Thread: My Splendid Cock

Originally Posted by Headworx

Any idea what breed this is Mendip?

Attachment 82528

knot surewhat breed it is. But my speeling suddenly got bad

Originally Posted by Mendip

We cleared a chicken job today that had been delayed due to nesting pigeons.

Champion heno reno Mendip

Originally Posted by Mendip

^ So what is that thing? A locust? I hope it's not a cricket because I'm sick of Australians talking about cricket.

By the way Looper, if it doesn't work out with your pet I'm sure that your 'friend's' chooks would love to eat it.

The giant cricket has escaped and is threatening to browse vigorously on Greta's thatch

I am incubating her babies for her in the glass tupperware container, bless my heart

When they are born I will feed them to this tiny 1 inch baby gecko I caught in the bedroom. His mouth is too small to eat any live prey I could catch in the garden for him

Originally Posted by Headworx

Any idea what breed this is Mendip?

Motorboat....

^ Speaking of motorboats, it's nice to see Reg Dingle has got himself a new hat!

Originally Posted by Mendip

To be honest you've pissed me off a bit Headworx

Far better to be pissed off than pissed on Mendip, well certainly for most of us that's the case. Good to know I've ruffled your feathers, could get you to bite in the Ashes thread but am having more luck here it seems

^ I haven't visited The Ashes thread for a while, to be fair. I seem to have lost interest in cricket.

But anyway, do you have any more pics of that chick holding a cock?

^Possibly, but out of respect for your gardner I'm not sharing any more.

^ The gardener's cool with this kind of thing... I'm disappointed.

Anyway, their third night in a new home and the new trio seem to have decided on their roosting spot.

Lovely to see.



For any purists out there, the Spirit House was painstakingly (and probably expensively) decommissioned before being retired to the chicken run.

^^^^^ Healthy and happy looking chooks Mendip

Originally Posted by Looper

When they are born I will feed them to this tiny 1 inch baby gecko I caught in the bedroom. His mouth is too small to eat any live prey I could catch in the garden for him

I swatted an ichneumon wasp away while have my afternoon tea and it dropped the paralysed spider it was carrying to feed its baby.

I thought I would try and feed the paralysed spider to the gecko. They eat live prey only. A paralysed spider is alive, but not moving, so I was curious if the gecko would take the bait.

Then it occurred to me that an actual ichneumon larvae would be the ideal bite size snack for my pint sized reptile

So I went and found an ichneumon cocoon and cracked it open to get the nasty little maggot and rescue the poor paralysed spiders

Then I chucked the maggot into the mix

So what will happen in the rock/paper/scissors predator triangle....?

Will the gecko eat the paralysed spider?

Or will the gecko eat the ichneumon maggot?

Or in a cruel twist will the maggot wriggle its way to the paralysed spider, eat it, pupate into a monster wasp and sting the gecko to death just for fun?

Originally Posted by Looper

So what will happen in the rock/paper/scissors predator triangle....?

Will the gecko eat the paralysed spider?

Or will the gecko eat the ichneumon maggot?

I reckon Miss Mindanao will eat them all

Originally Posted by Mendip

and now I think people are just checking out that picture you posted... I've certainly looked at it several times today.

How many times did the gardener catch you?

Originally Posted by Reg Dingle

I reckon Miss Mindanao will eat them all

Nothing would surprise me Dill...

I do not know what she slips into her embotido to give it its pungent bouquet.

Katie probably has the good oil!

Originally Posted by Looper

embotido

My brother used to get that and leave skin cornflakes everywhere

Trust the Flippos to eat it

^ You have this unerring knack of lowering the tone of a thread!


Tonight I checked on our new arrivals and after only 5 days in their new home they are now roosting up in the roof rafters with the rest of the flock. And that's without a cock to call them up. I love this stuff.

That's gotta be better than being crammed in a cage.

The new ones are the two on the left and the one on the right, divided by an old matron.



I'm still looking for a jungle fowl cockerel though to settle the flock down. Despite many promises no cock is forthcoming and I think it could take a while.

^^^^ So what happened Looper?

I must admit that I really don't like spiders but you can't help but feel sorry for those poor paralysed ones. That's no life.


We've only had these new hens a week and yesterday these eggs were included amongst the day's takings. The egg cup is for scale and the egg on the left is normal size and the egg on the right is no bigger than a garden song bird's... a Greenish Warbler for example.



