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LOUD (CCL) CHICKS!! YAY!!

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HeraTeleia
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Update: Loud is still firmly opposed to going outside. Also, he's a goofball, which I already knew. I took him outside to talk with the girls and he sprinted away, with this weird high-kick run, towards the bushes. I brought him back inside. \

I can't remember is I mentioned that I bought eight CCL eggs in the hopes of producing my own flock for Loud. Even Murray McMurray (IA) Hatchery can't guarantee the availability of day old CCL chicks, so I was going alternate. Nope, all eight eggs--and the peeps inside--died, sometime prior to day 14 but after day 8. It's kind of awful to candle an egg that only a couple of days before showed distinct signs of growth, and instead see a "blood ring", a sign of the peep's death.

Anyway, on the bright side, one of the girls was making a racket outside just a bit ago and I finally went out to see what was up, after Lily came back in--which she wouldn't do if there was an actual threat--and the fussing continued. Four eggs! Still warm!! One was on the patio table, another on a chair, and the other two in the coop. So that makes me happy.

I do think that there might be a reason Crested Cream Legbar chickens are a dying breed, despite being an old breed. They just don't do well with human intervention. Murray McMurray can tell you, to the day, when chicks will be available and the sex of the chicks anticipated to be available, on probably 90% of their day old chicks. Nope. Not CCL chicks.
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FrednEthel
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DO NOT CALL THE POLICE:

From This American Life, a story about a rookie cop’s first day:

The young officer and his partner are called to a house. The homeowner says something is moving in the attic.

Trying to be nice, the rookie volunteers to scope the situation out. He climbs the attic ladder, hefting his police issue flashlight, and pokes his head through the crawlspace, only to find a squirrel six inches from his face.

And the error pile-up begins.

Startled police officer drops flashlight — right on the homeowner’s nose.

Startled police officer then falls off ladder — onto partner.

Squirrel hops down ladder, over the downed officers, and finds refuge under the sofa.

The cops try to herd the squirrel out from under the sofa and into a cardboard box.

Squirrel makes a break for it — instead of the box, chooses the (lit) fireplace.

Squirrels, as it turns out, are highly flammable.

So are sofas. Squirrel runs out of fire and back under sofa.

Trying to put out the fire, the policemen turn over the sofa, and give the smoldering fire access to all the oxygen it needs to turn into a first-rate blaze.
HeraTeleia
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So Loud is still in my formal dining room, doing totally normally grown-up rooster things like sleeping on his back and yelling/crowing "Loud's a good bird" at random times of the day, until someone comes and picks him up and cuddles him. Very normal rooster things.

None of the prior eight CCL eggs actually hatched, probably due to the asshole seller charging me for FedEx overnight and then using a much cheaper, slower service. I have 18 in the incubator now, with my luck one will hatch--and it will be a rooster.

I have found Loud useful in one way, though. We live in an area heavy with LDS missionaries, and although I'm usually quite kind--they're young, and usually far from family, so I offer caffeine-free tea or soda or whatever--I've found a lovely way to run them (and JW missionaries) off in a hurry. Just answer the door cradling a 12 lb. rooster, with the rooster yelling/crowing "Love you". Then watch as the missionaries run away as fast as possible. One LDS missionary actually tripped over himself and sprained his ankle--but when I offered help, he started screaming about wickedness.

Here's a pic taken today.

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Unknown User
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Shared this post with my wife. She loves chickens and is still laughing as I write this. Thanks for the smile!
LYFBUZ
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That is a beautiful bird. Is it Irish or Italian?

Love the missionary story.
HeraTeleia
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Quote by JackStay
Shared this post with my wife. She loves chickens and is still laughing as I write this. Thanks for the smile!


Hey, if she's interested in a breed of chicken listed by assorted livestock conservancies as a 'breed of concern' or 'threatened' breed, have I got the deal for you. Shipping included! Caveats: he talks, as in words--turns out chickens, or at least some, have both the capacity for speech and the memory to learn and to use words/sentences appropriately. Which this rooster does, and often. I've honestly lost track of how many things he says, and clearly.

I didn't believe it myself, even after reading the research, because he's a damn chicken, until a neighbour came over and asked me to please not yell 'Good Morning' at my boys until I was inside the house. I work nights on L&D and she thought I was yelling at the boys when I came home from work.

I didn't correct her thinking that it was me. Because who the fuck would believe me anyway? Or not think I was a bit off--I mean, I am, I'm an L&D nurse who has as "hobbies" shooting (Glock pistols), floristry and oh, a little Search and Rescue/Recovery with FEMA's rapid response team here. So yah, entirely possible that I'm more than a bit off. Especially given that my skill set for SAR is mostly in the "recovery" phase, meaning the lost person is presumed dead, which changes the mission substantially.

