Can we talk PolisH?

[TennesseeTruly]

I only have a few Polish but the ones I have are extremely skittish. They're with my gold lace cochin bantams who are the sweetest birds in the world but none of that rubbed off on my Polish.

I was going to get more but I decided against it.

Laurie

 

[19hhbelgian]

Weird... I've read multiple posts saying polish chickens are skittish, unfriendly... Mine have all become awesome birds. Sure they were flighty at first, but now the friendliest hen I have besides one of my EE's, is my polish. She will run over as soon as I go outside, and will sit when I pet her. Now, I can say that I haven't tried raising polish chicks. All my girls were a few months old when I got them, so I can't add any of my 2cents on that

Good luck with your polish once you get them!!

 

[bkreugar]

Well this is my second year with chicks/chickens so I am not an expert by a long shot.But I spent a lot of time looking at pictures of breeds.I want the black ones with the LONG white crest feathers.That IS white crested black Polish RIGHT?

Maybe I got confused when looking at too many pictures?

Perhaps you are right I should try "the top hat special" next year.

My 11 yr old DD and I had plans this summer to do some "videos" using the chicks and we really wanted those white crested black polish for a paticular song/video.That is why it is such a disapointment. But from what you say they would HATE us messing with them to DO the video.

Oh well I am still going to try next year and see if I can get any adolescents from Craigs list.

I do thank you for all the responses!

 

[Puddle Foot Farm]

I love my polish. They've always been my favourite breed. Out of our horrid hatch last month, the polish had the highest hatch rate out out of all the other breeds. Shipped. Competing against fertile eggs from twenty feet away. I wouldn't call that fragile, exactly..
The chicks are kinda iffy, but I've only lost one in my history, which had issues since hatch. The most problem I've had is poop butt. Basically, whenever the chick seems a bit "off", take it out, give it some electrolyte water (NOT sugar water. Electrolytes.), let it rest, and it'll be good. Beware, though, they're really small, so they do good with themselves/other bantams/other small breeds. Mine tend to do fine with big chicks that they hatched with for the first week or two, then the size difference gets huge and they need to get seperated if you have especially aggressive or big chicks (wyandottes and leghorn crosses). Currently, we have my brooder chicks in with campines and cubalayas, both of which are light chickens. The wyandottes and leghorn crosses that are even younger than them were just too big and pushy.
Maybe it depends what stock you have, but mine are also rather friendly. Our one WC blue polish will jump out of the brooder and fly onto your back. She sits on your shoulder like a parrot. I love her.

It might just be the way you raise them..? We pick them up when they're young no matter how much they fuss, and feed them out of our hands as much as possible.

Anyways.. To the question.. I'd say that it's just hard to find pullets. On ideal, they still have most polish varieties available, straight run. Dunno if you have small chicken area, but why not order 11 then get rid of the roos? It says you can even get them next week.. Even the WC Black and WC Blues.

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

My daughters polish are not fraile at all. We have had 98% hatch and fertility rates here with them. We recently lost our gold laced roo but that was not due to illness. He ate mushrooms and they were poison. Our coop is under a large pine tree so they have plenty of shade in their coop and run. They do not seem bothered by the heat at all. We got ours from Sandhill and they are now over a year old. I have heard they can be skittish, the gold laced ladies seem to be now that they lost their roo but otherwise the white crested and blues are not. I have 11 2 week olds in the brooder now with orps,austy,cochins and sizzles so far they have been fine.Our white crested blacks lay every day as well.(goldens have quit since they lost Ozzie).

 

[NancyDz]

You betcha dupa we can talk polish....

Oops sorry I'm half Polish..

and I can't really talk about Polish chickens as I dont have any.. but I could resist putting one of the few polish words I know here.

I'm sure you guys can figure out what it means.


Nancy

 

[Foxhound lady]

I had 6 Polish and am now down to 5 (one was eaten by a snake).

2 of the six have had head tilt problems (one is completely better and the other was eaten by a snake).

They seem flighty compared to the layer hens (BA, Dorking, RSL, EE, BR) but not as flighty as the Brabanter. The WCBantum more so then the RCR

 

[spotsplus]

I hatch out eggs in the incubator- 6 polish, houdan, 1 cochin frizzle. All are hardy and getting along well. I have them in with an old english, standard pullet unkn breed and all are doing great. They all come over to me when I put my hand in or talk to them. They are a week old. I got buff, white, white creasted blue, silver laced and white creasted black.