WARNING! |
 |
WARNING! |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Last Updated: 2/20/10
Pondet Broods Again
Additional Small Updates
Pondet Broods a Third Time
On 4/27/07, Pondet, decided to go broody. She is sitting on just a single egg since I collect the eggs daily to prevent her going broody (didn't work obviously). She last hatched two chicks in 2005. The survivor, Speckles, is the father of her baby so Pondet is trying to hatch her baby which is simultaneously her grandbaby. The baby is due to hatch on 5/18/07 so I will let you know what happens. Here is a photo of her brooding on 4/29/07: Pondet brooding her one egg.
On 5/17/07, I cheeped near Pondet who was acting like something was happening. I thought I heard a cheep back. I thought Chickie was piping. It was not until I got home on 5/18/07 that I first saw Chickie. I took photos of course which you can see here. Chickie is mostly yellow so she will mostly be white as an adult like most Delaware's. Chickie is 75% Delaware and 25% Araucana. The next morning, Pondet wanted Chickie to jump out of the nest box but she did not know how even though I had put some ramps in. I finally late in the morning picked up Chickie and put her on the ground barely avoiding Pondet's wrath. Chickie is very reserved, small, and not at all boisterous. I am hoping that means Chickie is female. Pondet tried to beat up some bread, grapes, and mealworms into smaller pieces for Chickie but as of 5/19/07, I have not seen Chickie actually eat anything. I put up a barrier of chicken wire to keep the other chickens away from Pondet and Chickie. It is not a great barrier but it should suffice for the month or so before Chickie is probably going to be safe. I am so worried that a snake will get Chickie like it did Sprouty two years ago. Chickie is darling and does not have any obvious problems despite the inbreeding. My father went out and got some chick starter (minus the antibiotics). Chickie's first night after leaving the nest was spend under Pondet in the open, in mild rain showers! I set up a plastic storage tub on its side with fresh hay so they could nest in there since Chickie cannot or will not climb the ramp to the nest box in which he/she hatched. They so far have not used the ground level nest either. I am worried about exposure. Pondet will not let me move Chickie. She is very protective.
Update 5/28/07. So far, so good! Chickie now has her first real feathers on the wing tips which are white with a little gray like Pondet. I made three videos of Chickie and Pondet which you can see on the bird videos page.
Update 6/17/07: Chickie is now a month old and healthy. I was afraid Chickie showed signs of being male. Chickie has a lot of dark color unlike Pondet and is very lanky (long legs and neck). I hope I am wrong, and Chickie is female. Speckles flew into their area once as did Poulet. No harm came of it aside from Speckles having his way with his mother. I have not put them together all the time because I am worried that Chickie might get under the fence where Sugar is and get stuck or hurt. Chickie has a lot of feathers now and can flap fly a few feet.
When I went to check on the chickens the night of 6/24/07, Pondet and Chickie were up on the outside roost! It is six feet in the air! The nest box is about 2.5 feet off the ground and nearby so they hopped up onto there first and then flew to the roost. I had not even seen Chickie ever on the nest box or fly more than a few feet horizontal to the ground so this was a surprise. I said, "How did you get up there Chickie?" She cocked her head as if to ask, "Where are the mealworms?" I have been letting Speckles in with his mother and sibling/offspring for short periods of time when I am filling up their bowls. Speckles chases his screaming mother until he can rape her. Chickie at the same time goes to the other side and runs in circles screaming too so it is too stressful for her still. I was going to wait a few weeks to combine the two "flocks" (if you can call two chickens a flock) even though Pondet and Chickie are now roosting in the open and got soaked in a thunderstorm their first night there.
