2018 Newbie Chat!

[Anna Ranieri]

I currently have 26.
We decided to send one of our Naked Neck cockerels, Loki, to freezer camp.
It was getting to be too much for me and the older girls.
Loki and Angus were competing with each other and I didn’t realize that at first.
In a natural flock environment it would be extremely unusual to not have a mature rooster or even several.
The older roosters keep young cockerels in line and will not allow them to cause any problems.
But when you’re just starting out with chicks and you buy straight run you’re going to get a few boys.
Even with vent sexing, there’s a 5-15% chance of error.
I started out with 5.
Boys are lots of fun until puberty hits lol. They don’t always get aggressive towards people but they only have one thing on their mind for a while. Some say for the first couple of years.
I kind of knew Angus would be the one because he was the lowest in the pecking order of the 5 boys. Maybe he was higher than Silkie but he was pretty cautious. He looks like he’ll turn out pretty good.

I have a red sex link named Red.
She’s my dominant hen but not a bully.
I have 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes (SLW) that will be going to a friends flock soon as I’m not a fan of the breed. All 3 are bullies.
Those 4 are about a year old this month.
Then I have 3 Naked Necks (NN) at 5 months old.
1 cockerel, Angus
2 pullets, Agatha & Emily
The girls are checking out the nesting boxes and will probably start laying in the next few weeks.
I have 7 bantams of various breeds including my 5 month old partridge Silkie (named Silkie) cockerel who was raised with the NN.
Two of the 6 bantam pullets are adorable Cochins (Pekins) named Cricket (red) and Pippen (buff).
And lastly, I just ordered 13 chicks in the mail in July.
Sadly one of the partridge rocks died so now I have 12.
I’ve also discovered one of my 3 Australorp chicks is a cockerel

So the chicks are:
3 black Australorps
3 Speckled Sussex
2 Partridge Rocks
2 Silver Penciled Rocks
2 Easter Eggers

My goal is to have a large fowl (LF) flock of about 15 birds and a bantam flock also.
I still have some integration to do when the chicks are a bit older.
At that time the Wyandottes will be rehomed and the bantams can go back to sleeping in the prefab coop/run.
Then I’ll have 23 total.

Angus
View attachment 1502029

Agatha
View attachment 1502030

Emily
View attachment 1502036

Silkie
View attachment 1502039

Cricket & Pippin
View attachment 1502127

The babies (4-5 weeks old):
View attachment 1502134

Awwwww they are gorgeous! Such beautiful colours - I've never seen a Silkie before - so cute! Like a ball of fluff! I really like the wide range of chicken breeds you have and these are lovely pictures - Angus is a beauty - he looks real placid. It is always a joy to me to see such healthy and happy birds, I have seen some awful sights of people only giving the bare minimum and not caring for their birds and is so upsetting, and it warms my heart to see people such as yourself taking such good care of these beautiful birds - thank you for sharing

 

[llombardo]

I currently have 26.
We decided to send one of our Naked Neck cockerels, Loki, to freezer camp.
It was getting to be too much for me and the older girls.
Loki and Angus were competing with each other and I didn’t realize that at first.
In a natural flock environment it would be extremely unusual to not have a mature rooster or even several.
The older roosters keep young cockerels in line and will not allow them to cause any problems.
But when you’re just starting out with chicks and you buy straight run you’re going to get a few boys.
Even with vent sexing, there’s a 5-15% chance of error.
I started out with 5.
Boys are lots of fun until puberty hits lol. They don’t always get aggressive towards people but they only have one thing on their mind for a while. Some say for the first couple of years.
I kind of knew Angus would be the one because he was the lowest in the pecking order of the 5 boys. Maybe he was higher than Silkie but he was pretty cautious. He looks like he’ll turn out pretty good.

