Arizona Chickens

[cavemanrich]

You might want to keep an eye on that aggressive RIR in case it turns out to be a rooster in disguise. On the other hand, yesterday I found one of my laying hens chest-bumping and kick-boxing with a rooster through the wire fence separating their pens. Tried to get video but wasn't quick enough with the phone camera.

A few years back I had a RIR hen. (I only keep hens), that acted like a rooster. She was mounting the other chickens.. Guess she was stuck between Good and Evil.

 

[Diannastarr]

A few years back I had a RIR hen. (I only keep hens), that acted like a rooster. She was mounting the other chickens.. Guess she was stuck between Good and Evil.

an old timer told me that if a roo is not in the flock some hens will act like a roo..? ive seen this my self in a small flock i raised with only hens befor i let them out with the big flock & with my aussie roo

 

[igorsMistress]

Well, I did like one poster said in a different forum...make some chicken noises and they will come to you. I created a monster doing a little bukk-bukk to entice them. Now they jump up and down every time I crack the door and look in, because they know the goodies are coming. They even stand on my hand and up my wrist while stuffing their faces. They don't necessarily like to be held or petted, but they know their food source for sure.

Wait until they go outside! I open my back door and they come running from all over.

 

[igorsMistress]

I would carefully look her over and check if she isn't one of this breed..
View attachment 1232035

I have a herd of those over here.

 

[SonoranChick]

I think there is one mean RIR in the bunch. Normally, I clean the kicked bedding out of their two waterers. While they're drinking, I then scrape all the bedding from their feeding tray. While cleaning the tray, the rest see that feed is available and start crowding around. I gently nudge them out the way (the greedy Austra-Whites always in the forefront), and one little sweet BR leans up against my knuckles while working my way down the tray. Then this one RIR comes up and bites me hard and WON"T LET GO. I had to whack her real good. She's the one that always wants to fight when nudged away, rearing up with an attitude and pecking.

Sister-Girl needs to recognize that I have waaaay too many kitchen appliances, pressure cookers, slow cookers and meat cleavers up in this camp, so her days may be numbered.

You all know that I got that "Beak Phobia" thing.

The RIR is another breed I have heard can either be sweet as pie, or aggressive and mean. Thankfully my RIR is such a love bug! I certainly hope your gal comes around soon and adjusts her attitude (before dinner time, preferably lol). They are really good layers. Hey I've got lots of those pinless peepers too (they come in bulk, I only needed one)- if you want to try them out when she gets older just let me know!

 

[Diannastarr]

Wait until they go outside! I open my back door and they come running from all over.

yes indeed they do that at my place all my free rangers hanging out under the bushes then come running when they hear me trying to sneak out , but they are to quick and then start such a ruckus that all the other girls come running as fast as they can from every were , its pretty funny to see all these fat hens waddling as fast as they can to see what i have for them, then i end up with 75 chickens circling me & i cant walk , i cant even put their food down...lol... my friends always tease me saying why do you only shop at night , i say because of the girls they won t let me out of the yard...lol ... and they think im kidding..???....lol... so yesterday i had to get to the post office, by 4 :30 to mail my sons apple cake out to him , but that is around the same time as afternoon treat time..? so i had to devise a new plan of escape , so i went out early with tons of treats and tossed them out all over & so much so the hens didnt know were to start first & i tossed different treats in different places so they all started running back & forth to see which treats were where and running around trying to get every kind of treat as fast as they could....lol.. so yes i create a system of escape that worked..!! & i was able to get down the drive and escape out the gate...lol.. HA and after the post office i went shopping and the ladies at the store said to me wow..??? this is a first , your in here so early....lol.. & i said yeah i had a new plan of escape ...lol.. they all started to laugh since i usually shop after dark when all the girls are in bed ....lol... good thing the stores are open late...lol.... or i could starve to death...lol...

 

[SonoranChick]

Glad you got outta there in one piece I can just imagine you being surrounded by a sea of happy chickens waiting to see what you have for them lol!!

 

[Diannastarr]

Glad you got outta there in one piece I can just imagine you being surrounded by a sea of happy chickens waiting to see what you have for them lol!!

yes its amazing my daily routine , but they do understand & respond to certain words well , like stop or go or come on, or dinner...lol.. they love the word dinner...lol.. i use the word GO a lot with hand gestures like saying go out of the way girls ...lol... to get them to move so i can walk ,& so we work things out pretty good its always amusing. plus i taught them 2 new words BACK UP and they do....lol.. all 75 of them at once back up...lol.. its a hoot to see them do that...lol.. i had to teach them to back up because in the morning all of them were crushing up against the gate to get out and the girls in front were being squashed..!!! so thats an important word for them plus they all know their names , its funny i wait till they are all just laying around and i will say one of their names and thats the only bird that will look up at me ,or come to me , so they are not stupid by any means, as a matter if fact they pretty much have your number....lol.... and make us do what they want by acting dumb i know they do that because my parrot does the samething HA he acts like he cant say what he wants for dinner, so then i fall for this every time & i say it for him and then he just says yeah....lol.. HA and so he makes me say the words for him ....lol.....

 

[BlueBaby]

@FeatherPugs How are your 4 new girls doing today? Is the NN still on food bucket guard duty?

 

[Bobby Basham]

I've just had two, Thelma & Louise. Both sweet and never aggressive. They didn't take garbage from the assertive Sex-Links but they also were not bossy. I only have Louise now and she is 6 years old this year. She still gives me one or two eggs a week when she's not molting. Will these chickens ever stop molting!! Another of my young hens has started losing her tail!

My Barred Rocks seem rather laid back. I have one that insists on leaning against my hand while I clean out the food trough. It stands still while I pet it and make some soft sounds.

I have a mixed dozen: 3 Barred Rocks, 3 Black Australorps, 3 RIR and 3 Austra-Whites.

The BA's completely ignore me, I don't trust the RIR's because of one possibly mean one and rooster in that trio, the greedy Austra-Whites hang around like vultures, just pecking at my fork and not me. You push them away and they're right back up in your face.