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

[ChookieG]

What do you think of their temperaments?

If you're thinking about temperament, you can't go past Wyandottes... man they're the best chooks I've had so far! Very calm, friendly, quiet....and like I told @Poultry mum recently...the Roos crow far softer and far less frequently than my annoying Araucana ratbag...and I think they're absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Poultry mum]

If you're thinking about temperament, you can't go past Wyandottes... man they're the best chooks I've had so far! Very calm, friendly, quiet....and like I told @Poultry mum recently...the Roos crow far softer and far less frequently than my annoying Araucana ratbag...and I think they're absolutely gorgeous!

My Wyandotte is a bit of a ratbag but he’s a good boy and easy to train tho his crow is quite loud and deep but not as deep as my Wyandotte x barred rock boy bean

 

[ChookieG]

My Wyandotte is a bit of a ratbag but he’s a good boy and easy to train tho his crow is quite loud and deep but not as deep as my Wyandotte x barred rock boy bean

Hmmmm....I wonder why most of your Roos are so naughty....what have you been feeding them??

 

[Poultry mum]

Hmmmm....I wonder why most of your Roos are so naughty....what have you been feeding them??

It’s coz I sook them when their little so when they grow up they’re naughty little sh**s or just plan sooks lol… they’re definitely mumma boys tho… they listen they just like pushing the boundaries

 

[MaryJanet]

I've got a few questions about breeding. Do any of you breed towards the standard? If so, what do you do with the pullets who aren't too good? Keep them or sell them to backyarders like me? And how do you reduce the cockerels? I can see the ecological and economic merit in butchering them but as a city woman, I would struggle to do that myself. I recently read about MG and it said don't mix age groups, do people in Australia take care on that point? Sorry to ask all these naive questions, I haven't been keeping chickens long.

 

[Poultry mum]

I've got a few questions about breeding. Do any of you breed towards the standard? If so, what do you do with the pullets who aren't too good? Keep them or sell them to backyarders like me? And how do you reduce the cockerels? I can see the ecological and economic merit in butchering them but as a city woman, I would struggle to do that myself. I recently read about MG and it said don't mix age groups, do people in Australia take care on that point? Sorry to ask all these naive questions, I haven't been keeping chickens long.

I try to breed to standards however my Roos have other ideas… I am however trying to breed my standard silkie boy with my bantam silkie girl.. as my boy has won at the Sydney royal and such prior to me getting him… he is born and bred as a show.
As for anything that isn’t of standard I normally sell as unsexed chicks and tho that have had complications with hatching I normally keep.
As for excess roosters I have 15 of the darlings so I don’t think there’s really anything I can say on that!! Oh amd they are all different breeds and mixes too…

 

[Sussex19]

I've got a few questions about breeding. Do any of you breed towards the standard? If so, what do you do with the pullets who aren't too good? Keep them or sell them to backyarders like me? And how do you reduce the cockerels? I can see the ecological and economic merit in butchering them but as a city woman, I would struggle to do that myself. I recently read about MG and it said don't mix age groups, do people in Australia take care on that point? Sorry to ask all these naive questions, I haven't been keeping chickens long.

I don't really try to breed to standard, but I do have an idea of what I want to achieve, or my own standard if you want to call it that.
With the pullets I don't want, I will list them on gumtree, and for the cockerels I do eat them. Which was a learning curve, and I don't enjoy culling them, but I feel its a fact of life, and they have had a much better life that those you can by in the supermarket.
I'm not even quite sure what MG is, except I don't think I've got it here, and all my chickens live together, chicks, pullets, and old ones.

 

[MaryJanet]

I try to breed to standards however my Roos have other ideas… I am however trying to breed my standard silkie boy with my bantam silkie girl.. as my boy has won at the Sydney royal and such prior to me getting him… he is born and bred as a show.
As for anything that isn’t of standard I normally sell as unsexed chicks and tho that have had complications with hatching I normally keep.
As for excess roosters I have 15 of the darlings so I don’t think there’s really anything I can say on that!! Oh amd they are all different breeds and mixes too…

I don't really try to breed to standard, but I do have an idea of what I want to achieve, or my own standard if you want to call it that.
With the pullets I don't want, I will list them on gumtree, and for the cockerels I do eat them. Which was a learning curve, and I don't enjoy culling them, but I feel its a fact of life, and they have had a much better life that those you can by in the supermarket.
I'm not even quite sure what MG is, except I don't think I've got it here, and all my chickens live together, chicks, pullets, and old ones.

