Duke and His Brood

 The Duke has arrived!  Duke is my new rooster.  Along with him came some new hens.  Duke still is young and his cock-a-doodle-doo needs a bit of practice (hear video).

Duke and the two grey hens are Lavender Orpington, named Opal and Blueberry, and the two light tan hens are Buff Orpington, named Coral and Buttercup.  The other two hens are Speckled Sussex, named Ethel and Isabell.  Isabell must be younger as she is sleeping most of the time and Ethel has not developed her tail feathers yet so she looks a little funny. The Speckled Sussex breed lives 5-8 years, whereas the Orpington breed lives 8-10 years, but I've read of many Orpingtons living to 15 years. The Orpington hens are pretty big already and have not started laying eggs yet, which means they are still young.  I will have to renovate the roost area and laying nests to accommodate these big girls.

I have also read that Orpington hens have a tendency to be broody - which means I may experiment with little chicks in the future - naturally, as opposed to using an incubator.  Currently Blue (my Ameraucana hen) is being broody.  She has been in the nest for over a week and she of course chose the general favourite nest of the three nests so often there are one or two other hens in there with her to lay their eggs. Blue gets quite upset when I reach underneath her to remove the eggs daily.

Previously my rooster Oscar was brought home along with my first flock of chickens so they all naturally got along and accepted Oscar as the leader, and any new chickens introduced were accepted without much hassle.  Duke, on the other hand, will have his work cut out in order to create harmony in his melded flock.  Here's a video of Rosie wandering in and challenging Duke. Rachel is also more aggressive and often comes to join the commotion. It will be a learning curve for Rosie, Rachel and Rayna who have not lived with a rooster, and probably for Mocha as well (rescue chicken) but she is quite timid and definitely a follower, so no worries there.

In other bird news, the robin made a nest in the evergreen this year.  Here is a photo of her young ones, just growing their feathers.