2018 Newbie Chat!

[CannedMonster]

Some pics from today. They don't stay still long!
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This one shows the difference in feathering and size. About half of them are feathering nicely and half are going at it slow and are smallerView attachment 1449893
Working on the fence today. We got a really bad storm overnight that created messed everywhere, but it also cooled things down today and we made progress.

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I love your fence! Nicely done! Was it expensive?

 

[CannedMonster]

I have no major updates! Just catching up on the thread! I'm so excited for yall getting eggs! I can't wait for mine. I think we have another month until anyone is close to laying age.

We got our coop done almost a month ago now. They cried trying to get back to prefab for a couple days. DH had to put them in the house and shut the door.

It looks like our dear BO dwight will be getting culled soon. We wished he would've been a keeper but he seems to be going after DH now. He pecks at his hands and feet constantly. He doesn't do this to me even when he's excited. He will follow him around when he's handling the pullets or other cockerels. He also charged at him the other day or DH thinks he did. He wasn't quite sure. I actually created a thread on the chicken behaviors section and they said usually the bottom of pecking order cockerels turn into the best roos. Which is fine by me because that means Casper will hopefully be a gentleman to our pullets. The boys are all crowing and have started pulling the pullets by the neck so it's time to remove the unnecessaries. I don't want them stressing my girls.

I’m having the same experience right now.
I have 3 large fowl cockerels and 1 bantam cockerel.
Unfortunately Conan decided to bite my foot a couple of days ago. Really hard; it just broke the skin. He tried to bite again the next day. Both times I chased him around the yard.
For some reason I can’t post pics right now.
He’s been behaving weirdly and it looks like dominance to me.

Out of the 3 large boys, the lowest on the pecking order is Angus.
He’s never shown human aggression and is actually skittish of me although he has sat on my lap but he doesn’t like to be touched.
He’s the one I was thinking I’d end up keeping although he does chase and grab the pullets and sometimes my older hens lol.
They usually kick his butt too!
But he actually got lucky the other evening because my sex link squatted for him and let him mate her.
My only concern about him is that my bantam cockerel Frodo is higher in the pecking order and I’ve seen Frodo grab Angus by his comb and chase him away.
I’m not sure how things will play out with the girls if Angus doesn’t learn to deal with Frodo.
I want a bantam flock and a LF flock and I don’t want any half bantam chicks lol.

 

[Doc7]

Wouldn’t have believed at any point prior to now but at the ripe old age of 3 weeks and 6 days we’re officially in “stability mode” with my flock, watching chicken TV and waiting to see a pecking order really develop and waiting many more weeks for eggs. We’re even ready for a 3 day and 7 day upcoming vacation.

The chicks:
free range no problem (although I don’t feel comfortable doing it without an adult at least outside)
Coop/Run door is open 24/7 (run is secure), and the chicks go in every night on their own
Mama heating pad removed
Drinking out of 5 gallon horizontal nipple waterers I dump and refill once a week
Eating out of PVC “no waste” feeders that last over a week
Dust bathing in holes they’ve dug and a pan I’ve left in the run
Crushing the local insect population - I saw them eat a bug yesterday that seemed nearly as large as the palm of my hand. I lost track of it while they played “chicken football” with it but I can’t imagine one swallowed the whole thing by herself.

Refilling waterers and feeders every several days and just enjoying my chickens! They aren’t roosting but they do enjoy sitting on the bar sometimes.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

My Welsummer Ginkgo born 2/5 Layed her first egg today. It took her over two hours once she squated in the box!

 

[ketojenn]

I love your fence! Nicely done! Was it expensive?

Yeah, kind of, but we wanted something nice since we live in town. I guess I'm overly concerned with the view my neighbors have. Lol.

 

[ketojenn]

View attachment 1452150 View attachment 1452151 View attachment 1452152 View attachment 1452153 View attachment 1452154 View attachment 1452155 Wouldn’t have believed at any point prior to now but at the ripe old age of 3 weeks and 6 days we’re officially in “stability mode” with my flock, watching chicken TV and waiting to see a pecking order really develop and waiting many more weeks for eggs. We’re even ready for a 3 day and 7 day upcoming vacation.

The chicks:
free range no problem (although I don’t feel comfortable doing it without an adult at least outside)
Coop/Run door is open 24/7 (run is secure), and the chicks go in every night on their own
Mama heating pad removed
Drinking out of 5 gallon horizontal nipple waterers I dump and refill once a week
Eating out of PVC “no waste” feeders that last over a week
Dust bathing in holes they’ve dug and a pan I’ve left in the run
Crushing the local insect population - I saw them eat a bug yesterday that seemed nearly as large as the palm of my hand. I lost track of it while they played “chicken football” with it but I can’t imagine one swallowed the whole thing by herself.