I have a red sex link named Red.
She’s my dominant hen but not a bully.
I have 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes (SLW) that will be going to a friends flock soon as I’m not a fan of the breed. All 3 are bullies.
Those 4 are about a year old this month.
Then I have 3 Naked Necks (NN) at 5 months old.
1 cockerel, Angus
2 pullets, Agatha & Emily
The girls are checking out the nesting boxes and will probably start laying in the next few weeks.
I have 7 bantams of various breeds including my 5 month old partridge Silkie (named Silkie) cockerel who was raised with the NN.
Two of the 6 bantam pullets are adorable Cochins (Pekins) named Cricket (red) and Pippen (buff).
And lastly, I just ordered 13 chicks in the mail in July.
Sadly one of the partridge rocks died so now I have 12.
I’ve also discovered one of my 3 Australorp chicks is a cockerel

So the chicks are:
3 black Australorps
3 Speckled Sussex
2 Partridge Rocks
2 Silver Penciled Rocks
2 Easter Eggers

My goal is to have a large fowl (LF) flock of about 15 birds and a bantam flock also.
I still have some integration to do when the chicks are a bit older.
At that time the Wyandottes will be rehomed and the bantams can go back to sleeping in the prefab coop/run.
Then I’ll have 23 total.

Angus
View attachment 1502029

Agatha
View attachment 1502030

Emily
View attachment 1502036

Silkie
View attachment 1502039

Cricket & Pippin
View attachment 1502127

The babies (4-5 weeks old):
View attachment 1502134

So the ones without feathers on the neck are naked necks? How does that work with mating? Can they be injured?

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I want to add, what I've decided another female Peking. I just have to find a younger one that is close to the size of mine. I can't do that until I'm done integrating the 4 smaller girls(chickens). It has been the longest integration in the history of integrations. I've been working on this since June. Still some chasing and bickering. Enough that I won't leave them together if I'm not here. Then I have a family of raccoons that are living 25 ft from the enclosure. I put up electric fencing and cut back branches today in one area. While I was putting up the fence I found dried blood and scratch marks by the gate. Thankfully when I put the gate up I left the sharpest hardware cloth extending out, just in case they tried getting in and they did, but they got no where. Instead they got ripped up in the process. So now I test my electric fence every night. Now I need a better option for the top--I have a heavy duty net and I'm putting chimes around the run so that I can hear if they are climbing. It's not easy outsmarting a raccoon. I'm exhausted. I even put vents up on the duck house over the hardware cloth. It's been a crazy month.

Here are the smaller girls
View attachment 1502140

Awwww such cuties I really feel for you and can understand why you are exhausted. We are fortunate that we don't have raccoons in our country but I have read stories of the damage they can do so I can imagine the fight you have on your hands and my heart goes out to you. - For what its worth though, the hard work and effort you put into your birds shows immensely - I watch a lot of YouTube videos of chickens and ducks, I have visited a lot of farms and I look at a lot of pictures of chickens/ducks, I only know three people who have chickens, one who has ducks, all four take good care of their birds, but of the humongous amounts of videos/pictures I've looked at, farms and bird centers I've been to I have never before seen a flock such as yours, and I truly am in awe of you and your commitment, dedication and ability to care for your birds to the extent that not one of your birds are short of beautiful, pristine and amazing. I know when exhausted and having to fight a constant battle it is hard and can suck the very life out of a person but your hard work and dedication not only is paying off it is showing in ever single one of your birds. I hope with all my heart things get sorted, get easier and better for you I truly do. But I cannot take my eyes off how amazing your birds are and the amazing condition you have every single one in. Even with mud on her face your Pekins feathers are brilliantly white and every white feather on each bird in these picture are brilliant white and shining and I am simply amazed by you and your ability to care this well for these birds.

 

[CannedMonster]

Awwwww they are gorgeous! Such beautiful colours - I've never seen a Silkie before - so cute! Like a ball of fluff! I really like the wide range of chicken breeds you have and these are lovely pictures - Angus is a beauty - he looks real placid. It is always a joy to me to see such healthy and happy birds, I have seen some awful sights of people only giving the bare minimum and not caring for their birds and is so upsetting, and it warms my heart to see people such as yourself taking such good care of these beautiful birds - thank you for sharing

Thank you very much.
Placid is a pretty good word for Angus.
He’s not really interested in challenging anyone.
He bit me once but I know it was because I scared him.
This photo is about a month ago.

He likes to show the pullets spots where they can nest but they’re never very good spots! He even tries to interest them in the lawn tractor deck haha.

