Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Ridgerunner]

I don't know how he got the rose comb. His mother is a good quality sizzle with a walnut comb and his dad has a straight comb. 

For the comb, you have two basic genes, Pea and Rose. There are some modifiers so you can get the buttercup and the other weird stuff, but concentrate on the two basic ones, Pea and Rose. If a chicken has both the Pea and Rose, you get Walnut. A single comb means that chicken does not have either the Pea or the Rose genes.

So his father did not contribute either a Pea or a Rose because as a single comb bird, he did not have any to give. The mother had both a Pea and a Rose since she is walnut. But she obviously is split for the Pea gene because she did not give one to her son. She may be pure for the Rose or she may be split for the Rose. You don't know. But the mother gave him a Rose.

I don't know what the comb strandard is for a sizzle or a silkie for that matter. But that cockerel has pp,Rr for comb genetics. If you are breeding for show, you might want to consider that.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

So you just need this bird for breeding. What is your problem with "skittish" chickens? Is there a need for frequent handling of your flock as in show chickens and such?

I do show, however, skittish chickens drive me nuts. That's why I want them to be used to people. It really gets on my nerves when a chicken darts off like I'm about to kill it when I even go within 10 feet of them. It also makes it hard to catch them when the need arises. I always have to spray my chickens for lice and mites in the summer thanks to the wildlife.

It's just my preference: I want tame, docile chickens.

 

[fowlman01]

I don't know how he got the rose comb. His mother is a good quality sizzle with a walnut comb and his dad has a straight comb.

Frizzled silkies are a bit different than sizzles. Sizzles are the silkie version of frizzled cochins. They have frizzled feathers and are bred to the silkie standard. They can be shown. I have sizzles because the broodies are my incubators and I like the look of them better than silkies. I'm thinking he will just become quite a pain as well. He is already a pain. I'm torn though because he is my only straight male from this batch of chicks and he could possibly turn around and be a good little guy.

OK....he has a rosecomb and should have a single comb....that is enough by itself to be buried in the garden here. Add the aggressiveness that he showing already.......lets just say I would kill him twice to make sure.

You can show anything, but they are not in the ABA/APA Standards and will not be for a very long time, if ever. The name alone is enough to ensure that. He is smooth and should be frizzled add that to list and I would kill him three times. Seriously.....he has no good qualities.

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

I do show, however, skittish chickens drive me nuts. That's why I want them to be used to people. It really gets on my nerves when a chicken darts off like I'm about to kill it when I even go within 10 feet of them. It also makes it hard to catch them when the need arises. I always have to spray my chickens for lice and mites in the summer thanks to the wildlife.

It's just my preference: I want tame, docile chickens.

Therein lies the problem with your little rooster. He's so used to people that he doesn't have the necessary wariness of them, as any smart chicken should. People are predators, no matter how nice you are to your chickens or how much you pet them, we are larger, we are and should be considered dangerous to them. When chickens are bred for the characteristic of docility, sometimes it doesn't always work that way. A rooster is not usually a docile animal....many people report having friendly, docile roos and I know they are out there, but the norm for a male chicken is dominant, wary, and defensive when it comes to his flock and anything larger than he is coming in contact with them.

What you have is a young rooster that has absolutely no healthy fear of humans and he should. All roosters should to some degree...this is what keeps them from flogging our heads off when we bend over to fill feeders and waterers, pick up a hen, do anything at all in the vicinity of these birds. These birds have the natural inclination to breed and defend....breeding that out of them doesn't always work and I wouldn't give two shakes for the virility of a rooster that is so docile that he doesn't have some defensive or wary attitude in regards to his flock.

It's really up to you on this one....do you want a rooster that is going to be that dangerous to you or do you want to have a rooster that isn't skittish in your presence? Having both a docile but safe roo is pretty rare...they are out there but 9 out of 10 roos will not be big, lovable, cuddle bugs that will never flog you when your defenses are down and can be picked up anytime you wish.

The best you can hope for, consistently, is a rooster that doesn't flog you or any other human because they have either natural born wariness or respect for the predator in a human or that you have trained to have a respect for you and other humans.

In my barnyard chickens, especially roos, are taught the echelon or hierarchy of animals~human, dogs, chickens. Humans feed and care for them and the dogs guard them from predators and the rooster needs to learn his place in that order or suffer the consequences. He has two large preds walking around in his space and they could end his life in a matter of seconds if he forgets that place...a smart roo doesn't take long to learn this fact.

