For those of you with multiple species of birds, do you have a favorite bird?

[bobsmith2002]

For those of you with multiple species of birds, do you have a favorite bird? And is it okay to have a favorite bird over the other birds in your possession? Or is that a bad thing to do? How do you deal with this?

 

[SnackMeat]

There are some birds who seem to gravitate towards my SO more than me or other birds, some birds that gravitate towards me than my SO or other birds, and some birds who just like some birds and not the humans or other birds.

So long as their base needs+ enrichment are met, I'm not exactly seeing the conflict of having favorites. Any bird who wants treats gets them so it's not a case of favoritism.

We do have one bird who is our favorite, Calmburg, a gold spangled Hamburg, and because she is trustworthy, we let her roost separately in a workshop where she prefers to be away from the hustle and bustle of everyone else. Her brother, Cheese, is a little bit more of a derp, but when he is more consistent he will be allowed to roost in the workshop as well. As it is, he falls asleep on a power tool early, and then gets moved.

That's the only real favoritism but it's more that Calmburg has earned it by being consistently a good bird who we never have to worry about running off and hiding.

We have some other favorites, but they're more like escorts-- they expect their payment (mealworms) up front. And when we are out, so is most, if not all, pretence of affection. Similarly, our favorites for those types tend to be either the prettiest ones, or the ones with the most personality.


And then the nameless-- not as pretty, not as much overt personality, and a mismatched team united only in their love of dining and dashing. Most of these have gone unnamed unless there was something about raising them that stuck out.

I'd have to count but I want to say we have 12+ pure bred chicken types (with another 4 types in the incubator), two different barnyard mixes that are either half Wyandotte, or the second group had rooster dads that were either Easter eggers, Brahmas, or French Black Copper Marans.

Also three different types of ducks.

The upside to raising chickens for meat is that it really allows for lots of different types. The favorites stay, and the non-favorites either make it to weight for food, or get traded for birds who are ready to be Camp Freezer'd.

And sometimes our favorites, like Pot, who is pictured stealing some of my unattended Monster drink, will likely have to wind up Camp Freezer'd too because we can't have them when they start consistently crowing or being a sex-pest.