Anyone have luck catching a feral chicken?? UPDATE: Rooster caught, no hen

[biophiliac]

Dylan has a harness and a leash. She likes her dog crate for the car, it has a nice perch. When she sees me getting it out, she says, "Let's go!" If I am getting ready to go somewhere, she starts acting up, loud beeps and noises that sound like the smoke alarm. So, I get her in the carrier, and she is quiet for the rest of the time, because she knows that she gets to go too.

Most of my life I have wondered how birds manage to produce such intelligent behaviors, not to mention incredible feats of navigation in many cases. Finally in 2016 I saw this article about the organization of neurons in bird brains vs mammal brains.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160613153411.htm

 

[Parront]

DH and I talked, and we decided to get the birds. On the spectrum of things, there are several outcomes. Either we got new addition to our flock, or we at least will give these birds a good couple of months before we cull for the freezer.

They look pretty healthy in the photos. I have even adopted sparrows, I'm not the one to discourage anyone! Just sad that chickens are so short-lived. Good luck. (I don't think that middle one is a rooster. At 2 years old, you would know by now, and the hens would not have any feathers left on their backs)!

 

[Parront]

Most of my life I have wondered how birds manage to produce such intelligent behaviors, not to mention incredible feats of navigation in many cases. Finally in 2016 I saw this article about the organization of neurons in bird brains vs mammal brains.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160613153411.htm

I am convinced that parrots are smarter than dogs, I guess the proper insult should be "You mammal-brain!"

 

[biophiliac]

View attachment 1177707
From the TSC ad. If I did the math right that "coop" for 6-8 birds is 2.3' h x 3.5' w x 3.4' d. So 6-8 pigeons?

IKR!
Even Pigeons require 2 square feet per bird, rule of thumb. So 6 pigeons, not even 8. BUT it's not really tall enough for pigeons.

 

[Sassysouth]

You guys are so freakin active, I have like 7 pages to catch up on!! I am gonna have to hire a personal assistant just to manage my chickenmail, jeez!

@ smoovie:

The best part of BYC (aside from all the great chicken advice) *is* the socalizing, for real.

In Jersey, women pretty much suck (no offense to NJ BYCers, cuz, well, we're awesome) and you guys are my buds!! I wish I had real-life friends like y'all! Here, everyone is too damn catty or into their own thing to bother with friends. It's weird. When I lived in the midwest, people were so much friendlier <sigh>.

Anyway, I love you guys. I hope nobody shuts down our threads (I keep waiting for someone to delete the majority of posts on my Never Gonna Get an Egg post cuz of all the potty mouth, penisy-type references) cuz it's SO much fun. It's a virtual party, I can hang with you guys and drink my wine and laugh my ass off, and not worry about getting a DUI, or getting judged on my outfit, lol!!

XO! Off to catch up now~

We moved to this clicky town and it is all about who you know and what side of town you live on (roll my eyes). My husband is very social, I am more of an introvert and prefer to craft, hang out with the animals and watch true crime or reality tv.

I started to jump on the No Egg thread, but need to keep us here.


So, a friend brought my son home from school for me so I could finish up my coop. She has had chickens and loves chickens. She looked at my chicks and said you do need to add on. I said, I ordered 5 more chicks. My son screams, your ordered 5 more??? My friend looks at me with wide eyes, like I am completely nuts!!!! Oh well. My rationale is many will be roosters, I won’t be keeping them all. I don’t have to explain myself to you guys though. You know I am completely sane!!!

 

[biophiliac]

There are actually.... 8.... 5 brown, 3 white... we picked up the whites today. Here are pics of the whites and their quarantine area:

View attachment 1177879 View attachment 1177880 View attachment 1177881 View attachment 1177882 View attachment 1177883 View attachment 1177885 View attachment 1177886 View attachment 1177887

Poop is worm free, and they FINALLY got to stretch their wings and FLAP LIKE CRAZY!!!

Uh, is the one middle chicken a rooster?

I'll say I do think the one in the middle is a roo. Looking down from above you see the different downward curving saddle feathers, more upright posture and larger comb/wattles. I bit hard to see the hackle feathers on the neck, but they look roo-ish to me.

DH and I talked, and we decided to get the birds. On the spectrum of things, there are several outcomes. Either we got new addition to our flock, or we at least will give these birds a good couple of months before we cull for the freezer.

 

[Parront]

My rationale is many will be roosters, I won’t be keeping them all. I don’t have to explain myself to you guys though. You know I am completely sane!!!

Of course, you are as sane as I am!

 

[Parront]

I'll say I do think the one in the middle is a roo. Looking down from above you see the different downward curving saddle feathers, more upright posture and larger comb/wattles. I bit hard to see the hackle feathers on the neck, but they look roo-ish to me.

I could not see any saddle feathers, maybe I have old eyes.

 

[TexasSam]

y'all give me insight into how DW's mind works, but after 37 years I kind of have already figured it out.

No you haven't because every time you figure it out it changes

 

[biophiliac]

I could not see any saddle feathers, maybe I have old eyes.

I'm not 100% certain, it's hard to see and the feathers on that bird look sort of ragged. So I will be interested to know if I'm right or wrong.