Adult Chickens

11/26/2010
Here are my girls and boys as of November 2010:
The Black Star Hens










We have this trailer in the back part of our yard that the girls love to dust bathe under. Here is one of my Cuckoo Maran Hens, Silver Laced Wyandotte Hens and my White Crested Black Polish Rooster hanging out.


One of my Buff Orpington chicks met an unfortunate fate and I was lucky enough to pick up Bertha from one of our wonderful local chicken ladies AubreyNoraMarie.


Like all of my girls Bertha is so sweet and although it took her a few days to mingle with the other chickens she has elevated to the status of flock Guardian and actually does a better job than the roosters.


Silver-Laced Wyandotte Hens:The original group of Silver-Laced Wyandotte hens that I got are so beautiful but it is almost impossible to tell the difference btwn them so I named them after the Borg. Here is 2 of 6.


Laced Wyandotte Hen - 3 of 6



Silver-Laced Wyandotte - 4 of 6



Silver-Laced Wyandotte Hen - 5 of 6

12/17/2010
Here are my White Crested Black Polish Group. I had planned on selling them because I had no real desire to breed them but my boys adore them and I cannot bring myself to sell them.




This is Carol, one of our White Crested Black Polish Hens. They dart around so quickly it is very difficult to take a great picture of them.


This is Rod, our White Crested Black Polish Rooster. Originally when we bought him they told us he was a hen but he quickly came into his roosterness and the rest is history.



More pictures of Rod.



This spring I am hoping to hatch out Buff Orpingtons, Silver and Gold Laced Wyandottes and if I get enough requests, the White Crested Black Polish.

01/20/2011

As some know, the neighbourhood cat took down my only Australorp rooster back in December and I have been desperately looking for a replacement before spring gets here or my hatching program was going to be one breed short this year. Well, I wanted to give a quick update on my needing an Australorp rooster. I finally found the most beautiful Australorp rooster from a local farmer here. He was actually selling hens for meat but I just took a chance and gave him a call to see if he had any roosters available and he had two but he was not really looking to sell either of them but my l33t persuading skills netted me the most amazing rooster. I did not expect that he would be as beautiful as he is and I am so in love with this rooster. He was a little aggressive the first few days but after a week of babying him, hand feeding him and forcing him to be held by myself and my sons he has totally turned around and is just a big sweetheart. Here are a few pictures of him that I took this morning.



The boys named him Oscar. I tried to get a few with just him but the girls just hover over me so much it is pretty difficult to get those single pictures.


Here he is with one of the Australorp hens from the first set of chicks I got back in October.


I got him in the middle of a crow in this picture. He is just so huge and sparkles all over.



Crowing for the pictures.



I love this picture because it really shows off the green in his feathers in this pose.



This is his Fabio pose, he really does think he is the cat's meow.


Here he is with the SLW hens, they stick to him like glue. They are going to be so heart-broken when they are separated from him in the next few weeks.

Here are some pictures of my Australorp hens, they are around 16 weeks today and are already laying if you can believe that. At least I think they are the ones laying. I will not know for sure until I get them separated out into their own pen and house. I only had 17 laying adult hens and the last week and a half I have been getting 22 to 23 eggs a day. Which means that 6 hens from my first set of chicks has to be laying. I have 10 hens from that first batch and typically Golden-Laced Wyandottes do not start laying this early but I know Australorps have been known to start laying as early as 16 weeks old but it does not always happen. Anyway, here are some pictures of some of my Australorp girls:






I could not be happier with the way my chicks are turning out. They are all gorgeous and sweet and I hope they reproduce as good if not better.

April 2, 2011.

My lovely rooster has come into his own and the last two weeks he has all of a sudden decided that he is in charge and he has tried to attack me. I have been so heartbroken about it because if he keeps it up I have to get rid of him because I cannot have the boys hurt by him if I am not out there. I finally started to look up on the internet if there was any tried and true fixes for the situation. I found this article and tried it and so far so good it seems to be working.

