New to Raising Chickens!

[tupperval]

We moved from town to the family farm a year ago. One of the things we wanted to do is raise a few chickens. Besides the tremendous benefit of a few fresh eggs, we have a terrible problem with ticks in our area. In fact, I spent most of the last summer (with Lyme's disease). In fact, a few days before moving day, I had a temp of 103. We were hoping that having chickens would cut down on the number of ticks and I think that they have. An added benefit that I hadn't planned on is that we aren't seeing the number of snakes in the yard. Living in a low area, garter snakes were always at least a daily occurrence; but not this summer.

We have 5 children the youngest will be a senior in High School this Fall and the oldest 2 are recent college graduates, working in Social Work and as a Police Officer, respectively. The middle two remain at two separate Universities and are both physics majors.

My husband and I have been married for 25 years. He is new to living in the country and is a city boy through and through. I grew up in rural America and LOVE country living! He works as a computer programmer. I am an RN.

My hobbies are heirloom gardening photography and quilting. My husband keeps busy with work and maintaining our place, but he is beginning to enjoy some woodworking projects.

We have 20 chickens (hatched in early March 2017), 3 cats and 2 dogs. 8 of the chickens are lavender Orpingtons (2 hens the rest roosters), 2 Creole Orpingtons (one hen, one rooster), 1 Black Cuckoo Orpington (rooster), 1 Crested Cream Legbar (hen), 2 Blue Orpingtons (one hen, one rooster), 1 Crested Cream Legbar Rooster (most likely a mixed breed), 3 Black Copper Marans (one hen and 2 roosters) and the rest are mixed breeds. Yes, we have way too many Roosters!

I do have a question. We have one Rooster that keeps attacking me. He flys at my legs. They are all free range. So far he hasn't caused injury, but, I feel like he could. He did it 2x today. We are planning to butcher him, but is this the only option?

View attachment 1099282

 

[drumstick diva]

What a lovely flock you have. Is your dog a Corgi? Alot of aggressive roosters end up as dinner guests. There really is never a good reason to keep a bad roo. So many worthwhile roos are desperate for homes because they are not allowed in many areas.
It's really a buyers market.

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to BYC, we are so glad you joined us.
I love your CCLs.
This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:

 

[tupperval]

What a lovely flock you have. Is your dog a Corgi? Alot of aggressive roosters end up as dinner guests. There really is never a good reason to keep a bad roo. So many worthwhile roos are desperate for homes because they are not allowed in many areas.
It's really a buyers market.

 

[tupperval]

Hi,
We believe that our dog is a Corgi mix. My son actually found her coming home from work, late one night, last summer. We looked for an owner, but I'm afraid someone drove her out to the country and dropped her off. "Daisy" is a great dog. She is fantastic with the chickens! When they were younger she was their protector. Now she helps protect me from aggressive roosters! She will even gently break up two roosters. We will be butchering the aggressive roosters within the week. Just waiting for my help to return from national guard training.

 

[Polaco]

Is this your first flock? I'm about to build a coop this weekend and was thinking of starting with 4-6 chicks an 1-2 hens. I live in the northeast so I want to start with some young ones so they get to know the property and their limits with our dogs. My oldest is a 5 year old male mixed breed (loves chasing the squirrels and birds) 3 year old Siberian Husky female (high prey drive) and an 11 month old female German Shepherd Dog.

 

[tupperval]

Yes, this is our first flock. We didn't know how the dogs would do. (We also have a Cocker Spaniel.) Daisy loves to hunt and I've seen her kill a chipmunk, so I wasn't sure how she would do. But she is SMART and she knows that they are important to me. I was very watchful and purposeful when first introducing the chicks to both dogs. Daisy always seemed to understand. Cooper (Our Cocker Spaniel) wasn't as quick to catch on and we kept them apart longer. We found that when Cooper would start chasing the chicks, Daisy would cut between them at full run and instantly but a stop to it. Neither dog ever cause any of the chicks any harm, but we watched them carefully until we were sure we could trust them. We have the dog house attached to the end of the hen house (outside the chicken run) so they are always close by, but they have NO access to the henhouse.

 

[tupperval]

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC from middle Tennessee Aggressive Roos are a pain and are often best as a dinner guest. We have had some success with the lapper method, essentially holding him, petting him in your lap until he submits. This method almost always ends with a pecking order fight once he's returned to the crowd. These days we'll only try this if its a special roo that we need for breeding.

 

[tupperval]

The one that is showing the most aggression right now is a mixed breed, so one we were going to butcher anyway. I thought of keeping one rooster (a Black Copper Maran) but we have 2 and I suspect that one is guilty of bloodying a less mature rooster, but I guess we butcher all but one rooster that problem should also be solved. The trouble maker is the first chicken in my thumbnail in the corner. He has very little comb and no waddle making me think he was a hen for the longest time. Then one day he crowed! Now we have named him "loudmouth", as he won't stop!