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[Yorkshire Coop]

Thanks, yes just the two at the moment but our coop is big enough to take 2 more so hoping to add a couple more hens in the near future. Likely more Seramas - I don't want these two getting bullied by larger breeds.

Good luck on adding a couple more

I am SO mad today.  Those of you who have read my intro thread know about my neighbour.  Lovely woman.  No sense of responsibility.  She sent her son around to speak to my mum.  He can't be more than 7.  Note, she didn't send him to speak to me or come round and talk to me herself.  She obviously thought she would test the waters.  They're hot.  Friggin boiling.  So I ended up with her cockerel because she was chasing him round with a cricket bat terrified of him.  Yesterday she sent her kid round to ask if she could have HER cockerel back to use as a stud, then send him back to me.  Now 1.  If I am looking after HER cockerel then where is his food and board?  I'm not a ruddy kennel.  2.  If he is her cockerel she can pay me back for the vets bill for when he broke one of my hens wings and chased her into the pond!  Not to mention the countless items of clothing he has kicked his way through    She couldn't handle 1 cockerel, what good is she going to be when she ends up with 60% of her brood being male...  Rant over.  I appreciate some of you do breed here, but my guess is that you are responsible about it.  Unfortunately she isn't.  Maybe if I tell her I had him spayed.  Can you get a cockerel spayed?

I personally would not let her have him back after what she did before! It seems she can't look after what she already has, so how she is going to manage with him back now and then possible chicks? How will she care for chicks when we are heading into autum/winter? Yes it can be done but they require much more care when it's cold and will she provide this?
This is just me but I would be totally blunt with her about her husbandry skills and say how it is.

Sounds like you should give her cockerel back to her and not let her use you as a free hotel service.... My limited experience is that looking after boys is far more complicated than people realise it is.


On other news... My new rescue girl was looking much better today. Far brighter and a little less 'floppy'. She ventured out of the box I've had her in where previously she's not even tried to climb out of it. I've not even had to put a lid on it as she didn't try/wasn't able to get out.

I'm hoping I can put her back with the others tomorrow so she doesn't miss out on everyone getting to know each other. I've still banished my cockerel, so hopefully she shouldn't be pestered.

Thank you again everyone for all your advice. Would you let her back in with the others, or keep her separate still? (It's been 3 days)

That's great news If she seems strong enough I would let her back with the others. It's always easier to get them back together after being apart if its a short separation. The longer it is the harder it is getting them back together.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

@Rudies Roost

Sorry Sasha, I missed the post yesterday Will get them into today so should be with you Monday

How's she doing now?

 

[Psychochick]

She's not having the cockerel back. I took him on because she was about to send him back to the farm for slaughter and he's gorgeous, just bad tempered and badly behaved. He's mine. I just can't believe the cheek of her. I think I best just resign myself to losing a friend. Like @Yorkshire Coop says, straight talking about her lack of husbandry skills. I've never bred birds, never had an interest, so it never occurred to me that it might be harder in winter! I will just tell her he's been neutered. She won't know one way or another. He's registered at the vet (we're lucky, we have a chicken vet quite close) as mine so he's mine...

@timon so glad that your new girl's perking up. You're right to keep the cockerel banished for now, it was a newby that got out that ended up with her wing broken. Ruddy escape artists this lot. I was thinking of registering them for any Houdini movie that may be coming up. I had to chase one from the tiny crack between the run and the garden fence yesterday. 3 times because there was no way I was doing it in the dark like I have had to a couple of times last week - you start looking and it's light, by the time you find them, Midnight. They seem to be thinking along the lines of "How dare you rescue us, we wanna be food...".

 

[Rudies Roost]

@Rudies Roost

Sorry Sasha, I missed the post yesterday Will get them into today so should be with you Monday

How's she doing now?