Refilling waterers and feeders every several days and just enjoying my chickens! They aren’t roosting but they do enjoy sitting on the bar sometimes.

Mine are just at 3 weeks. Huge difference between those 6 days! Yours look so big and cute.

 

[Cbarr00]

@ChooksNQuilts ugh that sucks! It seems dwight is the most aggressive when he has a blue tint to his comb. When I googled, someone on this forum thought it was because of testosterone. We think that may be the case. He actually charged sideways at my husband tonight and broke skin too. We separated all three males but left our bottom cockerel in with the girls to see how he treats them without the stress of the other males. We actually had all 4 separated but they were beating up my poor Casper. After about 10 minutes in the prefab with all the boys he was already bleeding.

 

[Cbarr00]

Here's an outside view of the shed turned coop and run!

 

[CannedMonster]

@ChooksNQuilts ugh that sucks! It seems dwight is the most aggressive when he has a blue tint to his comb. When I googled, someone on this forum thought it was because of testosterone. We think that may be the case. He actually charged sideways at my husband tonight and broke skin too. We separated all three males but left our bottom cockerel in with the girls to see how he treats them without the stress of the other males. We actually had all 4 separated but they were beating up my poor Casper. After about 10 minutes in the prefab with all the boys he was already bleeding.

I had separated the 4 boys in my prefab so the girls could have some peace and both Angus and Frodo had bite marks on them from Conan and Loki.
I had to let them out after half a day so they wouldn’t get more hurt.
Frodo had a deep cut one of his wattles. He’s still healing from that.
Things have been relatively okay in the last few days but it’s Angus and Frodo who chase and harass the girls the most.
But they aren’t human aggressive.
Conan and Loki chase the girls occasionally.
I’m finding it hard to figure out how to handle this.
My husband thinks we should just put the aggressive ones in the freezer.
I keep thinking we just have to wait it out. But then it’s always chaotic for the other birds.
Loki hasn’t been aggressive towards me but he walks funny. He always has. I think there’s something wrong with his joints. I don’t want to breed something like that either.

 

[Cbarr00]

I had separated the 4 boys in my prefab so the girls could have some peace and both Angus and Frodo had bite marks on them from Conan and Loki.
I had to let them out after half a day so they wouldn’t get more hurt.
Frodo had a deep cut one of his wattles. He’s still healing from that.
Things have been relatively okay in the last few days but it’s Angus and Frodo who chase and harass the girls the most.
But they aren’t human aggressive.
Conan and Loki chase the girls occasionally.
I’m finding it hard to figure out how to handle this.
My husband thinks we should just put the aggressive ones in the freezer.
I keep thinking we just have to wait it out. But then it’s always chaotic for the other birds.
Loki hasn’t been aggressive towards me but he walks funny. He always has. I think there’s something wrong with his joints. I don’t want to breed something like that either.

Dwight is the only one who has shown aggression so we know its freezer camp for him. He is not terrible with the girls but we still don't want an aggressive Roo no matter how good he may treat them. We just don't know when we will do it.
Our second in the pecking order is Big Red, he has never shown aggression and isn't too terrible with the girls. He respects his place under Dwight now. From what we've seen, he does not challenge him often. If he does it's usually over quickly. We don't want to cull him just yet.
Our third is deadpool and I've kinda known he's gonna be trouble since figuring out hes a cockerel. He has always chased Casper! Since they were around 8 weeks maybe. Casper will not challenge for a higher place anymore. Heck he will hardly defend himself when deadpool comes after him. He usually runs away and deadpool will chase him forever. Deadpool is the WORST about pulling the girls necks and trying to mount. He chased our poor girl cricket around the whole yard last night. Since being in the prefab he has tried to challenge Dwight a couple times already too. Deadpool is just not a keeper either.
So far this morning I haven't heard the usual chicken screams from trying to mount. So fingers crossed it's working with only Casper.
We may try Big Red in with the Casper and the girls and see how those dynamics work. Our neighbor, who has kept chickens for a while now, told us all the feather pulling was from too many boys and not enough girls. So I'm hesitant about putting Big Red in. I would like to see his temperament when he's alone with the girls also but I know it's not safe for Casper to be in close quarters with Deadpool so that's not an option to remove him.
Dwight, Casper, & Big Red occasionally pull the pullets but not as bad as Deadpool. Having all 4 boys pulling made things so much worse for the girls. Once we decide when to cull, we will have our prefab open again and if the the boys still haven't learned how to treat a lady they will be in the bachelor pad until their hormones have calmed down.