Recent content by DonyaQuick

I feel like I should document what I did with Chungus a bit ago, in part because I just had to repeat it with Goober the past few days, and google was about zero help in both cases. So...maybe this post will turn up in someone else's googleage some time later. Long story short: I think Chungus...

Ok so this is what I have as symptoms shared between these two cases... bird found in dehydrated state weakness wincing at internal pain whenever something goes "gurgle" inside the bird some kind of compacted material passed after dehydration fixed vegetable matter (obviously from outdoor...

Seems like it happened again - different bird from different flock. Cockerel this time. No bark mulch in that enclosure. Impaction was much milder this time but I also caught the dehydration within just a few hours of the bird being bouncy and normal (noticed in the evening vs catching it the...

OMG this year continues to kick my butt in weird ways! Things were calming down. My husband is working on a new bachelor flock setup, Tengu and Squeak are starting to settle out with see-but-no-touch, Goober is periodically revenge-pooping on Squeak WHY IS HE SO WEIRD being himself, and Vanilla...

Mr Vanilla Bean enjoying a warm spring day (Edit forgot to embed the image in the post, sorry!)

With my luck I'm kind of expecting an oops boy somewhere in the mix...I've read cochins are one of the less accurate ones like BOs for whatever reason. Still, an accidental boy or two would still be a better outcome for me than either mostly/all boys from a small hatch or getting half cockerels...

I saw Cackle had a couple types of sexed large size cochin available at basically the perfect time for Scruffy...so I went for the partridge ones. Cochins were on my radar since Vanilla Bean's dad was a lovely large cochin, but I'd previously thought my only options for something like big...

Beautiful patterns indeed!

Took the plunge and did my first mail order for a few chicks…should be timed pretty well with Scruffy’s broodiness since it will be end of the month. Now the nail biting begins since I have never done this before lol.

Looks like the most responsible thing at this point given the bachelor boy drama may drag out is to do pullets for Vanilla Bean and try to do the ol' switcheroo at night properly with broody Scruffy. Means I have to find a mail order option that will be timed well with Scruffy's broody cycle...

Roos are totally hard mode like everyone says, at least standard sized ones sure are, but I do love 'em. I think my husband wondered for a while what insanity I'd fallen into trying to do a bachelor flock, since basically all of my roos/cockerels went through a husband-biting phase, but I think...

Decisions, decisions...

Oh lord...mistakes were made last night! I decided to top up feeders for the distributed bachelor boys later in the day than was smart (evening time is gremlin time). Somehow I walked straight out of the house to the coops in my very fuzzy house slippers. I don't know why, but ALL of my roos...

That is certainly the temperament I’m looking for…how big are they? My Vanilla Bean boy is about 8lbs and still growing slowly so I’m expecting he might reach 9. He’d flatten my smaller hens. He’s super wide and his feet are also massive compared to my other roos (he leaves tracks the same size...

I need to find out whether Mt Healthy "pads" orders for <6 with cockerels when it's going to a state with annoying rules like NY...if they don't, that would be a good option to have on the table. I don't think I want to get another batch from TSC or another feed store looking for big hens since...