Growing my little flock

[DonyaQuick]

Man...stuff can go sour fast can't it.

Vanilla Bean started a fight between my other two brother roos yesterday. He's been getting upset that I haven't had as much time to spend with them the last week and I have no way to explain to him that it's new job crazies that will settle out and he just has to be patient. So, if I ignore him while he's out for more than a moment he will run off and go aggitate the main flock. I don't think he wants in with them so much as to make some kind of fuss that gets me focused back on him. I think he must have bitten Junior's comb through a little gap near the door when Monster was also right there next to him. I don't know the exact sequence of events but Vanilla Bean obviously did something to Junior because I saw Junior chaotically shoot up in the air like he'd been zapped, and then a big fight ensued on landing...not involving Vanilla Bean of course because he just ran back to me. Brother roos have made up and nobody got seriously hurt; it was just a bitey fight and they only got a few scrapes each, but even small comb/wattle snicks bleed like crazy so now they both look like a mess even though not much happened.

Then Coco's ear lobe swelled up all of a sudden. I think she got stung by something; there were four little prick marks where the swelling initially started that looked a lot like what I had when I got stung by a wasp earlier in the year. Just a little cluster of red pin-prick marks. She's acting fine but today the swelling has changed shape a bit and spread just onto the side of her face. No breathing difficulties I can tell but I'm trying to keep her quiet and using some VetRx on her nose in case the swelling starts to have any knock on effect on her sinuses. No discharge or anything.

The good things so far are that the babies are doing well and the rooster brothers are showing very fatherly inclinations towards them. I only let them interact through HWC at the moment but both brothers have been crumbling up treats and trying to feed it through the mesh.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Better day today.

Scruffy: *staring competition with Squishy*
Rooster brothers: omg babieeeeeees hi hi hi hi come here look I have a bit of leaf for you do you want a tiny rock what about a bug do you want a bug here I have a seed too do you want a seed

 

[DonyaQuick]

Big day for chicks - first day out for a long time. My main flock setup is easily partitioned into two halves, a secure area with the coop surrounded by 1/2in HWC, and an extension made out of larger welded wire. I waited for everyone to be done with egg laying and then kept the adults in the extension while putting babies and mama in the secure area. Rooster daddies spent quite a while passing little bits of stuff through the HWC to the babies. Storms permitting, I should now be able to have the chicks outside after lunch each day.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Round 1 of the cockerel vs pullet game for this batch.

Meep (Chungus chick) - pullet I think. Basically zero comb.

Goober (Chungus/Monster) - very obvious cockerel even though I can't get a pic showing how red that comb is at the base. Whole thing reds up when he's excited.

Squeak (Dimple/Junior) - cockerel

Still in need of a name (Dimple/Junior) - very ambiguous. Comb is pale but sticking up more than expected, but also seeing a bit of red where the wattles will come in. This is actually a lot like how Dimple herself developed but I could also easily have 3 boys lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

So these babies have a broody mom who is still very attentive to them, but broody mom is apparently not enough! Goober has started crying for my attention so he can hop in my hand and fall asleep in poses like this because he doesn't fit in my hand very well anymore...

...meanwhile, Meep has a nice little stretch and...zzzZZZZZzzzz

 

[DonyaQuick]

Ugghhh...why does more chaos have to strike right when the smoke is billowing down the east coast again!

Brown yet-to-be-named chick just became a bully. I don't know why or what happened exactly, but Squeak ended up with a cut comb and a bloody head. I disinfected and used bluekote and then separated Squishy for a bit since I didn't know the culprit at the time - I thought at first she might have bitten Squeak since I couldn't see how a baby could do that damage, but she's actually just fine. It's 100% the brown chick who just seems to have gone a bit nuts. I've separated the brown chick for now. Squeak is doing ok with the other two chicks and Squishy. For the brown chick, I just moved my chick tractor into the same room and put food/water and a brooder plate in it although I doubt it needs the heat at this point - it looks older than it is and is almost fully feathered.

My paranoid, superstitious side says I caused this by not naming it with the others. My logical side however really hope there's something at the root of this that is a solvable problem, like a nutrient deficiency or something...and hopefully not that I have my first unmanageable psycho cockerel at not even 4 weeks old.

 

[DonyaQuick]

This situation sucks so much. Brown chick wouldn't stop having a freakout and started to get cold, which never ordinarily happens to it - so I have to assume that was from stress. Squishy and the other chicks wouldn't stop calling for it, which didn't help. After a couple hours in isolation I had to put it back with the group to get everyone to go to sleep. I hate situations like this where you have to choose which animal you assign risk to. By putting the brown one back, I do risk Squeak getting attacked again first thing in the morning. However, I feel like I'm probably not risking Squeak dying with this because if there's screaming at 5am, it's just down the hall from me, I should hear it, and I can surely intervene in time. But if the brown chick gives itself hypothermia from freaking out, I wouldn't necessarily know. Guess I will be getting up at first light tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can put in a bunch of entertainment stuff tonight so that there are distractions for them right off the bat tomorrow.