Morning Kim. She's okay thanks, still got the mild head tilt but still able to eat and drink without assistance. She did keep sitting quietly in the duck's bed in the coop most of the day but seems to have stopped that now. We were out till gone 7pm yesterday afternoon, by the time we got home the chucks had put themselves to bed already so she spent a night back up on the perches (for the 1st time in 3 days) rather than the little cage. My other half kindly did the morning duties for me today (big brownie points for him!!), he said all were fine...I've just checked on her and all is well....phew! I'll keep up with vitamins in the water, all the flock will benefit too. Many thanks x

 

[Rudies Roost]

@timon

Your girl sounds like she's doing great. I think she'll be fine back with the others, if the cockerel is removed then she should be fine in her delicate condition

 

[Psychochick]

Ahhh the sweet sound of my Dad getting used as a piñata by Mr Attitude Problem

I've already had to go bail him out of getting his *** kicked all over the place once today. Some people never learn. Don't reward bad behaviour...

 

[Gge23]

Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I posted, but with the events of this weekend I feel I should bring you all up to speed with what has happened.
I guess I'm really here looking more for reassurance and some friendly advice more than anything. I've never felt so awful in my life...:
Basically everything kick off yesterday. I have finally let my ducklings outside for the first time, and they absolutely love it out there. Well it started coming down in buckets yesterday afternoon, so I ran outside and scooped them all up to bring them back and make sure they hadn't gotten too sodden or cold. I had completely forgotten to shut the dog away as I ran out, and no one else has the thought to either, so as I came in the back door she came screaming into the kitchen, jumped up, and grabbed one of my poor ducklings feet. Luckily she didn't have a great hold stand didn't pull it out of my hands, and my mum quickly shooed her into the other room. However, she had managed to graze the top layer of its webbing off and took a nice chunk out of this ducklings outside toe. I put the others back and quickly washed it's foot with iodine and dried it off so I could have a better look. My word there was so much blood for such a little foot I felt absolutely awful! Anyway, I wrapped it up so it could stop bleeding and perhaps heal a little.
I took another look at it this morning, gave it another clean and wrapped it up again. It looks a lot better than it did yesterday, the skin on its toe appears to have sealed up at least, just its webbing looks a bit funny. Though I'm pretty sure it will heal just fine. The duckling is running around on it, eating and drinking quite happily, so it quite clearly isn't phasing it. But my word did I want to string up that dog...still do!
The next tragedy happened this morning as I was cleaning them out. I took them all upstairs so they could have a good bath and a wash and they were all covered in mashed up duck food and were pretty sticky. Someone kept going in to check on them and they all seemed OK...until I came to put them back in their hutch.
My poor sweet darling little Pekin had drowned. I have never felt the colour run from my face so quickly. I immediately grabbed him and turned him upside down to try and get the water to come out and bring some life back into his little body, rubbing him with a towel to dry him off and hoping it would work. But to my dismay and heartbreak, he was gone. I feel so so terrible, and like i just don't deserve to look after animals anymore. After everything he had been through, all the hand feeding and navel cleaning to make sure he kept going, and all for nothing because of one lapse in concentration. I am absolutely beside myself, haven't stopped crying all day, I feel so helpless. I just can't stop thinking about how I should've let some of the water out or made sure someone was there the whole time, but all these ifs and buts are no good now. My poor little Pekin is gone and it's all my fault.
I'm sorry to have brought such a downer on to the thread, I guess I just needed to let some emotion out and tell someone else that wasn't there, because my mum and dad saw it all too. I don't think I will be letting my little paddlers out of my sight any time soon. Didn't think I could mourn for an animal so much.

 

[Rudies Roost]

