Yesterday, I cleaned brooders and moved babies...a lot of babies. It has been hot and humid and I have been worried about the babies in the shed. We have kept the door open and a fan going constantly but they had been getting out and going on the back porch and we were afraid the dogs would get them. We lost a young rooster a few days ago, he decided he wanted to check out the back yard when the dogs were back there. We are pretty sure our dog Bailee killed him. He was dead in the corner of the yard, it had bite marks or so Crew said. There have been several times the chickens have jumped the fence, but this is the first death. I started putting the dogs in the house when it is almost time for Crew to come home from work, they know that he will give them treats and they don't always like to wait...the chickens have started jumping the fence and milling around waiting for Crew to come out and feed them scratch grains...or crack as it is known in the chicken circles.
I let the roosters out of the Rooster Condo and started hauling babies and putting them inside. We moved the Polish Juveniles in with the babies...they are bigger but had been seriously picked on by others...most are bald on most of their head. They seem so more relaxed now and no one is picking on them...and they were enjoying dust bathing. The roosters are spending the night in the big coop tonight, but I didn't get gates built for pens yet again and when I do I will separate roosters out again. My poor hens are looking very bad, at least the ones the roosters favor are...I need to fix that.
A young man that I sold eggs to a few days ago stopped by and bought a few chicks from me, he also bought some duck eggs to eat. The first carton I pulled out and opened up had two eggs that looked really dark in them...I am guessing they had cracks in them that I didn't see and probably went bad. That is rather embarrassing. I try my best to candle everything and make sure it is good when I am washing and putting them in cartons, I am glad my new egg candler arrived. It seems to work pretty well...I washed and candled eggs and took out probably ten that were cracked or questionable. I gather eggs every day, multiple times some days...but I still have hens wanting to have babies and they tend to hoard eggs and move nests, and possibly eggs too...I think they crack them, some do it when they use their beak to tuck the eggs under themselves. Some hens crawl in the nest box and lay eggs on top of them, it gets a little crazy when three hens are in a single nest box.
Last night when I went to put up the poultry, I separated a female duck who was being chased by three males into one of the breeding pens with three others that were in there. This time of year it is bad for the females, it is mating season and the boys are pretty much little horn dogs. They basically gang rape the hens every chance they get. I feel bad for the girls. We are going to attempt to separate the male ducks out and leave them in the duck area today. Duck egg production has dropped way off, but I think they are molting, the drakes feathers are all mottled and ragged looking. I checked on the babies I moved too, it is funny how they pile in a corner to sleep. The Polish were piled in the center of the run, but the juveniles were mostly in one corner, with one or two scattered here and there. I took two of the roosters from the top of the water tote that is hooked up to the big coop and transferred them into the coop, my Blue Splash Andalusian and Speckled Sussex rooster are two of my favorites, I don't want to loose them to the owl that likes to hunt early in the mornings.
Maybe today I can get a few gates built for the breeding pens and separate some roosters and drakes out. If not, tomorrow is another day...
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