On 6/29/07, I found Pondet and Chickie on the outside roost again. Again, there were thunderstorms which they both weathered just fine. I decided to start the flock integration on 6/30/07. I removed the door between the two runs. Speckles co-mingled with his mother and daughter/sister. They seemed to get along okay. Sugar is in his caged-in area, and the girls have not gone under there yet (which I worry about). Poulet will not come down off the roost. Her nails are overgrown so I cut them. She made a lot of noise and upset the other chickens. When I put her down, she ate a lot of food like she was starving which she must be because I never see her on the ground! She went right back up to the roost inside the house. She needs light and exercise! Of course, so does Sugar but I do not have the ability to build something better for him. Later in the day, Pondet and Chickie took a dust bath in the house. Pondet kicked dirt all over her daughter. Did I say daughter? Well, it seems that Chickie now has some decididly female traits. She is small, female-shaped, small comb, and the tail feathers have stopped starting to stick out. So, my mother now swears she is female. I am thinking that maybe she is! I will add more updates later.
When I went to check on the chickens on the night of 7/1/07, Poulet, Speckles, and Pondet were all up in the roost in the house. Sugar was in his area. Chickie was on the ground crying (the equivalent for chickens anyway). So, I put her up next to her mamma. I watched for a few minutes. Poulet starting pecking ferociously at Pondet and Chickie. Speckles tried to protect his mother/lover and daughter/sister but Poulet was persistent. Chickie flew down. Eventually, Pondet flew to the other side of the house. Finally, she and Speckles flew down. When I checked a few hours later, Pondet and Chickie were roosting on the outside roost. If this keeps up, I may have to quarantine Poulet in with Sugar so she can stop being so mean to the other girls. Poulet spends almost her entire life up on that roost and really needs to get down.
The night of 7/2/07, I put Poulet in with Sugar. I put Chickie on the roost. This time, Speckles, Pondet, and Chickie were able to roost inside in peace. In the morning, Poulet escaped when I took the bowls out by going under the fence. I will see what happens tonight.
Luckily, that night Poulet slept at the other end of the beam roost. They seem to get along okay now. The problem by 7/5/07 is that Pondet does not want to come off the roost during the day because of Speckles (who wants to mount her). So, Speckles is now baby sitting Chickie! Speckles is giving food to Chickie and spending time with her while Poulet and Pondet hide up inside the house! Chickie is so sweet and cute beyond words.
Chickie had her final integration test. I found her in with Sugar on 7/5/07. He did not harm her. I coaxed her oat with mealworms. Later that night, she was in there again and would not come out so I went to get mealworms. When I got back, she was in the window sill. The next morning, when I came back with their bowls, she was in with Sugar again. She came out to eat. Poulet and Pondet are still cowering up on the roost because of the roosters while baby Chickie is spending time with two huge roosters.
On 7/6/07, at night, when I checked on them, Chickie was roosting below, alone so I put her next to her mother, Pondet. Pondet immediately pecked at Chickie a lot, and Chickie cried. Pondet would not stop so I moved Chickie next to Speckles who protected her. I guess Pondet thinks that tiny little Chickie is all grown up but she is still so small! It is sad when the mother hen turns on the babies; it usually does not happen so soon (7 weeks).
The next day, 7/7/07, Pondet and Poulet came off the roost after a few hours. Pondet attacked Chickie by standing on her and pecking viciously. Chickie hid in the nest box. I took photos on the photo page of Chickie in there. Later, she went in with Sugar who is nice to her. He hands her foods like mealworms that I put in. She is so small and can easily go under the fence when she wants. I think she prefers being with her grandfather instead of her now nasty mother.
Update 8/18/07: Sometime about a week ago, Chickie lost her "cheep." She know makes noises closer to those her mother makes. She seems very small for her age. Her mother still attacks her if they are near to each other so Chickie usually hides in the separation cage with her grandfather Sugar. Pretty soon, she will be old enough for more incest in the chicken house. I wish the boys would just leave the hens alone!
By 9/20/07, nothing has really changed. Chickie is a little bigger but she is still the pariah. She goes under the fence to join Sugar or up on the new high roost to get away from her mother who attacks her whenever she can. Unlike her mother's side of the family where hens have big combs, she got her grandfather's side of the family's trait of small combs. She has almost no comb like her great-aunt Spicey (who died a while back).