Thank you both so much, you've given me a lot of insight and I have to agree any cockerel who hasn't been hatched and raised for meat has had quite a good life.

I was nervous about cockerels back when I was thinking about getting eggs for broodies but the chook vet said any cockerel that spends his childhood at my house, digging weeds and eating bugs and having a good life, will have lived his short life to the fullest, he won't have been worried about dying young, and he won't feel a thing when we put him to sleep. That was very reassuring.

The rooster I got the eggs from is an Australorp living with a Silver Sussex and two red hybrid laying hens (probably ISA Browns). So I have no idea what the chicks will look like, assuming they will hatch at all. It's been cold and I'm not confident her nest is good for maintaining humidity and temp.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

I've got a few questions about breeding. Do any of you breed towards the standard? If so, what do you do with the pullets who aren't too good? Keep them or sell them to backyarders like me? And how do you reduce the cockerels? I can see the ecological and economic merit in butchering them but as a city woman, I would struggle to do that myself. I recently read about MG and it said don't mix age groups, do people in Australia take care on that point? Sorry to ask all these naive questions, I haven't been keeping chickens long.

I am starting to breed to standard, wasn't something I always did. Pullets would go to anyone who wanted them, same with some Cockerels.
We used to always always butcher roosters (that's why I had a dual purpose breed to start with. I also I draw the line at silkie, I DON'T eat silkies), but just don't have the time to process them nor the space to grow then out atm. I want to go back to butchering them at some point as I have a thing that I dont like chicken from the shop I so far haven't had a heap of trouble selling my extra roos, it is also possible to find people who'll buy your rooster and cull them for themselves.
I also dont know what MG is, eventually all my chicken end up living near each other and running in the paddock together.

 

[MaryJanet]

I am starting to breed to standard, wasn't something I always did. Pullets would go to anyone who wanted them, same with some Cockerels.
We used to always always butcher roosters (that's why I had a dual purpose breed to start with. I also I draw the line at silkie, I DON'T eat silkies), but just don't have the time to process them nor the space to grow then out atm. I want to go back to butchering them at some point as I have a thing that I dont like chicken from the shop I so far haven't had a heap of trouble selling my extra roos, it is also possible to find people who'll buy your rooster and cull them for themselves.
I also dont know what MG is, eventually all my chicken end up living near each other and running in the paddock together.

Huh. Maybe I'm worrying about something we don't have in Australia. Apparently we don't have the bad strain of avian influenza either.

I've found it really hard to buy pullets in Adelaide. There are loads of ISA Browns but they die so young and so painfully, they're not a hen I'm all that keen on. Although they are very sweet and so far I've had three by accident. One was found walking the streets by friends of friends, so I gave her a home and her reproductive health failed badly within about 6 months. Then two recently came to live at my house because they're refugees from the flood.

I prefer pretty bitsas but no one seems to sell them down here. My first two back in 2017 (or maybe it was 2018) were Australorp and Barnevelder. Two years later, my second pair were bitsas from a fodder store which worked out really well. Then a couple of weeks back I got a trio of pullets from a fodder store who only stocks pullets from one breeder. A Barnevelder, a Dorking, and a Speckled Sussex and I was on a wait list for about 6 weeks before they were available. And I said I didn't care what the breeds were, but it was still a 6 week wait.

But each time it was hours and hours of web searching to find the pullets, then long drives to pick them up. The one thing I've learned is that I have to start searching months beforehand and just be patient.

Or give up and buy ISAs.

If I can get my thinking and skills on hen hatches up to speed, it would be a much quicker process when expanding the flock. I need to start with better and safer nesting options.