I don’t understand why some people get animals when they don’t seem interested in taking good care of them.
I know some have good intentions in the beginning and get overwhelmed but you have to do research and educate yourself on what you’re getting into.
That’s why BYC is such a great resource.
I read several books about raising chickens before I even got any.
I do that with almost everything in my life.

I try to be fair in caring for them but I don’t feel like everything has to be spotless or worry too much.
I’m very fortunate in that we have an extremely low number of predators around here.
I think it’s because of all the dogs in the neighborhood and the location maybe.
They all free range from early morning til roosting time.
That’s my favorite part of it.
I don’t think I’d enjoy them as much if they couldn’t free range.
It so relaxing to watch them and observe their natural behaviors.

Silkie is a poof ball!
He’s a tough little cookie being raised with 6 larger birds and another bantam cockerel.

I had a black bantam Cochin cockerel too but I gave him to my friend who’s taking my Wyandottes.
He wanted to be the alpha roo and I didn’t want a bantam alpha.
Plus I found out Silkie is a cockerel and Frodo wasn’t being nice to him.
Frodo is doing well at her place.
Here’s a photo of him.

I want a peaceful flock and sometimes certain birds don’t fit but that doesn’t mean they won’t fit very well in someone else’s flock.
It’s good to connect with people in your area who like chickens too so you can help each other.

 

[CannedMonster]

So the ones without feathers on the neck are naked necks? How does that work with mating? Can they be injured?

I wondered about that too!
I was searching the forums and googling and I couldn’t find any answers.
Well Angus gave me the answer just yesterday because he mated Agatha and I looked at her and all I saw was a red mark on the back of her neck and it was gone by later that day. No broken skin.

I think it’s good that Angus had some practice on fully feathered girls first because he’s getting better at breeding them and balancing.
He’s pretty quick now but the Wyandottes still kick him off other girls sometimes.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

So here is a weird one...

I put the small ones into the coop every night. As I'm doing so I always pet them and give them kisses(don't worry I wash my mouth..lol), but I noticed that they smell really good, it's a very clean smell. Almost like they just had a bath. I know I read people say chickens smell not good, but I'm not kidding when I say they literally smell like they were groomed...anyone else got the same thing going on?

Sorry its me again my birds always smell fresh, I believe it to be the way they are looked after which makes the difference - before the our latest additions we tried first with two Cherry Valley ducks, they stunk, bringing them home my daughter said she was almost sick they smelt so bad and filled the car with their odour - it didn't work out for us with those two birds and we had to return them to the buyer but for the few days we had them here they went from blackened feathers and stinking, to nice clean feathers and smelling fresh. Our two latest additions weren't as bad but they did smell terrible too, it took a few days but they no longer smell and have never done so since.

 

[llombardo]

Awwww such cuties I really feel for you and can understand why you are exhausted. We are fortunate that we don't have raccoons in our country but I have read stories of the damage they can do so I can imagine the fight you have on your hands and my heart goes out to you. - For what its worth though, the hard work and effort you put into your birds shows immensely - I watch a lot of YouTube videos of chickens and ducks, I have visited a lot of farms and I look at a lot of pictures of chickens/ducks, I only know three people who have chickens, one who has ducks, all four take good care of their birds, but of the humongous amounts of videos/pictures I've looked at, farms and bird centers I've been to I have never before seen a flock such as yours, and I truly am in awe of you and your commitment, dedication and ability to care for your birds to the extent that not one of your birds are short of beautiful, pristine and amazing. I know when exhausted and having to fight a constant battle it is hard and can suck the very life out of a person but your hard work and dedication not only is paying off it is showing in ever single one of your birds. I hope with all my heart things get sorted, get easier and better for you I truly do. But I cannot take my eyes off how amazing your birds are and the amazing condition you have every single one in. Even with mud on her face your Pekins feathers are brilliantly white and every white feather on each bird in these picture are brilliant white and shining and I am simply amazed by you and your ability to care this well for these birds.