Then it becomes my mission. I happen, for whatever reason, to have a peculiar talent--I've never not had it--for looking at things that appear to have no consistent pattern--and finding a pattern in the mess. Which makes me very good in at least limiting the number of places a body or body parts (bodies degrade kind of quick) could be, which in turn allows fewer SAR teams to go out, which means less risk to personnel.

Quote by LYFBUZ
That is a beautiful bird. Is it Irish or Italian?


English. Crested Cream Legbar, a breed over 500 years old down to < 1000 known "active" flocks, I think the number is 24 to be considered an "active" flock. And if that was a joke, I totally missed it.
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HeraTeleia
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Quote by Gillianleeeza
I know this is serious for you, but I appreciate your sense of humor in dealing with some aspects of your rooster problem.

Reading through this thread has made my day. On the one hand, I hope your chicken problems are resolved soon, but on the other, I want to keep reading about them. Thank you for sharing.


You're quite welcome.

As of today, I have six viable Crested Cream Legbar eggs in the incubator, out of a batch of 14 eggs. And I've bought a second coop, so Loud can have his own space. He's doing better at being a chicken, staying outside with the ladies for most of the day. He won't or doesn't know to go into the coop when it's dark. He comes and pecks on the patio door instead, then hops into his playpen. He mutters a little bit, as he's settling in on top of his K&H Thermo-Chicken pad, pulling bedding over himself before falling asleep on his side or back. Like any totally normal rooster.

Also, he doesn't know what to do when it rains. The ladies will all go either to their coop or under the covered portion of the patio. Loud just sits there next to the the living room window, doing that sort of whistling thing he does when he wants cuddles. Again, like any totally normal rooster.

Almost forgot. He also has exactly zero sense of "what is predator", even after the bloody brawl I posted about earlier. All the ladies, to some extent, also are missing the "what is predator" thing, d/t Lily, but Loud takes it next level. A couple of days ago, near dusk, a raccoon (raccoons will tear up a chicken) wandered into the yard. All the ladies started squawking and milling around as close to the house as possible. That squawking probably saved Loud's life, because dumbass chicken was heading towards the raccoon.

I loosed Lily and I ran to pick up Loud (which is a feat, the backyard still has a lot of buried original sculptural shit in it, like the koi pond--former koi pond--that I literally fell into); Lily handled the raccoon. Anatolians, like Great Pyrenees, only really have two modes--asleep and coming to kill you. Lily was in the latter mode. Loud is such a dumbass.

So I have my formal dining room back, sort of. Hoping that at least two or three of the eggs in the incubator hatch. We'll see.
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HeraTeleia
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Welp. Here we are, six to seven days away from the possible hatching of 0-4 CCL chicks, and...yup, Loud has managed to both up his "the fuck are you doing?" quotient and his asshole quotient.

I've been trying to move him outside all week, and this morning, he ran straight out the patio door...yay! That was immediately followed by no! LOUD! NO! because dumbass threatened breed full grown rooster ran directly across the patio and into the ladies' coop run.

Then, because he is exactly that smart, he couldn't figure out how to go up the ramp and into the coop, falling off twice before giving up. The ladies moved fast, trapping his idiot self in the run, under the coop, until I came out and shooed the ladies away, allowing Loud to go running off in his Forrest Gump-like high kick bizarre style. So that's the "the fuck are you doing" quotient.

He's now taken, since he still doesn't understand that he's a chicken, to either sitting by the patio doors and pecking at the glass while yelling "Loud's a good bird!" when he wants in. Which is all the damn time. I know, my fault, but also Google, which is full of information about why you shouldn't have a chicken as a pet, and has very little information on how to convince a chicken NOT to be a pet.

And this afternoon/evening, when a hard rain started up, Ruth (the Barnevelder hen) rounded up the rest of the ladies and they all sat on the patio furniture under cover. Ruth is easily around half of the other (Bielefelder) ladies' size, but she definitely runs the show. Pretty sure that when she is ready to go to bed, and standing in the coop door yelling, it's not nice--more like "Bitches! Bedtime!".

So she (Ruth) is yelling at Loud, but you can almost see the confusion and disappointment on her face. Rather than do whatever Ruth was wanting him to do, Loud runs to the low overhang from the living room windows. Then he sits there, making his little cooing sounds that he makes when he wants to be picked up, and periodically pecking at the glass until someone goes out and retrieves his sorry ass.

I can't take away his playpen, I've given up on a hasty move outside, so today I ordered another Insta-Brooder from Incubator Warehouse.

Keeping my fingers crossed, hoping for a couple of female chicks.
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Unknown User
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This is still the best forum thread to ever grace the pages of Lush. Mostly lurking, but I'm loving all the rooster facts. Loud is quite the character. hehe.
HeraTeleia
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Quote by VioletVixen
This is still the best forum thread to ever grace the pages of Lush. Mostly lurking, but I'm loving all the rooster facts. Loud is quite the character. hehe.


