people with house chickens

[Fricasee]

Yes. That's Henry. She's a Barred Rock. Snowflake in my jacket is a Speckled Sussex.

 

[PBGGG]

She is adorable!! I have one Barred Rock, not sure if its a boy or a girl though. Mine has a different type of comb because she's mixed with something else.

 

[Sylvester017]

Out of my six new chickens, only four tolerate being held well. The two araucana's just seem to hate it. Henry actually closes her eyes when I rub her face and her ears. Snowflake comes running now when I bring treats to the coop.

Dominiques and BRs (BRs are off-shoot breeding from Dominiques) love human interraction - they almost seem to crave it.

Are your Araucanas the kind with no tails - so many people mix up Araucanas with Ameraucanas (my avatar) and with EEs. Our APA Blue Wheaten Ameraucana has a kooky spooky jittery personality yet allows petting and holding and falls asleep purring in our arms. Only one other Silkie we have allows that much handling. All other breeds - especially Leghorns can be friendly - but prefer to stay aloof and alert. When we had our Dominique she was by-far more "pet" than the other chickens!!!

I always wondered why videos showed chickens being picked up under their breast and between the legs while holding down their wings from the top - it's to avoid holding their reproductive area sides in back and also to make them feel secure and not to "flap" - sudden flapping startles adults and children to squeeze their reproductive sides harder. I learn so much from youtube videos and BYC.

Love your Henrietta.

 

[Fricasee]

Dominiques and BRs (BRs are off-shoot breeding from Dominiques) love human interraction - they almost seem to crave it.

Are your Araucanas the kind with no tails - so many people mix up Araucanas with Ameraucanas (my avatar) and with EEs. Our APA Blue Wheaten Ameraucana has a kooky spooky jittery personality yet allows petting and holding and falls asleep purring in our arms. Only one other Silkie we have allows that much handling. All other breeds - especially Leghorns can be friendly - but prefer to stay aloof and alert. When we had our Dominique she was by-far more "pet" than the other chickens!!!

I always wondered why videos showed chickens being picked up under their breast and between the legs while holding down their wings from the top - it's to avoid holding their reproductive area sides in back and also to make them feel secure and not to "flap" - sudden flapping startles adults and children to squeeze their reproductive sides harder. I learn so much from youtube videos and BYC.

Love your Henrietta.

My A's have tails and puffy little cheeks. So are they Ameraucanas? He did tell me they weren't full blooded Araucanas. But they both totally freak when I try to hold them.
All the others will settle in and purr in my lap. Snowflake the Speckled Sussex is the friendliest yet.

 

[Sylvester017]

My A's have tails and puffy little cheeks. So are they Ameraucanas? He did tell me they weren't full blooded Araucanas. But they both totally freak when I try to hold them.
All the others will settle in and purr in my lap. Snowflake the Speckled Sussex is the friendliest yet.

Araucanas have no tail but two penduncle(spelling?) feathers (one on each cheek or no tufts at all) and lay only blue eggs. You don't find these in feed stores or hatcheries.

Ameraucanas have full muffs/beards and tails and only come in 8 recognized APA colors and only lay blue eggs - you don't find these in feed stores or hatcheries.

Easter Eggers on the other hand come in plentiful mixed colors and patterns sometimes with or without muffs that lay anywhere from pink, mint, green, stone, white, or greenish-blue eggs and are plentiful in feed stores and hatcheries who mistakenly call them "Americanas, Ameraucanas, or Aracaunas" in their advertisements.

EEs are wonderful birds and very similar in temperament to their cousins the APA Ameraucanas (my avatar). However people are not familiar with Amer's or EE's immature nature - especially as youngsters. Our girl is a kooky, spooky, jittery, klutzy, jumpy breed - but we socialized her inhouse during quarantine after we received shipment and she has the gentlest, sweetest disposition allowing us to hold her - she purrs when you hold and talk to her and falls asleep in our arms like a limp rag doll - very trusting, talkative, comes or flys right to us for her treats and gets along famously with the gentler breeds in our flock. She is non-combative in flock politics and these girls are very accepting of new birds and other breeds. Very gentle natured birds but they are also very skittishly alert in a free-range environment - she is our predator alarm as she is always on high-strung alert. If not such a noisy talkative breed I'd have nothing but an all-Ameraucana or EE flock. Doms and Amers are my favourite LF breeds.

 

[SunnyAlberta]

I'm going RV camping for a week and may take my two indoor Seramas. Do any of you have tips for the road or campsite?

 

[Sylvester017]

I'm going RV camping for a week and may take my two indoor Seramas. Do any of you have tips for the road or campsite?

Camping means open air, open air means predator wildlife will sniff out your bantams, and bantams mean they are excellent flyers - so, I would not keep the Seramas outdoors (not even in a pen or cage) but diapered and in the camper to not lose the birds to flightiness or predators - of course it means butt washes and blow drys before roost time. Enjoy your birds but always think secure, secure, secure.

We inherited a relative's cockatiel when they passed away and he always went camping with them - sitting on the headrest of the driver's seat while the couple was on the road. We would sometimes take him for drives in the car to sit on the seat back to make him feel at home. He would wolf whistle at people in the street crosswalks. He lived to a ripe old age of 23-1/2 years before passing on. RIP PeeWee!

 

[subhanalah]

Camping means open air, open air means predator wildlife will sniff out your bantams, and bantams mean they are excellent flyers - so, I would not keep the Seramas outdoors (not even in a pen or cage) but diapered and in the camper to not lose the birds to flightiness or predators - of course it means butt washes and blow drys before roost time.  Enjoy your birds but always think secure, secure, secure.

We inherited a relative's cockatiel when they passed away and he always went camping with them - sitting on the headrest of the driver's seat while the couple was on the road.  We would sometimes take him for drives in the car to sit on the seat back to make him feel at home.  He would wolf whistle at people in the street crosswalks.  He lived to a ripe old age of 23-1/2 years before passing on.  RIP PeeWee!

also remember that the idea when camping is to NOT draw attention of the local predators to your campsite so as to not have any personal close encounters.
In my opinion, if you bring chickens camping you are endangering the lives of all people sharing the vicinity.

That's an emergency situation waiting to happen. Seems like a risk that would be best not taken.

 

[Nuggetirl]

Quote: If they keep the chickens in the camper (they may need to take the chickens since I can only imagine not a lot of people would babysit) this shouldn't be a problem. Eating outside would cause just as much attention to predators as smelling chickens for a few seconds while the doors were open, or on someone's clothes.

 

[Nuggetirl]

On a different note, will indoor chickens ever need to have their beaks trimmed (and by trimmed, I do NOT mean any sort of debeaking. I really mean taking the very very end off)

I ask because even though my chickens (10 weeks old) seem to be developing very sharp upper beaks. They have a couple bricks they can wear it down against in their cage, but the amount of time they free range with me outdoors probably won't be adequate to grind them down. Maybe they're fine and I just need to stop finding things to worry about, but I'm paranoid! I want to do everything right. I don't want to have to fix it later because I didn't know.