EDIT: ok just learned not to put the seed ball toy in at night (one of those yellow balls with slots). If there is enough light for me to see it there is enough for Squishy to see it and she will march out to play with it in the almost-dark even though she can't see where the seeds are. Thankfully they are all back to bed now...

 

[Iluveggers]

This situation sucks so much. Brown chick wouldn't stop having a freakout and started to get cold, which never ordinarily happens to it - so I have to assume that was from stress. Squishy and the other chicks wouldn't stop calling for it, which didn't help. After a couple hours in isolation I had to put it back with the group to get everyone to go to sleep. I hate situations like this where you have to choose which animal you assign risk to. By putting the brown one back, I do risk Squeak getting attacked again first thing in the morning. However, I feel like I'm probably not risking Squeak dying with this because if there's screaming at 5am, it's just down the hall from me, I should hear it, and I can surely intervene in time. But if the brown chick gives itself hypothermia from freaking out, I wouldn't necessarily know. Guess I will be getting up at first light tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can put in a bunch of entertainment stuff tonight so that there are distractions for them right off the bat tomorrow.

EDIT: ok just learned not to put the seed ball toy in at night (one of those yellow balls with slots). If there is enough light for me to see it there is enough for Squishy to see it and she will march out to play with it in the almost-dark even though she can't see where the seeds are. Thankfully they are all back to bed now...

Can you put up something to separate the brooder but still allow them to see each other so there is no freak out?

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

My logical side however really hope there's something at the root of this that is a solvable problem, like a nutrient deficiency or something...and hopefully not that I have my first unmanageable psycho cockerel at not even 4 weeks old.old.

Do keep a very close watch on the bully. Your description of the wound brought back a very sad memory. I once had a broody hatch a clutch of six; five were cockerels. When they turned 6 weeks old, mom went back to her flock and i continued to tend to the chicks. One of the cockerels would viciously peck attack my hand every time I reached in with food and water. It couldn't hurt me being that young, but it's intent was clearly to kill my hand. I noticed it bullying the lone pullet, but since they were hatchmates, thought she would be ok. Within a few days after mom had gone, I discovered the pullet dead in their pen, her head pecked bloody to the bone. And of course the cockerel attacked my hand when I reached in with disbelief to retrieve the pullet. I grabbed him and immediately sent him to wherever mean little cockerels go when they die. My broodies have hatched hundreds of chicks, and that is the only time I've ever had such an extremely aggressive chick. I don't know if it was because there was only one pullet and five cockerels in the hatch or another reason, but I sure felt sad for that poor little pullet.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Can you put up something to separate the brooder but still allow them to see each other so there is no freak out?

They could see each other through HWC and still were going bonkers.

Do keep a very close watch on the bully. Your description of the wound brought back a very sad memory. I once had a broody hatch a clutch of six; five were cockerels. When they turned 6 weeks old, mom went back to her flock and i continued to tend to the chicks. One of the cockerels would viciously peck attack my hand every time I reached in with food and water. It couldn't hurt me being that young, but it's intent was clearly to kill my hand. I noticed it bullying the lone pullet, but since they were hatchmates, thought she would be ok. Within a few days after mom had gone, I discovered the pullet dead in their pen, her head pecked bloody to the bone. And of course the cockerel attacked my hand when I reached in with disbelief to retrieve the pullet. I grabbed him and immediately sent him to wherever mean little cockerels go when they die. My broodies have hatched hundreds of chicks, and that is the only time I've ever had such an extremely aggressive chick. I don't know if it was because there was only one pullet and five cockerels in the hatch or another reason, but I sure felt sad for that poor little pullet.

I was honestly terrified that's what I could be dealing with. I have seen it in other animals a couple times where one will just be hyper-aggressive for no apparent reason. Also seen some animals where I don't think it was so much built-in aggression as that they simply learned something early on that they shouldn't have that turned them into a menace.

In this case I think I may be extremely lucky - it seems to be something to do with food. With three feeders now and several snacks of scrambled egg, everyone is calm and behaving normally. Brown chick was guarding one of the feeders before the scrambled egg but has calmed down with that now too. The scrambled egg has probably made up for whatever was missing, but I don't know how to figure out what that was. Of course, the old nothing-but-chick-starter way of dealing with nutrition issues doesn't really work here unless I completely confine them. When there isn't smoke billowing through, these guys go outside with a broody and then they eat whatever - bugs, plants, bits of bark, etc. I have been checking the brown chick for crop issues but am not seeing anything obvious so far except noting that it is eating a lot more than the others.