Lonely no more

The problem with being the last chick of the season is that there were no other chicks for our poor little d'Uccle chick to play with.  The last of the Faverolles were a few weeks old and were too big to put in with such a tiny little chick.  As a result it was one lonely little chick. To help the little thing out I put out a call on a forum for someone local to provide a day old chick for company.  I was happy to buy a chick of any breed to act as brooder buddy and give it some company. As luck would have it, I was contacted by a lovely lady who also happened to have Faverolles and had chicks hatching as we spoke! This lovely lady was kind enough to give me a chick to help out my little d'Uccle.  As you can see, they are getting on famously and my despondent d'Uccle is now as happy as can be with its new pal.

Last chick of the season

I am not hatching anymore chicks this season.  I have chicks everywhere at the moment it seems, with chicks being born about every two weeks for the last few months. This last one though is a little special.  It is our little 'surprise' chick.  A surprise because it was hatched from the egg layed on the day we took delivery of our new Belgian d'Uccle trio.  We know the mother is one of our d'Uccle mille fleur hens, but not the rooster they were with before we bought them so it is a bit of wait and see over what colour it will be.  Looks to be blue though so I am speculating blue mille fleur. Time will tell.  What I can say though is that it is cute as a button and about as small as one.  Those 'friends' with it in the picture are from the top of Darrell Lee easter eggs.

'tis the season

Grace is in season. And having a bitch in season around, particularly when you also have male dogs, can sometimes be a challenge! For a month we undergo the 'rules of separation' which involves lots of making sure that dogs and in season bitches are not in the same area at the same time.  Crates, baby gates, doors and dog runs all are used to ensure the two are kept apart. Hamish is too closely related to Grace to be a suitable match so doubly important the two are not allowed to be together.

Luckily Hamish has a discerning nose when it comes to the girls (unlike some dogs who just have to whiff a girl in season at any stage to lose their mind) which means that it is really only a big issue for 5 days out of the month.  We still have to keep them apart for the rest of the time just in case, but those five days can be hair pullingly stressful at times as Hamish becomes desperate to get to his prize and tells you about it at the top of his lungs! It is then we make sure there are always TWO barriers between him and the girl in season at all times.  Oh the joy of owning entire animals!

Bruce struck upon a novel solution for the wailing this time.  He decided to give him some competition by playing the Bagpipes for him.  It did shut Hamish up for a few minutes while he played, but frankly I am not too sure which is worse!