Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[aliyah7404]

Beautiful sunny day today. The teenagers were all out sunning themselves.

LOL

 

[satay]

Very nice Fancy.


Hay I'm wondering if anyone else has heard of an instance like this before;
A few weeks ago I got another FW Marans rooster (His name will be 'Small' for this post) along with some hens. This rooster, despite being twice the age of my original FWM rooster (He will be called 'Big') was significantly smaller, not so much in height but defiantly in chest and thigh size as well as body width. Both roosters are 100% healthy and I just put the size difference down to different lines. About 1 week ago Small escaped from his pen and into the Big's pen and they immediately got into a large fight. After this there must have been accerted dominance because both roosters stopped crowing as much and calmed down within their own flocks.
Now, the other day I went down to the chickens, saw what I thought was Small in Bigs pen and thought crap he's got out again. But when I got closer Small was in his pen. Big is now almost exactly the same size as Small. He has literally 'shrunk' in a few days...He's not ill in anyway and he's eating, drinking and doing all his rooster duties the same as normal but has just gotten significantly smaller. I am no longer to even tell them apart that's how much he's changed.
The only thing I can think is that Small is now the dominant rooster even though he only has 5 hens and a smaller pen compared to Big's 12 hens. But I don't understand how dominance can change the size of a rooster in such a small amount of time and it's not like Small is pushing Big away from food and water because they each have their own homes?!?

No, Never heard of that one before. I wonder if her smaller one just got bigger and she didn't notice.

 

[satay]

Chicken math has struck again!! 4 blue orpingtons 3 gold spangled hamburgs 3 lav araucanas and a red ancona chick. Various ages. To go with my 6 aras 1 polish 3 aussies 1 silkie 3 bantams and 1 gs hamburg adults as well as 4 aras 3 weeks one aussie/maran 3 weeks 1 orpingtonx 8 wks 1 polishx ara 8 weeks 4 mixed polish x 1 day old 2 rirs 6wks one hylinexmaran 6 weeks one sl wyandotte 6weeks one darkbarred plymoth 6 weeks. Holy!!! Got it bad. Also 2 bantam polish coming next week and a huge pile of eggs on their way. Hmmmm what hubby doesn't know wont get me divorced lol

Your catching up to me in numbers now Gratz on your new arrivals and your soon to be "not sure where they came from eggs"

 

[satay]

Beautiful sunny day today. The teenagers were all out sunning themselves.

You coordinate your hens with that beautiful green grass so well. They are absolutely stunning

 

[Fancychooklady]

You coordinate your hens with that beautiful green grass so well. They are absolutely stunning

These unusual weather patterns have the grass still growing. Even the horses are carrying more condition than they normally would in winter. The girls are all coming back into lay now.

 

[Fancychooklady]

The Wyandotte pen.

 

[Anniebee]

The Wyandotte pen.

Envious of the lush grass Fancy .... Victorian weather cold, and weird. ... But new grass is struggling to come up ! .... your birds ( and the grass ) - beautiful. Is there some barnevelder in some there - especially the last pic ? Barneys are wonderful - had one myself, but she very suddenly became weak ( even though she continued eating ) - and then one afternoon, while sunning herself - just keeled over and died. She was only about 20 months old. Had begun to lay and continued ... almost up to the end. I kind of figured a heart attack of some kind, or perhaps some malfunction in the innards. Had no necropsy done.

But that's not at all what I intended to go on with - am here just to congratulate you on your lovely free ranging areas, and your beautiful chickens.

Cheers -

 

[Fancychooklady]

Envious of the lush grass Fancy .... Victorian weather cold, and weird.   ... But new grass is struggling to come up !  .... your birds ( and the grass ) - beautiful.   Is there some barnevelder in some there - especially the last pic ?  Barneys are wonderful - had one myself, but she very suddenly became weak ( even though she continued eating )  - and then one afternoon, while sunning herself - just keeled over and died.  She was only about 20 months old.   Had begun to lay and continued ... almost up to the end.   I kind of figured a heart attack of some kind, or perhaps some malfunction in the innards.   Had no necropsy done.  

But that's not at all what I intended to go on with - am here just to congratulate you on your lovely free ranging areas, and your beautiful chickens.  

Cheers -  

Thanks Annie , no barnies they are all wyandotte. I'm working on blue laced red. When you mate blue / blue you can get 3 combinations. Blue , black or splash. The last hen is a double laced black. Here is a 10 week old splash ( middle pic ) and 2 versions of blue. Sorry to hear about your barnevelder.

 

[sjturner79]

.
Zorrow laid an egg.
So I'm now up to 1 egg since February.
Sebastian has also started to mount the silkies so hopefully that means they are going to start laying soon.

 

[Anniebee]

Thanks Annie , no barnies they are all wyandotte. I'm working on blue laced red. When you mate blue / blue you can get 3 combinations. Blue , black or splash. The last hen is a double laced black. Here is a 10 week old splash ( middle pic ) and 2 versions of blue. Sorry to hear about your barnevelder.

They are beautiful chickens Fancy . ... Are they a hardy breed ? .... I am thinking increasing my little flock. ... Husband gets the vapors every time I mention it.

Would like to have another RIR - and maybe a couple more araucanas' although must try and keep the chickens even in number ( two separate runs at the moment ) ...

But would consider another breed if they are kindly, and hardy ?