Consolidated Kansas

[chickmama1662]

"Sad, but true. It would be so much more fun if they would just behave themselves. It's such a relief when one of the naughty "teen" roos actually adjusts his aggresive behavior and becomes a really good roo that is protective of the flock and a joy to watch at work. That's the miracle of the whole thing. Just when you think a young roo is hopelessly ornery and aggressive and then suddenly something happens and he turns out to be fabulous. "

Hi, is there any guidelines on when the "changeover" from naughty to nice would occur if it is going to? I have an Andulasian Roo who is about 14 months that I have to keep my eye on constantly and carry a big stick to make sure he doesn't attack me. He's not as bad with my DH but has also attacked him a time or two. I'm about to give up on him and send him to freezer camp but he is so pretty I hate to do that if there is still a chance he will switch over. He also seems more agressive with the hens than he needs to be but this is our first rooster. Thanks.

 

[Hawkeye95]

I have some numbered bands. If you are going to ship you will need them. Most people just put cable ties on and only number band the ones that have positive tests. I plan to number band my own just so I can keep records. I know the national site requires all birds be number banded but Kansas doesn't for the flock. However if you ship they should be number banded. Does that make sense?
I ordered bands from cutler supply. I would suggest getting bands that don't require tools to put on. They are a pain anyway but why add to the hassle and expense.
When you record for a flock you list the breeds, number of males and number of females, and the total number of birds tested. The band numbers are used for the 4-H thing on the exhibition sheet I believe. You would know more about that than I do.
Rob, the coop is looking great!
Michelleml, Welcome to our little group. Jump in anytime.
Hechicken I have a big scoop. I feed each dog a scoop and there is always some left. Try a couple cups full of food. I'm not sure about her,but my girls weigh around 85 pounds and Fluff weighs about 130. I am sure Cloud will get much larger as she grows though. Marshmallow has always been small for a GP.

I'm going to band my entire silkie flock. The way I have things set up, I am keeping records on every single bird. I know that sounds insane... but I'm documenting which ones have vaulted crests, # of toes, tight/loose wings, etc... I'm following a plan that many of the ASBC members have set up. I'm a wanna be!! LOL!! I wanna be like them! So yeah, anyway, I need to get some bands. The 4-H forms are per bird, and each bird must be banded. But I wasn't sure how a NPIP "flock" worked vs the exhibition forms. SO tell me, when I become NPIP... then will I still need to retest birds for exhibition so they have their own certificates even though I would have one for the flock they are coming out of? So much to learn about this!

"Sad, but true. It would be so much more fun if they would just behave themselves. It's such a relief when one of the naughty "teen" roos actually adjusts his aggresive behavior and becomes a really good roo that is protective of the flock and a joy to watch at work. That's the miracle of the whole thing. Just when you think a young roo is hopelessly ornery and aggressive and then suddenly something happens and he turns out to be fabulous. "

Hi, is there any guidelines on when the "changeover" from naughty to nice would occur if it is going to? I have an Andulasian Roo who is about 14 months that I have to keep my eye on constantly and carry a big stick to make sure he doesn't attack me. He's not as bad with my DH but has also attacked him a time or two. I'm about to give up on him and send him to freezer camp but he is so pretty I hate to do that if there is still a chance he will switch over. He also seems more agressive with the hens than he needs to be but this is our first rooster. Thanks.

I don't know about roosters getting nicer. Growing up, I was around a LOT of roosters, and they were generally sweet things until the hormones kicked in. THEN, they got more protective of their flock. Some were naturally okay and didn't go after people. I think it's just their individual personality. Then there were "others" and they NEVER got nice. Ever. In fact, they just got meaner and meaner until we couldn't stand it anymore and were forced to butcher them. It was that or walk around with a broom all the time. Oh yeah-- a broom works better than a stick. (you can sweep them away instead of risk injuring them) When I was a kid my mom kept a broom by the back door specifically for the mean roosters! LOL We we got sick of that, we just ate them, but it started all over again in the spring when we had new hatches. We had plenty of nice roosters, so there is just no need to have a mean one.



