can report that she's fine.

Me, too. Maybe a night of rest will fix her issue. Mace has been a royal pain with the hens and he concentrates on Bee and Luna. Cricket beats his butt, LOL. And she's going broody again so she's not in the mood for his antics.