Thank you. Loud is still a dumbass--as in, he can't figure out why if he runs at the patio door he doesn't end up inside (or outside). Even with the patio door open, the "glass" vs. "no glass" concept eludes him. He's now entirely an outside chicken now, though, like it or not, because...

IT'S A GIRL!!!!


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Quote by HeraTeleia
Violet--the one chick to hatch out of however many I put in the incubator in the beginning--passed away in my hands Saturday morning. I'm so sorry.





Removes cap and places it over my chest My deepest condolences. RIP Violet.
HeraTeleia
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Quote by VioletVixen


Removes cap and places it over my chest My deepest condolences. RIP Violet.


Thank you. She's buried in a jeweller's box under a little cherry tree I planted last year, under a plaque reading "If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever". I am very attached to my pets--not in the "fur babies" way, in the "sense of responsiblity" way.

There wasn't anything to be done, although we, my veterinarian and myself, did try. Subcutaneous fluids and the like. She just never ate, and then developed that issue with diarrhea that is not at all uncommon in 3-7 day old chicks, and that was the end. Chicks, again the 0-7 day old sort, go downhill fast. I don't know how she hung on until I could pick her up, but she did. I would prefer to think that she died comfortably, warm in my hands, but I don't know.

Loud is back to sleeping inside like a totally normal rooster. He spends most of his time outside, but since he doesn't understand how the whole concept of "perch" works, he will fall asleep on the back step instead of going into the coop with the hens. So since I have a second playpen now, he is back to digging himself in, hauling bedding over himself, and sleeping on his side or back. Like any other totally normal rooster would sleep.
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HeraTeleia
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Time for an update!

Loud has become a sort-of real chicken, in the sense that most nights--probably six out of seven--he follows the hens into the coop. He has not, however, stopped being an idiot. For instance, the other morning, when I unlocked the coop and let the ladies out, he somehow managed to fall sideways off the ramp from the coop door to the run. And he still hasn't quite gotten the "closed patio door v. open patio door" thing yet. The patio door will be wide open and he will keep running at the closed side.

Other fun things include him, now being a full grown totally very normal rooster who happens to like to be cuddled, starting with that kicking/biting thing that roosters do when they are defending their flock. He can't even manage that quite right--sure, he'll do that kick jump thing, but then he looks confused, as if trying to figure out his goal in doing what he just did.

I have a Bielefelder hen sitting on four Crested Cream Legbar eggs, because a) I'm obviously doing something very wrong with the incubators and b) I figured, whatever, she's broody, let's see if she'll sit on these eggs. She has been on them for ten days now. She's interesting, by far the largest of my Bielefelders. We call her the Linebacker. Even more interesting is that since she's been on these eggs, she's crammed her roughly 14 pound self into a nesting box--with another Bielefelder hen cramming herself in front of the Linebacker, in the same nesting box.

If any of these eggs actually turn out to be chicks, I'm going to have to go buy one of those books, "I Have Two Mommies".

Back to Loud. So he's essentially a full grown rooster, and he does instinctive rooster stuff, as mentioned before. The kicking is fine, he's good with having his nails trimmed (while laying on his back, in my lap, just like any totally normal rooster), it's annoying but not painful. However! Since I've been checking on the Linebacker and her clutch, he's started sprinting up the ramp into the coop to "defend" "his" hens. This morning he came after my arm and wrist, biting and sort of kicking, until I said "Loud! Leave it!". Yes, my very normal rooster, the one who actively solicits cuddles, also responds to the same commands that apply to Lily.

The thing I didn't know about is the biting. I bruise easily, but yah. This is ridiculous.

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HeraTeleia
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Now Loud is a 100% outside all the time Very Normal Grown-Ass Rooster. As in, now he sleeps in the coop--in a nestbox, pulling bedding over himself and sleeping on his side. Plus the yelling/crowing "Good Morning" and "Loud's A Good Bird!!!" thing, all Extremely Normal Rooster behaviour.

As is the pecking at the patio door (off the formal dining room), or at the living room windows, because he doesn't like the rain and wants in. Very normal. As is his Trump-level inability to walk down a ramp without doing it either very slowly, or falling, or both. And his newly acquired "Good FUCKING Morning!!". Not quite as distinct as the others but give it a week.

