Polish

I have had polish since I was 11 and have always loved them, My first polish was a hen given to me by some one who no longer wanted her, We all fell in love with her instantly, my little brother loved holding and stroking her 'cause she would sit still for ages.

I have kept polish ever since and show them every year, My gold-laced hen is always very good to show and lays a white egg every day!!

My favorite hen is a polish, she is the most gentle bird, which means she is of course bottom of the pecking order. She is frightened easily and will start making this screaming noise till she meets up with the flock or me. If I am outside she is literally under my feet at all times, I am confident I could put a leash on her and walk her around. Chickens by nature are stupid but I think polish is still not as smart as your average chicken. I think due to her crest she can't see very well and wonders off, I have thought about making some type of tag for her so when neighbors find her they know where she belongs. I have been lucky so far that every time she wonders off that someone brings her back or miraculously she finds her way back....if I got more like her I would have more. I think they are prone to be attacked by flying predators though because of the crest, my first polish was attacked and killed by a hawk even though their were other smaller birds with her at the time.

My hen is very sweet and friendly. The only problem is that the other chickens pick on her and pluck feathers from her head so I had to separate her and put her with the kinder chickens.

They are beutiful goofy chickens. Love them and want more!

I think they Are the coolest looking chickens!!

My Cher was a bright spot in my flock, she was a skitzy feather head who would do the funniest things. However, I was never able to integrate her with my full size flock as she was so terrified she was almost injuring herself trying to hide/escape. And she was never friendly with me. I think that was more to do with having bought her full grown from a breeder who didn't seem to socialize his birds much. She never bit or pecked me though, even when she was horribly sick. I would love to have another some day.

I ordered mine from Ideal Poultry thru a local feed store that i use quite often. Over all I just love them all. I have 6 of them and I think I have hens and roos, but still not quite sure. I also ordered ee's along with my glp. They arrived very healthy and vibrant, if i ever order more i will defentaly order from ideal.

My question is when (at what age) should I be able to determine what gender they are. they are around 2months. As from what ive read and ppl has told me i think i have 2 or 3 hens and rest roos. I am very curious to know what gender i have. if anyone can tell me what to look for i would be grateful.

i just love learning about all my chickens, this is a wonderful website, a weatlh of info!!!!

A couple years ago I ordered 57 chickens. I purchased several chickens of different breeds, along with a "Rare Breed Special", which included all sorts of different, interesting breeds.
I knew that my mom loved the "Big Bird" look, with all those crazy head feathers, so I chose to include one Polish of each color; Buff Laced, White Crested Black, Golden, Silver, and White.

As they grew up, I noticed that they were on the low end of the bell curve when it came to intelligence. They seemed to lack common sense. I've read online that it's because they have all those feathers over their eyes and they can't see very well, but this is not true. They didn't grow feathers long enough to block their vision until they were older, and they were acting dumb from the very beginning. What I also find interesting is that I currently have a Mottled Houdan, which also has the head feathers blocking her vision, but she is one of the sharpest chickens in my flock.

As for those beautiful head feathers that the Polish are so well-known for? I never got to see them. From the moment they began growing crests, all five Polish chickens spent all day long pecking at eachothers' heads. They would stand in a huddle and dig their beaks into the flesh of the one standing next to them, then that one would do the same in return. They didn't show any signs of pain or discomfort. There were chunks of bloody flesh hanging off of them and bare, scabby parts of their scalp exposed. As soon as a wound would start to heal, the others would break it open again. I was MORTIFIED!!!!!!!!!

Going in there and breaking them up did little to help. A few minutes later they would all gather again and continue pecking eachother raw. Their heads seemed to be magnets to eachother- one couldn't walk past the other one without tasting his head. They quite literally looked like they were thinking, "HEY! Check that out! *BITE* ............ HEY! Check that out! *BITE* ......" The ones receiving the peck seemed like they were thinking, "Huh, I wonder what that must have been....... Hey, it happened again, what could that have been??"

Needless to say, they all had half of a bloody crest. The white one got so bad that we had to put him on the outside of the pen. After weeks of healing, he was finally back to looking good, so we put him back in the pen. Since he was never separated from the flock (only on the other side of the wire) we figured he would be fine. We were right- all of the chickens were fine with him- but as soon as we put him on the ground, the other four Polish ran over to him and began feasting on his newly-grown head feathers.

All of the other breeds of chickens left the Polish alone. There may have been a curious peck at a scab from one of the other hens, but they really didn't seem interested in joining the insanity. None of the sprays seemed to work- I tried Blu-Kote and it 'hid' the scabs for a few minutes, until one of the Polish noticed that it WAS in fact a scab and pecked at it. Then the others all ran over and started pecking at it as well.

We eventually had to slaughter several of them. My mom didn't want us to slaughter the Golden or Silver Polish since those were her favorites. It did seem to get better after we did that, since now it was one against one, instead of one against four. They also spread out a little more instead of standing in a huddle. We 'sort of' got to see their crests grow out, but there was always a bloody scab on their heads.

