Ancona Chicken Thread

[Yellow House Farm]

These are Ancona. They should remain calm with you as long as you are calm with them in your husbandry practices.

Best of luck!

 

[britsngrits]

Mine aren't mature yet but they are flighty as all get out! They see me coming and they start running while my White Leghorns see me and run right to me. My Leghorns are very curious and follow me around while my Anconas will occasionally come up to me if they think there's something in it for them. Here is a cute pic of one of them last week when it was a pretty day... I kicked off my 'flopps and let the grass tickle my feet

 

[buffalogal]

Quote:
Of the three birds, the two in the top picture are Anconas, but the one in the back of the bottom picture; I don't know, I'm still seeing enough white that I think she's an Exchequer.

 

[hennyannie]

I got my first Anconas this year(I guess they are hatchery chicks, not sure) Anyway I had read that they were flighty, but these so far are not. One tries to get on my shoulder all the time and another (she had splayed leg) is down right friendly to me. The others are not like this but are not hard to catch if the need arises. I did have to handle them alot this year because our weather was so messed up. Take them outside then have to bring them back in kinda thing.

 

[buffalogal]

They're like any other breed; the more they're around you, the more likely they will want to interact with you. And naturally, individuals will vary; I have one Ancona cockerel who follows me around, and would stand on my feet this past winter (like a penguin), his hatch mate was a bossypot, not friendly, and would come close for feed, as long as *you* didn't get too close.

I think of Anconas as being more "lively" than "flighty", wespecially compared to Wyandottes or Orphingtons or Brahmas. OTOH, my other breeds are all known for staying pretty busy, so there's always poultry in motion around here..

 

[Bedste]

My Anconas lay more consistantly than any other of my breeds. They also eat less... than the others. I am planning on setting a hatch of just ANCONA eggs so I can increase the size of that flock. They started out laying medium eggs for the first 6 months or so, and this year their eggs are very large...

 

[Nava]

I just set 14 Ancona eggs!!!!!

 

[buffalogal]

I've been deciding which birds will go in the breeding pens and last week I realized that one of my rose comb hens "Bentley" (named for a crooked spike) was missing. Fearing the worst, I started looking for signs that she'd either crawled off and died or been taken by a predator. When I found neither a carcass nor a pile of feathers, I figured she'd wandered away into the woods and was lost forever. But then, I was trying to straighten my porch, and as I started to pull out the "bottle pile", I heard the unmistakable squaaaaawk of a broody and this is what I found:

Now isn't that special?

I wanted her laying eggs for the *other* broody hens to set, but she's decided she can do it herself, thank you. I haven't lifted her off the nest to see how many she's setting, in part because I don't want her to struggle and break bottles, but mainly because it's so rare to have an Ancona go broody that I don't want to disturb her.

 

[ca]

Quote:
Very cool! Hope she stays

 

[buffalogal]

She's the third Ancona I've seen go broody, ever, so it's different, that's for sure. But still, my best Buckeye hen, one of my top Dominique hens and now the exquisitely shaped Ms Bentley have all gone broody on me this spring before I could get any eggs for me to hatch.