Polish Thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sylvester017]

i have found my araucanas are fine with them also, i also had some australorps out with mine and no issues

Thank you for your input.

Yes, I have received several feedbacks about the Araucana and Australorp about how good they are in a mixed flock. I like the Araucana appearance but my breeder source keeps the tufted ones for her breeding projects and I wasn't interested in getting the cast-offs with only one tuft, no tuft, or partial tails. The perfect ones are out of my budget anyway. The double tufted lethal gene kind of turned me off also - sort of like the double Dumpy lethal gene in the short legged breeds.

The Australorp, Sussex, Brahma, Jersey Giant, and several other LF are reported to be gentle giants also and I agree from talking with owners of these breeds. Ultimately we chose to build our gentle flock around the two Silkiies and so decided on gentle breeds 5-lb-&-under just to be sure no gentle giant decided to get away with bullying 2-lb bantams - they are chickens after all and we decided to eliminate the temptation for even a gentle giant to take advantage of the littles. When we're zoned for only 5 hens we went through a few breeds carefully before finally deciding what worked best in our little cottage backyard. I love so many chicken breeds but unfortunately they don't all mix together well in a small yard.

 

[Sylvester017]

I want to get a few more polish hens for my roo. He only has the one but he is good to her. I do want to add a BCM and an OE to my laying flock.

I don't like to be a bearer of doom because I love just about every chicken. Marans grow to be very heavy chickens but more than that they can be anywhere from nippy to downright nasty. We had a Cuckoo, and our friends had a couple BCMs and an OE. We all re-homed our Marans. The Marans are quite bossy and for some reason are not nice to smaller gentler breeds. Our friends liked their OE and kept her even after she stopped laying well because she was so calm. Like LeEgg (below) having a lot of hiding places set up for the gentles to hide is good advice - especially if the dual purpose LF outnumber the smaller gentler breeds.

I have a mixed flock at my backyard, well, my polish chickens are just 4 months old youngsters, so I don't have long experience with them, but my original flock was silkies & buff brahmas, then I added some dual purpose breeds, Rhode Island Red, White Maran, Australorp and Barred Plymouth. This spring I added these 3 polish hens, couple more Silkies and some Easter Eggers, Cochin bantam and Sultan. (unfortunately my blue silkie and cochin are roosters, so they will be re-homed)

It looks like all the crested breeds are very good together and bantam easter eggers too. My RIR and Maran are sometimes nasty, but after we built an extension to the run, everything seem to be ok. We added a lot of "hiding places" and natural covers for all chickens (branches, bushes, some old barrel cotes, wood pallet shelters etc) so if there is quarrel, gentler and lower-pecking-order birds can escape from the fight too. Let's see what happens when my Polish Rooster is adult.. and new girls laying. Hormones, they make everything so tricky...

I also had RIR, NHR, BR, California Gray, White Leg, Buff Leg, Marans, Ameraucana, Silkie, and Breda. We loved the eggs from the dual purpose breeds but they get obnoxious toward smaller gentles like Silkie, Ameraucana, and Breda when the yard is small like ours. Legs can get cannibalistic and need to be in equal temperament flocks that can stand up to them. I won't have Marans again and neither will our friends. We've re-homed all our dual purpose breeds. We don't mind natural pecking order politics but littles aren't equally matched against heavy or dual purpose breeds. We've opted for gentle smaller breeds with smaller eggs rather than heavy all-purpose layers and the yard has been wonderfully peaceful since. And you are so right about having shelters and covers for gentles to hide in a mixed flock. Sorry you have to re-home your cockerels. We've had to re-home a couple and it is so hard to part with them - the boys are sometimes sweeter than the girls!

 

[CrazyChickLady7]

If u want small gentle chickens I recommend the polish, bantam cochins, spitzhauben hens are pretty small and they have amazing temperaments, and the mottled houdan. These are my favorite breeds, not to mention they are very unique looking birds

 

[cluckycrocheter]

My Polish is awesome! I will have to get a good photo tonight and share with you tomorrow...he is not the biggest chicken, but he is the top dog! I find that hilarious!

