Rooster Problems

I keep most of my roosters in a separate coop.  This is partly because you can't have too many roosters in a group of hens, because they are a bit too ardent with their interest in the hens, and they pull all the feathers out of the hens' backs.  In addition, they tend to be more aggressive with each other when they are with hens.  When I keep the roosters separately, they don't fight much and the hens are happier.  Sometimes, though, the roosters don't want to be kept in the coop, and they insist on escaping and running around free ranging.  I have had a couple of roosters who free ranged for the past couple of years now - Cornflake and Fancy Pants.  

Cornflake

Fancy Pants

Cornflake liked roosting in our garage on a shelf mounted on the wall.  This was OK, although he made a mess, and he liked to hang out on our front step, where he also made a mess and which made it difficult for people to come in the house without stepping in chicken poop.  I put up with it though, because sometimes you just have to go with the flow.  Sadly, however, Cornflake met his end very recently as a result of a Northern goshawk.  That's a risk that accompanies being a free-ranging rooster.  He had a great life though, running around the yard, having treats from my garden, and always having a safe place to sleep.  

The Northern goshawk is a beautiful bird as well, and although I was sad about what happened to Cornflake, the goshawks have to eat too.  I'm not sure if the goshawk is going to keep on coming here for its meals....I hope not.  I think Cornflake might have been an easy catch because of his white colour against the dark of the driveway (which is where he was taken), but he was free ranging for a couple of years so he couldn't have been that easy!  

Northern goshawk

Meanwhile, I recently adopted a silkie rooster who needed a new home.  I didn't really need more roosters, but I have a bit of a soft spot for silkies.  This little guy was in need of a new home because he'd been purchased as a hen, but then started to crow, and he lived in town...where they aren't allowed to have roosters.  The owner wanted to find a local home so that her daughter can still visit from time to time, so I decided to offer him a home.  

It has been extremely wet for the past month and the chicken yard was absolutely horrible. The mud has been very thick and slippery, and I knew that would be bad for silkie feet, which are feathered, so I decided to keep the new roo inside for a few days.  I put him in a rabbit hutch that I had previously used for another chicken who was sick...but that was over a year ago.  I didn't really think about it when I put the new roo into that hutch, but the next day, his legs seemed to be paralyzed and he was not walking at all, which were the same symptoms in the sick chicken from before (who died within days).  I was absolutely horrified that he seemed to have gotten so sick so quickly, and that it might be my fault for putting him in the hutch where the other sick bird had been.  My fear was that he had contracted Marek's disease, which is a viral illness and which I have had before in my flock.  It does cause leg  paralysis.  However, in reading up on it, I learned that even if a chicken does contract the virus, it does not begin to show symptoms for 3 weeks, so there was no way that this new rooster had contracted Marek's overnight.  I was very worried about my new roo, and kept him warm and well fed (fortunately he was still eating and drinking even though he couldn't walk).  

Amazingly, over the course of 3 or 4 days, he made a recovery.  In addition, the temperatures dropped and we had some snow and the ground froze, so the mud problem was solved.  A few days ago, I was able to put him out in the main coop.

The new roo!

He's actually what they call a "naked neck" silkie, so it's normal that his neck doesn't have feathers.

He has lovely blue earlobes.  It was raining a bit today so these shots aren't the best, but you can see what he looks like anyway.

I still don't know what was wrong with him, but he's walking just fine now, and has no lingering symptoms that I can identify.  That's also not consistent with Marek's so I'm pretty sure it was something else entirely.  

Here's a shot of a hen (middle) who hatched a little one late in the fall.  Her 'baby' (not sure if it was her egg or not) is the barred one off to the right.  It's a cute little one - I hope it's a hen.  This hen somehow has managed to avoid being named so far.  I really must give her a name.  The one off to the left in this picture is named "Little Grey Hen" (a nod to the Little Grey Rabbit books by Alison Uttley, which you'll likely be familiar with if you're my age or older and if you have a UK background).  She's not little, but she is grey!

Little Grey Hen, Mama Chicken, and youngster

The new rooster was picked on a bit on the first day, as expected, but he seems to be blending in now and I don't notice him being pecked a lot by the hens, although he's still being chased out of the main flock most of the time, which is normal for a newly integrated bird.  Here he is with one of my newer ISA brown layer hens.

