Bye bye Dietrich
I didn’t post about it at the time because I was too upset, but the Cuckoo Marans bird in the foreground of the photograph above did, after all, turn out to be a cockerel.
We’d named him Dietrich, which seemed an entirely acceptable name regardless of gender, and had him for about four months living with us. He started to develop different physical characteristics to the other Cuckoo Marans: a longer set of wattles (the dangly bits under the beak), and a bigger comb (the bit on top). But despite asking in various forums, nobody could say for certain that she was, in fact, a he—until the morning he started jumping on every hen in the run, still too young to really know what he was doing, but providing us with enough evidence to confirm his gender as not being acceptable in the long run to neighbours in an urban area.
tags: animal husbandry, chickens, chicks, cockerels, cuckoo marans, dowsing, eggs, hens, poultryOur new henhouse
The new henhouse is a conversion job, using a kids’ playhouse as its base. With perches added, an entire wall hinged for easy access and cleaning, and ventilation holes, the ladies—now numbering 12–were moved in last week. And they approved, judging by the noises they made.
Chickens can, of course, be very vocal in their criticisms, but thankfully their praise as well!
