Wow Wow Wubzy

Wow Wow Wubzy is what my kids named our white silkie chick. It's a children's television show character.

I moved the two chicks outside- they're around 8 weeks old now, and I have a 120 watt light out there that keeps things fairly toasty.  Things had been going well  until this morning.

This morning I found the little silkie dead, and the frizzle all upset. I couldn't find any wounds on her, and she seemed perfectly healthy when I took this picture yesterday. The temperature OUTSIDE didn't even get below 40, and in the henhouse, with 16 other chickens and a warm light, I'm sure it was plenty warm. I'm not sure what happened.

Z, my five year old, was with me when I made the discovery, and he was pretty sad. It's the second chicken he's named, and the first was Hulksmash. So, his track record isn't so great.

S, my seven year old, is going to be so upset when she realizes. The friend who sold them to me says she has more, so I'm trying to figure out a way to go get another while I'm in Salt Lake tomorrow without her realizing it (she'll be with me). I think I may be able to work it out. Wish me luck that I can get a new Wow Wow Wubzy with only Z and my husband the wiser.

My eggs today

My friend Kris gave me this lovely metal basket that I've been using as my egg collecting basket.

I thought that I'd post the eggs that I collected today because I thought it'd be fun.

I'm thinking that my polish chicken has started to lay because I'm getting an almost white egg now, and she's the only one who would lay that color. But, she took today off (at least, hasn't laid as of 1:30pm) so her egg isn't in here.  Maybe I should do this more often.

I get these extra large sized light brown eggs nearly every day. Every time, they're over 60 grams. I think they are from either my golden laced wyandotte or the rhode island red.

Today I got a new egg- I found that medium brown, speckled egg in the small henhouse. I was confused, because it is on the light side for my bcm, but way darker than my other brown eggs. Plus, I'd seen the bcm in the other hen house in the nest box, so I didn't know why I'd find her egg way over here.  When I got to the other nest box, I found the obvious bcm egg where I'd seen her earlier. I suspect that pretty, speckled egg comes courtesy of Shirley. Yay!

Rooster Swap

Warren, the Black Copper Marans cockerel

I've been a little disappointed with the way Warren, my Black Copper Marans has turned out. Not too much of a tail, and there's white in it, which is very bad for a BCM. He also is the wrong color- instead of an orange-y copper color, he's been a dark mahogany. Which, I have to admit, is a bit fun and unusual, but definitely not to breed standard. My other concern is that he is very closely related to my BCM hen, who is quite gorgeous. As far as breeding goes though, it isn't good to breed too closely together.

What sealed the deal was when I was out harvesting potatoes a couple weeks ago, Warren attacked my 5 year old with no provocation. In fact, Z actually had his back to the rooster and he flew at him, knocking him down and scratching him with his spurs.

I'm willing to put up with a little bit of mean for a gorgeous rooster, but if you're homely, you HAVE to be nice to survive at my house.

So, I've known for a while that Warren was on his way out, but hadn't really had time to do anything about it.

Well, about a week ago, my chicken friend Diana posted that a mysterious new rooster magically appeared in her back yard. She went to close in her birds for the night, and there in the middle of everyone was a young black copper marans cockerel. We've joked in our group about "roostering" someone- dropping a rooster into a friend's yard while everyone is asleep. And, since this sort of practical joke is right up my alley, I think she suspected me. I promised I was innocent, but that I would be interested in trading roosters. Her friend, a vet, is wanting to investigate de-crowing a rooster, but since the procedure is a bit tricky, with a high mortality rate, she didn't want to experiment with an expensive rooster.

Yesterday, I dropped Warren off. I'm not sure if he'll have the de-crowing procedure done on him, or if she's going to have him for dinner, but really study his vocal cords  before she eats him, but I think it's an intriguing idea. I think ultimately, if decrowing roosters could become more feasible, it would save a lot of roosters lives.

I can't remember what Diana named this boy, but given his magical appearance, I wanted to name him after a magician, so I went for the most legendary musician of all time.

Houdini, black copper marans cockerl

Introducing Houdini.

I put him in the coop last night after everyone was down for the night. This morning, I went to check on him, and found him nestled in a nest box with my bcm, who was trying to lay, and looking very annoyed with him for intruding on her space. So far, he seems to be getting along well with everyone.

Poor Chickensitters

I wonder why it is that all unusual stuff happens when I go out of town. I swear I'm not gone that often, but when I am, that's when the weird happens.

I was planning to go to Las Vegas this past weekend. I toyed with the idea of not having someone collect eggs at all because I didn't want to inconvenience anyone. A girlfriend called the day before I left and wanted  to buy eggs. I told her that if she came and collected while I was gone, she could keep anything she collected for free.

fart egg on top

She came over the day before I left so I could show her what to do. I noticed my older lavender ameraucana in the nest box. This has been happening more and more, and I'd been concerned- I'd see her in the box, but then she'd never lay anything. I have found 4-5 "fart eggs" that I was guessing were coming from her. I've started to be concerned that she was laying internally, or that something wasn't right with her.

