Today I just shored up the chicken coop for the coming arctic blast. Over the coming Spring I plan to make the changes more permanent (i.e. with hinges and latches and such) but for now the lower venting windows are all covered-over with scraps and feedbags and whatnot.
Since the gals were not bothered by the nesting-box curtains I added awhile ago, I stapled up a simple feed-bag fringe-door cover for between the run and house. I hope it blocks some of the cold, and they are not too freaked out to go thru it. If so, I can easily pop it back off.
Molting
This morning I thought my chickens must have had a huge pillow-fight overnight in the coop - there was an explosion of white feathers everywhere! But it's just Snowflake, the white Leghorn, molting. White feathers really do stand out, though!I was delighted to get 2 eggs so far today - maybe even 3, since Honeysuckle the buff Minorca hen is still busy in the box. I do miss eggs from Mocha (light-greenish eggs) and from Astrid, my Hamburg (small light pinkish ones, delicately shaped). They are both just finishing their molt. Snowflake's self-inflicted pillow-fight most likely signifies the start of her molt, so it will be awhile before we get back to our daily supply of jumbo white eggs... By next Spring we should be up to about a dozen a day! Yikes!
Chipmunk's Rooster Woes
I have a small mixed flock of 14 birds, just over half of which are non-bantam. We had 2 (accidental) Silkie roosters, Chipmunk and Freyr. After much consideration, we gave Freyr, the more dominant one, away. The girls had accepted Freyr's advances, but he harassed my husband, and having 2 roos was too much noise.Chipmunk tries, but he is really bad at roostering. He has no idea how to flirt with the girls - they run away from him. It's worse than watching middle-schoolers on the playground. Occasionally when he does jump on one, he is too small to, um, make the connection. In the morning when I let them out, I watch him chase girl after girl with no luck. It's really kinda sad to watch, although I did have to laugh when the largest gal we have just stood her ground and gave him a "oh really?" look this morning. Is there anything I can do to help him integrate better into the flock? The girls all laugh at him, poor boy!
I have tried little things... He sleeps outside on the run's roosting bar with the one gal he does NOT harass (Mocha), and when it's cold, we move them both into the coop. I try to put them both on the highest roosting bar. The 2 Silkie gals are usually broody, but when then are out and about in the morning he's on them first thing if he can be.
He's not aggressive, he's just freakin' clueless on how to entice the ladies. He's an incredibly adorable bird (a Partridge Silkie) but just an absolute loser in the Mojo & Flirting department. I hope he can improve.
No comments:
Post a Comment