I'm no pro at the chicken raising thing, but have been at it 4 years or so. Haven't raised any babies in a couple years because I didn't need to... the hawks last summer wiped me out so I needed to replentish this spring. A good friend of ours raises many breeds, and gave us 20 chicks in March... supposed to be Amerarcaunas... well, maybe not so much! They incubate their eggs at another friends house, and that friend also incubates other friends eggs... well, you can probably see where this is going
! While I did get a bunch of cute babies, turns out the incubator guy must have gotten some trays mixed up because while I'm not sure what all I've got, I'm sure they aren't what I thought
. In May, I seperated out the one's I thought were pullets and took them down to the coop - out of 20 chicks I had 5 for-sure roos. 3 of the roos are Silver Laced Wayndottes (which our friend does not raise), one of which has golden neck feathers and some gold feathers around his tail - he is BEAUTIFUL - but not an Amerarcauna. Ended up with a SLW pullet, too. Got one Dark Cornish roo (again, friend does not raise), and a pullet that has Cornish somewhere in her but is grey and black instead of brown and black - again beautiful, but not Amerarcauna
. Have a few with white/grey legs, a few with yellow, and one has black legs and beak. A few with pea comps, a few with singles... it's a BIG MESS, that's what it is what it is plain and simple
! Seems like every day I go to the coop, someone else down there turns out to be a ROO - which you would think would have been obvious by now, they are almost 6 months old! But not so... A few weeks ago I saw a couple of my favorite pullets "facing off" in the pen... which I did think was strange, but didn't worry too much about it. Until this morning when one of them stretched out "her" neck and started CROWING
! WHAT??!! Didn't understand it, still don't but it is what it is...
Meanwhile, back at the coop... I only had one laying hen left and missed my fresh eggs so I bought 8 Amerarcauna hens to keep up the egg supply until the "babies" grew up. They were from last springs (2010) hatch and were consistent layers. I got them from someone else we know, but apparently they know less about chickens than I do! The girls looked a mess, and the rooster in with them even worse (didn't want the roo, but he ran into the crate with the girls so they threw him in for free)
. Said they were "molting"... okay, again maybe NOT! Turns out they are feather pickers - the whole lot of them. And their favorite "victim" is the poor roo... talk about "hen pecked"! Live and learn... got them home and they promptly pulled the tail feathers off all my babies
! Put them on higher protein feed, and it's settled down but GEEZE! Put the poor roo in a sererate pen so he could recover, and he has recently reintrocuded himself (flew over the 6 foot fence in his other pen) and it seems to be okay for now... but now that there are SEVERAL roos down there I'm thinking there's trouble brewing...
I don't care that I don't have a bunch of pure bred chickens, but I do care that they are such a mix of mutts that I can't tell a roo from a pullet until they CROW!! The breeds I had before I researched, I KNEW what to expect. All I wanted was some pretty colored eggs and chickens with muffs! Chicken mixes, who knows!! If I had something to guage it by it would be something entirely different... but I don't and it is really irking me
!
When these are grown and gone, I will go back to what I know... what is familiar and predictable... and that's all I can say
Meanwhile, back at the coop... I only had one laying hen left and missed my fresh eggs so I bought 8 Amerarcauna hens to keep up the egg supply until the "babies" grew up. They were from last springs (2010) hatch and were consistent layers. I got them from someone else we know, but apparently they know less about chickens than I do! The girls looked a mess, and the rooster in with them even worse (didn't want the roo, but he ran into the crate with the girls so they threw him in for free)
I don't care that I don't have a bunch of pure bred chickens, but I do care that they are such a mix of mutts that I can't tell a roo from a pullet until they CROW!! The breeds I had before I researched, I KNEW what to expect. All I wanted was some pretty colored eggs and chickens with muffs! Chicken mixes, who knows!! If I had something to guage it by it would be something entirely different... but I don't and it is really irking me
When these are grown and gone, I will go back to what I know... what is familiar and predictable... and that's all I can say