Also this last weekend we had some fellow chicken people out for a flock/coop tour. After taking precautions to be sure nothing could be swapped from one flock to another of course.
One of our guests I had just met. I let the flock out knowing that it was past the time they normally free range and wanted them to be able to enjoy the nice day. After meeting several flock members one of the guests asked about one of our English orp roo single barred chocolate cuckoo who was walking by. I explained that he wouldn't be used for breeding as I'm almost certain he's a split wing and a cull. She immediately got huffy and went off about so what who cares. Well we want to build a small side business in the future selling a few chicks and while I don't care about perfection I want the future chicks to be as good of quality as they can be as close to SOP as possible. I have a lot of respect for good upstanding breeders and hope someday I can learn enough to be counted among them. Anyway after being told again and again about how it doesn't matter. We changed the subject and the woman saw my OEGB run up. Now my OEGB are pets more than anything although they're awesome bug catchers too. Our whole flock is pretty tame and we select birds and breeds for that. While many of our juveniles go through a Godzilla phase where they think we're evil they generally all calm down. We do handle the cockerals less wanting to maintain the natural fear of people but we do want them to be handleable if at all possible. They all get the same kind treatment.
She watched as I picked up one of the OEGB hens and showed them how great she is. She then told me off about how she's heard the breed is aggressive and shouldn't be handled and that they would become friendly if not handled. She then asked me of this was how I did it I told her it wasn't and explained out process. She told me that she followed what she was told and let them loose on her property but that they had never tamed and were basically wild.
I will say that when the birds ran out and the saw them all they seemed in awe and commented on how healthy and happy they looked. I was very glad to hear it as I do spend a lot of time caring for our flock and making sure they are all well. While our oldest girls have started their first full molt we are careful about cocks we keep and won't keep any that are people, dog or bird aggressive or that are too rough on the hens. Of course they do get a little leeway when they are first maturing to figure it out.
One of our guests I had just met. I let the flock out knowing that it was past the time they normally free range and wanted them to be able to enjoy the nice day. After meeting several flock members one of the guests asked about one of our English orp roo single barred chocolate cuckoo who was walking by. I explained that he wouldn't be used for breeding as I'm almost certain he's a split wing and a cull. She immediately got huffy and went off about so what who cares. Well we want to build a small side business in the future selling a few chicks and while I don't care about perfection I want the future chicks to be as good of quality as they can be as close to SOP as possible. I have a lot of respect for good upstanding breeders and hope someday I can learn enough to be counted among them. Anyway after being told again and again about how it doesn't matter. We changed the subject and the woman saw my OEGB run up. Now my OEGB are pets more than anything although they're awesome bug catchers too. Our whole flock is pretty tame and we select birds and breeds for that. While many of our juveniles go through a Godzilla phase where they think we're evil they generally all calm down. We do handle the cockerals less wanting to maintain the natural fear of people but we do want them to be handleable if at all possible. They all get the same kind treatment.
She watched as I picked up one of the OEGB hens and showed them how great she is. She then told me off about how she's heard the breed is aggressive and shouldn't be handled and that they would become friendly if not handled. She then asked me of this was how I did it I told her it wasn't and explained out process. She told me that she followed what she was told and let them loose on her property but that they had never tamed and were basically wild.
I will say that when the birds ran out and the saw them all they seemed in awe and commented on how healthy and happy they looked. I was very glad to hear it as I do spend a lot of time caring for our flock and making sure they are all well. While our oldest girls have started their first full molt we are careful about cocks we keep and won't keep any that are people, dog or bird aggressive or that are too rough on the hens. Of course they do get a little leeway when they are first maturing to figure it out.
:cd
