any body got campines?

[Foghorn Rock]

I got 5 golden and 4 silver campines today .Just wondering what every body thought about these .Good, bad , what to expect.They are about half grown maybe,Guy I got em from said they were almost ready to start laying.Any body ever mix the 2 and see what the offspring looks like?

 

[Dipsy Doodle Doo]

Hi!
I have Silver Campines. I think they are great birds and beautiful. Mine have always been kind of flighty til they are about a year old, then they settle down.
I've never had gold Camp's so I can't say how they are.
Good luck with your new girls!

Lisa

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

We have a lovely little Golden Campine that we got 8-9 weeks ago. She started out kinda flighty and a spook, but in the last few weeks she has developed the sweetest personality of all of our 14 mixed rare breed babies! She comes running over leading the group, and begs to be picked up and pet! She Quickly became my favorite, which still continues to surprise me considering what a spook she was when she started out! She is the leader of the Bantam babies, but does give way to the larger babies and more mature Hens,
Good Luck!

 

[chickenpiedpiper]

I was wondering how the personalities of your young birds have developed? Our Goldie Girl is still our most personable hen, hoping up onto our shoulders and lap when its time for treats! She even lets me scoop her up and hold her for others to gently pet! We really got lucky with her!

 

[patandchickens]

I got 6 golden campine chicks this spring. Of course wouldn't you know 5 of the 6 turned out to be boys

I got rid of them fairly promptly because they were too whacko for me -- always moving, zipping from one end of the (large) pen to the other for no reason whatsoever, always gettin' on each others' cases and mock-fighting and flying around and just generally AAAAARRRGH.

I kept the lone hen. She was in with 3 buff chanteclers for a while, but flunked out because she pulled out every single one of the cockerel's tailfeathers and lower neck feathers and was starting in on him elsewhere. Basically, if she were human she would have been the first female CEO of some major multinational corporation, or the first woman president; unfortunately this makes her rather overly caffeinated and overly ambitious for the chicken world.

She has ended up in the Speckled Sussex pen, where she is seriously outnumbered, and has become the main rooster's, um... trying to think of family-friendly way of putting it... failing... let's just say that she, alone of all the hens in the pen, is totally bald on top

(She always hangs out with him, though, so I don't think she has any major complaints)

She started laying at IIRC about 17-18 wks and has been quite regular since then, about 2 out of every 3 or 3 out of every 4 days, nice small-to-medium white eggs with a very smooth satiny finish.

I am looking for a lighter-bodied good laying breed for next year and my thoughts keep coming back to campines -- they certainly are quite beautiful, and although Hazelnut is a nutbar, she is a smart and personable nutbar -- but I jsut don't think I'll do it because they are just too INSANE for me.

From what I've seen wth mine, I would think they would probably make quite good free ranging chickens (their paranoia and fast, random motion would probably have survival benefit).

Of course everyone's tastes differ, and what's too whacko for me might be just right for other people

Pat