1 year old chickens in saddles

Well, actually, I'm a bit slack, we've had the jerk squad since October the 17th 2015
(I'm not sure of the actual hatch date of any of the fluffers)

 

Day 1 the squeekers arrive at their new home

 

 

A lot has happened in a year, we lost Roo Boy, Lacey recovered from coccidiosis,

Nigella and Frankie were swapped for Bonnie and Clyde (and then Clyde went too)

By mid winter all the ladies were laying.

One duck lady lays every day in her crater in the coop, although I'm still not sure whether it's Whitney or Bonnie. Our other ducky girl lays on the concrete so I'm always greeted with one broken egg and one perfect crater egg.

The chicky ladies are less consistent, although there is always at least one egg from them in the nesting box, thankfully they haven't decided to hoard eggs in hidden locations yet (that I know of...)

 

Past one year old, Chuck has moved on from cockerel ball to fluffy little rooster man. 50% hormones and 50% fluff he definitely considers himself a man's man, protector of hens and ducks.

 

Unfortunately it also means challenging authority in the form of T and miss A, who sometimes resort to carrying water guns as Chuck's spurs are growing and he is figuring out how to use them without falling on his butt.
It sounds bad, but he isn't an overly aggressive rooster, the vast majority of the time he's fine. But every so often you'll feel something thud against the back of your legs and turn to discover a puffed up Chuck staring at you.

 

The odd times he does try attack are when he feels his ladies are in danger for whatever reason, and for a free ranging flock I'm glad to have him watching out for them. The magpies keep the hawks distracted, but there are still hedgehogs and the occasional cat around.

Besides, it is still spring. I'm interested to see what his behaviour is like once the desperate need to have babies passes and he matures a bit more.

I still remind him, you're lucky you are so pretty

 

 

I'm also hoping as he matures he'll get a better handle on this whole 'makin' babies' business..

there are a few people still interested in fertile eggs, and I can understand with Lizzy being broody recently that her eggs wouldn't be fertile right now

Lacey is looking awfully scruffy, as Chuck's favourite girl she is missing head feathers and a lot of the top of her tail. Her eggs are fertile

Sunny is spoting bald patches, starting to loose the top of her tail... her eggs.. are not fertile?

and Blue has a few bald patches on top but is a fully feathered puff ball. Her latest egg is unfertile

weird

I think maybe Chuck has issues balancing, it doesn't help that the girls still don't squat for him

but either way he doesn't seem to be completing the deed.

Or maybe I need to trim some butt feathers...

 

Regardless, we don't really like the idea of completely bald chickens under the hot summer sun, or Chuck hurting the girls with his claws so saddles were in order

Yup, chicken saddles

 

 

Little fabric jackets held on by loops of elastic that fit over a hens wings (we got ours from sunsetcroft.co.nz) there is a braid of black cord across the back to help the rooster grip on.

I had read that it can take a bit of time for the girls to get used to wearing a saddle, that they can walk backwards for some time or freak out, that it was possible they'd just shake it off and loose it forever in a paddock somewhere

 

With the exception of Sunny (who complained and struggled) they were easy to slip on, and all 4 hens just carried on like normal, the saddles didn't stop them from dustbathing or carrying on with normal chicken duties.

We did remove the saddles for a few days to let the girls preen their backs, and haven't put them back on yet after removing them from soggy chickies after torrential spring down pours.

 

The flock still like helping out in the garden

 

 

(Lacey is behind the lawnmower)

 

Helping to clean the coop

 

 

And helping to fill a new clean pond with dirt and poop

 

 

Some things change, but some things stay the same

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lizzy dreams of plastic children

I always thought if a hen were to go broody, it'd be Blue. Even before she started laying, she was the most interested in the nesting boxes. The hen who hunkers down for hours and just gets comfy in there.

A couple weeks ago I went in to the coop to check on Lizzy, she'd been on her nest for 5 hours now! she puffed up at the sight of an intruder and made angry dinosaur noises at me. She growled as I searched in her warm tummy fluff to see if she had laid, pulling out 2 eggs.
Oh! one is a plastic training egg, okay, I don't need that.
I placed it back in front of Lizzy,
She pauses
then reaches out and carefully tucks the plastic egg back under her fluff. Puffing out again to keep her 'baby' warm.

 

Now, it's getting towards summer down here, and I'm being bombarded with baby chick and duck photos on facebook. Videos of adorable puffy mamas and cheeping tiny babies, little duckies having their first swims... I'm trying very hard to not add to our flock! there are already more than a few chicken breeds I'd like. But we don't need more fluffers right now, we already have too many eggs, 5 chickens and 3 ducks is fine.
So I had no plans for Lizzy to have actual non plastic eggs, some hens can get over being broody, but we were worried Lizzy would sit and waste away pining for her unborn plastic chicks.
But how do you break a broody hen?

 Blue was in another nesting box, sympathy brooding I guess as she never actually sits for too long. Both hens were moved outside and plied with sunflower seeds.
Blue instantly forgot her warm comfy spot, but as night fell and the birds settled, Lizzy had returned to her plastic egg.

The next day she was even more determined, if moved away from her nest to mingle and forage, she would scurry around before high tailing it back.
Chuck lowered his wing and danced around her, Lizzy puffed up and growled at him.
I'd read that some people place ice in nesting boxes to make the area uncomfortable and to cool a hen down, we didn't actually try this as I was worried the hens would stop wanting to lay in the boxes. We did try giving Lizzy a cool bath (while giving her a butt clean) but nothing would deter her.
Lizzy wanted plastic babies

 

So we invested in an anti-baby cage ( a large dog cage) with a wire floor, something that would allow air flow, to cool her down, make her a bit bored,

something that could be moved outdoors when the flock moved outside during the day so they wouldn't forget her and she could hopefully remember being a non puff ball chicken.

She complained, and kicked over her food bowl until we tied it to the cage. She tried nesting in the water dish, I reached in to give her fresh water, she thanked me by flying up at my face and running as fast as her little legs would carry her back to her little plastic egg.
At night the cage was moved into the coop so she could chat to her friends, she backed up into the corner and spread herself as wide as she could.

 

After 6 days and a few cooling foot baths miss Lizzy slowly transformed from a puffy, clucky, angry ball of hormones back to her cheeky chicken self

 

 

I think she forgives me. She even started laying again a few days ago!

 

 

Blue on the other hand, is still happy to be a part time nest hog, full time tart