On 2/16/08, Chickie laid her first egg. It was green like her great aunt Spice's egg but a little bit larger. My mother ate it and said it was the best egg ever. Things in the chicken house remain the same. Sugar is in his enclosure. Pondet and Poulet mostly stay up on the roost. Chickie and Speckles (her father, half-brother, and lover; talk about inbreeding!) walk around the main areas which the other girls are missing out on (of their own volition).
On 5/24/08, Pondet went broody. My mother flipped out about how we cannot have more chickens (which I knew, like it was my fault she wanted to be a mother again!). So, using a board, I stole her eggs. She squalked (how in the world do you spell that?) and puffed up. I picked her up having a fit and put her to bed. She had gone broody on one of her eggs (fathered by her son) and one of Poulet's eggs (the only hen not related to the roosters by blood). I feel like I destroyed her life (certainly those of her babies).
A month or so later, Chickie also went broody (just for the day). In early August, Pondet went broody on six of her own eggs that were in the caged area with Sugar so I had not yet removed them. Boy did she have a fit when I took those. The morning of 8/3/08, I entered the chicken house to find Sugar hanging upside down. His spur was hooked on the fence dividing him from the other chickens (for all the good it does since they all seem to come and go under the fence). I unhooked him. He had been hanging all night. At first, he could not walk. I thought his leg was broken. He limped for a few days but then seemed fine so I guess the injury was temporary and healed. For a few days there, I thought he was a goner. Now that he is older and badgered by his son, Speckles, he no longer seems aggressive with me. Speckles is nice to me but he is constantly force mating the three girls including his mother Pondet and daughter/half sister Chickie. They scream in agony and wildly try to get away but my mother insists it is not rape.
There has not been much to report lately. On 11/27/08, I soaked Poulet's feet in some warm water with Epsom salts to work off a ton of poop, dirt, and feathers stuck to her feet. I also trimmed her nails. She has had trouble walking and even standing. I hope that helps her but I fear she will not be around much longer. The other chickens seem the same as always.
When Pondet went broody for about the fourth time this year on 7/26/09, my mother said it was okay if I let her hatch her egg but, if it turned out to be a boy, I would have to "pay the consequences." This will be Pondet's third hatch. Her son Speckles (along with Sprouty who was eaten by a snake as a chick) was her first in , and daughter Chickie was her second. I am going to believe this baby is a girl so I have named her Petunia even though she is not yet born. There is a possibility that one of Chickie's eggs is under Pondet as well but I have not seen under there yet. Chickie's baby would have a father who was also her/his grandfather and uncle which is a bit too much inbreeding! Pondet's baby will have a father who is also his/her half brother (as Chickie has).
Ut, oh! Pondet was off the nest mid-day on 8/1/09 (Saturday so I was home). She has two eggs of her own and three of Chickie's! That is five potential babies. Two of the Chickie eggs were very dirty and probably old ones that I did not see in the straw so hopefully those will not hatch. The newer Chickie egg may have been deposited during the week so it may not hatch either if abandoned early to take the others off the nest. I did not want Chickie's doubly-inbred babies to be incubated but do not have the heart to kill them now that they are growing. Some chicks may fall victim to predators, chickens, accident, weather, etc. so time will tell what we get.
Well, my mother saw Pondet off the nest on 8/5/09 and called me at work screaming. She demanded that I remove most of the eggs. I refused. She said she was going to kill all of them but she did let two remain. I told her to remove the green eggs (Chickie's) over the brown eggs (Pondet's) so I guess I am complicit in the murder of three of my innocent grandchicks who were 50% formed and ready for life.