Hi everyone,
It's been a while since I posted, but with the events of this weekend I feel I should bring you all up to speed with what has happened.
I guess I'm really here looking more for reassurance and some friendly advice more than anything. I've never felt so awful in my life...:
Basically everything kick off yesterday. I have finally let my ducklings outside for the first time, and they absolutely love it out there. Well it started coming down in buckets yesterday afternoon, so I ran outside and scooped them all up to bring them back and make sure they hadn't gotten too sodden or cold. I had completely forgotten to shut the dog away as I ran out, and no one else has the thought to either, so as I came in the back door she came screaming into the kitchen, jumped up, and grabbed one of my poor ducklings feet. Luckily she didn't have a great hold stand didn't pull it out of my hands, and my mum quickly shooed her into the other room. However, she had managed to graze the top layer of its webbing off and took a nice chunk out of this ducklings outside toe. I put the others back and quickly washed it's foot with iodine and dried it off so I could have a better look. My word there was so much blood for such a little foot I felt absolutely awful! Anyway, I wrapped it up so it could stop bleeding and perhaps heal a little.
I took another look at it this morning, gave it another clean and wrapped it up again. It looks a lot better than it did yesterday, the skin on its toe appears to have sealed up at least, just its webbing looks a bit funny. Though I'm pretty sure it will heal just fine. The duckling is running around on it, eating and drinking quite happily, so it quite clearly isn't phasing it. But my word did I want to string up that dog...still do!
The next tragedy happened this morning as I was cleaning them out. I took them all upstairs so they could have a good bath and a wash and they were all covered in mashed up duck food and were pretty sticky. Someone kept going in to check on them and they all seemed OK...until I came to put them back in their hutch.
My poor sweet darling little Pekin had drowned. I have never felt the colour run from my face so quickly. I immediately grabbed him and turned him upside down to try and get the water to come out and bring some life back into his little body, rubbing him with a towel to dry him off and hoping it would work. But to my dismay and heartbreak, he was gone. I feel so so terrible, and like i just don't deserve to look after animals anymore. After everything he had been through, all the hand feeding and navel cleaning to make sure he kept going, and all for nothing because of one lapse in concentration. I am absolutely beside myself, haven't stopped crying all day, I feel so helpless. I just can't stop thinking about how I should've let some of the water out or made sure someone was there the whole time, but all these ifs and buts are no good now. My poor little Pekin is gone and it's all my fault.
I'm sorry to have brought such a downer on to the thread, I guess I just needed to let some emotion out and tell someone else that wasn't there, because my mum and dad saw it all too. I don't think I will be letting my little paddlers out of my sight any time soon. Didn't think I could mourn for an animal so much.

Oh goodness me...what a weekend. Don't beat yourself about it, the duckling's foot will heal fine, a few of my ducks have had webbing injuries for various reasons, they fix amazingly and are so resilient. The duckling drowning is a sad affair, a real shame but a learning curve, they're like kids, even a small amount of water can be dangerous....despite being a duck, they cant swim so brill in deep water as youngsters, due to the short feet and downy feathers...it's okay, we all make a little mistake sometimes. The others are all great so you can concentrate on them thriving. Enjoy the rest of the flock and have a good Bank Holiday. Don't be too upset...it's ok. Big love!! Xx

 

[Psychochick]

My poor little Pekin is gone and it's all my fault.
I'm sorry to have brought such a downer on to the thread, I guess I just needed to let some emotion out and tell someone else that wasn't there, because my mum and dad saw it all too. I don't think I will be letting my little paddlers out of my sight any time soon. Didn't think I could mourn for an animal so much.

You are not the weather god. It is not your fault. It feels that way - I cried for days after I lost my first girls to a dog attack - but from what I see here you did your best, it's just events took over So sorry for your loss.

 

[philyc]

Good afternoon all! After a month of heat in the Arizona desert I'm back.

Whilst I've been away one of our banthams sadly died. Unsure why but my wife said the vet she took it too said it didn't seem to be anything infectious etc. She could have been quite old as she was a rescue. Our other bantham has gone bedpost again so is sitting on 5 eggs again. My wife has sadly forgotten what type they should be but assures me that they are meat birds.

The leghorn is doing well and currently our only egg producer.

Below is a picture of the two chicks we kept. Still unsure as to what they are but fairly certain the white one is a brahma.

So need to decide what to do with them. They will be 6 months at x-mas so the brahma might be instead of a Turkey. 6 months should be long enough for her to get tasty. The eggs currently being sat in will only be 3.5 months at xmas so probably still too young to eat.

Any ideas on the other unknown one?

Cheers all