Turns out the new guy is rather skittish and would rather stay away from people entirely. He has small spurs and a very short comb/wattles. We suspect he had a pretty hard life in his other place, with a history of frostbite or even malnutrition.
He has a bit of a comical crewcut look with his short comb; note him next to the remaining young rooster from last year's batch. Young rooster has a bit of frostbite and may lose part of his comb, too, but not likely as extreme. New Rooster IS indeed more adapted to cold now, I suppose! They seem to get along fairly well, perhaps becasue young rooster still knows his place...
New Rooster has settled in and is getting used to WF, and he's never challenged me. He's not too interested in the ladies, though... we'll see if that changes! One reason may be that he seems to have brought mites with him into the flock (visible mostly just under his tail). Bummer.
The whole flock has had a few, and WF has been treating them with garlic juice and diatomaceous earth. I leave that part to him; too busy with things in the house to worry about mites right now. WF does think it was limiting egg production for a while, but the mites seem to be controlled fairly well right now. We may have to do something more toxic eventually, but we'll see how this goes for now.
So, the flock genetics may be more diverse through the newcomer, but our coop fauna is, too! Ah, well, all part of the learning experience!
1 comment:
Bummer about the mites, but he's pretty anyway. It's strange the things you don't expect. I got some 6 week old chicks about 15 months ago - turns out they brought scaley leg mites with them and I've been fighting it ever since. I'm thinking I may have to go toxic this fall when they stop laying to molt - guess I should have this winter as now all 10 of the chicks are going to get them too. Oh well.
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