Recent content by sakerobot

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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    If trying to determine the precise parentage of a bird, as in which BR mother is of which rooster, are there tests that can offer enough detail on each bird's DNA to be able to match that? There are kits that are for sexing and for determining presence of the dilute gene and such, but is there...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    Two developments today: 1. Aristotle has officially started crowing. We know that he has never crown before, as his song is particularly distinguishable by being comprised of only one syllable. 2. In the evening, two more Arthlets migrated to the big coop: This appears to be Alcibiades...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    It's interesting that he's perched next to Helga, our Bielefelder. A couple weeks earlier, she actually managed to sneak into and spend the whole night in the small chicken coop. She was also one of Arthur's favorites. Ares isn't technically the biggest rooster, but his comb is far more...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    While closing the adult hen coop tonight, I noticed that the chickens were too numerous. Looks like Ares (15w) has decided that he'll be sleeping with them now.
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    I meant to add - last evening while I was working on their next coop outside of their yard, Aristophanes began sounding the alarm. At first most chickens and myself were confused, but after a few seconds they began running for cover. The hawk coasted by outside the fence and flew off into the...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    Some notes: Ares and Apollo have been the most frequent crowers, with Alcibiades joining in recently. I haven't actually seen anyone else crowing yet. Ares has been successfully mating with several hens. All of the males have attempted mating, with mixed success. There have not been any...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    Today's pictures. Ages are: 14 weeks 3 days for the first batch, 13 weeks and 1 day for the second batch. First batch: Apollo: Ares: Adonis: The three of them: Younger batch: Aristotle: Aristotle next to the Dark Brahma: Aristophanes: Alcibiades:
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    There are four crowers now, with Alcibiades being the latest to join in. Below image is of Aristophanes, Aristotle, and Alcibiades from two days ago, they are 12 weeks old now. It's interesting how Aristophanes has very light "hair" compared to usual BR styles. But we know he's been unique...
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    2 year old hen never molted, lays soft shells

    No, we never use extra lighting. We are about to double their yard size, if the rain ever stops. That should at least bring some more happiness to the flock.
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    2 year old hen never molted, lays soft shells

    We haven't seen anyone pecking on her head since last year, she usually commands a distance around half of 1.5ft irrespective of other chickens authority. The picking behavior (of which she was originally the most guilty, actually earning the title "Bitch Chicken") seemed to have stopped during...
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    2 year old hen never molted, lays soft shells

    They are all on grower/ finisher with oyster shell access, shells are also added to scratch grain. Scratch is given a couple times a day. Kitchen compost materials are given every couple days, and they have about 200sqft of fenced forest area to look for bugs in. The other 13 adult hens are...
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    2 year old hen never molted, lays soft shells

    One of our hens has been occasionally laying incomplete or soft shelled eggs for a couple months. Today we finally confirmed that it's the hen we've been suspecting. She's one of our Barred Rocks that were hatched in May 2023. The other hens of her age have all gone through molting. We know...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    At 12 weeks (and 2 days), we now have two crowers. Ares has actually been the one doing the morning crowing until today, when two distinctly different crows could be heard. The other vocalist turned out to be Apollo, who proceeded to crow several more times after being let out, something Ares...
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    The crower turned out to be Apollo, who's also started growing some Buff feathers. He's been doing it several times per day now. Here are Ares and Adonis, not sure if they crow yet, but they look good. Ares with some hens taking a rest:
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    Progeny from heroic rooster

    This morning, one of the roosters was crowing inside the small coop before I opened it. He was doing it several times, and it might have actually started 2 days earlier when I thought I heard a crow, but only once. My guess is it's one of the older 3. Ares has the biggest comb and wattle...
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