Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

[thistlewick]

Okay so I do not know what happened. My husband went out and swung by the hen house to just check on things and found Helga and her baby like this

Soaking wet. The baby absolutely drenched.

We aren't sure what happened at all.

Im cooking lunch, husband comes in with the baby in his hands and I take it and go back out. He thought it was a second baby but it wasn't.

We coax Helga back into the hen house and decide to put them in the raised brooder.

I don't know if they got kicked out into the rain or what. But I put food and water in the brooder and they are warming up and drying off.

We never witnessed anyone being even remotely nasty to Helga

When I had the baby in my hands and was coaxing Helga back into the hen house, Pudding and Misserschmidt came by curiously to peek at the baby in my hands.

No one was nasty at all so I'm at a loss really.

 

[thistlewick]

Helga and baby spent several days warming up and drying off up in the raised brooder. Then I moved them downstairs for 1 day (moving my skittish Helga was awful ><) and today I just let them out. Did 100% fine - no more rain and all perfectly getting along with everyone.

I really dont know what happened with them getting soaked, I have NO idea.

I've had a rat make a burrow under the run section - getting that sweet sweet chicken feed that falls out of the feeders.

today ran water down the burrow to flush him out, he swam out - he was SUPER CUTE and ran off. I filled his burrow with gravel and grit and pebbles and dirt and covered the openings with more gravel and pebbles. I don't really find a rat a problem, but he can move elsewhere. We will see how persistent he gets.

But I don't really mind a little Templeton

The Ameraucana babies - 6 weeks old! Unsure if cockerels or pullets, legs say cock, combs say pullets.

My stunning Raven, black Ameraucana pullet. I whistled at her to get her to stop and look at me haha

One of my Welsummer boys, he's very sweet. Still very young. I think they're about 12-14 weeks old

You can see the gravel covering the rat hole, I went ham, the covering is huge and about 20x or 30x larger than the hole and you can't see most of it lol

 

[thistlewick]

Hey there @wrathsfarm just wondering about my boy Oscar - who is 32 weeks old - so what is that, 8 months?

He hasn't grown a tail yet -- should I not use him for breeding then?

 

[wrathsfarm]

Hey there @wrathsfarm just wondering about my boy Oscar - who is 32 weeks old - so what is that, 8 months?

He hasn't grown a tail yet -- should I not use him for breeding then?

Pic please...

 

[wrathsfarm]

Hey there @wrathsfarm just wondering about my boy Oscar - who is 32 weeks old - so what is that, 8 months?

He hasn't grown a tail yet -- should I not use him for breeding then?

I did a little research as I haven't encountered this mutation. If Oscar is in fact rumpless it's not recommended to breed this forward. True rumpless, tho is lacking the tail bone and no tail feathers so we need to see pics to confirm. If he in fact has tail feathers this is just a matter of him having a small tail.

Here's a few threads I found on this...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rumpless-french-black-copper-marans.1622867/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/very-weird-rumpless-marans.103261/

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rumpless-marans.161851/

 

[thistlewick]

I will take pics today!! thanks for the threads, he does indeed look rumpless.

I hate to say but I won't be able to get hands on him, I'm too scared to and my husband has his back out right now and cannot be doing stuff like that at the moment.

Will try and get the best ones I can and post later today!

 

[wrathsfarm]

Ok, if you can.. try to get a good rear and side view of his back end, that would be helpful. I looked back at the last pic you showed of him, couldn't see much of rear, but I thought I saw tail feathers on him.