yokel
Chirping
Hi, new member, been lurking for a while since my new neighbour randomly turned up at my housewarming holding a red sex link under each arm as a welcome to the locality present.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
About 2 years ago
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
White sussex rooster, brown lohmann broody, 2 red sex links?, one 3 day chick, 3 nearly hatched, 10 or so eggs assorted unknown good, yolkers and rotten
Well I say 2 red sex links, one or both of them might be something different, maybe rhode island red?
Over 2 years I've lost a lot to the fox, but I also seem to have gained a bunch of refugees from the wider area so I'm a bit mixed up on the breeds now
(3) What breeds do you have?
Not sure what you'd call the chick, with a sussex dad and a lohmann or red sex link mum?
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
Discussing flock management over a bottle of cider with the rooster (he's called Bigfoot, he sits on my lap like a cat would)
Teasing Bigfoot by touching the water drinker (Get off that, human! or I run at you & hai-karate you in the legs!)
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Fixing tractors, keeping horses, few beers and a barbie, fishing
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
The good thing about bigfoot is the missus is scared of him, so she doesn't disturb us when it's time for a drink & to discuss flock behaviour
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Google search
So.. the original flock of 2 red sex links was joined by the white sussex rooster quite quickly, bought him from a breeder up the road for £10 and he's been great. Full of character. His crowing seemed to attract a lot of random refugees from the fields around, ended up with about 10 in total. Most seemed very similar to the sex links and a lohmann I got given by a lad who'd been using him as a travelling party mascot until he realised a chicken deserved a better life. The main difference between these refugees and the other known breed chickens, was they had very short combs. Maybe they're rhode island red, not sure
Then one night I got hit repeatedly by the fox, lost a whole bunch, only 3 chickens and the rooster remaining. I thought they were safe because I had an automatic dawn/dusk door on the coop, but first it seems the string broke (or was chewed through), then even after I'd fixed it the fox started coming earlier, before dusk.
So improved security & decided to try my hand at rearing a few when one went broody (I think it's the lohmann). Put about 14 eggs under her and they've now started hatching. Maybe too many?
Chick number 1 is doing really well and 3 other eggs are showing very significant movement on candling so I think those will be out soon too. Not very experienced with candling so not too sure what I'm seeing in the other eggs but a lot seem ok to me, if at random levels of development. I've made a mess of it really because I placed the eggs under her over a string of days as they were laid (her last ones before she went broody went under first, then after that, layings from the others in dribs and drabs.) Never put dates on them, so I'm in a mess now with monitoring. Guess you learn from experience..
The broody one, when she lays, lays medium sized light brown eggs. The other 2 lay big white eggs.
So what would you call sussex-lohmann, sussex-sexlink, sussex-rhode island crosses? Strengths, weaknesses?
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
About 2 years ago
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
White sussex rooster, brown lohmann broody, 2 red sex links?, one 3 day chick, 3 nearly hatched, 10 or so eggs assorted unknown good, yolkers and rotten
Well I say 2 red sex links, one or both of them might be something different, maybe rhode island red?
Over 2 years I've lost a lot to the fox, but I also seem to have gained a bunch of refugees from the wider area so I'm a bit mixed up on the breeds now
(3) What breeds do you have?
Not sure what you'd call the chick, with a sussex dad and a lohmann or red sex link mum?
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
Discussing flock management over a bottle of cider with the rooster (he's called Bigfoot, he sits on my lap like a cat would)
Teasing Bigfoot by touching the water drinker (Get off that, human! or I run at you & hai-karate you in the legs!)
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Fixing tractors, keeping horses, few beers and a barbie, fishing
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
The good thing about bigfoot is the missus is scared of him, so she doesn't disturb us when it's time for a drink & to discuss flock behaviour
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Google search
So.. the original flock of 2 red sex links was joined by the white sussex rooster quite quickly, bought him from a breeder up the road for £10 and he's been great. Full of character. His crowing seemed to attract a lot of random refugees from the fields around, ended up with about 10 in total. Most seemed very similar to the sex links and a lohmann I got given by a lad who'd been using him as a travelling party mascot until he realised a chicken deserved a better life. The main difference between these refugees and the other known breed chickens, was they had very short combs. Maybe they're rhode island red, not sure
Then one night I got hit repeatedly by the fox, lost a whole bunch, only 3 chickens and the rooster remaining. I thought they were safe because I had an automatic dawn/dusk door on the coop, but first it seems the string broke (or was chewed through), then even after I'd fixed it the fox started coming earlier, before dusk.
So improved security & decided to try my hand at rearing a few when one went broody (I think it's the lohmann). Put about 14 eggs under her and they've now started hatching. Maybe too many?
Chick number 1 is doing really well and 3 other eggs are showing very significant movement on candling so I think those will be out soon too. Not very experienced with candling so not too sure what I'm seeing in the other eggs but a lot seem ok to me, if at random levels of development. I've made a mess of it really because I placed the eggs under her over a string of days as they were laid (her last ones before she went broody went under first, then after that, layings from the others in dribs and drabs.) Never put dates on them, so I'm in a mess now with monitoring. Guess you learn from experience..
The broody one, when she lays, lays medium sized light brown eggs. The other 2 lay big white eggs.
So what would you call sussex-lohmann, sussex-sexlink, sussex-rhode island crosses? Strengths, weaknesses?
