Those who have bantams, how do you like them? are they quite docile/friendly? broody? Trying to decide between them and regular size chickens. Looking for free roaming, and have one rooster and a few hens.
Fishcube I have bantam frizzled cochins and mille fleur d'uccles. They are very friendly and the frizzled cochins are exceptionally broody. How far are you from Des Moines?
Eric - we sent the pretty, pretty princess serama to the coop this morning. She parked herself in a corner and wouldn't come out. When I went out there a bit ago she jumped onto my hand. I brought her in but she is still pouting. The chick formerly known as "Bear" is gonna have a rough transition to coop life.
We also stuck a bunch of 7 week old chicks out there and they are fine.
So the "formerly known as", is doing a fine job of pouting huh? Her Mother is broody yet again. Again she screams like I walk in on her while she is taking a shower. She never pecks or pinches, just screams. She had been sitting on 2 eggs that never hatched and I had been dreading a break and the other girls just walk in and lay next to her, not even thinking of using the other box, so this am, I swithched them out with three that are due the 20th, one is another Itty Bitty. One of the Itties from my last Serama hatch, is just like your princess. She jumps into my hand everytime I open the pen. The other Itty in there is an exact replica of her Mother and is not very friendly! She needs lessons on how to behave in polite society!
The bantam Orloff is laying fertile eggs! I am dropping them in the bator as soon as they come out. I don't want to miss the opportunity to hatch one. They are far too rare.
How is Chubby doing? We had talked about coming to Des Moines during Easter break but alas, the snow days have taken Easter break away.
I want to get out there and shoo all the birds outside so I can clean and pressure wash the pens but it's just too cold and wet here. No sunshine. Went from 2 weeks of rain to 2 weeks of fog and still snow piles high as an elephants eye. Maybe 50's next week.
Here are the two micro chicks I hatched out on February 27th. They are standing next to one of the chicks I hatched out on February 13th. The big guy is a BLRW X maran (BC or wheaten) and the two little ones are from my black mottled serama hen. She is probably a class "C" serama. The dad is most likely a silkie. The yellow one is very fiesty, but the black one is really timid.
That is why they are the micro chickens. That is one of the ones I hatched of yours Michelle. They all live together and get along fine despite the sized difference.
I have a story, one you'll like (or maybe not), Stephanie.
On Sunday, while in church, DH stayed home and was putting away some laundry (his pile that was teetering). Walking back and forth from the closet past the windows, he noticed one of our ducks, Buckette, flying fast across the backyard toward the bottom of the hayfield. He said that was when he saw the bright red fox chasing after her, and catching her. Buckette and the fox were probably 400 yards away, and there was no way to get to her fast enough. The fox began to carry her toward the woods across the field. DH then decided to set the German Shepherd on the fox. He opened the door and said, "Cedar -- Get him". The dog took off after the fox, who at first tried to carry Buckette away, but then opted for a faster get-away and dropped Buckette. The dog and the fox were gone into the woods so DH headed down to pick up what he assumed was a dead duck. He said he got close, she popped her head up quacking and waddled up the hill and bobbing her head.
(The dog spent two hours in the woods, we now know he was consuming the carcass of a deer which caused him to spend the night in the garage. Let's not go into that part of the story.)
But he's still the hero dog who saved Buckette the autistic duck.