INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[JanetMarie]

I've never been this unsure. Normally I can guess at 4 weeks & confirm by 6. The hardest one took me 8 weeks.
Their wattles say male & the combs say female.

It took me probably four months to know for sure a girl, when the boys' tail feathers were growing longer and hers were not.

Now I know you can't always go by the size and redness of combs and wattles.

 

[JanetMarie]

One hen I had started crowing after she was finished raising her chicks, then she started mating with another female, then she started attacking a muscovy hen, and that is when I decided to cull her.

 

[chickiefreak]

it's christmas now so I made this.


On the first day of christmas my true love gave to me a polish in a pear tree
on the second day of christmas my true love gave to me two jubilees
on the third day of christmas my true love gave to me three french hens
on the fourth day of christmas my true love gave to me four calling silkies
on the fifth day of christmas my true love gave to me five lavenders
on the sixth day of christmas my true love gave to me six frizzles laying
on the seventh day of christmas my true love gave to me seven chickens swimming
on the eighth day of christmas my true love gave to me eight roosters fighting
on the ninth day of christmas my true love gave to me nine bardrocks dancing
on the tenth day of christmas my true love gave to me ten leghorns a leaping
on the eleventh day of christmas my true love gave to me eleven cochins flapping
on the twelfth day of christmas my true love gave to me twelve broody mamas

 

[Faraday40]

One hen I had started crowing after she was finished raising her chicks, then she started mating with another female, then she started attacking a muscovy hen, and that is when I decided to cull her.

Oh My! I hope THAT doesn't happen. She's very low in the pecking order. (Tiny silkie against a flock of giant lav orps.) She doesn't get bullied, but DD spoils her terribly. She doesn't act much like a chicken; she's more of a purse pet. DD wants to make her silkie a house chicken -- not gonna happen! I think the crow is the silkie's version of a "broody scream." We'll wait & see.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Whistling girls
And crowing hens
Both will come
To no good ends

 

[Indyshent]

Neighbors won't keep their game cocks in... so we found one in our front yard, eating some weeds. Hoping the dog doesn't get a hold of him, and that he doesn't get in with my birds. He's been inching closer to my place for a month or more now.

 

[JanetMarie]

Oh My! I hope THAT doesn't happen. She's very low in the pecking order. (Tiny silkie against a flock of giant lav orps.) She doesn't get bullied, but DD spoils her terribly. She doesn't act much like a chicken; she's more of a purse pet. DD wants to make her silkie a house chicken -- not gonna happen! I think the crow is the silkie's version of a "broody scream." We'll wait & see.

Your silkie probably won't be that extreme. Mine was a mix of buff Orpington, RIR, and Production Red. The Production Red rooster who was a grandpa, or great grandpa had some issues, and he had been bred before I learned what good rooster traits are. I believe she inherited some of his undesirable genes. She also had issues with cannibalism.

 

[JanetMarie]

Neighbors won't keep their game cocks in... so we found one in our front yard, eating some weeds. Hoping the dog doesn't get a hold of him, and that he doesn't get in with my birds. He's been inching closer to my place for a month or more now.

I probably wouldn't be too concerned if your dog got him, since your neighbors don't seem to care, but I wouldn't want my dog (if I had one) to start killing any chicken.

 

[Indyshent]

I probably wouldn't be too concerned if your dog got him, since your neighbors don't seem to care, but I wouldn't want my dog (if I had one) to start killing any chicken.

I don't want the dog getting a hold of any bird--even an interloper like this handsome fellow. Does seem to he learning how to "play" more gently with the birds, which is great because she's stupidly determined to get into their run and they're stupidly determined to get out of their run, too. She's found or broken so many ways into that run over the last month.


She hasn't killed one since that olive egger cockerel that I know of, though she couldn't have helped the sick WL/RIR boy (he died after she got a hold of him, but he had been very ill for weeks before that point, too). We're at least seeing fewer fatalities when she does get in with them, and most of the time lately she hasn't injured or even chased anyone when she gets into the run. *knock on wood*

 

[Wehner Homestead]

New and Indiana. Wanted to follow the thread.