Arizona Chickens

[cavemanrich]

I'm backing down on size as they aren't handling this heat well over here this year.

What breed did you choose to go with??

 

[BlueBaby]

What breed did you choose to go with??

Leghorns. I have 2 separate batches of hatching egg's of them coming, but they aren't the white one's. I'm getting the brown ones, and the silver one's. There's currently 9 Naked Neck hatching egg's in one of my incubators.

 

[cavemanrich]

I only had a White Leghorn. That was quite a while ago.. She was medium to small frame size, but layed large eggs. . Got her from the Butcher. Took her home live of course.
Named her LUCKY.
Are the Brown and Silver same size as the White?? and what is the egg color of those?
The Transylvanians are dyno mite chickens. Always wanted one,,, but just could not run across one. (in my area)
I cant order and hatch eggs. Reason:: there are always a 50% chance of roosters,, Which I cant keep where I'm at. Have no option to relocate the roosters, and I could just not Cull.

 

[BlueBaby]

I only had a White Leghorn. That was quite a while ago.. She was medium to small frame size, but layed large eggs. . Got her from the Butcher. Took her home live of course.
Named her LUCKY.
Are the Brown and Silver same size as the White?? and what is the egg color of those?
The Transylvanians are dyno mite chickens. Always wanted one,,, but just could not run across one. (in my area)
I cant order and hatch eggs. Reason:: there are always a 50% chance of roosters,, Which I cant keep where I'm at. Have no option to relocate the roosters, and I could just not Cull.

I think they will be normal sized for a leghorn, and they will lay white egg's. I'm keeping all of the girls that hatch, and a couple of the silver boys, if enough of them hatch out. Those silver ones cost me more money then the browns did. I have 3 incubators.

I'll only be keeping the Naked Neck pullets, not the cockerels. Maybe if you make a trip down here I could let you have a female to take back home with you.

 

[BlueBaby]

These are the Naked Neck ones due to hatch on the 30th. There are 7 in there.

 

[Happy Novogens]

I cant order and hatch eggs. Reason:: there are always a 50% chance of roosters,, Which I cant keep where I'm at. Have no option to relocate the roosters, and I could just not Cull.

I'm kinda dealing with that now. I lucked out with my first hatch and ended up with 6 females and just 1 male.

But now they're 5 months old and my cockerel is starting to get too friendly with all the girls -- to the ire of my adult rooster.

I've been heart-aching over what to do. It seems like the logical thing is to keep the younger cockerel.

The only other option I see is to build a second run and maintain 2 separate flocks, but I don't know I want to do that. My older girls are aging out (3 of 5, anyway).

 

[Pigeony]

I'm kinda dealing with that now. I lucked out with my first hatch and ended up with 6 females and just 1 male.

But now they're 5 months old and my cockerel is starting to get too friendly with all the girls -- to the ire of my adult rooster.

I've been heart-aching over what to do. It seems like the logical thing is to keep the younger cockerel.

The only other option I see is to build a second run and maintain 2 separate flocks, but I don't know I want to do that. My older girls are aging out (3 of 5, anyway).

Are they fighting and actually hurting each other or is the adult rooster just reprimanding and disciplining him when he mounts hens or otherwise acts out? I think having an adult rooster to show him the ropes and teach him manners actually results in a better-behaved cockerel, provided the older rooster isn't genuinely trying to kill him. You can keep multiple-rooster flocks if the specific roosters are amenable to it. I keep multi-rooster flocks, but my Alohas are pretty mild-mannered.

 

[BlueBaby]

I'm kinda dealing with that now. I lucked out with my first hatch and ended up with 6 females and just 1 male.

But now they're 5 months old and my cockerel is starting to get too friendly with all the girls -- to the ire of my adult rooster.

I've been heart-aching over what to do. It seems like the logical thing is to keep the younger cockerel.

The only other option I see is to build a second run and maintain 2 separate flocks, but I don't know I want to do that. My older girls are aging out (3 of 5, anyway).

Sometimes you can keep more then one rooster, if there are enough hen's for them.

 

[Happy Novogens]

Are they fighting and actually hurting each other or is the adult rooster just reprimanding and disciplining him when he mounts hens or otherwise acts out? I think having an adult rooster to show him the ropes and teach him manners actually results in a better-behaved cockerel, provided the older rooster isn't genuinely trying to kill him. You can keep multiple-rooster flocks if the specific roosters are amenable to it. I keep multi-rooster flocks, but my Alohas are pretty mild-mannered.

They haven't hurt each other, no. The Rooster will chase the cockerel off of the gals. He'll also pester him sometimes when they're in the run. It'd be great if I could keep both.

The cockerel is real people-friendly. The hens that hatched with him tend to hang around him most of the time

 

[Pigeony]

They haven't hurt each other, no. The Rooster will chase the cockerel off of the gals. He'll also pester him sometimes when they're in the run. It'd be great if I could keep both.

The cockerel is real people-friendly. The hens that hatched with him tend to hang around him most of the time

That's completely normal behavior for an adult rooster. Chasing the cockerel off the gals is the duty of the adult head rooster- by doing that, he's teaching them that he has to have the hens' permission and reminding him that he is also lower on the totem pole. Pestering him when he's in the run is also likely due to some action from the cockerel that, not being chickens, may not be obvious to us. Or he's just throwing his weight around. It's entirely possible you could keep both, as the cockerel matures and the pecking order settles, they could find a balance and end up fighting less. I'd keep an eye on them and just make sure there's no true injuries past maybe scratches.