Nigel is no more :(

On November 12, around 6PM, I've lost Nigel.   A fox was sighted couple of times near their coop and he took an opportunity to attack the flock and Nigel lost his life saving the flock.  Like he has in the past defended his flock from other predators, nobody could protect him. I am sure he was no match for a full grown fox. Sigh!

Next day we've discovered his feathers near a bush where that animal killed him.  Even though the night before, we regrettably knew, the beautiful Rooster is no more :( ... it was not in his character to not be around his flock and in the coop.  He was gone!

He was a Chocolate Cuckoo Orpington Rooster.   I have gotten few eggs from England and only one made it.  In fact, during my candling, i thought I had 100% loss but left them in the incubator anyway.  I did have some other eggs that I obtained locally, they hatched and all imported eggs were bad. So i planned on throwing them the next day and i noticed a unusually tiny chick hatched from one of those imported eggs.   He looked way different than any Chick i've ever seen.  My boys thought he was a she, so they started to call her "Peaches".   

Well, Peaches started to grow and grow and we started to wonder.   He would often start that mock fighting with his siblings which we will brush it off saying "Eh, just a silly chick" .    Aside from that, he was really good at finding bugs, worms, and other goodies.  He was also very curious and 

He was 

As he started to grow even more, our confidence level started to dwindle.   We soon realized that 'he is not a she'.  My boys and I started to brain storm for a new name.  Around the same time, we happened to watch an animation called Rio which had a character (Cockatoo) named Nigel.  Yeah, he was a villain and all, but we kinda liked the name for an English bird.  So, Peaches became Nigel.

Around that time, I realized Nigel look exactly like his father in the UK.  Until this coloration of his feather, I was somewhat curious how will he look but when I started to notice this cuckoo characteristics , I knew he would look just like his father.

Anyway, I continue to let him free range with other chicken and he was growing up to be a rooster.  Now I did debate if I wanted to keep him or not as keeping "Rooster" in my neighborhood may not be very wise (Residential Area).  However, as more time passes, our attachment toward him gotten even stronger.  Around that time, he and predator had their first encounter.  I was just 10 feet away, i saw a Cooper's Hawk flying down straight to the chicken and grab for a hen, but there Nigel jumped and attacked the Hawk!!  He lost a lot of tail feather but Hawk left with nothing!   I knew he was a keeper!

Well, he was a very good rooster and we will miss him.    I think several Hen he left will miss him more than anything.  He was their protector, and now they are vulnerable. He used to watch out for predators when they could relax and scratch.  Now that he is not out there, I wouldn't feel comfortable letting those hen out without me being there.   Alas, what a great loss!  RIP Nigel!

My floc of 6 doing well (as couple of Hen recovering from Molting stage).   I lost one of my favorite Chocolate Cuckoo hen who just started to lay.  I was pretty bummed about it, but that's life in the harsh world.   "Chicken gotta scratch, Hawk's gotta eat".  Oh well.  I am really hopping that my other Chocolate Cuckoo doesn't become a Hawk Bait.  I would love to see Nigel and her offspring maybe next Spring.  I let them free range which has its downside.  

Two King in one kingdom

I have decided to part with this Rooster.  Even though he look very interesting and his characteristics reminds me so much of Nigel when he was juvenile, I have to part with him as I can't have two roosters in my backyard.

If somebody is interested in a Cuckoo project, this would be the rooster to have ;p

Nigel

                                       

"Chocolate Cuckoo Orpington" Hen.   

                                                 Muave Hen ???  (Choc Cuckoo+Blue Orp)

By the way, what do you think of these two Chocolate Cuckoo Orps?  One appears to be a Hen (above)  while the other one (Left) "hen" maybe a Rooster in the making?   Nigel looked exactly like her (I have some picture of Nigel around that age in this blog).   Difference between these two are their obvious "tail" difference.  As you can see the tail from the one on the left is different

Remembering Lil Bit...

Since dealing with the County code enforcement situation(Oh, I forgot to talk about that episode!), I was keeping the girls and boys in lockdown until I return from work.  Although this may not be a very good solution for them as the are used to being Free Range Chicken, they appreciated the 3-4 hours opportunity to search for worm, scratch under the leaves, taste those fresh veggie or just simply go crazy on their dustbath!  So the other day I let them out and came inside to get a bite to eat.   Since Lil Bit was being super stubborn about getting out of her "Broodyness" I decided to lock the run/coop after making sure she was out.   What a mistake :( ... I bet she was trying hard to get inside and wasn't paying any attention like the rest who where nowhere near.   