I warned T of my concerns, and said if something happened, I wouldn't be too surprised.










As it turns out, the chicken did pass away on Saturday. I feel bad about it. I'm wondering if maybe the chickens were possibly too closely bred? That means I lost both of them within a few months, and definitely prematurely. I'm thinking my chicken babysitter wasn't too broken up though- she told me she collected well over a dozen eggs, and she kind of wants chickens now.

On a happier note, my speckled sussex has begun laying. I think she actually started a couple weeks ago.  There's another egg that's started appearing that's a very, very pale cream color. Definitely not white, but very light. Maybe it belongs to the coronation sussex? I haven't been able to catch the hen in the act.

Potato Farmers

I let all of the big kids out to free range while I harvested potatoes. They thought it was the funniest thing that I was scratching around in the dirt like them, and were constantly underfoot, especially the lavender ameraucana.

Whatcha doing, huh? Huh? Why you digging in the dirt? You want me to help? Am I in the way if I stand right here? Yes? How about now? See how helpful I'm being?

More of the not-so-helpful potato digging staff.

Thing 1 and Fonzie chilling out.

Who will lay next?!

Amongst the big kids, I have four pullets that have not started laying. Who do you think will lay next?

Carrie the Speckled Sussex

Of the group, Carrie, the speckled sussex, is the oldest. She's suddenly turned very red in the face, and I've seen her checking out the nest boxes. As of now, she is around 25ish weeks. I didn't hatch her, so I don't know for sure.

Thing 1

Next oldest is Thing 1. I didn't hatch her either, but I imagine she's very close in age to Carrie, so I'd guess 24 weeks old or so.

Shirley the adorable mutt

Next up is Shirley, the hen I saved from the eating basket. When I picked up eggs for my final school hatch, the 7th egg was a lovely blue egg, but it was kind of a strange, oblong shape. I worried that it wouldn't rotate correctly in the incubator, so I asked if I could swap it for a different egg. On the counter, she had a basket full of eggs that she'd collected for eating. I chose a pretty brown egg, and Shirley was the result. I think she may be a welsummer mix, or possibly a black sex link. Shirley is 21 weeks old.

Chloe the Coronation Sussex

Youngest of the bunch, but easily the biggest hen I own is Chloe. Cloe is the last to hatch from the batch that Shirley came from, and she was late and seemed to be struggling, so I helped her out. She bled a bit upon hatch, which made me feel awful, that I'd killed her. She also had curled toes that I had to fix. But look at her now! I am so thrilled with how beautifully she's turned out. I have no idea if she's "show quality" or not, but I sure think she's pretty.


I think my money is on either Chloe or Carrie laying first, but I think it'll be Carrie. I think that Thing 1 will be the last to lay.

Integration

After losing a couple chickens, I'd decided I wanted to keep my two flocks separate for a few months to make sure that I didn't have a huge outbreak of LL.  However, since a couple months went by with nothing, and the temperatures are starting to drop, I decided to integrate. The idea of buying two water heaters, having two supplemental lights set up, etc. etc got to buy a little overwhelming.

Jones and his fan club

I wanted the two groups to have a couple "playdates" before I took down the fence that separated the two coops. So, while I would be outside working on putting the garden to bed, I'd let everyone out so they could free range together. Everyone seemed to get along really well, so after a few days of that, I took down the fence. It seems to have gone fairly smoothly. My two roosters have been going at it a little bit, I think- both of them have slightly scabby combs, but they don't fight in front of me at all. It's kind of funny though- a couple of Jones' hens will sit there and almost groom his comb and wattles. They remind me of groupies. Jones is the white legbar rooster.

Warren the Black Copper Marans

I will admit he cuts a more dashing figure than Warren, the black copper marans. But, I suspect Warren is going to get better looking as he comes into himself. Even at his best, he's not going to be a very good example of a black copper marans- his color is too dark, more of a mahogany than an orange color. I also suspect his shape isn't great. his tail has some white, which is bad, but that could go away with his first molt.

Meanwhile, poor lonely Fonzie kept escaping from his corner of the coop so often that I finally gave up on protecting him from the rest. I think he's just so desperate to be part of the flock that he's willing to put up with their abuse. He's so small that he can escape through the chain link if needs' be. When I go out there, he comes running, and if I don't pick him up, he tries to fly up to me. Little bugger is growing on me. I can't have a FOURTH rooster, so I'm hoping he either turns mean or I'm wrong and Fonzie is actually a girl.






Everyone is still sleeping in their original quarters though- zero integration at night. Egg laying was segregated until yesterday- I found a marans egg in the other coop. Otherwise, they've kept that separate as well.