BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[BDutch]

Whisky
Yesterday around noon I heard Whisky crowing a couple of times with a clear voice. Not loud but no doubt it was beyond the first practice.

I hope Whiskey stays a modest crower and has no urge to crow at sunrise in the future. His main purpose is to protect the flock and it seems he is taking on the job. Jumping on the table and actively looking everywhere while the hens are free ranging.

Today I didn’t hear him at all, but he did surprise in another way.

He was dancing an courting Pearl. So lovely to witness
Pearl was not interested and I was glad Whisky took off without being rude. He really is twice the size/weight of the little Dutch. This worries me. Because his sisters are not in the laying mode yet. And Katrientje is not in the mood for such things either as long as she is moulting.

Strange how things go. I was worried of the crowing but maybe mating is a bigger problem much sooner.

I hope Whisky focusses on the bigger bantams to mate. If he is going to harm the Dutch I have to separate the flock in two groups (until I find him a new home). Dividing the runs is not complicated. Forcing Ini mini to sleep with her daughters shouldn’t be difficult either.

 

[BDutch]

Food
My chickens get mainly chick feed and since the chicks became juveniles the flock gets a bowl with layer pellets too. So they can choose what they like to eat.
Some hens are eating from the layer pellets but I never saw the juveniles eating it. They seem to know what kind of feed they need. Beside the commercial feed they get other stuff too eat/digest: a mix of grit and oyster shell, eggshells, nixed grains, left overs, a few dried mealworms and what they find themselves when free ranging.

There is not much choice in affordable organic feed, and I believe this is a good way to feed my flock without having to bother about nutrients.

I finished the layer pellets last Thursday any picked up a new batch (5kg) at a neighbour who had plenty to share. This morning the got a new bowl with layer and Pearl was very pleased to be able to eat the layer pellets. She in immediately came to eat.

Colour change after moult
Most hens are moulting now but Pearl isn’t. I think she had her moult a month ago and is the one who is laying now. She changed her neck color a bit with the last moult. She always had more rusty neck feathers than Black. But now she is a completely black tiny chicken.

The black with rusty feathers comes from a lavender coloured mother and a pyle coloured father.

Modest crowing
This morning I hear my 4+ month old Whisky crow for the first time today. Its 10 am. And he stopped after 3 ‘howls’*. Love him for not being a noisy nuisance.

*Im not sure if this is a good way to express a multiple crow. It was 3x cock-a-doodle-doo (kukeleku in Dutch).

 

[BDutch]

Just one day later we have a big change.
Ini mini left her ‘babies’ and went to roost with the other hens in the extension.
Whisky started to crow at 7.15 am. Not once but about 8 times.

Maybe he feels free now to do as he pleases without his mama telling him not to be loud. And not wake her up early.
Unfortunately he might have signed his death sentence doing this. I have him on ‘’marketplace’ for 8 weeks now and there is no bargain buyer yet.
It might be possible to keep him a little longer because its getting winter and the nights get longer.
One more thing I can do is to darken the playhouse and set the pop door to open on time/max light. This means less ventilation, but because its colder now I suppose the two air strips under the roof overhang will be enough. It will not be completely dark in the morning. But maybe I win an extra 30+ minutes or so. That should do as long as it’s winter. The neighbours only start to complain when he’s waking them before the alarm does .

 

[ManueB]

Just one day later we have a big change.
Ini mini left her ‘babies’ and went to roost with the other hens in the extension.
Whisky started to crow at 7.15 am. Not once but about 8 times.

Maybe he feels free now to do as he pleases without his mama telling him not to be loud. And not wake her up early.
Unfortunately he might have signed his death sentence doing this. I have him on ‘’marketplace’ for 8 weeks now and there is no bargain buyer yet.
It might be possible to keep him a little longer because its getting winter and the nights get longer.
One more thing I can do is to darken the playhouse and set the pop door to open on time/max light. This means less ventilation, but because its colder now I suppose the two air strips under the roof overhang will be enough. It will not be completely dark in the morning. But maybe I win an extra 30+ minutes or so. That should do as long as it’s winter. The neighbours only start to complain when he’s waking them before the alarm does .

Well, the "chicks" are big enough now to take care of themselves! Do you think they will still sleep in the playhouse ?

Have you updated whisky's photos on Marketplace? He has grown very good looking now.
Would you consider putting him in the garage at night for a little while ?

My roosters begin to crow at 2am. I don't think light has much to do with it unfortunately. Now that we have good new windows in our bedroom we only hear them very faintly, so it doesn't wake us up. But if I happen to be awake I do hear them regularly from 2 to 5.