On 8/15/09, Pondet started acting like something was happening but I did not see or hear baby Petunia until I came home from work on 8/17/09. I found the other baby in the nest box that my mother named Daisy. The baby had piped and was fully formed inside the broken egg. It appeared to have died either by being squished or suffocated by its mother. I was sad for him/her but tried to focus on Petunia. The last two times that Pondet had babies, I kept them separate from the flock for fear they would be harmed. This time, the chickens are all together. Speckles is a good father. Poulet and Chickie have not bothered the baby and do not even seem interested in her. I will call Petunia a girl because that was what she has to be. It will take months to know Petunia's sex for sure [Luckily, she would turn out to be a girl.] Petunia is very boisterous and loves to eat bread and mealworms the most. I can tell that my grandchick is very smart.
I have put up photos on the chicken photo page. Petunia has almost died at least twice from being stepped on. Both times, I heard her crying and found her laying on her side unable to get up. I picked her up and eventually she was able to walk. It is dangerous being so small. Even if she were just with her mother, she is in danger. I think it was her mother who stepped on her both times. The second time, she was seemingly violently pecking at her baby but I think she was trying to prod her to get up. I was so afraid I lost her.
As of 8/29/09, Petunia is doing well! I am surprised it has gone so well for her. It has not gone as well for 8-year-old Poulet who has been near death for months now. Not only does Speckles bite her head and squish her while mounting her at his leisure but Pondet has decided to mount her (dominance, not sexual) and peck her head violently for long periods of time. Perhaps Pondet thought Poulet was a danger to Petunia which is ridiculous. Poulet was screaming and bleeding a lot. And yet, at night, Pondet cuddles with Poulet with both of them brooding Petunia even. Poulet cannot walk easily; her feet are turned under, arthritis perhaps. Despite my parents disagreeing, I could not take Pondet's suffering anymore and brought her inside. I put her in a large dog kennel today. I got her to eat a few mealworms but she otherwise will not eat or drink. I put Neosporin on her bloody head. Chickens can be so caring with each other and then turn and be utterly violent. I do not think Poulet is even happy to be away from her tormentors but at least she can now die in peace.
Update 9/5/09: Petunia is doing really well. She still seems very small but feels heavier. Poulet is still inside and now eating enough to sustain herself. She cannot do much. She tries to move using her "arms" (wing tips) but it is very hard for her. She does enjoy her mealworms though. Petunia can put down more than a dozen at once!
Update 10/10/09: Petunia is doing well. She is fully feathered but a bit small for her age. Petunia shows no male characteristics at this age because she is a girl. On this day for the first time, I found Pondet on the high roost clucking to Petunia who was cheeping on the ground. She still cannot get up there so I lifted her up. I just hope she does not fall off during the night! I hope she can stay warm enough up there. Pondet's previous two chicks (Speckles and Chickie) were both roosting earlier than Petunia.
Update 10/28/09: Petunia still spends the night under her mother on the ground but she can fly up to even the highest roosts if she wants to do so.
Petunia laid her first egg on 2/11/10. It was laid at six months of age almost exactly, strange how that is always the case! It was large and green. The colored eggs are dominant so her egg is green even though she is only a quarter Araucana. Petunia is almost identical to her mother Pondet. Chickie has also put on mass. The only way I can tell the three girls apart is by the size and shape of their combs and wattles. Because Chickie has a short krinkly comb like Spicey (Araucana like Sugar) had while Petunia's is large like her mother's, I think that maybe Chickie's father was Sugar after all and not her brother Speckles. If that is the case, then Chickie was not inbred. Sugar has taking a "liking" to his daughter/half sister Petunia! The roosters just never learn.
After almost six months indoors (since 8/29/09), most of that time completely lame, Poulet died on 2/18/10. She was alive when I came home at 5:10 PM but gone by 5:30 PM. Until the last few days, Poulet used her wings to move about and really savored her nightly mealworms. It was a lot of work taking care of her indoors but it was not all bad. She was a fighter.
Wind & Weather sells neat things for your garden!
|
Copyright 1997-2010 Robyn Rhudy
