Back in December our neighbors moved, and had to get rid of their chickens fast, we thought, hey! we eat a ton of eggs at our house, right??... what a great idea! They brought over 7 barred rocks of questionable orgin to our house, and that was it, we were hooked....
Three pens and 5 coops later... its July.... and Im convinced we are true enthusiasts when we added misters to their pens to battle the wicked heat we have been having. They enjoy an organic diet and fresh fruit and veggies, but most enjoyed by them is the free ranging on our 5 acre property under the watchful eye of our Belgian Malinois who is a retired Disc Dog pro who has come out of retirement to do some light security work, LOL.
We were blessed with 3 broody hens this year and are enjoying many babies from mail order eggs and are still having a blast. We have Light Sussex, Lavendar Orpingtons, Rocks, Americaunas, and hopefully soon.... BCMs...
We have a very young hen that has gone broody(this makes four!) and she is so young I keep thinking she will break her brood, but if she is going to sit there I want to give her some eggs to sit on.... we are hoping to find some very dark chocolate egg layers and it looks like the Birchen line is the one for me to target.... anyone know of any hatching eggs out there asap??she has been setting for 3 days now??
We have several breeds now, and are hoping to expand with some exceptional colored egg layers... looking for birchen Marans right now, those eggs seem so gorgeous!
Oh, and while we are talking chicken... we would love to hear any tips on how to raise a friendly rooster... we had two roos we kept from a few months back, hand fed and spent ample time with, would allow us to pet them prior to the roosterdom...and they are gorgeous specimins of Lavendar orpington and Light Sussex, but the light sussex who is the submissive roo, has recently been 'testing' us and giving us a run and a fluff. Tonight he broke skin on me twice because I had already thrown out all my treats, and didnt have any food to offer him and as I was moving from one pen to the other, he decided to give me a go. I didnt want to set the precident that I would run from him as if I was fearful because I didnt want to encourage the behavior so I just calmly tried to reach out to him, which he was not happy about! He pecked me so hard in the wrist and broke skin I thought he had broken a vein!!! I finally pushed on his belly like the juvinille roos do to each other letting him know I was not going anywhere and he walked away. AM I DOING this right??? I have no idea how to respond to his aggressive advances and want to disarm him best as possible and groom him to a nice and docile roo that can be around small children.
Your expert chickenry is greatly appreciated, we are not giving up on our gorgeous roo!!
Michele & Duane
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from Alabama. Glad you joined us. Try checking out the 