Aggressive Rooster The purpose of this thread is to help you help yourself when faced with an aggressive rooster problem and help you decide if you want to keep a rooster in your flock. First of all let's identify rooster behaviors. Knowing what motivates their behavior is key to understanding why they do certain things that we, as humans, might mistakenly take as just being mean. A rooster is born pre-programmed to do his rooster duties. At a certain age (around 4-6 months) he matures and his instincts take over, and their drive is very strong to do what nature has intended for them to do. (1) Protect the flock from all threats at all costs including fighting to the death. A threat to a rooster may be quite different than what we perceive as a threat. We need to understand and respect this instinct. A small child could be perceived as a threat in a rooster's eyes even if you and I know the child never intends to harm anything. By placing a child in this situation you are provoking the rooster to attack, and you would only have yourself to blame if something were to go wrong. I highly recommend that if you have small children you wish to let interact with your flock, lock the rooster away in a pen before the child /children are allowed to enter the area because if the rooster perceives them as a threat, the child might be attacked. Your kitten/puppy/cat/dog could also be perceived as a threat, and while some roosters are quite docile and will sit in your lap, please remember that being a cuddly lap baby is not in his programming, so don't expect it from him. Also don't expect him to get along with other roosters, that is also not in the programming. Very few roosters will get along without fighting and tearing each other up, even to the point of killing each other. I personally own 3 roosters, 2 of which get along together with very little fighting, while the other one would kill the other 2 given half a chance, therefore I have to separate him from the others. Given the choice between an aggressive rooster and a very docile lap baby rooster, I'll take the aggressive one every time to watch over my flock, because he is doing what roosters are made to do and will be the better protector for the flock.He just has to be taught that attacking humans is not acceptable (2) To insure proliferation of the species by frequently mating with the hens to provide fertile eggs to be hatched out. This is self-explanatory. To insure that the hens are not over-mated and possibly scratched or injured in the process, you'll want to provide enough hens. Generally, a ratio of 10 hens to 1 rooster is sufficient. (3) To provide a place in the flock for future generations by sacrificing himself if need be in protection of the flock. This is a continuation of #1, and is another reason why he would be motivated to fight to the death with any predator. Dealing with aggressive roosters One of the first things to ask yourself when faced with an aggressive rooster is "Am I overly afraid of my rooster?" If the answer is yes, go no further, re-home your rooster. If you are not overly afraid of roosters, and don't mind giving your rooster a chance by spending a little time with him, then the following may help you achieve your goal of modifying his behavior to a level you both can live with. First of all, roosters have a kind of pecking order. The dominate or king or head rooster is referred to as the Alpha. When a rooster acts aggressively toward you, he thinks of you as either a predator or an underling rooster. This is the behavior you want to modify, to establish you as the Alpha. To modify behavior you must be consistent each and every time he shows the slightest bit of aggression towards you or any human. There are 3 ways to deal with an aggressive rooster that I personally know for a fact work: If you are concerned about being scratched, prepare by wearing long sleeves and gloves. (1) At the first sign of aggression grab your rooster up and hold him no matter how much he kicks, screams and protests. DO NOT PUT HIM DOWN! Walk around with him, do chores while holding him or whatever, let him calm down and stay that way for 15-30 minutes until he has settled. Then at your discretion you can put him down. If he kicks, screams or squawks while you are releasing him, pick him up and repeat this cycle until he submits to you, and will walk off peacefully when you let him down. Do this every time he shows aggression, repeat as needed. If after 3 weeks of doing this every day his behavior is still the same, proceed to the next level. (2) At the first sign of aggression grab your rooster up, hold him upside down by the legs, and let him flap, scream or whatever until he just hangs there without moving, showing his submission to you. After he submits, let him go and repeat as necessary. WARNING: This procedure is dangerous to the rooster as his lungs are located close to his backbone and can collapse, causing suffocation. If he has food in his mouth when you turn him upside down, he can choke. This procedure should be used as a last resort before culling or re-homing.

April 19, 2011.

I thought I would put up some new pictures of my flock. They have grown quite a bit since their baby pictures. I could not be happier right now with my flock of babies.


This is one of my Black Australorp Hens hanging out.



Black Australorps chillin' in the yard.


This is Roderick, he is the love of Bertha's life. She just adores him.



This is a closer picture of him, I wish my camera was working like it should, with the sun out he is so gold. It is like watching a gold bullion bar walking across the yard.









I have a couple of these pictures where I am trying to get all of the flock together and we all know how that goes. I even threw out their favourite treat of crushed up pretzels and they were not having any of it. I have Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rock hens and I am going to keep 1 Rhode Island Roo to try to breed Black Sex Links. I have 4 Black Sex Link hens, 2 White Leghorns, 3 White Crested Black Polish that I kept for the boys and that is about it for now. I hope I am not forgetting anyone.



This is Bo, he is one of my pride and joys out in the flock. He has turned into such a gorgeous rooster and he is so nice too. He totally remembers perching up on my wrist when he was a baby and he still tries to do that when he is WAY to big to be doing that. I cannot help spoiling all of them. Mixed with my golden-laced wyandotte hens they are going to make beautiful babies I think.


Here is a quick picture of Breakfast and Dinner, two of my Rhode Island red roosters that are going to the grill next weekend.



This is Picard, he is the Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster that we have decided to keep out of the 4 that we have. When we got him, one of the boys dropped him and he acted like he was not going to make it for days he just laid there but I kept praying and babying him and by the end of the week he was all better again. By then though, I had already placed an extra order with Ideal for another SLW roo and they sent me 4 at no charge. He turned out great and so did the others, which is why they are making it on my table instead of a freebie on Craig's list. heh



Here he is with some of his girls around the watering hole.