You often can't have your cake and eat it all up too....this is where you will have to decide if you want a pet that attacks you or a rooster that is wary of you and walks a wide berth around you when you care for your flock. If you want the latter, you need to school this young roo real quick. If you don't wish to do so, you can get rid of him but I imagine you will have the same problem pop up again in your attempts to hand feed and coddle a male chicken. With roosters, that level of familiarity often breeds contempt.

ETA: You might want to switch your efforts for hands on care of the chickens to night time where you can simply and quietly lift them off the roost, treat them and replace them to their original place. That eliminates all the need for handling, petting, taming to try and make chickens docile enough for infrequent handling needs.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

OK....he has a rosecomb and should have a single comb....that is enough by itself to be buried in the garden here. Add the aggressiveness that he showing already.......lets just say I would kill him twice to make sure.

You can show anything, but they are not in the ABA/APA Standards and will not be for a very long time, if ever. The name alone is enough to ensure that. He is smooth and should be frizzled add that to list and I would kill him three times. Seriously.....he has no good qualities.

Walt

You are right about the first 2. However, the 3rd reason you would kill him is the reason I want to keep him. You have to have straights to breed to the ones with frizzled feathers. My hens have the frizzled feathers. But still, that leaves 2 reasons to kill him. Over the next few days I will try a new method with him to try to handle his aggressiveness, the boot, and if he's still mean after that, he's a dead roo.

 

[NYREDS]

Well, I was going to breed him back to his mom who is a good quality sizzle. Since he already has some of her good genes that are "hiding" I think their offspring would be pretty good. However, he attacked his mom repeatedly today.

His job would be to keep his hens fertile and to serve them. I expect my roosters to treat their hens well, keep them fertile but not over-mate, keep a lookout for danger and protect them, and to allow me to get my business done without being flogged. I have handled this rooster well and have done my best to make him nice. I will not keep a skittish chicken so I make sure all my chicks are used to people. I hand feed them and pick them up to get them used to being handled. His father has had one aggressive spell that did not last for more than 1 week and a half. His mother can be a bit sassy but is not what I would call aggressive. I do not understand what is up with this rooster. None of his chick buddies are like him. It's like he came out of the egg lacking the fear of God.

Just out of curiosity, how does one determine that a bird is a "good quality Sizzle" since it is not an established breed & there is no agreed upon standard?

 

[bobbi-j]

Let's change the subject for a minute. I just bought eggs yesterday to fill an order from a man that has 600 layers and says he changes his entire flock annually.

He slaughters and eats the one year olds. I commented, that is an awful lot of chicken that you can't fry. See, my limited experience is, I cleaned an old bird, probably 3 years old. I put it in boiling water 10 minutes after plucking it, made my noodles, and it tasted like rubber.

After relaying the story, he told me that he rests his birds in a walk in cooler for 4-5 days and they are tender.

Was it rigor that made it tough, age or both? Is there a difference in toughness between a 1 year old and a 3 year old?

Can I freeze a bird before resting it? Will the resulting thawed bird be tough if it wasn't rested?

Anyone use a pressure cooker?

I have just been canning my young roosters and old hens and would love it if I could rest them and turn them into fryers, which somehow doesn't seem logical.... but... I am new to that arena.

As far as the pages and pages of fallout, Bee, I love ya and your responses.

DragonLady, I love ya and your responses.

Look forward to both of your advise in the future. Even many years experienced people in all walks of life sometimes differ. From my understanding, Bee would never have bought birds at auction, or those birds at that auction.

Dragonlady may never have either, but gave what I thought was sage advise for that particular situation, being wormed for eating a lot and not gaining a lot.... wish that would work for me, not that I want worms, and whatever other advise she gave.

When asked about her experience, she wrote the resume, which I thought was hilarious being on the side but sure would have gotten me going if I were involved.

Ooops! Doing what I always do which is talking too much....

Help me with my chicken as food questions please.