I was hoping he would become a friend for Whisp, one of my first chickens from my new flock here in NB.  She is a silkie who is at least 5 years old, and the only silkie in my flock now. Sure enough, last night, I caught him snuggled up to Whisp in the coop at bedtime.  So sweet!  I'm glad she has a new friend.  

I think he might be named Stormy, because I picked him up during a torrential rainstorm.  On the other hand, I called him Pickles today, because it just came to me out of the blue when I was talking to him. Sometimes it takes a while to get the right name.  I'll keep working on it.

Valiant, Vulnerable Voles (and lots ov pictures!)

This week I had an interesting experience with some baby voles in my yard.  I have a screened porch off the back of my house that opens onto a small deck.  One day this week, I opened the back door and saw a little furry ball on the mat by the deck doorway.  It was not moving much, so I went to investigate.  I found myself up-close-and-personal with a very small vole.  That, in and of itself, was quite unusual.  I know I have voles in the yard because I occasionally see one under the bird feeder (through my office window) and I see their trails under the snow as it melts in late spring.  But, I am usually unable to get anywhere near a vole, and the best pictures I can get are through the office window with the zoom lens.  Instead, I had this view, a few inches from my nose.

Immediately, given this behaviour, I knew something was wrong.  Voles are typically skittish and fast and very good at not being photographed.  They don't do this:

Worried about my little friend, I immediately found a small box and put a handful of chicken scratch grains in it, and sat my little friend in the box, whereupon it immediately began to eat.  I gave it a soft little pat (honestly, it was impossible not to do so) and sat to watch it and have a bit of a think about what to do.

As I sat thinking, I heard a small rustling noise out on the deck.  A quick investigation uncovered a sibling, and I thought my little friend needed company, so I was able to catch the second one and put it into the box as well.

They both ate seeds and explored the box.  I decided to set up a small cage that I had in storage, just to see if the poorly one would improve with a bit of food and drink.  I thought it might be good to keep it safe from birds of prey and other predators for a few hours.  It was definitely much slower than its sibling, and was almost stumbling at times.  

I left them for a while and went back out a few hours later to check on them.  They were both walking around, and I thought the weaker one was doing better, so I decided to let them go.  I put them back out on the deck where they had been.  I decided to sit and watch them for a while, and that was the most delightful experience I've had in a long time.

Can I climb this?

I think I can!

Watch me go!  

Nearly there!

Hurry up!

Hooray!  I'm at the top!

Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?  You can see the one on the right still looks a bit rough.  Its eyes are not quite as bright and alert.  I was still a bit concerned.

Suddenly, there was a little more rustling...and a third one appeared!

I was just riveted, watching these tiny vole siblings running all along the deck steps and in and out of the flowerpots.

Absolutely charming!

I put out some more seed and hoped they would all enjoy it.

I also set up some broken bricks for a climbing exercise area.  They immediately tried it out.

Then I had to go back in the house.  I worked for a while, and then came back out to find them all gone...except for the poorly one.  It was still in one of the flowerpots, but more-or-less lifeless.  It was on its side, feet all stuck out, and cold.  I held it in my hand and saw it making little gasping breaths.  I felt so terribly sad.  I didn't want it to die alone in the flowerpot, so I sat with it in my hand, expecting the end soon.  The end didn't happen all that soon, so I took it inside because I had a long to-do list and needed to get busy.  I just wanted it to be comfortable.  I lay it down on a soft cloth on the top of my dehydrator, which was busy dehydrating tomatoes, and was quite warm as a result.  I thought at least it would die in a warm spot instead of in a cold flowerpot.  I got busy with things in the kitchen and when I checked in about half an hour later, it was sitting up!  I was stunned.  I was absolutely sure it would be dead. 