Anyway, that is my experience with Polish. I've read here on BYC about others with the same problem. I have some new Polish babies now, so we'll see if they behave the same way. If they do, I will have to put them into isolation pens. I'm only planning on keeping two Polish at a time from now on. lol

Jenne

I have a Polish that's about two years old and she's the greatest! She lays 6 to 7 eggs a week but alas to make up for that she wasn't held much when she was little to she is jumpy and runs away when I come to pick her up. I also heard they Excel in being ornamental and appear great in chicken 4h. I would suggest these chickens to anyone there ornamental,egg layers,funny, intelligent, and docile.

Cool hair

I just picked up 2, week old chicks today. A Golden Laced, and a White. They are so calm and are having no problems with the bigger birds. My GL fell asleep on my hand! My white is a little character who wants all the other chicks to come to her! She would never go to them! She will screech until someone plays with her. The nerve of her! I love the looks of these guys and was so excited to get them. Especially in these two colors! They will be gorgeous!

These are my grandsons favorites, He's 5 and their the only birds He'll pick up. I have 3 young birds and He has picked out one and named it Mona. Not sure about egg laying or anything yet, not even sure if I have any hens yet but watching him play with them is enough to keep them.

These Chicks are cute as can be...they mix with other chicks well too. They like to be held once you get ahold of them. I had 1 before but it flew into my neighbors dog pin and the dog killed it. It broke my grandkids and my heart. It was raised by us and my grandson was soo attached. it used to sit on his shoulder was so cute. I have lots of pictures. I hope the new ones are just as sweet. im sure they will be. I recommend everyone at least have one polish chick in the group.

the hens are really nice looking they have been selling good everyone like to look at them

I have a grown pair of SL polish bantams and 5 BL, 5GL, & 5 WCB standard polishes. Recently I have been trying to hatch out the eggs that I'm gettign from my SL hen. I put them in the incubator with my Partridge bantam cochin eggs and do everything that I should and can to ensure hatching, and the cochins always hatch but the polishes never do. Now the eggs are fertile and they even start to develop, and most of the time they start to hatch but always die half way out. Can some one please help me with my problem please!!!
other than the hatching problem, they are beautiful birds! very showy and wonderful for exhibition. But I just can't get them to hatch...

I got 10 White Polish, 6 Buff Polish. Straight Run. Unfortunately my dog got hold of one on day 2. They're still young so I'm not sure if he got a buff or white one since they're still hard to tell apart.

I have WC cuckoo polish, Silver laced Polish, WC chocolate Polish, and Buff laced frizzle Polish. All Bantams, all very unique personalities. Everybody loves to look at them! I got them from a BYC breeder, and could not be happier with all of my hatches. I used to raise only Silkies, but now I have equal amounts of Silkies and Polish. They all get along great, and as they get older I have noticed that they tend to stick with their own breed, and divide up by color! All my buffs hang out together, but there is one tiny buff Silkie that runs with that crew as well!
They cannot see well at all. I don't trim their crests back, but they are not allowed to free range too much. They don't wander off very far anyways, and will call out to eachother if they get lost. I have one that runs into the fence at least twice a day--almost like clockwork, she cannot see. It's pretty comical, but no one is getting hurt.
I spoil all my birds like crazy, but I have learned that I need to spend more time with them (Polish) as newborn chicks than my Silkies though. It takes a lot more effort to get them to bond with you, and if I don't constantly surround myself with baby Polishes, then they grow up to be much much more flighty & scared. My Silkies always come around, the Polish, not so much. They can be handled easily, and some will fall asleep in my lap while I'm sitting on the hammock.
Like a previous reviewer mentioned, a lot of my Polishes are used for Ag Education groups, or "therapy chickens" since everyone is so fascinated by their plumage. I am incredibly happy with them and will continue to have Polishes--they are awesome!

I got 2 grown roos, for free, from a woman who had a mixed flock (turkeys, geese, chickens, ducks). They are Polish Golden Crested. Mind-bogglingly beautiful. They've been working OK for the 3 months we've had them, but as our younger chicks are growing up (2 different age groups of younger chicks), they are getting more and more aggressive and territorial. They were nice to me at first, but now they come at me aggressively when they see me pick up another chicken. They get along great with each other, but not so much with other chicks. They are so dominant that they rule the whole farmyard (and that's 2 acres right around the home place). They have caused such terror in the coop that I am now allowing them to free-range 24-7. We'll see what happens. If they weren't so gorgeous they'd be in the stew pot based on their behavior the last 2 days. I realize we created our own problems by getting chicks at different times, but seems to me they should have gotten used to each other by now.

I enjoy the Crested Polish, they have a sweet personality with a gentle disposition. Mine are quite docile, allowing me to pick them up with no hassles. Due to the large crest on their heads, they have poor or limited vision, I find myself trimming the feathers on their crest back every couple of months. Because of their poor vision they never stray too far from the coop. I listed "quiet" as a con on here, because mine are very quiet, I sometimes find myself searching for them, just to make sure that a predator hasn't taken off with them.

Our Black Crested Roo is very tame for a rooster. I caught him when we first got them, and he was very relaxed. He is not aggressive at all, although he's not a fan of human contact. He is very good to his Harem though. He let's them have the food scraps first, and alerts them when a bird flies overhead. I couldn't ask for a better rooster. Plus, I love his 'fro.