I've often noticed that a hen's first few eggs come out very small... and strangely often followed by a few very large, double-yolkers.

It looks like two of our new arrivals are starting to lay... happy chickens! I guess the small initial eggs are down to the hen getting her cycle organised and in order before she settles down to provide us with 5 or 6 proper-sized eggs a week.

^Interesting early easter selection there Mendip. Maybe could be blown and painted as a 9 year old art project if they are too small to eat.

I am looking forward to celebrating Our Lord getting hammered to a cross by chowing down on a milk chocolate monster next month!

Originally Posted by Mendip

^^^^ So what happened Looper?

The baby gecko gulped down the waspy maggot.

He has had a spring in his rubbery little tail since that feast.

He is a reptile so they don't need feeding that often. But on the other hand he is a growing lad so I might get him another maggoty morsel tomorrow.

The spider is still in there, paralysed but unmolested. But at least he has got a view of the TV now. Gotta beat being stuck inside a sealed dark mud cocoon being slowly eaten alive!

I opened another wasp mud cocoon but this maggot had already eaten all the spiders and turned into a segmented pupa

It looks more delicious than the maggot to me.

But the problem is that the pupa barely moves compared to the wriggly maggot. Just the occasional twitch or wiggle and not enough to stimulate the geckos predator response

So next I found an even tinier skink in another bedroom

It is gladiator time...

Let cold-blooded reptile battle commence

You can see the (still alive) pupa unmolested

Originally Posted by Looper

The spider is still in there, paralysed but unmolested. But at least he has got a view of the TV now. Gotta beat being stuck inside a sealed dark mud cocoon being slowly eaten alive!

Not if the TV's showing Thai 'comedy' shows 24/7, it isn't.

^Lol!

The lizards decided to take a leaf out of John Lennon's book and live in brutherly peace with each other.

So I segregated them in separate jars

Then I found 2 more pupa stage wasps today and put one in each jar

The tiny skink went straight for it and spent 10 minutes trying to get the giant pupa in its tiny gob before giving up...

the feckless gecko didn't twitch an eyelid

...until I came back half an hour later and the geckao's pupa was gone, gulped down

the gecko's body is slightly bigger than the skink's but its mouth is much bigger

Good to know the gecko can eat these pupae

I've been cockless for the last few months, since Austin's sad demise at the hands of one of his male offspring.

While the daughter and I were away pilgrimaging the wife found a new cock and brought it home.

This fine bird is a pure red jungle fowl, the precursor of all domesticated chickens.

His name? 'Nelson' of course and here he is getting used to his new shipmates... he has an all female crew of around 35 to get acquainted with. It's noticeable that the girls have stopped squabbling on, now that they have a man to keep control.



Along with Nelson came two pure jungle fowl hens and I'm quite excited about trying to breed pure jungle fowls from them. The challenge will be to recognise which eggs have been laid by these newcomers to put under broody hens.

The larger one is called 'Fanny' (Nelson's wife) and the smaller, petite bird is called 'Lady Emma' of course, although I very much doubt that anyone but myself will use their names.

[QUOTE=Mendip;4423760]

Along with Nelson came two pure jungle fowl hens and I'm quite excited about trying to breed pure jungle fowls from them. The challenge will be to recognise which eggs have been laid by these newcomers to put under broody hens.
[QUOTE]


Mendip
If all your other hens are Red Warren's and there are only the 2 new jungle hens I believe it will be quite easy to tell which eggs are which.
Here a my place the warrens lay brown eggs and the native hens white ones which have a quite pointy end.
All my cross breed hens lay eggs that are not white but not as brown as the Warren's eggs.

It will be interesting to see whether he takes the jungle hens as his favourite ladies. The rooster I have in with my Warrens made sure he won over his one favourite native hen which has stayed with him over the past couple of years and she bosses the lowly Warrens.

He is a fine looking cock and is definitely smaller and more colourful than the ones I had here that I offered you. If you do manage to breed a pure bred jungle rooster from him and the 2 hens put me down for one to bring home.

^ Ootai, the problem is that I have a few small wild hens which aren't pure jungle fowl and these also lay small white eggs. Hopefully once I get to know their habits I'll be able to see which hutches they lay their eggs in and keep them separate and out of the fridge.

And yes, I've put you down for a jungle fowl cock.

A splendid looking cock!

^ Thank you.

That would be quite some statement on any other thread.