I got a pair of Japanese bantams about three weeks ago now from a show breeder. She keeps them all seperate from each other in special cages, and was selling two, a hen and a rooster and said that the rooster is 12 months old, and then hen is 24 months old.
So we got the two (from their seperate cages), put them in the same cage to carry home, and what'dya know, they're fighting in the car on the way home. The lady said "Oooo yeah, she (the hen) will stand up for herself".
I took them straight back home and they're in a small coop and run I bought on ebay. They have it all to themselves, though I do let them out every now and then.
I've noticed though, that whenever I let them out to free-range, they'll always seem to have at least a minute's worth of fighting. They'll fly at each other and puff up their feathers. It will usually end with the rooster walking away, as though he's been beaten (whaaaat??). The rooster crows every morning, and is more docile and used to being handled, and will usually let you pick him up. Unlike the hen, which is scared as all hell. Take a step close to her, and she'll be sprinting away back into the run.
Anyway, the hen started laying a few days after we got her, and is currently laying an egg every two days. However, I've been trying to incubate them, and none of them are fertile! Lately I've been saving myself the time and just cracking them open, looking for the bull's-eye, and all that is there is the single white dot.
Why would this be? Do they have to get on better? How long will this usually take?
Thank you!
So we got the two (from their seperate cages), put them in the same cage to carry home, and what'dya know, they're fighting in the car on the way home. The lady said "Oooo yeah, she (the hen) will stand up for herself".
I took them straight back home and they're in a small coop and run I bought on ebay. They have it all to themselves, though I do let them out every now and then.
I've noticed though, that whenever I let them out to free-range, they'll always seem to have at least a minute's worth of fighting. They'll fly at each other and puff up their feathers. It will usually end with the rooster walking away, as though he's been beaten (whaaaat??). The rooster crows every morning, and is more docile and used to being handled, and will usually let you pick him up. Unlike the hen, which is scared as all hell. Take a step close to her, and she'll be sprinting away back into the run.
Anyway, the hen started laying a few days after we got her, and is currently laying an egg every two days. However, I've been trying to incubate them, and none of them are fertile! Lately I've been saving myself the time and just cracking them open, looking for the bull's-eye, and all that is there is the single white dot.
Why would this be? Do they have to get on better? How long will this usually take?
Thank you!
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