Ancona Chicken Thread

[messy monkeys]

Thanks to those who helped clear up the breed question for us. We can see some of those "spots" showing up on the head now, but I am still worried that we have a roo. The comb does seem to be leaning some, but is still much larger than Bruce's pullet.
Roosters are beautiful, but not part of our plan. Like I said, we will keep it until we hear a crow. We all really like this chick!

 

[miquwid]

Just got my little girl on Monday not sure why we called her Friday but it just seemed to fit I love the way she is always eyeing us. We are working on handling her and so far she is pretty calm.

 

[elizmartin]

I think your post of picture and question about breed are very appropriate for the Ancona thread.

Thank you Bruce for your comments on working with your birds. I want to emphasize that if you do not respectfully establish your place in the flock you can get jumped on and pecked at by your hens or your roosters. I did not realize this was important with my first batch of birds and I now have a rooster I need to either A: smother with love and affection daily or B: put in the soup pot. I am leaning toward the soup pot as I am not planning on breading this rooster.

Also thank you to Yellow Farm house for your detailed answer to my question of comparison of Anconas verses Hamburgs. I am back to wanting RC Anconas again although I am flirting with the idea of getting Ixworth hatching eggs. Weather it is Ixworth or RC Ancona that I decide to go with I still want another year or two of experience under my belt before working with these rarer breeds.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

In my life of many roooos i have had only 2, both EE that were the attack kinda guys.....Then this year 2 of my favorite, supposedly gentle breed Roos decided to take me on. (LF Faverolles)...Ive grabbed both of them when they came at me, very sternly shook them and tossed them away.....My very favorite will put space between us when i come to feed, the other still watches and when i get a good son, he's dinner. He's only still here because i cannot replace his blue color genes.

 

[messy monkeys]

This is an updated picture of our ancona. Sadly, we have a rooster on our hands. His attempts at a crow had my husband ready to defend the flock...seems his crow sounds like an animal under attack! My children have also heard it and promised to wake me for the show tomorrow. I am just sooo excited for that 5:30 wake-up call!!!
Do all roosters have a "floppy" comb when they are young? It gave me hope with how far over it had tipped.

 

[Kaugomu]

Hi, I have a quick question about some ancona chicks I'm raising. I was asked by a friend to start them some pullets (their parents wanted birds but didn't want to "deal with" babies - my favorite part!) and the feed store had RSL and anconas. I got five of each for them, and one ancona for myself to add to my flock (wanted one forever!). I bought them on April 19 and they were probably between a week and two weeks old at the time putting them between five and seven weeks now. I am afraid I may have two little boys on my hands looking at their combs, and their legs (both have larger redder combs, slightly thicker legs, but no wattles showing yet). I hope you don't mind my asking here, also all six of them seem to have more white than I was expecting, is that normal for the age?

Thanks!

 

[pinetop1]

color looks vary good to me as far as being roos a little to early to tell right now by 10 weeks roos will have
a lot bigger cone than the pullet's are at least main do and should start to crow by 12 weeks.

 

[Kaugomu]

color looks vary good to me as far as being roos a little to early to tell right now by 10 weeks roos will have
a lot bigger cone than the pullet's are at least main do and should start to crow by 12 weeks.

Thanks, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that I'm wrong then for the next month.

 

[farmerChef]

Quote:Originally Posted by Kaugomu


Hi, I have a quick question about some ancona chicks I'm raising. I was asked by a friend to start them some pullets (their parents wanted birds but didn't want to "deal with" babies - my favorite part!) and the feed store had RSL and anconas. I got five of each for them, and one ancona for myself to add to my flock (wanted one forever!). I bought them on April 19 and they were probably between a week and two weeks old at the time putting them between five and seven weeks now. I am afraid I may have two little boys on my hands looking at their combs, and their legs (both have larger redder combs, slightly thicker legs, but no wattles showing yet). I hope you don't mind my asking here, also all six of them seem to have more white than I was expecting, is that normal for the age?

Thanks!





They look like pullets to me, they have large combs, so the combs are larger than most breeds, even young. my cockeral the same age has a comb twice that size and is bright red

they coloring is normal for teenagers, when they get 3-4 months old, the adult feathers will come in, and if they are cockerals, they will start getting the pointed saddle(back) and hackle(neck) feathers.

 

[messy monkeys]

Kaugomu,
If you look back at my earlier picture of my ancona, he had a comb that size by three weeks old, so hopefully, yours are girls that have a slightly bigger comb (like some people have a bigger nose than others!) He is 11 weeks old now, but the latest picture of him is at 10 weeks old. His comb would be light pink some days, but it usually stayed a dark pink to red. It is still floppy to the point to of covering his eye some days.
I hope you have all hens. It is breaking our hearts to look for a home for our boy. We keep trying to figure out how to keep him here, but I just can't stand the idea of eating fertilized eggs and it seems cruel to lock him away from all the girls.
We also lost our first hen to old age this week, so it hasn't been the best of weeks for our little flock. Should have gone with goldfish...no emotional attachment there!!!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Greetings! We are catching up on our orders, and we should have capacity to ship day-old Rose comb Anconas soon. You can check out our website for more details. I'll try to do a post here.

Best,
Yellow House Farm