Well, mostly Heinz 57...Aricana mixes...home grown/incubated by a friend. Just 2 blacks, and 2 gold and browns with red and Cheeky has the Aricana cheek feathers...I obtained the oddball hens: just beginning to lay. I love them.
Not just broody ones!
Queensland, Australia. We had a Brown Snake (venemous) in our backyard last summer and a Green Tree Snake a few weeks ago. Green Tree Snakes eat frogs, mice, etc. and are not a threat to a full-sized chicken.
Australia of course. I’d never go outside! Have you thought about indoor chickens??
My most docile friendly little hen is a 14 oz bantam Cochin. And she goes broody ALL the time. And she turns into Medusa! She’s never bitten me or anything but oh boy hers screams..my big huge brahmas are scared of her when she’s broody. Definitely a Dino descendant.
Actually, Magpies are a darn menace to anyone here who wants to free-range their chickens during Spring. Firstly, Magpies will swoop people and cause damage to heads/ears, etc. So, Magpies will also give chickens a hard time, although I think a fully mature Black Australorp Rooster would be a good challenger and probably win any dispute.
Huh. Must be regional? Our magpies are fine
Well, they are sort of indoors, not in our house, but in their 'hut.' Long story short, we now have just four 2 week-old Black Australorp chickens in a brooder, which we hope are pullets. Tried all the wing feathering approaches in the first week, to sex them, but not convinced this works with Black Australorps. However, early tail feathering has us hopeful. We heard that it is easy for novices to injure day-old chickens when attempting to vent-sex them, so we avoided that.
Well, in Australia it is fairly typical for magpies to swoop people and other animals during magpie breeding season. For some reason they seem to perceive other critters in the vicinity of their nest as a threat. An exception is that if people are offering treats to magpies in their backyards, the birds don't display aggressive behaviour, but I have seen Postmen on motorbikes being swooped by magpies on a busy street in Bundaberg, QLD, Australia.
