Growing my little flock

[DonyaQuick]

Oh I do hope Junior keeps these absurd eyebrows and that it isn't just a phase...

 

[DonyaQuick]

Two big goofs eatin' snow for the first time.

Junior is slowly ticking all the rooster boxes. Actually not that slowly - he's only 18 weeks old and has already started doing most of the things I would expect of a mature rooster. He even finally did the deed with Chungus, the hen he has been obsessed with ever since he was but a little babe and she was a big grumpy broody many times his size. No chasing or anything; very civil. I thought he was going to be out of luck with that since he still tidbits frequently with twigs and brightly colored leaves, so the hens often ignore him when he does it lol. But apparently Junior's got the moves in the dance department and I guess that's what counts for Chungus. So far, none of Junior's progress towards mature roo behaviors has changed how he is with me. He is still very much a world class hug hog.

Then there is Monster. You can see from the picture that Monster has a nice set of saddle feathers. They're still kind of odd looking...not as narrow ad Junior's and they are fuzzy. Honestly if those weren't there I would still be questioning whether Monster really is a boy. Aside from helping out Junior with putting everyone to bed, he has zero male behaviors. Not crowed once that I'm aware of. No interest in the ladies at all. He just likes to pal around with his brother, and when he's not doing that he's studying or trying to disassemble things off by himself. He made some progress on my port feeder today. It may take a while, but I can already tell I'm going to come out one morning and find that thing in pieces. He also now starts un-lacing my boots after untying them.

Meanwhile....that little Vanilla Bean is 8 weeks old, crows every morning, and can already clap his wattles together. Junior couldn't do that until he was much older. Monster still can't clap is wattles and I'm not optimistic about him being able to any time soon lol.

 

[Raccoon lady]

Two big goofs eatin' snow for the first time.
View attachment 3324761

Junior is slowly ticking all the rooster boxes. Actually not that slowly - he's only 18 weeks old and has already started doing most of the things I would expect of a mature rooster. He even finally did the deed with Chungus, the hen he has been obsessed with ever since he was but a little babe and she was a big grumpy broody many times his size. No chasing or anything; very civil. I thought he was going to be out of luck with that since he still tidbits frequently with twigs and brightly colored leaves, so the hens often ignore him when he does it lol. But apparently Junior's got the moves in the dance department and I guess that's what counts for Chungus. So far, none of Junior's progress towards mature roo behaviors has changed how he is with me. He is still very much a world class hug hog.

Then there is Monster. You can see from the picture that Monster has a nice set of saddle feathers. They're still kind of odd looking...not as narrow ad Junior's and they are fuzzy. Honestly if those weren't there I would still be questioning whether Monster really is a boy. Aside from helping out Junior with putting everyone to bed, he has zero male behaviors. Not crowed once that I'm aware of. No interest in the ladies at all. He just likes to pal around with his brother, and when he's not doing that he's studying or trying to disassemble things off by himself. He made some progress on my port feeder today. It may take a while, but I can already tell I'm going to come out one morning and find that thing in pieces. He also now starts un-lacing my boots after untying them.

Meanwhile....that little Vanilla Bean is 8 weeks old, crows every morning, and can already clap his wattles together. Junior couldn't do that until he was much older. Monster still can't clap is wattles and I'm not optimistic about him being able to any time soon lol.

Your chickens are so cute! How many do you have now?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Your chickens are so cute! How many do you have now?

I've got 10 right now. It's the 2 little beans, and 8 in my main flock - 4 salty hens, 2 pullets, and the 2 big cockerels. A happy number of huggy fluffs so far! I will admit though that I'm already contemplating a hatch next year once I have a bigger setup. Back when I first set some eggs under a broody, I was thinking I would just stick with a hatch from my original set of adults for a while, but Vanilla Bean in particular is such a wonderful shape...if he keeps his roundness and enormous feet, at some point I might need to create at least a small Bean army as a side project.

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Two big goofs eatin' snow for the first time.
View attachment 3324761

Junior is slowly ticking all the rooster boxes. Actually not that slowly - he's only 18 weeks old and has already started doing most of the things I would expect of a mature rooster. He even finally did the deed with Chungus, the hen he has been obsessed with ever since he was but a little babe and she was a big grumpy broody many times his size. No chasing or anything; very civil. I thought he was going to be out of luck with that since he still tidbits frequently with twigs and brightly colored leaves, so the hens often ignore him when he does it lol. But apparently Junior's got the moves in the dance department and I guess that's what counts for Chungus. So far, none of Junior's progress towards mature roo behaviors has changed how he is with me. He is still very much a world class hug hog.