 

[rossfam06]

 I don't like to be a bearer of doom because I love just about every chicken.  Marans grow to be very heavy chickens but more than that they can be anywhere from nippy to downright nasty.  We had a Cuckoo, and our friends had a couple BCMs and an OE.  We all re-homed our Marans.  The Marans are quite bossy and for some reason are not nice to smaller gentler breeds.  Our friends liked their OE and kept her even after she stopped laying well because she was so calm.  Like LeEgg (below) having a lot of hiding places set up for the gentles to hide is good advice - especially if the dual purpose LF outnumber the smaller gentler breeds.

I also had RIR, NHR, BR, California Gray, White Leg, Buff Leg, Marans, Ameraucana, Silkie, and Breda.  We loved the eggs from the dual purpose breeds but they get obnoxious toward smaller gentles like Silkie, Ameraucana, and Breda when the yard is small like ours.  Legs can get cannibalistic and need to be in equal temperament flocks that can stand up to them.  I won't have Marans again and neither will our friends.  We've re-homed all our dual purpose breeds.  We don't mind natural pecking order politics but littles aren't equally matched against heavy or dual purpose breeds.  We've opted for gentle smaller breeds with smaller eggs rather than heavy all-purpose layers and the yard has been wonderfully peaceful since.  And you are so right about having shelters and covers for gentles to hide in a mixed flock.  Sorry you have to re-home your cockerels.  We've had to re-home a couple and it is so hard to part with them - the boys are sometimes sweeter than the girls!   

We had a cuckoo hen and see was the alpha but she guarded the flock and was not mean. It was a sad day when Big Momma got taken by a raccoon.

 

[LeEgg]

...I also had RIR, NHR, BR, California Gray, White Leg, Buff Leg, Marans, Ameraucana, Silkie, and Breda. We loved the eggs from the dual purpose breeds but they get obnoxious toward smaller gentles like Silkie, Ameraucana, and Breda when the yard is small like ours. Legs can get cannibalistic and need to be in equal temperament flocks that can stand up to them. I won't have Marans again and neither will our friends. We've re-homed all our dual purpose breeds. We don't mind natural pecking order politics but littles aren't equally matched against heavy or dual purpose breeds. We've opted for gentle smaller breeds with smaller eggs rather than heavy all-purpose layers and the yard has been wonderfully peaceful since. And you are so right about having shelters and covers for gentles to hide in a mixed flock. Sorry you have to re-home your cockerels. We've had to re-home a couple and it is so hard to part with them - the boys are sometimes sweeter than the girls!

Yes, I know the feeling. We were about to re-home our Maran and RIR too, but then miracle happened, and my mean blonde got broody exactly when we had our new babies, so she's been a bit nicer to flock addition than she probably would have been otherwise. But I wouldn't try make her take care of the babies, even when she was truly broody. If I have to make some re-homing with my pullets too, RIR would be first to go.

My Australorp is very gentle giant indeed. She has never pecked anybody, and doesn't even attack back if my Brahma bantam duo attacks her (Brahmas supposed to be calm and nice birds, well, mine are small and fierce, but they have important impact to the pecking order. They are my oldest birds, and even when the flock leader is Barred Rock, together they are the "second" chicken, and after that comes Australorp, Maran and RIR + all the crested cuties. It's kind of important to have these bantams high at the hierarchy, since they don't fight with silkies or polishes, but they do give valuable life lessons to these dual purpose birds. As long pecking order fights don't cause severe injuries, it's natural and important part of chicken life, I guess. (we have a big yard and spacious chicken run, divided in two, although they are connected. Between the run is coop for adults, and in the extension part of the run is 2 small coops for the youngsters. So instead of one flock, I guess we have couple of micro-flocks, getting along together)

So, if I would have a smaller run, I would stick in small and gentle birds with Polish chickens. Well, maybe I couldn't resist the urge to add that Australorp, because it's my fav of those bigger ones, and something in those chubby aussies just cracks me up. Example, my Aussie is the biggest bird in my flock, but she has so tiny voice, she's almost cooing like a dove, and when I pick her up, she's snuffling like a baby.