I hastily got out a syringe that has a tiny plastic tip for administering medications to animals.  I heated a small amount of oat milk, and got some into the syringe.  I managed to get my wee vole to take a drop, and then it put its paws up on the syringe barrel and had several more drops.  I was amazed.  I've never had a creature that was so cold and lifeless and gasping actually make a recovery.  But we weren't out of the woods yet, so I got the cage ready again but this time, I put a heating pad underneath it on low, so that it would keep warm.  Without its littermates, it would be hard to keep warm by itself.  I put it into the cage with seeds and water and a piece of apple, and went about the rest of my day with regular checks on my tiny friend, who was hanging in there, so I kept my fingers crossed.

Honestly, I didn't have high hopes.  I just wanted to do my best for it, but I also know that nature is tough, and this little one was having a difficult time, and sometimes there's nothing we can do.  I checked on it regularly and it had burrowed down into the bedding.  I could still easily touch it and so I gave it more oat milk and told it what a good vole it was and tried to be the best substitute mother vole that I could be.  

By this morning, it had been in the house for 2 days in the heated cage, and I can tell you that as of this morning, that vole has somehow installed rocket-powered boosters on its feet, because it was super fast, and it would have nothing to do with me trying to touch it.  In fact, it had a good attempt at biting my finger, which was very encouraging.  It was just as fast as its siblings were 2 days ago, and was showing no signs of its former dopey, slow self.  

Yesterday I saw one of the siblings still in the same area, so I released my tiny friend this afternoon in the warmest part of the day.  I'd like to think that this vole is quite lucky to have been born in my yard and to have such a rodent-loving, garden-providing human as its caretaker, but I also think I'm even more lucky to have had such a remarkable experience with this lovely gift of nature. I got a picture of it just before release, and I think you can see that its eyes are much more alert. 

Most of the post-release pictures looked like this.  Zoom zoom!

A last clear shot, and then it was off, into the garden beds!  Hooray!  Live long, little vole!

In case you're interested, my tiny friend is a southern red-backed vole (Myodes gapperi).  The reddish brown stripe of fur down its back is a distinctive quality of this vole species.  They eat seeds, roots, nuts, berries, and some insects, and also some green plants.  I never see any damage from voles in my yard, but they have plenty of food sources in the woods surrounding me.  Mother voles have 2 to 4 litters per year of 2 to 8 young.  The average lifespan of a vole in the wild is 3 to 6 months.  It's hard being at the bottom of the food chain.  I'm glad I was able to give this little one a chance.  A lot of people think that voles are mice.  Mice have longer tails and their noses are more pointed, whereas voles have a more blunt, rounded nose.  Their ears are also smaller than most mouse ears.  Of course, if you just catch a fleeting glimpse, it's hard to say for sure.  I hope you get to see one someday!

Wildlife Weekend

 I had a couple of up-close wildlife encounters this weekend that I wasn't expecting, so I thought I'd share a few pictures.  I don't typically see deer in my yard, even though I live surrounded by woods.   I did see one last year, but just one time.  I'm pretty lucky on that score, because otherwise they'd decimate my garden.  Well, today was an exception.  Today...at first, there was a lookout.

She gave the signal....and the rest appeared.

I believe it was a mother and her young.

All three of her young!  They sampled the hostas.

A lovely family really.  But I don't want them to make a habit of visiting.

The littlest one.

They look fairly healthy so that made me happy.  Just please...stay away from my veggie garden!

A visitor that I don't really mind in my veggie garden was this little friend I found in the greenhouse today while I was picking tomatoes.  She was pretty shy.

She was playing hide-and-seek for a while.

When she finally showed herself, I realized she was a lovely two-toned little mouse.  I'd never seen one quite like this before, so I was excited to look up the species.

This is Zapus hudsonius, the meadow jumping mouse.  I can tell you that she definitely lives up to her name.  She took amazing leaps when I got too close to her, which is how I first noticed her.  Boing!!  Boing!!

For scale, here she is next to a cherry tomato.  Awww.  She was absolutely adorable.  I don't mind sharing some tomatoes with her.  I read that they eat seeds, fruits, and some insects.  She will hibernate soon.  Perhaps she thinks my greenhouse is a good place to hibernate.  She is most welcome to stay there.  I gave her a piece of pumpkin and some chicken scratch grains as well.  

The greenhouse would be a good place to stay over the winter - warmer than other locations, with lots of seeds in the soil, and protected from predators because of its door.  Stay cozy, little one!