17 baby chicks hatched on Christmas

[newwestchick]

I'm sorry to hear you're having so many troubles! We have major construction going on next door, not even 40 feet from the chicken house and they don't seem bother by it a bit. City birds!
I kept 8 pullets, 2 of each variety. I sold 6 to my aunt, and two roosters were sold to a Neighbour for eating. We kept 6 Roos and had them processed all together.
My barred rock are squatting too, but no laying...
The Sussex and the barred rock Roos I had were all nasty to the girls. The ameraucana were nicer but like your, extremely loud constant crowing. Since I live in a residential area I knew I wouldn't get away with that very long!
Sounds like you are going to have quite the variety soon. Will make for a lovely barnyard mix!
Here's some pictures of our eggs, my husband with our lavender and the Roos the day before slaughter

 

[Tatiana110]

Such lovely eggs! They must be so delicious.

We are butchering 2 more roosters tomorrow morning, I am hoping the stress will be a bit less on pullets, and they'll start laying soon. 3 roosters were too many! We are keeping the largest one, the Barred Rock named Vaska. He is very gentle and calm. He does not crow very often. So he is a star so far - we hope he'll stay that way. The only problem is he loves the Welsummer pullets, and they are 1/4 of his size, if not less. The poor girls...

The good news is that the hawk did not come today. I am hopeful he will not come tomorrow either, but we are still on the watch. The chickens get really scared every time he comes. Even if he just sits on the tree, they are going crazy.

Please keep me posted when you Barred Rocks start to lay.

Tatiana

 

[newwestchick]

Two eggs from our larger barred rock in the last four days, so one of each variety is laying now. Hopefully the other girls get with the program soon!

My roosters like my smallest pullets too - I think they're just easier prey for them haha

 

[Tatiana110]

Butchered the last Sussex this morning. He is 6 lbs and 6 oz dressed. Not bad for 4.5 month old! I wish we could keep him for breeding.

No hawk today so far. The chicken are now all relaxed and quiet. There is only 1 rooster there and 11 hens. The girls can finally eat without getting harassed. So I am hoping the eggs will be coming soon now, I will give them a week to de-stress.

 

[Tatiana110]

Unfortunately all of our Ameraucana chicks appeared to be boys. No hens. How lucky are we?

 

[newwestchick]

What??! That's crazy!
Ours looked quite different, the males grew long tail feathers etc while the females remained short. Our black female is the top hen, and I've seen her mount the other girls too. But she's a layer so no doubt a hen! At about 12 weeks the differences were obvious. We ended up with two males four female (we sold two and kept two).
Post some pictures, I'm very curious to see how they fooled you!
Vanessa

 

[Tatiana110]

Vanessa, they did not quite fool me (only when they were little, as their size was petit and the combs were very pale), but I think I was in a denial for last month, just could not accept the fact they are all boys, still hoping at least one decides to produce an egg, LOL! The two of them were actually very tiny, 1/2 the size of the large Ameraucana rooster, smaller than our Sussex pullets! And they both were very slow to mature. The last one that started to crow yesterday, and he still has a pretty pale comb. But all the male feathers were present on all of them. And the combs of course were quite large for a female. So I am upset that they were all boys, and most of them were so small, nothing to eat! The little ones dressed to 2.3 lbs. Pathetic.

 

[newwestchick]

Oh that has to be so frustrating!

 

[Tatiana110]

On top of this, our Barred Rock rooster decided that he does not want to have a rival and went after the last petit Ameraucana rooster. I thought he'd kill him. Seriously.
I put him into a dog crate for the night, so I guess he is going t the freezer tomorrow morning. Another tiny rooster. The last one, fortunately!

 

[Tatiana110]

On top of this, our Barred Rock rooster decided that he does not want to have a rival and went after the last petit Ameraucana rooster. I thought he'd kill him. Seriously.
I put him into a dog crate for the night, so I guess he is going t the freezer tomorrow morning. Another tiny rooster. The last one, fortunately!

Good news he was not so tiny after all. 4 lbs and a bit, dressed. The legs look pretty meaty, but not much of breast. But I love legs the best
He was 4.5 months old.

Vanessa, how big were your Ameraucana roosters at 16 weeks?