Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Smokerbill]

I did some more flock finagling today. I relocated three of the cockerels and let the other two join with the entire flock, which now includes the six laying age pullets, four young pullets and three young cockerels.

This group has two sections of the chicken complex to themselves now, the secure run, the coop, and the daylight run. That makes over 300 square feet of floor space for the thirteen bird flock.

I'll eventually relocate two of the cockerels as soon as one of the three is interacting well with the girls.

 

[ValerieJ]

We lost Ralphie last night. Not sure to what, but he has been showing signs for a few days now. Last night he could not get up on his feet to go into the coop, so DH did the right thing for him.

Lucky Cooper gets to join the flock today. DH says he's doing great. I didn't want to go out in the rain. lol Apparently he is being a perfect gentleman and the girls are quite excited to go explore his run. It's full of grass and greenery because he has been hanging out at the fence line and not trampling his down. It's one big happy flock again. Yay!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Wow I am sorry you lost him. Unexpected why?

 

[Smokerbill]

Really sorry about Ralphie, but at the same time happy that Cooper is getting a chance to have a flock of his own.

Grandkids are here and we're watching Night at the Museum. Might try to find Jumanji next.

 

[ValerieJ]

Wow I am sorry you lost him. Unexpected why?

We have no idea. He slowed down the last few days and stayed off to himself. Then yesterday, when DH went out to close them all in their coops, he was under an A-frame shelter and couldn't even stand up.. DH stopped his suffering. We don't do necropsies, so no idea what happened. We just bury them.

 

[ValerieJ]

Really sorry about Ralphie, but at the same time happy that Cooper is getting a chance to have a flock of his own.

Grandkids are here and we're watching Night at the Museum. Might try to find Jumanji next.

Cooper is a good rooster. He may not produce offspring, but he is excellent at every other part of his job. He would not go into the coop until all the hens were in and he was talking to them softly the whole time. And the hens love him. Last time we brought him in, they could be heard cooing in the coop when he came in to roost.

So that's it. We are not looking for a rooster to reproduce. Ralphie never did either. When we want chicks, we'll buy them. At least then we know we are getting hens.

 

[Kmaria187]

Nice day out today so went out and cleaned out the coops they were is desperate need !! didn't do spring cleaning as i like to get the power sprayer out and hose them down good but the temp. outside needs to be hot enough for the water to dry out!! but did change all the bedding and put in clean nesting pads more than half of my girls still have not laid since maybe sept/oct. so it should be soon that they will start back up all of my 1yr. old's (EE) have stopped and my 3 older girls are now 4 and 3 years old who knows if they will start back up.

 

[Smokerbill]

My laying pullets are getting back into the swing of things. Four eggs yesterday and five today, from six pullets. It's possible that the light I put in their run is helping. It comes on at 5am and off around 6pm. Gives them more time to eat and drink.