Hennies Home

My dear ones came home late yesterday afternoon. Included in them was a confusion piece, a very young Australorp that “they” couldn’t tell between my giant grown up ones. Ah, well, I am the one who loves them so and I wasn’t there to collect them. That’s how it goes with DH, he isn’t “as aware” as I am of the things I know on sight. So I have a youngster in the yard, who was coupled with another of her kind for the ride over, but she wasn’t tolerated in the final spot to live. I got her out, but not before she broke away and tried to flee, but I got her in less than a minute, and she is living under one of my “baskets”, as Hawklady used to for awhile.

That youngster will be with me for about a week, then go back to where she came from. I have a few comments about her care, and my hennies care, too. My hennies are special. I love them dearly. I was sad that they left, but was reassured that their new caregivers would be fine. They were not. It wasn’t that they weren’t fine, but it’s that they took new biddies in without quaratine, and put them into a large flock in a movable operation, huge, lots of biddies. That’s a big no-no, opposite of how I do things.

My Hawklady was alone on the trip home. She was a mess. She was frazzled to the nth degree of frazzolity. I put her on the grass under a “basket” but she was flipping out. So I got the cat carrier and put her in and brought her to a safe enclosed place. She’s looking much better this morning, actually she seemed to calm down a lot after a bit last night, but it looks like she might have been preening, a great sign.

She has been picked on for a long time, whenever I tried to re-orient her with her other friends. She was in with the other W’s from a young age, but over time she wasn’t tolerated, though she’s a nice girl, too nice for them, maybe. It’s alright, special treatment for her is A-OK. [I put her out on the grass under a “basket” a little bit ago, and she’s OK there, though she looks to be calmer and more chipper, she looks like she’s gone through a war, and needs tranquility and time to beautify. When feathers come back, glorious biddiehood returns!]

I’m going to give special treatment to the little “A” under the basket, while she’s here. I hope I can get the place where she’ll be to recognize how much better she looks then, and that she needs to be on her own, or with in some sort of re-orientation program, checking to be sure she’s not pecked to bloodiness. She’s young and I doubt whether she’s laying yet. Very small, maybe three to four months, from my estimation, unless she’s not really an “A” though she does look like one, but missing particular feathers to prove it out to the end right now, all that “pecking” ugh. [further inspection makes me say, pecked really hard! poor thing. She looks like a young A, but her waddles and comb, while small, are obvious and really red, so …?]

My two W’s look fine, but missing some feathers on the small of the back. Were they mini-molting, or pecked? But they look happy and chipper. The four A’s look nice now that they’ve settled down. There were some really ruffly times at first, but all’s quiet on that front now. Three of them look nice and have very red combs, the other is more pale. So out of them I hope to get some product, maybe 5 today? I hope so. Of them, they mostly all have some “missing feathers” in the back somewhere.

It’s my experience that it’s good to have small segments, segregation, in other words. It’s best to have fewer in any pen. It’s good for them. To have good production you want happy biddies. Happy biddies are in smaller groups. They are happier, I am happier. They look lovely when they are happy and full of what they should be looking like. If they are stripped due to stress and pecking, then something must change. They can molt, that’s natural, and that is not the same as stress and pecking. So it’s one thing if it’s a natural occurance, but if it’s stress, then those are not happy biddies.

[UPDATE: 9:20pm – The little biddie layed an egg … it was a standard size, about a 2 oz. size, I weighed it. I looked at her all over several times today and then searched online for photos and absolutely found that she LOOKS like a Bantam Australorp, but her egg was standard size, and it did have some bloody streaks on it, so I’ll check her often this week. I do want to keep her, and hope I can. She’s much happier now, seemingly very interested in us humans who keep looking at her close-up. 🙂

Both Wyandottes laid today, and also Hawklady. None of the regular Australorps laid though.

Hawklady looks really beaten up. I looked her over today some more and it’s so very sad. She’s starting to “coo” again though, so feeling better, it seems. She has many feathers to grow back. All over her head, and her lower back and most of her tail, her tail is so frazzled, most feathers missing, the few remaining so very tattered, it’s just too sad to contemplate how she must have felt, how she was treated, oh how sad.

My ladies are my friends and I do love them and make sure they are looking good and not pecking each other, looking healthy, all that goes together. I care for them, and they bring me joy, and eggs in return. It’s a mutal cycle of love, they doing what they love, me aiding them in doing it, and me reaping rich benefits in feeling and food, and giving them feedback via treats and sweet words, which makes me feel good all over again. 🙂

So today I did get eggs, nearly as many as I hoped for, but they came from everyone else, none from my projected hopefuls. The two beaten up ladies laid, and the two very fine GL Wyandottes laid, good for you lasses!]