OKay, so we've got our yeast bread rising. My oldest manged to do the whole thing himself this morning with no help. (I supervised) Hoping we get a good bread since it goes to the Fair tomorrow!

Then we have swim lessons and then we'll need to start washing chickens this afternoon. Sigh.

 

[HEChicken]

ChickMama, I am no expert on roos because for most of my poultry keeping years I've lived where we couldn't have them. I've only just moved to the country and have roos for the first time. But I would think 14 months is way past the time he will change. The adolescent period is usually around the 4-5 month mark, when the hormones start to kick in. I would expect by 7-9 months or so they should be settling down.

Personally I wouldn't want to keep a roo around who was aggressive to people because I want to be able to enjoy going to visit my flock - not have to watch my back the whole time. I had one ornery little guy who was the barnyard jerk to the other chickens but never to me. And I had one Silkie roo who was great to his flock but pecked me hard a couple of times. I realized it was because his crest was so overgrown he couldn't see well and pecked me as a defensive measure to a sudden unexpected movement. I learned to talk to him whenever I was around him so he knew I was there and he never pecked again after that. So there are different forms of "ornery-ness" but if I had a 14-month-old who consistently attacked, I probably wouldn't be that interested in keeping him around.

I will be interested to hear what others have to say on the subject though, since many of the others here have been keeping roosters a lot longer than I have.

 

[lizzyGSR]

oooooh, okay! I was thinking your DH has trained him and he was worried about you un-training him! We have a friend who is a serious hunter and he has a black lab who he has taught to retrieve when the birds drop. He has worked on getting him a lighter mouth. He's shown us that he plays games with his dog-- he throws a toy, the dog gets it and brings it back and he told us you never take it from his mouth, because that could encourage him to clamp down on the bird, so the command was to "drop it". SO interesting. I'm not a fan of big dogs, though. I love my tiny little indoor doggies, but I certainly appreciate what the larger dogs are used for. Our neighbor has a black lab and she is a pest sometimes. She doesn't want to eat my birds (thank goodness) but she will come over and be in the way for sure. She did pull some tail feathers off my turkey when my turkey was getting in her face a while back.

When we got our lab, we lived just outside the city limits of Cheyenne, WY. We lived on one of what the locals call a "ranchette", which is a house with 5-10 acres and is very prevalent outside of town. We had quite a few close neighbors and so had to keep him fenced. Thanks to timing of moves and a vet-prescribed lay-up (for hip displasia), we weren't really able to take him hunting much 'till he was 1 1/2 years old, which caused problems with teaching him to hunt. He is now 2 years old and has only been out on an official hunting trip a couple of times, though he does regularly patrol the yard and chases things off when they get close. He has been hunting a couple times on his own, as evidenced by the two dead quail we found in the yard...

We taught him the "drop" command as well, but we did so more because we knew he'd be a big dog (he's somewhere around 100 pounds, and he only weighs about 10-15 pounds less than I do) than anything else.

Turkey vs. a dog... I've never tangled with a turkey before, but that seems to be a rather unfair fight. Was your turkey okay other than a few lost feathers?

 

[cherwill]

I hope I'm in the right place we just moved to Kansas a little over a month ago and so far we are loving it. I'm not crazy about all the bugs but i guess with time we will get over it. I'm from TX and a city girl so living out in the country is a big change for us. We currently have 4 buff orpington and kids love having them


Michelle

Welcome, Michelle! Jump on in and feel free to post pictures. We love pictures.

That was amazing. I caught up on the thread and then went to write a post of my own, submitted it and then thought I'd better check someone didn't submit one in the meantime and there were about 8 new posts!

That's happened to me several times! Sometimes we're very active on this thread, aren't we?

ChickMama, I am no expert on roos because for most of my poultry keeping years I've lived where we couldn't have them. I've only just moved to the country and have roos for the first time. But I would think 14 months is way past the time he will change. The adolescent period is usually around the 4-5 month mark, when the hormones start to kick in. I would expect by 7-9 months or so they should be settling down.