 

[Sylvester017]

If u want small gentle chickens I recommend the polish, bantam cochins, spitzhauben hens are pretty small and they have amazing temperaments, and the mottled houdan. These are my favorite breeds, not to mention they are very unique looking birds

I love the gentles you have. Over the last 4 years of researching breeds I came across a coincidence - the gentlest breeds reported back to me by owners are the crested, bearded, muffed, vulture hocked, pea-combed, feather-footed, or oddball breeds like short legs, no comb, or no tails, whether Bantam or Large Fowl breeds. I guess this would include breeds like Ameraucana, Araucana, Barthuhner, Brahma, Breda, Cochin, Cream Legbar, Crevecoeur, Dorking, Easter Egger, Faverolles, Houdan, Langshan, Pavlovskaja, Polish, Silkie, Sultan to name just a few. Some Icelandics and Swedish Flowers have crests but I get mixed feedback about their temperaments. There are European breeds like Alsteirer, Estaires, Sulmtaler, Spitzhauben, Russian Crested, to name a few that have these features but I don't know enough about them to know if they are gentle-temperament breeds. Many owners have reported to me that their heavy large fowl like Australorps, Sussex, Jersey Giant, 'Orps, and Brahma are very gentle giants but around our Silkies we don't want any breeds over 5-lbs. One thing we learned the hard way is that the dual purpose or prolific egg layer breeds are not the best to mix with littles or gentles. I love chickens of so many breeds but learned the hard way that it was best not to mix the spirited, heavy, or dual purpose breeds with the calmer gentler breeds. Our yard is too small to give 5 hens of mixed sizes enough room to hide from aggressive breeds in a flock so we opted to have all smaller gentler birds. It's been better on the feed bill too.

My Polish is awesome! I will have to get a good photo tonight and share with you tomorrow...he is not the biggest chicken, but he is the top dog! I find that hilarious!

I watched a U.K. owner who raises nothing but Polish for years and loves them.

We had a cuckoo hen and see was the alpha but she guarded the flock and was not mean. It was a sad day when Big Momma got taken by a raccoon.

I am so sorry you lost Big Momma. Even when we had to re-home our mean or aggressive hens we missed them too - but in our case it was our best decision.

Yes, I know the feeling. We were about to re-home our Maran and RIR too, but then miracle happened, and my mean blonde got broody exactly when we had our new babies, so she's been a bit nicer to flock addition than she probably would have been otherwise. But I wouldn't try make her take care of the babies, even when she was truly broody. If I have to make some re-homing with my pullets too, RIR would be first to go.

My Australorp is very gentle giant indeed. She has never pecked anybody, and doesn't even attack back if my Brahma bantam duo attacks her (Brahmas supposed to be calm and nice birds, well, mine are small and fierce, but they have important impact to the pecking order. They are my oldest birds, and even when the flock leader is Barred Rock, together they are the "second" chicken, and after that comes Australorp, Maran and RIR + all the crested cuties. It's kind of important to have these bantams high at the hierarchy, since they don't fight with silkies or polishes, but they do give valuable life lessons to these dual purpose birds. As long pecking order fights don't cause severe injuries, it's natural and important part of chicken life, I guess. (we have a big yard and spacious chicken run, divided in two, although they are connected. Between the run is coop for adults, and in the extension part of the run is 2 small coops for the youngsters. So instead of one flock, I guess we have couple of micro-flocks, getting along together)

So, if I would have a smaller run, I would stick in small and gentle birds with Polish chickens. Well, maybe I couldn't resist the urge to add that Australorp, because it's my fav of those bigger ones, and something in those chubby aussies just cracks me up. Example, my Aussie is the biggest bird in my flock, but she has so tiny voice, she's almost cooing like a dove, and when I pick her up, she's snuffling like a baby.

Sounds like you know your flock very well and have planned well too!

 

[evitachu]

Can someone help me identify what sex is this sweetie?
It is soooooo sweet, great temperament, snuggly, and smart. It doesn't have waddle, but hairdo is crazy. I can't identify the saddle feather...those white feathers are part of wings.

 

[rossfam06]

Can someone help me identify what sex is this sweetie?
It is soooooo sweet, great temperament, snuggly, and smart. It doesn't have waddle, but hairdo is crazy. I can't identify the saddle feather...those white feathers are part of wings.

It's hard to tell but it does remind me of a hen.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Can someone help me identify what sex is this sweetie?
It is soooooo sweet, great temperament, snuggly, and smart. It doesn't have waddle, but hairdo is crazy. I can't identify the saddle feather...those white feathers are part of wings.

How old?