Then there is Monster. You can see from the picture that Monster has a nice set of saddle feathers. They're still kind of odd looking...not as narrow ad Junior's and they are fuzzy. Honestly if those weren't there I would still be questioning whether Monster really is a boy. Aside from helping out Junior with putting everyone to bed, he has zero male behaviors. Not crowed once that I'm aware of. No interest in the ladies at all. He just likes to pal around with his brother, and when he's not doing that he's studying or trying to disassemble things off by himself. He made some progress on my port feeder today. It may take a while, but I can already tell I'm going to come out one morning and find that thing in pieces. He also now starts un-lacing my boots after untying them.

Meanwhile....that little Vanilla Bean is 8 weeks old, crows every morning, and can already clap his wattles together. Junior couldn't do that until he was much older. Monster still can't clap is wattles and I'm not optimistic about him being able to any time soon lol.

That black and white hen is so beautiful to me <3

 

[DonyaQuick]

That black and white hen is so beautiful to me <3

That's my big boy Monster - technically turned out to be a cockerel, but he has yet to really do any of the normal cockerel things except just being big and growing some pointy saddle feathers. One of his sisters has about the same comb/wattle growth proportionally lol.

Speaking of Monster...this afternoon he swiftly ripped all of the labels off of a brand new pair of rubber boots today. Even the glued on labels. Brand new boots that I got because he kept untying and removing the laces from my regular winter boots...even when I had an extra knot in the bow.

"And I'll do it again!"

(He's a big softy though underneath his bizarre compulsion to disassemble everything)

 

[DonyaQuick]

Buddy and Dingus are hard-molting right now. They started that right as really nasty weather rolled in, so I've had to put tarps and shower curtains up on everything, added straw for extra insulation, and I've been making a new concoction as a treat to ensure there is plenty of protein to go around.

How to make Growly Treat:
1. Make plain, soggy oatmeal.
2. Mix in some canned tuna.
Serve warm and enjoy the cacophony of dinosaur noises.

Growly Treat also permits a rare view of Squishy standing still instead of being a white blur. Left to right: Dimple, Junior, and Squishy.

The two molting hens got plenty from this plate - they just take big chunks and walk off to eat it elsewhere.

 

[DonyaQuick]

How mornings with 3 cockerels is going so far...

Junior: cock-a-doodle-doo!

Monster: .........ooOOO...urp

Vanilla Bean:

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well, my big white cockerel called Junior made is first major oops today. Bit me hard on the hand. Quite hard. I did three things in response: didn't react except to say "Junior no!" in the you-done-messed-up tone, corrected him as soon as he let go, and then went to figure out why it happened.

Junior has very clearly been in his "hormonal phase" for some time now and not done this before. He's a big huggy boy who loves to see me normally. So what changed? Well, this is the first time he's seen snow deep enough that it eats his entire leg when he steps into it. After some investigation, he seems completely terrified of the blizzard situation outside even though the coop and run are bundled up and largely snow-free. By him being terrified of the snow, I mean like shaking, hyperventilating-style terrified. I had just walked in from the blizzard covered in snow, I was wearing new pants he'd never seen before, and as soon as I got in I had the Squishy babies jumping all over my back flapping about having a grand noisy time. He was already amped, already scared, wanted to be picked up...so I reached out with big snowy arms with the Squishies flapping about on my shoulders and I think that was just too much.

I corrected Junior after the bite anyway by pushing him down, but didn't do it for very long because quickly became clear that he was scared, not angry. Got him to calm down by letting him stand low but holding him tight on the sides and talking to him. I took him in the house away from the blizzard for a bit; he calmed down but started trembling again as soon as he saw the snow on the way back out, so it's very clearly the snow that's got him frazzled. He'll get used to it as the season goes on, but this is going to be a rough couple days for the poor guy. I will make sure I de-snow myself immediately after I enter the run tomorrow to avoid a repeat.

Anyway, I wrote all this out because I think trying to look at the context of bad rooster behaviors is important. Meanwhile, Junior's brother, Monster, is gleefully going around checking whether fence snow tastes the same as ground snow and boot snow. Amazing how to one bird it's the blizzard of doom and to the other it's the blizzard of deliciousness.

(small late edit to fix a sentence that was weird since it was missing a word)

 

[DonyaQuick]

Some small progress is happening with the snow thing. I think most people would find this quite pretty:

Junior still thinks it's AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I walked out holding him and he basically just screamed for a bit. I cleared a little patch down to the dirt by the coop. He will sit there with me pretty calmly but he doesn't really even want to look any direction except towards the dirt. This is basically what he does.

He's the only one of my chickens to be this bothered about the snow - and he has actually seen snow once before and happily sampled it alongside Monster, but I guess a light dusting is fine while 6"+ is not. I'll work with him a bit on this each day. I do need him to get used to it though, since round about Jan/Feb it will be more like 2ft of snow piled up.