Personally I wouldn't want to keep a roo around who was aggressive to people because I want to be able to enjoy going to visit my flock - not have to watch my back the whole time. I had one ornery little guy who was the barnyard jerk to the other chickens but never to me. And I had one Silkie roo who was great to his flock but pecked me hard a couple of times. I realized it was because his crest was so overgrown he couldn't see well and pecked me as a defensive measure to a sudden unexpected movement. I learned to talk to him whenever I was around him so he knew I was there and he never pecked again after that. So there are different forms of "ornery-ness" but if I had a 14-month-old who consistently attacked, I probably wouldn't be that interested in keeping him around.

I will be interested to hear what others have to say on the subject though, since many of the others here have been keeping roosters a lot longer than I have.

I have very little experience with roos, but so far, the friendliest chick we ever had turned out to be a vicious attack roo. He was maybe 5-9 months old at the time? Clearly I don't really remember! We found him another home because a) my niece used to love going into the chicken yard to sit and play with chickens and b) I didn't want to have to treat him the way I was told you have to treat a mean roo. My more standoffish roo was very nice. He took good care of his flock and was never aggressive towards people. Sadly, we had to get rid of him because McPherson outlawed roos. The only other roos we've had were still chicks when we got rid of them.

 

[JosieChick]

Michelle- Welcome and just jump in, it is an ongoing fast conversation you just have to butt into!!!! Alrighty, 19 POSTS since late last night!!!!

Lizzy-That is hard. I feel for you. It is really tough to have a dog with so much prey drive and that has hunted and killed. I personally wouldn't ever trust him unsupervised with my birds but that is probably because I thought our retriever was trained enough to leave them alone until he killed 12 of them. They just get crazy and can't stop.

The real problem is that he was never really trained how to hunt or when NOT to hunt. He LOVES hunting and thinks he should be hunting 24/7. That wasn't an issue until I got my birds. It became one when I started trying to teach him not to hunt/chase MY birds but that hunting in general is okay. He has been doing REALLY well and stays away from my birds, so I guess it wasn't as much of an issue as I thought. He chased a barn cat out of the yard yesterday, so I think he's gotten the idea.

Thank you all for the advice re LGD's. Tory didn't bark once last night which surprised me. I certainly do like the aspect of people guardian as well. I already have one who barks at anyone who comes in the driveway. She even gets her hackles up but wouldn't actually bite. Our regular mail lady and our UPS guy don't seem concerned by her and just hop out and deliver their packages. But the regular lady must be on vacation and all of last week an older guy did the run. He was really nervous of her. I met him out there one day and told him the dog won't bite but he said when he saw the hackles raised, he wasn't so sure. I can't blame him - I'm sure it is a hazard of the job. Yesterday a package arrived while Tory's owner was here getting her settled in and both my dog and Tory barked at him. They weren't even close to him (Tory was on her leash under a tree far from his truck) but I could tell he didn't want to get out of the truck so took pity on him and walked over to get the package from him.

Next question: I know some of you have said that for a large dog they don't eat as much as you'd expect. But just how much is that? My dogs are about 40lb apiece and get a level cup morning and night (I.e. to the top of a 1-cup measuring cup, not to the 1-cup mark). I've doubled that for Tory and she is licking the bowl clean. Should I feed a little more even, since she may still have a little growing to do?

HEchicken- They sleep like they are dead. Sometimes I panic thinking Molly has kicked over but she just sleeps like a log. But I have also seen her go from a dead sleep to running across the yard at full tilt to a tree branch snap off in the woods! They hear what they need to and apparently their brain overrides what they don't!

I feed Lucie the pup about 3 cups of food twice a day and Molly gets probably 2 1/2 to 3 twice a day depending on her appetite. They also both get 1/2 can of yummy gravy dog food because they lick their bowls clean for it and I was having major issues with them not eating and then other critters eating dog food, like geese! I know, they are spoiled but Molly loves the canned food. The puppy thinks she has to sit for the canned food to be added to her bowl...it is kinda funny. She must have sat one day and thought that sitting is what gets me to add the canned food so now she sits and waits for her canned food!