Thank you. I have lots of animals and I try my best. I enjoy all of them and I'm blessed. They mean the world to me. I knew nothing about chickens and ducks. Lots of reading and research once they were here. It took me forever to build the enclosure because I kept reading the Predator thread and adding stuff. I refused to put them out there until it was how it needed to be and I'm still adding to it. The weird thing is people don't think chickens have personality, not only do they have personalities, they are smart. Mine know there names and come running when I call them. The boy knows leave it, just like a dog. Sunny the Peking wags her butt when I say her name. Just amazing animals.

Here are my two older girls with the boy(barred rocks name is Rain, RIR is named Precious and the boys name is Prince)

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Thank you very much.
Placid is a pretty good word for Angus.
He’s not really interested in challenging anyone.
He bit me once but I know it was because I scared him.
This photo is about a month ago.
View attachment 1502187
He likes to show the pullets spots where they can nest but they’re never very good spots! He even tries to interest them in the lawn tractor deck haha.
View attachment 1502192


I don’t understand why some people get animals when they don’t seem interested in taking good care of them.
I know some have good intentions in the beginning and get overwhelmed but you have to do research and educate yourself on what you’re getting into.
That’s why BYC is such a great resource.
I read several books about raising chickens before I even got any.
I do that with almost everything in my life.

I try to be fair in caring for them but I don’t feel like everything has to be spotless or worry too much.
I’m very fortunate in that we have an extremely low number of predators around here.
I think it’s because of all the dogs in the neighborhood and the location maybe.
They all free range from early morning til roosting time.
That’s my favorite part of it.
I don’t think I’d enjoy them as much if they couldn’t free range.
It so relaxing to watch them and observe their natural behaviors.

Silkie is a poof ball!
He’s a tough little cookie being raised with 6 larger birds and another bantam cockerel.
View attachment 1502178
I had a black bantam Cochin cockerel too but I gave him to my friend who’s taking my Wyandottes.
He wanted to be the alpha roo and I didn’t want a bantam alpha.
Plus I found out Silkie is a cockerel and Frodo wasn’t being nice to him.
Frodo is doing well at her place.
Here’s a photo of him.
View attachment 1502168

I want a peaceful flock and sometimes certain birds don’t fit but that doesn’t mean they won’t fit very well in someone else’s flock.
It’s good to connect with people in your area who like chickens too so you can help each other.

I really like the contrast of colours in Angus's feathers, hes a real beauty - Silkie looks like a cuddly toy, are his feathers as soft as they look? He's such a cutie. The black Cochin's feathers look like velvet, I really like when birds feathers shine like that especially on black coloured birds. I know what you mean about not working out, before we got our two Khaki ducklings we tried at two Cherry Valleys they were more like wild birds and terrified our flock, they fought a lot with each other too and the main one was a real bully, so we took them back to the seller/breeder.
I know people with poultry, the seller I got the Cherry Valleys from is a good friend of mine - which is why I was able to give them back - I do get advice from him and he has helped me a lot. He's been breeding/selling chickens for over 15 years, and branched out to duck breeding/selling more recently, he is a large scale breeder so sells a lot to farms and big organisations - he sells meat birds and egg layers mostly - I know a couple of farm hands who I can get advice from and I have a distant neighbour who has chickens - he lost his first flock to foxes about nine years ago, he lives right next to the woods they live in, his current flock are 8 years old which I think is really good for chickens, I got a little advice from him too - trouble is I find people who breed/sell for a living tend to see things differently to people like myself whose birds are purely pets and tend to have a different approach to raising chickens than I do, plus I find people here are often too flippant about things for my liking and never seem to want to learn or do more than the minimum. My late nana kept chickens and pigs and at one stage had a cow and a donkey. My dad still remembers quite a bit and I have gotten advice from him too. I chose to join the BYC not only because of the wealth of knowledge but because of the level of care I have found amongst the BYC
uses - such as yourself - is at a much higher level than here in the UK or anywhere else for that matter (which is why I joined this BYC and not the UK BYC). I too don't understand why people get animals then neglect or mistreat them but sometimes I think it is because they are an easy target and can't fight back. I love my flock, not in the way humans love humans but in the way a human can love a pet, I want the very best for them which is why I ask so much on here and not so much else where - I want to give the best I can, so I ask the best people to ask, of which you are one and I really appreciate all the help and advice I get. You have a lovely flock - well cared for too and it shows.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