Love you all,

Shawn

I'm a bit late in chiming in on the cooking of old chickens topic, but wanted to chime in. I pressure-can all of my old hens. We love the canned meat! I would think that just pressure-cooking them would give you the same results as far as tenderness. We're hoping to have FRESH grilled chicken sometime this week my brahma/laying flock cross chicks are about 16 weeks old. I want to see if I can grow them a bit more for more meat, but DH says they'll just get tougher and wants some fryers. Anyone have good grilling advice or recipes? We usually skin the birds we're canning, but I think we'll leave it on for grilling.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Therein lies the problem with your little rooster. He's so used to people that he doesn't have the necessary wariness of them, as any smart chicken should. People are predators, no matter how nice you are to your chickens or how much you pet them, we are larger, we are and should be considered dangerous to them. When chickens are bred for the characteristic of docility, sometimes it doesn't always work that way. A rooster is not usually a docile animal....many people report having friendly, docile roos and I know they are out there, but the norm for a male chicken is dominant, wary, and defensive when it comes to his flock and anything larger than he is coming in contact with them.

What you have is a young rooster that has absolutely no healthy fear of humans and he should. All roosters should to some degree...this is what keeps them from flogging our heads off when we bend over to fill feeders and waterers, pick up a hen, do anything at all in the vicinity of these birds. These birds have the natural inclination to breed and defend....breeding that out of them doesn't always work and I wouldn't give two shakes for the virility of a rooster that is so docile that he doesn't have some defensive or wary attitude in regards to his flock.

It's really up to you on this one....do you want a rooster that is going to be that dangerous to you or do you want to have a rooster that isn't skittish in your presence? Having both a docile but safe roo is pretty rare...they are out there but 9 out of 10 roos will not be big, lovable, cuddle bugs that will never flog you when your defenses are down and can be picked up anytime you wish.

The best you can hope for, consistently, is a rooster that doesn't flog you or any other human because they have either natural born wariness or respect for the predator in a human or that you have trained to have a respect for you and other humans.

In my barnyard chickens, especially roos, are taught the echelon or hierarchy of animals~human, dogs, chickens. Humans feed and care for them and the dogs guard them from predators and the rooster needs to learn his place in that order or suffer the consequences. He has two large preds walking around in his space and they could end his life in a matter of seconds if he forgets that place...a smart roo doesn't take long to learn this fact.

You often can't have your cake and eat it all up too....this is where you will have to decide if you want a pet that attacks you or a rooster that is wary of you and walks a wide berth around you when you care for your flock. If you want the latter, you need to school this young roo real quick. If you don't wish to do so, you can get rid of him but I imagine you will have the same problem pop up again in your attempts to hand feed and coddle a male chicken. With roosters, that level of familiarity often breeds contempt.

ETA: You might want to switch your efforts for hands on care of the chickens to night time where you can simply and quietly lift them off the roost, treat them and replace them to their original place. That eliminates all the need for handling, petting, taming to try and make chickens docile enough for infrequent handling needs.

Very good points. I would definitely rather have a skittish roo than one like this little cockerel. He does have a natural fearlessness about him, though, that I've not ever seen in a chicken before. He might have been doomed from the start. It's not too late for the other 2 young roosters and I won't make the mistake of getting them overly people friendly. Doing my duties at night is a great idea. I've not thought of it before, but it would probably be a lot easier to spray them that way. I admit, I used to be one of those fu fu people who had chickens as pets and gave them treats every day that couldn't imagine culling them. I figured out right quick that chickens don't make good pets. They do make good hobbies, though.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Just out of curiosity, how does one determine that a bird is a "good quality Sizzle" since it is not an established breed & there is no agreed upon standard?

A good quality sizzle will meet the silkie standard in every way except for the feathers, which are different.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

For the comb, you have two basic genes, Pea and Rose. There are some modifiers so you can get the buttercup and the other weird stuff, but concentrate on the two basic ones, Pea and Rose. If a chicken has both the Pea and Rose, you get Walnut. A single comb means that chicken does not have either the Pea or the Rose genes.
So his father did not contribute either a Pea or a Rose because as a single comb bird, he did not have any to give. The mother had both a Pea and a Rose since she is walnut. But she obviously is split for the Pea gene because she did not give one to her son. She may be pure for the Rose or she may be split for the Rose. You don't know. But the mother gave him a Rose.
I don't know what the comb strandard is for a sizzle or a silkie for that matter. But that cockerel has pp,Rr for comb genetics. If you are breeding for show, you might want to consider that.

Thanks for the comb info! I did not know that. It's definitely something to keep in mind.