- Jan 25, 2008
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I'm not the least bit worried about it, just thought I would share and see if anyone else has seen or dealt with this.
I have an older Blue Giant cockerel, that I got for some breeding projects. He spent most of his time in an individual cage until his quarantine was over and until he reached a size large enough that his intergration wouldn't be an issue. So now he is inside the main flock and I've been noticing very strange behavior from him.
He is absolutely obsessed with water, either on the ground or in their bowls. I use cut-up 5 gallon buckets for my main flock waterers. He is constantly looking at and biting at the water's surface. Sometimes, I find him standing in one water bucket with water up to his keel "attacking" the water in the next bucket. It has gotten to the point I have to make the flock drink from the buckets through the fence, just to keep him out of the water.
He'll step in and out and in and out, snap at it some more and then repeat the whole process. In just a couple of days, I will have a couple of inches of dirt in the water buckets from being tracked in by his feet. The water soons becomes mud, but it does not deter him. I've watched to see if he is striking at anything in particular, but no, nothing is being targeted other than the water. I have even witnessed the weirdo chasing the younger chicks away from the waterer, while he is obsessing over it.
Any ideas anyone? He is quite the strange one. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of the other 12,000 BYCers.
-Kim
I have an older Blue Giant cockerel, that I got for some breeding projects. He spent most of his time in an individual cage until his quarantine was over and until he reached a size large enough that his intergration wouldn't be an issue. So now he is inside the main flock and I've been noticing very strange behavior from him.
He is absolutely obsessed with water, either on the ground or in their bowls. I use cut-up 5 gallon buckets for my main flock waterers. He is constantly looking at and biting at the water's surface. Sometimes, I find him standing in one water bucket with water up to his keel "attacking" the water in the next bucket. It has gotten to the point I have to make the flock drink from the buckets through the fence, just to keep him out of the water.
He'll step in and out and in and out, snap at it some more and then repeat the whole process. In just a couple of days, I will have a couple of inches of dirt in the water buckets from being tracked in by his feet. The water soons becomes mud, but it does not deter him. I've watched to see if he is striking at anything in particular, but no, nothing is being targeted other than the water. I have even witnessed the weirdo chasing the younger chicks away from the waterer, while he is obsessing over it.
Any ideas anyone? He is quite the strange one. I'm wondering if this has happened to any of the other 12,000 BYCers.
-Kim
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