Little Tala Bug
Songster
Hi all,
Longtime lurker, first time poster here. I've had chickens for about a year and half now and have come to this forum so many times for advice so I thought I'd bite the bullet and join up.
At the moment I have nine hens and two roosters, all of whom have been rescued or rehomed. The older rooster, William Richard Johnson II, came from a rare Shetland rooster crossed with an unknown hen. His son, Johnny Cashew, came from one of our three ex battery hens, Peanut, Hazel, and Coco. There are four Wellsummer x Araucana hens, Samantha, Bridget, Carmen, and Henrietta, who came from a friend's mom and lay gorgeous blue and green eggs. Last but not least we have two miscellaneous hens, Keithabella and Sharon, who are very large and were part of our original batch. They were rehomed from an urban backyard where their human was getting too old to look after them properly.
They all coop together at night in a big converted dog kennel, and get just under an acre of land to roam during the day. Their favourite spot is under a stand of coniferous trees where they make holes for dust bathing, hop up on low branches to perch, shelter from the wind, and generally just do their chicken thing. They also love to drink from our pond and forage for bugs in the tall meadow grasses in the yard which we have mostly left to re-wild. When the berry bushes are ripe they eat their fill before we can get any for ourselves, but that's ok. They share the yard with my two small rescue dogs who get along well with them and protect them from foxes.
For the most part we have had very little issue with introducing each new batch of chickens. Establishing the pecking order has been relatively gentle and squabbles have resolved quickly. With plenty of space to roam each day and a larger than necessary coop, they can maintain distance if they need to.
Recently, however, Johnny Cashew has started to become aggressive to his father, William Richard Johnson II. The previously got along very well and tended the flock together with no problems, but this morning I was woken up by sounds of distress from William, whom I discovered battered and bloody on my front stoop. Since then, Johnny has chased William whenever they get close to each other, and I've had to run him off several times already this morning. I hope it is just excitement from mating season and we can go back to a harmonious dynamic soon, because they are both very good boys and popular with our ladies. It is sad to see William waddling about on his own, away from the rest of the flock. He is a beautiful and rare boy, and his son is an absolute specimen, so it would be nice to see him have more babies in the future.
Anyway that's all I can think to say by way of introduction. Thank you all for helping me on this weird and wonderful journey with our feathered dinosaur friends!
Longtime lurker, first time poster here. I've had chickens for about a year and half now and have come to this forum so many times for advice so I thought I'd bite the bullet and join up.
At the moment I have nine hens and two roosters, all of whom have been rescued or rehomed. The older rooster, William Richard Johnson II, came from a rare Shetland rooster crossed with an unknown hen. His son, Johnny Cashew, came from one of our three ex battery hens, Peanut, Hazel, and Coco. There are four Wellsummer x Araucana hens, Samantha, Bridget, Carmen, and Henrietta, who came from a friend's mom and lay gorgeous blue and green eggs. Last but not least we have two miscellaneous hens, Keithabella and Sharon, who are very large and were part of our original batch. They were rehomed from an urban backyard where their human was getting too old to look after them properly.
They all coop together at night in a big converted dog kennel, and get just under an acre of land to roam during the day. Their favourite spot is under a stand of coniferous trees where they make holes for dust bathing, hop up on low branches to perch, shelter from the wind, and generally just do their chicken thing. They also love to drink from our pond and forage for bugs in the tall meadow grasses in the yard which we have mostly left to re-wild. When the berry bushes are ripe they eat their fill before we can get any for ourselves, but that's ok. They share the yard with my two small rescue dogs who get along well with them and protect them from foxes.
For the most part we have had very little issue with introducing each new batch of chickens. Establishing the pecking order has been relatively gentle and squabbles have resolved quickly. With plenty of space to roam each day and a larger than necessary coop, they can maintain distance if they need to.
Recently, however, Johnny Cashew has started to become aggressive to his father, William Richard Johnson II. The previously got along very well and tended the flock together with no problems, but this morning I was woken up by sounds of distress from William, whom I discovered battered and bloody on my front stoop. Since then, Johnny has chased William whenever they get close to each other, and I've had to run him off several times already this morning. I hope it is just excitement from mating season and we can go back to a harmonious dynamic soon, because they are both very good boys and popular with our ladies. It is sad to see William waddling about on his own, away from the rest of the flock. He is a beautiful and rare boy, and his son is an absolute specimen, so it would be nice to see him have more babies in the future.
Anyway that's all I can think to say by way of introduction. Thank you all for helping me on this weird and wonderful journey with our feathered dinosaur friends!
Glad you joined.
