Hudson Valley NY *chat thread*

[LSzajko]

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What a great idea! TOTALLY awesome and adorable charlie14!!! Love it!

 

[LSzajko]

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LOLOL @ "The meanest roosters make the best dinner guests"!!! I didn't think roosters became spontaneously aggressive. Mr. Blue always seemed pretty laid back. He's taking his job very seriously these days, I suppose. I'll keep an eye on him. I definitely DON'T want him pinning anybody up against the coop! Your poor DD :-( I wouldn't hesitate to re-home him although my DH might feel differently. He really likes Mr. Blue. He's a beautiful roo ~ I just can't allow him to mess with my (human) babies! I kind of feel bad for the Orpingtons. We got Mr. Blue and Black about a month after we bought our original 12 chickens (all day-old chicks). We actually thought we were getting 2 hens but he turned out to be a roo. The Girls were never nice to B&B so in July we got 4 Buff Orps and 2 EEs and renovated the old goat house and made them their own coop. Mr. Blue makes the rounds to both flocks when they're all out foraging so apparently he's not very picky.... Anyway....thanks so much JerseyHen! SO much to learn!

 

[JerseyHen]

Quote: It is a really hard decision to make, especially when they are particularly handsome. They hit a certain level of maturity and then those rooster hormones kick in along with the protectiveness. He is probably just doing his rooster thing and is letting everyone else know to leave his girls alone, so you feel bad punishing them for keeping the flock safe. Make sure the kids carry a stick when they are around him though. They can do some really significant damage. One of the brahmas jumped on a guest's lap (who was on the deck and thought he was just coming to say "hi"...). He left her with a few pretty bad wounds. The other (prior to the coop wall incident) actually knocked my daughter over from behind. He jumped right up to her shoulder blade level and kicked her with his feet. Insane. I thought she was going to kill him herself when she got up. Thankfully she wasn't badly hurt and he didn't have his spurs yet. So, I had to draw the line. All of those things happened over a week's time while I was trying to decide what to do. I hesitate to rehome, unless I know it is to a farm that won't be exposing an unsuspecting kid to their aggressiveness.

They say that sometimes when you rehome they mellow because they come in at the bottom of the pecking order. Also not my experience, as a rule. Most of the roosters I have brought in seem to almost always have something to prove as they try to get up that order and the ones from that brahma set that I re-homed ended up attacking guests at their house as well. Not trying to deter you, just sharing what my experience has been. I did recently bring a new rooster into the flock and he is very sweet so far and is getting along very well with the head rooster.

I still have one of the 3 brahma roosters from that original group. He is the most adorable, sweetest, and yet still protective, roosters I have ever had. In fact, he is my daughter's favorite bird and she often carries him around under her arm. He actually will go up to her and wait for her to pick him up. I can't figure it out. She trained him to jump in the air and take raisens out of her fingers. I think she could probably play dress up with him. How this bird can be so different from his brothers is beyond me. We hand reared all of them. He is now my head rooster.

I hope you get lucky and he snaps out of this phase and develops into a non-aggressive guy who takes care of his flock without incident. If not, we are all here to support you!

 

[Coupe]

Mr.Blue is a very nice looking Orpington roo!I remember the pics you posted of him awhile back! Hopefully he will calm down!
My 2nd in command SLW roo has been pushing my buttons lately. ..he's been walking up to me and making a low pitched growl sound...idk if he is being friendly, or seeing if he can get close enough to attack.
A good rooster in my book keeps his distance from humans..if I walk towards a roo, he should walk or run away from me.

 

[LSzajko]

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I know just the low-pitched growl your SLW is making. Mr. Blue does it to me but he never attacks so maybe it's a "hello-hooman-what-did-you-bring-me?" OR~ Maybe they're sick and tired of this frigid weather!

 

[LSzajko]

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Thanks JerseyHen....I'm going to keep a stick near the back door in case the kids need it. Now that I know he's a punk I'll make sure either myself or DH tends to the Orps from now on. We usually do the bulk of the care anyway. I was cooking dinner and my DD was on her way out so I asked her to drop off the treats. I'm willing to bet she'll never do it again! Sounds like you have a sweetheart of a rooster!

 

[Coupe]

Ugh iv been having one heck of a 2 days!
Went to get tires mounted on the car yesterday, and the BF was following me in the truck and the differential broke (in the truck)! Got it home and he worked on it all day out in the freezing cold. So we decided we needed a nice night out tonight. Went out to dinner, get home and the furnace wasnt on!! I sware when things start going good, everything desides to break!

 

[LSzajko]

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UGH!!! That's the way things go for us too. On the bright side:: he knows how to fix the truck and you don't have to pay a mechanic! Hope the furnace is fixed! Where'd ya go for dinner? (nosey, aren't I?)

 

[Coupe]

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UGH!!! That's the way things go for us too. On the bright side:: he knows how to fix the truck and you don't have to pay a mechanic! Hope the furnace is fixed! Where'd ya go for dinner? (nosey, aren't I?)

He knows how to fix everything! He did fix the furnace aswell, I guess somthing was wrong with the wiring to the burner. We just had the furnace put in last month but I guess the guy who did it didnt tightin down the caps on the wires. We didnt go anywhere fancy, just to the olive garden over in poughkeepsie

 

[charlie14]

I LOVE the olive garden! My DH is pretty handy like that too -it's awesome. I'm reading these articles Laura ingalls wilder wrote for agricultural magazines a century ago. It's fascinating. She not only was an inspiration to women but she knew her poultry. A real homesteader. I would definitely recomemd looking up a set of these articles.