I wish I had kept one of my roosters because he was so smart and friendly. I have 10 hens and they are enclosed in a fenced area... so far no predators and I have had them 3 years.
I have 2 Swedish flower hens that are crested. Then I have 2 without the crested head (younger than the crested hens ). but so much larger than the older hens! And the size of their feet , large!
Same terrible thing happened with my two broody hens after I tried to move them to a separate area as the main coop is up off the ground and I thought the chicks would fall off down the gangplank.
The rooster on the top picture looks exactly like mine . Mine is 11 months old and he seems to be getting a bit aggressive. Never did any thing to me yet but starting to flap his wings and follow me around which is new behavior. I might ha e to give him away because my granddaughter visits...
When young my rooster which I thought was a hen for awhile was very nurturing to the other solitary chick I had . He doesn't crow like other roosters and I see his feathers in the egg box. He turned out larger than my hens and has a huge red comb on his head.
My Swedish flower chickens lay every day so far and they started to lay about 20 weeks. The 2 barnvelder hens- one is laying and the other is a freeloader. The barnvelder layed at 24 weeks. Do the freeloaders ever start producing?
I love your pic of Lucy and of course I love coffee and chickens! I lived in Jamestown most of my life and Lucy's house was a block from where I worked! I'm retired now and fairly new with chickens but it's a great retirement hobby!