No live chicks. The one Bielefelder hen, whom we call the Linebacker, did hatch two, both pullets (Cream Crested Legbar chickens are auto-sexing), both found dead--pretty common for a first time brood hen, but sort of devastating for myself and the Linebacker. She's on another batch now, but I am going to go to a local NPIP certified breeder in two weeks, pick up a dozen live CCL day old pullets regardless of how the Linebacker's new "eggs" hatch out.
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Green_Man
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It's time I finally commented on the wonderful experiences you are enjoying, Jennifer. When I read all of your adventures I see why it is so easy to love the animals we have taken into our care. Thank you so much for bringing love and happiness into our threads here, my dear friend.
HeraTeleia
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Update: Loud is still, well, Loud. He now has the "GOOD FUCKING MORNING" thing down. Fortunately the middle word is not nearly as audible as the rest unless you're in the house.

He's also learned what "time out" means--as in, "Time out? Does my good bird need a time out?". As previously mentioned, he's taken to doing quasi-normal rooster things, including "defending" his hens. That weird kick thing roosters do, and running up into the coop and attacking my hands and forearms when I'm checking on the Linebacker and "her" eggs, as well as another batch of the same eggs currently being cared for by two other Bielefelder Kennhuhn hens.

He's landed some good ones--I do bruise easily, or maybe it's just that bruises show up more clearly on me than most. Anyway! I started snatching him up every time he came at me--yah, he's not too clever in the whole "fighting rooster" category. For a while I was snatching him up and tucking him under my right arm while I checked the girls, which works okay, as I'm mix handed. At some point, though, maybe four weeks ago, I started snatching his ridiculous self up and putting him in his playpen on "time out"--no scritches, no cuddles, nothing.

So he's learned what "time out' means. I don't know if it's true of all chicken/poultry/waterfowl breeds, but Loud definitely demonstrates the capacity to learn and retain information. As in, he still responds to the same commands I use with Lily--"wait" (stop, stay there), "leave it" (pretty self-explanatory), and "let's go" (start moving). Which are basic commands that I have reflexively used since forever, with both dogs and horses. My oldest would argue that I use those with himself and his brothers, too.

The hens are good, the NPIP/AI FDA certified breeder from whom I'm picking up a dozen or so one to six day old CCL pullets is awesome, and the ladies are not sitting on chicken eggs any more. I've switched it up--the Linebacker is on either six or seven Silver Appleyard duck eggs, and then two other hens are on five Silver Appleyard duck eggs.

The Linebacker in particular is super not keen on me checking on the eggs, so I've just stopped. She doesn't leave the nest box very often--she'll run down, eat, drink, and then run back up into the coop, carefully arranging "her" eggs before going back to sitting. The other two hens, squashed in on top of the other five eggs, will leave together to do whatever hens do, walk around and gossip, IDK. The Linebacker becomes super agitated when the other eggs aren't under a hen, and she'll try to reach over and roll the eggs. She also "talks" to them, until the other hens return.

Should you wish to fall into the rabbit hole that is "heritage breed" poultry or waterfowl, here's the link to the Livestock Conservancy site: https://livestockconservancy.org/
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Unknown User
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This is by far my favorite story, documentary if you will.

Thankyou Sweets for keeping us up to date.
HeraTeleia
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Thank you, love.

I've now spent...I don't even know, a great deal of money trying and failing to hatch fertile CCL (Loud's breed) eggs.

I switched over to a threatened breed of duck, the Silver Appleyard, and despite it being stupidly hot, the Linebacker (Bielefelder hen) is tending to "her" eggs. Panting, yes, but she is hatching those damn eggs period, full stop. The soon-to-be ducklings must be close to hatching, as she's become more aggressive, chasing other hens and the resident idiot out of the coop should they stray too close to "her" eggs. I did have the coop fitted for a specialized sort of cooling fan two months ago, never imagining that it would be used this soon.

I'd given up on ever obtaining CCL pullets, and then I sort of randomly tripped over a woman on Craigslist who happens to show both CCLs and Bielefelder. And she's NPIP/AI certified, meaning she has to maintain strict cleanliness, monitoring and keeping her flock separated from anything that might possibly be a carrier of any of the assorted bird influenza varieties in circulation.

She had Bielefelder pullets listed, mentioning the CCL pullets only in passing--both breeds autosex, and the pullets hatching from either breed are "chipmunk striped" and therefore difficult to separate. Anyway. After her agreeing to sell some of her day-old CCL pullets, I drove 100-odd miles on Saturday 6/26 to meet her in a parking lot, very legit since flock owners who are NPIP/AI certified also have to follow very strict procedure regarding visitors to those flocks.

Came home with this:

17 pullets total, maybe 10 CCL, a couple Bielefelder, and one oddball, that slightly more yellow/red girl glaring up at me. She's an accidental mix, Rhode Island Red/Bielefelder. The breeder was going to take her home and cull her, I think the only reason she brought that girl is because she was mixed in with the others and was scooped up accidentally. IDK. Doesn't matter, I paid for her along with her sisters and cousins.


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