I am surprised she didn't bark? Maybe she has been scolded for barking at night and doesn't know its ok? Also, she may be kinda shy and unsure of herself right now and once she settles in she will bark. I would think being tied up would make her a little anxious about barking too. Once she is able to move out I bet she will bark more at things because she can get closer and maneuver around better. She is still young too, Lucie just started barking on her own and she has had Molly to set an example for her all along.
KarenS-

Hope you and your gang are having fun this summer and staying kinda cool!

Hawkeye- I like the idea of the plastic shields! I am paranoid about illness. Can you tell?

I just can't stand the idea of taking a birds somewhere and exposing it to something then bringing it back and infecting the rest of my flock. I may have to come up with some kind of quarantine area for shown birds to go through before they go back with the flock. I have too much $$$$ tied up in these birds to risk one getting sick and making everyone else ill.

Danz- When do you kick ducklings outside? I am so tired of sloppy wet brooders everyday! Someone needs to make a spill proof duckling waterer!!

I must work on my multi quote thing. I am still not very good at it! I have so much to do today. Our horses need their feet done and I am finally getting pens and birds moved around now that we have a break from the terrible heat!

 

[chickmama1662]

Thanks everyone for the replies about the roos. It looks like we are way past the time when he should start getting nice again. We'll have to decide what to do! Always having to watch my back really cuts down on the enjoyment I get from having chickens.

 

[michelleml]

thanks for the warm welcome. Before kansas the Army had us in El Paso tx for three years we've moved only a few times 10 yrs in central tx and then 3 yrs in germany but due to illness it looks like my husband will be getting out of the amry and so we found a wonderful 99 year old farmhouse and plan on setteling our family in kansas on 12 acres. We currently have 3 dogs , 4 bo and 1 yearling paint.

michelle

 

[Trish44]

Michelle, glad to have you here, like the others said feel free to jump in any time!

I'm not even going to try to respond to everything, there has been so many posts since last night, wow.

chickmama, I have a RIR rooster that has at times thought he was the boss over everything & everyone including me. I gave him more chances because he has been a great protector of my flock of hens. But that said I have had to show him who is boss here & I think he finally got it because he has not shown any aggression to me for quite awhile. I started turning around & facing him off, they don't like it if you turn on them & chase them, turn the tables on them. I also have booted his rear end at times when he has gotten out of line, not to the point of hurting him, just enough for him to get the idea. He is over a year old now & behaves himself pretty well. He also knows who gives him treats every evening. You miight try the above methods & see if it makes any difference with your roo, if not then like the others said I would send him to freezer camp.

Hawkeye, the Swedish Flowers can either be crested or non-crested. I didn't know I was going to have any with a crest until suddenly this one started to develop one. They evidently don't hatch with them, they're something that develop as they start feathering out & getting their color. It's been really interesting with these four that I have watching them develop so far, they're still pretty little, but as they grow they are getting more & more colorful, it's really interesting to see. I can't wait to see what else I hatch out because all four that I have now are all different. I can't tell sexes yet either. KarenS, we will have to compare birds later on. I'm just so excited to be able to have them & can't wait to raise some next year as well as the Cream Legbars. I know nobody else around this area has either breed.

Oh & my biggest egg customer came today & cleaned out my refrigerator of eggs, yay! They had been on vacation & when they got back she saw my desperate email & then she was going to come the day I went to Karen's. They actually live in Atlanta, but work in Winfield so they usually come after work but today were leaving early to go to Wichita. She buys a lot of eggs at one time & resells some to people she works with & maybe some to people in Atlanta too. Now my DH will quit griping that we don't have room for anything but eggs in the fridge! I have been surprised that my hens have kept laying pretty well through this darned horrible heat, I wouldn't have blamed them if they stopped. I'm not getting quite as many as in the cool months, but not bad either.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Funny story for you! Today is day #3 that I've allowed my birds (2 drakes, 4 ducks, a duckling, and a gosling) to free-range. It is a little cooler today, so we're watering the lawn a little later in the day than usual. My husband went out and moved the sprinkler to right beside the tree that my birds have been hanging out near. I looked out a couple of minutes ago to find my birds not only playing in the water from the sprinkler

but also trying to catch some in their mouths to drink!

I've seen our dog do this (the water bowl just isn't good enough

), but I've never seen any of my birds do it. Silly, silly birds!