I’m concerned about broken or injured legs myself because we never thought our birds would take flying leaps off the top of their ladder roost!
The very top rung is 7-8 feet high.
We used to just open the pop door to let them out in the morning.
But after we built the ladder roost my husband noticed that the birds at the top had to jump all the way down and they were crashing into the closed man door.
So now we open it and they will land several feet outside of the coop!
All except my sex link, Red.
She’s smart enough to jump down to each lower roost until she gets to the bottom. That one is only 2 feet high.
I haven’t noticed anyone limping or anything so hopefully they’re fine.
My Silkie goes all the way up to the 8 foot cross beam! A lot of my bantams do.
But I always heard how Silkies don’t roost and can’t fly.
Lol apparently mine can.
View attachment 1501977 View attachment 1501978

It was never a concern of mine until the injury. Mine have been notorious for flying into/onto things that they shouldn’t (once they flew into a window and shattered it) though! Now I have ladders and extra roosts everywhere! I’ve removed anything that can cause possible injury as well, I’d say my roosts vary from 3ft - 8ft! My Ameraucana never perch or fly onto things they shouldn’t. Only the Barred Rocks seem to do it! Love your little silkie! Squee and your NN cockerel is turning out to be quite the stud!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Thank you. I have lots of animals and I try my best. I enjoy all of them and I'm blessed. They mean the world to me. I knew nothing about chickens and ducks. Lots of reading and research once they were here. It took me forever to build the enclosure because I kept reading the Predator thread and adding stuff. I refused to put them out there until it was how it needed to be and I'm still adding to it. The weird thing is people don't think chickens have personality, not only do they have personalities, they are smart. Mine know there names and come running when I call them. The boy knows leave it, just like a dog. Sunny the Peking wags her butt when I say her name. Just amazing animals.

Here are my two older girls with the boy(barred rocks name is Rain, RIR is named Precious and the boys name is Prince)

View attachment 1502217

Wow! How do you get your birds feathers to shine like that - the almost glisten! All your birds have that shine to them, even your ducks.- Great name choices, I like the name Rain, wouldn't have thought to use that as a name but it really suits. They are real beauties as are all your birds and is a pleasure seeing your pictures of them. I really hope things get easier for you real soon, you deserve a break.
My hens are RIR Hybrids, my 16 week old resembles yours but mine has a lot of black markings along her back and tail, my younger hen (approx 13/14wks) is an off white with tints of red and has the same black marking as my elder hen, they were hatched from the same flock so might be related but that flock has two RIR cockerels and too many hens to be able to count so not possible to tell. I've tried putting pictures on BYC before but for some reason they won't load, other wise I'd show you a pic. We are new to poultry raising. We took my grandson to a local farm park where one of the gimmicks is to hold a baby chick - the farm hand did a talk whilst the little kiddies held the chicks - my grandson wasn't much interested he was more interested in playing on the bails of hay we were sitting on, so not to disturb the talk my daughter held the chick and that was it, she couldn't let her go so we bought her and a duckling, we were told they were anything from 3 to 5 wks old so I only have an approx age. That night the little duckling died, we later found out it had a malformed beak and hadn't been eating/drinking properly so would have died where ever it was. None of the birds were sexed so my daughter just chose names she likes and we decided they'd keep those names regardless of gender. Not wanting our little chick (Pedro) to be alone we went the next day and bought another duckling (Napoleon) again 3/5 wks old, then we realised they needed same breed friends so my daughter went back and bought another chick (Jellybean) and another duckling (Jughead) both 1 to 3 wks old - it didn't take us long to realise we have two drakes because I'd read about the whispering sound of a drake and both did it, then when we saw the first sign of a green feather we knew for sure - they both are Indian Runners x Mallard could be relate as hatched from the same flock. Realising they are males we recently added the two Khaki females Midnight who is about 8wks and Aroura who is about 7wks - we are hoping the drakes and ducks will pair, if they do we will get two more chicken hens, if not we will get two more duck hens as we can only manage 8 birds in our garden. I adore them.