Cream Legbars

[ChicKat]

we are getting ready to move so I have no where to put him. he either needs to get along or he is getting the ax and he is a beautiful bird. The next few months are going to be bad. I am going to have 3 roos and 7 hens (3 breeds) all cooped up together. I just sold 5 Delawares and have 5 more young roos to give away and a 15 week old pair of Barnevelders to sell- by the end of the month. Which will leave me the 10 birds who have to get along or else

any way that you could send them somewhere with some friend or relative who may have capacity for them -- like summer camp -- and then once you have settled in your nrew place bring them over? One summer I did send my entire flock (small in those days) to stay with a friend. It really helped me a lot. Hoping you find some slick way to solve it while you are dealing with the hassels of moving at the same time.

in general growing out males and females together tends to create these kinds of issues. The males hormones kick in much sooner usually than the girls and they seem to not understand the concept of robbing the cradle.

I try to separate male and females after about 8 weeks. Cuts down a bit also on sparring between the boys as there is nothing to compete over. I have a couple of Pita Pinta boys that I have allowed to free range my back yard and they are starting to show interest in the 10 week old feed store pullets now that they are 16-17 weeks old.
The pullets that are their same age have started avoiding them I currently dont have the space to separate them but Im noticing that I am going to have to do so soon.

too many males -- always a problem.....

 

[rottlady]

nope they either have to get along in the one coop or they have to go permanently

The 3 age groups have never seen each other so it is going to be stressful

The youngest 3 birds will have to stay in a small pen in the house til they get bigger

 

[rottlady]

This is my 4 month old boy. Not the best pictures as I am scaring him with a dustpan to try to keep him from bolting

 

[Sylvester017]

my 15 week old Legbar and barnevelder boys have been breeding the pullets for 2 weeks now. No one is laying yet. I had no idea the pullets would allow breeding before they were ready to start laying

I think young roosters should take lessons from wild turkeys. The boy turkeys stand around looking lovely and wait for the hen to prostrate herself on the ground in front of them, bump them a couple times to make sure the girls are sure before mounting

These stupid young roos grab the girls by the back of the head and drag them around screaming no before pinning them down

The rough mating habits of the roos is the very reason my sis hates chickens! I told her you don't have to have a roo to have eggs and one of the hens will take the alpha role in the flock without needing a roo. At least that's how my flock of hens has done it over the years. However, I had to agree with my sis - some chickens can be brutal to each other - I've had to re-home 4 bully hens over the years.

I watched a video of 10 Mallard drakes biting and dragging one haggard duck all trying to mate the poor thing! Your turkeys have the right civilized idea!

 

[mellcrowl]

Arthur has not been too bad. He dances a little bit beside her before grabbing her and she doesn't really fuss too much. He's quite protective of his girls. They so much as raise their voices and he throws a fit. He's not aggressive towards me without when I feed and hang out with them, but he definitely goes on the defensive if I pick one of them up.
I found it interesting though that he has not tried breeding the alpha hen that I have seen. She is by far his favorite. He'll leave the crested hen to follow the other around like a puppy dog. Only really showing interest in the other hen if she's in trouble or to mate.
Chickens are just funny birds.

 

[mellcrowl]

We are now 17 weeks old. Though these pics were taken at 15-16 weeks of age. I can't believe how much they've grown and matured. Just introduced some 5wk old pullets to them last week and they are all getting on very well. I would normally have waited until the chicks were 8wks old to integrate them but due to outside factors they had to be introduced a bit earlier then I'd have liked. They all seem to get on very well though which is a huge relief!

 

[Bantambird]

Here is crazy crest chick, now at 4 months old. It's huge for a cockerel! And his comb remains surprisingly straight! Too bad his earlobes are terrible so far. Still, since I brought in outside cockerels for next year, we may or may not keep any cockerels I bred this spring.

 

[chicken pickin]

Here is crazy crest chick, now at 4 months old. It's huge for a cockerel! And his comb remains surprisingly straight! Too bad his earlobes are terrible so far. Still, since I brought in outside cockerels for next year, we may or may not keep any cockerels I bred this spring.

I like his crest, its good, i dont think its crazy. His comb is staight toward the back with no curve which is good but be aware that he has far too much comb causing it to get all the folds in the front. His comb looks thin also if that makes sense. Not to mention the points on the comb are not evenly serrated. As you mentioned the earlobes are not good.

But of course comb and earlobes are not as important as working on body type.

How many males do you have to pick from, is the cockerel in the running?

 

[Bantambird]

this is Eli, my top pick this season, and his brothers, from Ralphie. Eli is the guy on the bottom. My daughter named him Eli after a classmate who teased her, but he is actually pretty friendly.

 

[Bantambird]