Goodbye to Hazel

My friend and chicken mentor Nancy lost her black Jersey Giant rooster this week. An enormous bird, he disappeared off her fenced property without a trace. He was one of those “good roos” and was much loved. Hazel, named for the Watership Down rabbit leader, will now get the chance to take his place, although he will have a Sussex rooster from the same hatching as Finn and Rachel to contend with. With more than 30 hens to share, they will probably be able to work something out! I’m very happy he’ll get to have a good free-ranging life instead of ending up as someone’s dinner.

Clucky, the Orpington on the left has snapped out of her broodiness

Last weekend I (reluctantly) set Clucky on 5 of the eggs I got from my neighbor and placed her in a bucket in the kennel with the two mommy hens and their chicks (the mommies have claimed the nest box area). She settled in and Steve reported that all was well the next morning, but by the time I returned from work Clucky was pacing the kennel hollering to get out. I thought she had broken, so went in to retrieve the eggs and found them smoking hot. So I waited a bit and she went back on the eggs. In the evening, I found Clucky outside pacing again and Flicka setting on the eggs (with the new chicks underneath her her as well), apparently in broody mode again (or still). I didn’t see this coming! So I gave up, released Clucky from the kennel, and pitched the eggs because I didn’t want to have to make a decision right then about where and how to set them. I blocked the nest boxes that night because I’m trying to get the babies to start using the roosts to sleep, and that was apparently the final straw. By the next afternoon, Clucky had rejoined the others, no longer broody. This is a relief for me--I’d like to start whittling the numbers down a bit.

Oops!

Just when I thought I had the babies figured out I failed not only the gender quiz, but the breed quiz too! I had thought from the beginning that Hazel was one of the Wyandottes based on his coloration as a chick, but as he grew, he looked less and less like Dandelion and what I thought a Wyandotte should look like. When it became clear he was developing a single comb I thought it was just a result of some cross to a single-combed breed in his background, but I was troubled because that meant I couldn’t sell him as a Wyandotte.

The day after I noticed this, I was idly gazing at Acorn (a dark-colored, shy bird that I usually see from a distance under cover) as she spread her wing and I thought “Wow, she’s a BLR Wyandotte,” and it all became clear.

This means that Hazel is actually a Barnevelder, and now that I know and he has matured a little more, he’s looking quite handsome with a lot of lustrous black plumage.

This also means that Bucky is a Barnevelder pullet--obviously female next to Hazel.

Also, if Acorn with her dark charcoal lacing is blue-laced, that means that Dandelion with his light lavender-colored lacing is a splash-laced. I found all this out in the nick of time as he was to be sold a few days hence. I emailed the buyer and sent pics and luckily he was still interested in Dandelion. He also offered to buy Acorn and I let her go with the promise of being able to buy future hatching eggs from him.

So back to the gender quiz--both lavenders are now looking similar to each other and now I think they are girls.

Holly, the Sussex is still looking like a boy to me, but at this point I wouldn’t swear to it!

Meanwhile, about a week after I set Flicka on her eggs in the new A-frame deluxe broody suite, Zen went broody again (after breaking the first time). I gave in and put her next to Flicka and gave her two of Flicka’s eggs so they’d both hatch out on the same day. My friend Nancy set a bunch of Sussex-cross eggs earlier this summer and all her chicks look like Sussexes, so I expected to see mottled brown babies.

Mine hatched two days ago--one black chick, Marie (offspring of Zen I think based on the head markings).....

.....and one beautiful buff stripey chick, Elizabeth, clearly of Orpington descent, both probably doomed to roosterhood now that they’ve been given feminine names!

So far Flicka and Zen seem to be sharing nicely, but I will keep my eye on them over the next couple of days.

I was thinking we might be at the end of the broodiness, but now Clucky is trying again. I was going to try to break her, but then was offered a dozen hatching eggs (of undisclosed but brown egg-laying breeds) from someone up the road who made a special effort to collect them. I might set 4 or so if I can integrate Clucky into the broody suite with the new moms without strife. I keep hearing about “chicken math” where people keep acquiring chickens as they get interested in different breeds, but my own hens are bent on reproduction. I have enough chickens!

Building the Empire and a Gender Quiz

One last endless day working in the sun, and all the major pieces have finally been put together. It is now a chicken empire! I got up before dawn that day and pulled Finn off the roost before he started crowing (or even woke up) to cut the primary feathers on one wing and since then he has stayed put in the run. While I had him in hand I decided to trim down his spurs too. I cut one too close (really only about a quarter of an inch from the tip) and it bled like crazy. With Finn under my arm and a paper towel held over his spur, I rummaged through the kitchen with the other hand looking for the corn starch to stop the bleeding. I’ll have it right in front of me the next time I try this! No corn starch, and I had a horrible memory of having to cauterize this type of wound on a Polish rooster at Hiram using a knife heated on a stove burner (I was not the only one involved in this and we had NOT been told that the spurs would bleed so we just cut them flush to the leg--the poor rooster did survive the ordeal). Luckily the bleeding finally slowed with pressure and I put Finn cautiously into the spa. Gathered up the hens and put them in with him and all was well (although I think it made quite the impression on Finn--despite doing no more than flinching when I cut the spur, he’s been very respectful ever since). Did more before 6:00 am and coffee than most people do all day, but it had hardly begun....

I dismantled the partitions inside the coop that had kept the chicks separated from the adults so they now have the run of the coop. Steve cut a fallen log so I could run the new length of fence through a corner of the woods and we moved the dog kennel into place in front of one of the A-frames. I put broody Flicka in the spa with the others for the day, trying to break her, but no dice. Gave up, put her on 4 eggs (2 from Rachel and two not--we’ll see what Sussex crosses look like) and installed her in the new, deluxe broody coop. It’s a big improvement over Clucky’s dog crate!

It’s been a lot of work and it’s still kind of overwhelming, but they all love their new space. It’s as close to free-ranging as I can get here. Hopefully once the male chicks are sold I will have the right balance to maintain some grass in my back yard. The naturalist in me watches them as if they were wild and I see how they use their habitat. Just like wild birds, they prefer to have some cover, and I usually find them under the trees and in the weedy areas. Nobody just hangs out in the open yard. I think of how I usually see chickens kept in open runs and I think they’d be a lot happier with some habitat. Despite it’s drawbacks, the poultry netting has allowed me enough flexibility to provide that.

The chicks are now over 6 weeks old. Clucky got done with motherhood a couple of weeks ago, so they are on their own. They mix pretty well with the adults, but they tend to hang together--outside under one of the “hawk guards” and they still cram together to sleep in their nest box. They’re starting to spar with each other, and I sure am seeing a lot of boys!

There was never any doubt about Hazel (the gold-laced Wyandotte) with his tree-trunk legs.

Silver (a lavender Orpington) also seems quite masculine, especially next to Blackberry who may be my only pullet.

Dandelion looked like he could go either way for awhile, but sadly (because I wanted to keep a blue-laced red), is male.

Holly (the speckled Sussex), here sparring with Hazel, is also a boy,

.....and I’m not sure yet about the slow-to-mature Barnevelders, but I think Bucky may be a boy as I had thought originally and Acorn a girl.

It’s tempting to pick one or two of the males to keep as a back-up roo in case something happens to Finn, but I think it would be a mistake to plan to keep any. I put them on Craig’s List two days ago, and already someone is interested in Dandelion.