What do you have in your flock?

[ShrekDawg]

I don't have any right now but I ordered 9 on September 18th from Meyer Hatchery set to hatch on October 26th with an estimated arrival of October 27-29. So any day now.

I ordered all females and 2 (two) each of the following breeds:

Barred Rock
Black Australorp
Buff Orpington
Easter Egger

Then one Meyer Meal Maker, their free chick option. Don't know the breed but they usually try to match up to the type of birds and breeds you have. I heard someone say it's what you ordered most of but I ordered an equal amount of all so we'll see.

And I know it was mentioned above about possible bullying since EE's are more timid but I'm not too worried since they will be raised together and I'm getting docile breeds. The only concern I have will likely be with the Barred Rocks as they're really the only ones I'm getting that can be more bossy. But they're a concern with all the other birds too. That and if the free bird is also a bullying breed.

 

[varidgerunner]

EE's timid? Some of the most sadistic and viscious chickens I have ever owned have been EE. That is really saying something because I raise Asils, Ga Noi and American Games.

I like raising the games for broodies. I keep them in their own little pens, I let them raise the first brood of whatever games I am trying to keep some more of, and then their second and third broods I buy hatching eggs, so I have a very diverse laying flock. The new laying flock I have, all game raised, consist of Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, Dorking, Swedish Flower Hen, and Exchequer Leghorn. Small batches of chicks, tractored easily in small dome pens, no incubators, no brooders, no extension cords, exactly what I want, and extremely healthy chicks. With my small staggered hatches, seamless egg production is a reality. For broilers, I find the games crossed on a heritage dual purpose breed make for some very meaty, fast growing and hardy birds that do well foraging.

 

[Sylvester017]

I don't have any right now but I ordered 9 on September 18th from Meyer Hatchery set to hatch on October 26th with an estimated arrival of October 27-29. So any day now.

I ordered all females and 2 (two) each of the following breeds:

Barred Rock
Black Australorp
Buff Orpington
Easter Egger

Then one Meyer Meal Maker, their free chick option. Don't know the breed but they usually try to match up to the type of birds and breeds you have. I heard someone say it's what you ordered most of but I ordered an equal amount of all so we'll see.

And I know it was mentioned above about possible bullying since EE's are more timid but I'm not too worried since they will be raised together and I'm getting docile breeds. The only concern I have will likely be with the Barred Rocks as they're really the only ones I'm getting that can be more bossy. But they're a concern with all the other birds too. That and if the free bird is also a bullying breed.

Just a heads-up -- With the breeds you have ordered any one of them can turn out top dog except for the EEs which are generally kooky spooky jittery jumpy skittish alert wary birds and are known to flee rather than fight. Because of their non-combative temperament they are easily chosen to be bullied by the heavier dual-purpose heritage breeds. Our Ameraucana is always running away whenever a flockmate approaches her because she doesn't want to chance ANY conflicts - even if cornered. I never put EEs or Amers with heavier dual-purpose heritage breeds because it stresses them and stress is not good for egg-laying. Having one or two or more EEs will not mean they aren't going to get bullied by the assertive heritage dual-purpose. It's rare for an EE to address a flock challenger.

 

[Sylvester017]

EE's timid? Some of the most sadistic and viscious chickens I have ever owned have been EE. That is really saying something because I raise Asils, Ga Noi and American Games.

I like raising the games for broodies. I keep them in their own little pens, I let them raise the first brood of whatever games I am trying to keep some more of, and then their second and third broods I buy hatching eggs, so I have a very diverse laying flock. The new laying flock I have, all game raised, consist of Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, Dorking, Swedish Flower Hen, and Exchequer Leghorn. Small batches of chicks, tractored easily in small dome pens, no incubators, no brooders, no extension cords, exactly what I want, and extremely healthy chicks. With my small staggered hatches, seamless egg production is a reality. For broilers, I find the games crossed on a heritage dual purpose breed make for some very meaty, fast growing and hardy birds that do well foraging.

My friend's and our experience with Ameraucanas and EEs (from different breeders) is that the pullets try to push their way in during feeding but are easily chased off by the firmer personalities like Marans, Leghorns, Orps, Javas and Sexlinks. Even the EE Cockerels were bullied by ALL the hens and pullets and had to be separated and finally processed. But then it's not unusual for cockerels to get bullied until they reach an age of confidence and maturity. I've received feedback that occasionally the EE roos can be aggressive and others say they have sweethearts - so who knows? I can only speak of our experience with the Am/EE hens - our girls would rather flee than fight and even are submissive to the gentle Silkies! Since Ams/EEs prefer to be non-combative that's why I suggest to new owners not to be surprised that their jittery jumpy blue-egg girls will most likely fall to the bottom of the pecking order.