We discovered her body right near the coop, her wing was twisted badly, feathers everywhere and very little trace of blood.   My primary suspect is a dog 'not' on a leash.   We are starting to observe people frequenting the park adjacent to our property with dogs not on a leash.  One of them perhaps spotted her or other chicken simply took cover while she fell victim.  I felt even worse since I got her out of the nestbox and made her stay out.  Who knew, that would be her doom!  

She did have a good life otherwise. She was hatched in my incubator and then grew up to be a great little bird.  My Son called her Sally, but she was well known as her other name "lilbit'  .... she raised some 12 chicks, taught them well and raised 100%.   She also had number of funny characteristics that were very entertaining to see.  

R.I.P. Lilbit!

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this site.  Well, a lot has happened since then.  I decided to  bite the bullet and let some of Nigel's baby to hatch.  I was so curious how Nigel's baby may look like, so long story short, I got lots of baby chicks.  This time, I decided to put the eggs under my broody bantam Orpington who shockingly done really well (even though her body couldn't cover all the eggs (I had about a dozen).  None of the eggs went bad (Nigel was a busy Rooster).

The photo of this tiny thing and the one next to the eggs below are of Lucky's.   After the hatch day, when mother hen came out with tiny babies, I decided to cleanup (noticed a lot of ants in the nest).   I noticed 2 eggs didn't make it  ... ant infested, cold ... i knew there were no hopes ... so as I was getting ready to toss, i noticed a tiny crack.    instead of discarding, I decided to inspect further.
(TO BE CONTINUED)

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Chicken Update 1/2013

Today I had some free time to hangout with the flock, so decided to take my Canon with the 135L for some photo shoot.  Well, I didn't have any plans, but took the camera anyway for possible opportunity. Actually I want to catch one of the hen's act which is quite strange (I will talk about it later).  

So things were pretty much uneventful other than the chicken followed me around.   Nigel kept a close eye on me, so whenever I moved away, he pretty much ran to get closer, followed by all the other Hen (of course).  I realized its not food that influence this drive to be near me.  I feel they associate me with some level of sense of security?  Sometime Hens will run to me and then start grazing, as I move away, they will run back to make sure they are close and start grazing again.   My friends and family find it rather funny since these chicken follows me around like a pet dog.  Nigel is not very territorial but he has charged from time to time.   I think we have love/hate relationship.   On a different note, I have been seeing Hawk flying around again since the rain has stopped.  In fact, I was told there was a close call yesterday (if it wasn't for the Crows, I would have lost one of my Cinnamon Queen/Red Comet).  4-5 Crows jumped the huge Cooper's Hawk which was after my hen. Well, thank you crow!  Forgive me for throwing Pine Cone at you guys the other day!

Anyway, today I noticed bunch of Hawk flying around together.   Almost like mating ritual as 3 pair of hawks flying around in pair (very high though).  Nigel wasn't making his usual alert call and Hen were just relaxed.  I watched them for a while but felt they were not threat to the chicken, so i decided to come inside.

The hen you see to the right is 'Sarah' (my kids name all my chicken).  I've been thinking about breeding her with Nigel, to get pure Orpington babies (hopefully I might get a chick looks like Nigel as he is one of a kind in the USA).  I got Nigel (egg) from England and he was the only one hatched out of all the English import.    His father looked exactly like him but his mom was a Chocolate orpington.  I am hopping, with him and Sarah's combination, I might see some interesting looking chicks.   But there is problem with this plan.  Nigel is more attracted to a Black French Maran hen.  He is madly in love with her, and the Maran hen is always ready for him.  Meanwhile, Nigel wouldn't have anything to do with any other Hen, let alone Sarah.  I have tried various combination so far, (keeping Nigel and Sarah in the Run, Keeping both of them out and all in, but nothing seems to work so far).  I sure hope I come up with a plan by the time Spring is here.   Meanwhile, there's no stopping those lovers!

Get a ROOM you two!

Oh, I also have another Orpington Bantam Hen, her name is Sally.  She is probably the smallest in the flock and pretty much bottom of the pecking order (Except, she would bully the huge French Maran Hen, probably because she's after her sister's guy).  Anyway, she was getting so much bullied, she would pretty much stay up on the perch away from other hen all day.    One of the Cinnamon Queen Hen being the most aggressive one.  When they were all babies, Sally used to be bossy with those, until they gotten almost double her size and she had no chance.   But the good news is, lately she is picking up cunningness and getting her share of the feed. I was very concern about her health as she could never go close to the food before.    I'm observing something very strange though.  The Cinnamon Queen that was beating her up, chases her down often and mount her just like Nigel would with other Hen.   At first I thought she was showing dominance, but I now see her often running to this hen and mating.  I am not sure what is going on there, but both are good layer, and I am not complaining!