I adore all the 8 or 10 Leghorn varieties that have been developed but we found the Legs too aggressive to downright mean to our Silkies and Ameraucana chasing and pulling out crests, beards, muffs, and tail feathers. Our Marans plucked one of our Silkies bald on the roost, attacked all the other flockmates, and had to re-home her along with the Legs. I don't mind flock politics but outright injury is not tolerated. Your game varieties are certainly not the norm for backyards but certainly interesting. Where would you place your Dorking in the flock pecking order? Very old English heritage breed that is making a comeback and I'd love to get more owner feedback about them.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Thanks for all the info everyone!! Although now you're making me really nervous they're not gonna be okay. :/ I've seen people say they do fine and they're really friendly with them and stuff plus the eggs are cool so I got them but now I'm nervous. I hope they'll be fine though as I don't want to have to get rid of any birds or anything. I don't think I could separate them either since we don't have one coop built let alone two. Buuuuuttttt.... That said, we do still have the dog house so I could probably clear it out and use it if needed. It's obviously not good for 9 birds but I think it's 4 by 5 or something, not sure which way is which and I'm pretty sure it's smaller on the inside, so would probably be fine for the two, especially smaller ones. I'm hoping they'll be together though. I'm going to make the run and hopefully coop big too and/or provide extra feeders and waterers so it should hopefully help. But also I'm hoping to free range them so that should maybe help cause if there's issues they can just go hang out by themselves or with the calmer birds. I'm thinking I might even put some like "toys" in the run too so they're not bored especially if the don't free range. We don't have many predators here but I just saw a massive hawk yesterday so this may go poorly

 

[JIG alaska]

1 Easter Egger
1 Delaware
2 Buff Orpingtons
2 Barred Rocks
2 Black Australorps

 

[varidgerunner]

The dorkings are only about ten weeks old, so I don't know where they will work themselves in. They think they are top dog right now because they have the run of the place with their mama, who is a large oriental game and she doesn't tolerate anything resembling bullying her babies. I have lots of room and lots of different penning arrangements, so I will be able to work it out one way or another. My plan is to put an Asil over some dorking hens to make some heritage broilers.

The blue eggers you describe sound nothing like mine. Mine were easter eggers, a group of about fifty that came from tractor supply. No telling where they originated. We called them the Donnor party. If any chicken was sick or showed signs of being timid or submissive, they pulled it down and ate it alive like a pack of velociraptors. Raised a pen of our own mixed egg layers in a pen next to them under the same management, no problems. I got rid of most of the batch and only kept a few. Next spring I hatched out some green eggs and they started the same foolishness when they were a few days old. Needless to say, I don't have any of those anymore. Games can have their challenges, but nothing like that.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Wow that sounds scary even!! What vicious birds! The poor other chickens. how many did you lose from them?

 

[varidgerunner]

If I remember correctly a straight run batch of fifty was a batch of forty by the time they were big enough to butcher the extra roosters. At first we were finding skeletons and thought we had a predator problem, pulled them out of the tractor they were in, put them in a more secure location and it kept happening. Finally we caught them in the act. There was one little pullet that was a runt, and she was blue, so kind of cute. We knew she couldn't be part of that and we didn't want her to get eaten, so we put her in with a different batch. Then we found a wounded chicken and there the little blue pullet was looking all innocent, she could have pulled it off if she would have cleaned the gore off of her beak. We eventually ended up with about five hens out of that batch that we kept. Those things sure did lay good, went straight through the winter and made it through until the next without slowing up. Once they started to lay they weren't as cannibalistic, but nothing better take a nap around them either. Like I said, their offspring were the same way.

 

[McKennA]

I have a flock of 12.

2 BR, 1 RIR, 2 GLW, 2 EE, 1 Lakenvelder, 1 Gold Campine, 1 Dark Cornish, 1 Appenzeller Spitzhauben, 1 Partridge Cochin.

Both my EE's are on the bottom of the pecking order. The Gold Laced Wyandotte's are at the top, one and two, followed by the two Barred Rocks. The RIR is lower than I thought she would be, probably fourth from the bottom. The only time it has gotten ugly was when the Lakenvelder seemed to be trying to better her position by jumping up and grabbing the RIR by the comb. The RIR wasn't having it and she retaliated quite aggressively. Just when I was going to step in, the Wyandotte's rushed in and broke it up. They knew inherently what was going on, because they kept an eye on the red, and had to stop her from going after the Lakenvelder several times. Flock dynamics are tough to watch sometimes, but I was impressed with the self policing going on in this situation. I see the RIR reaffirm her position with the Lakenvelder almost daily, but the Lakenvelder very wisely does not challenge her anymore.