Illinois...

[ChicagoClucker]

A woman at a forest preserve,who worked with raptors, once told me that after a few days of poor weather, the hawks will be out hunting in force on the 1st clear day.

Sure enough, yesterday at 10am a giant hawk - bigger than my rooster!- came by for a visit. I was alerted by the crow brigade making such a racket. Then the roo started crowing. My dogs ran out 1st & I arrived just in time to see the hawk sitting on my gutter. It looked at me then flew off. Most of the chickens made it to the coop - including the roo. He was standing guard inside at the doorway. Three girls did not make it to the coop. They were hiding along the back of the garage & wedged between the siding, a trash can, & a pile of bricks. I saw a lot of their feathers where they were hiding. I scooped them up & put them away. Everyone was safe. The flock remained locked up for the rest of the day.

Today at 10am I heard the crows again, followed by the roo's crowing. (He's quiet & rarely crows.) The flock was still locked up (and will be for a while), but I'm sure it was the hawk stopping by. Has anyone else noticed that the hawks tend to keep their scheduled rounds? The Cooper's hawk (from November) always seemed to attack in late afternoon. Yesterday's & today's both happened in the late morning. This current hawk flew away easier, but it's scary big. The cooper's hawk was small but so determined.

Yesterday's big hawk had a white & brown speckled belly like in this pic. Perhaps a Red-Tailed hawk, but I really wasn't looking.

The little hawk looked like this. Little hawk actually killed a pullet & then returned multiple times a day for over a month.
These are not my pics; they just look like the hawks I saw.
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The first pic is the same Hawk I have over here. And it seems to me that he has been here at different times. A couple of weeks ago, he tried getting my RIR but just ended up pulling some feathers. She took off under the deck and he ended up on the deck. I wish I was faster cause I could have grabbed him if I was quicker. But that was around 10 -11am. Other times he has been here in the afternoon. He is a resident in our neighborhood for a couple of years now. I always thought how beautiful he was, but now that I have chickens, I wish he would move to a new neighborhood!

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Looking for homes for my 2 Crested Cream Legbar Roos. 4 months old. The smaller one(Leonardo) has great barring and color, but a large comb that falls to the left. The larger one (Raphael) has more white and barring is kind of mottled. Can you tell I have a grandson who watches Ninja Turtles.
Smaller one Leonardo

Raphael on left.

Raphael on left and Leo on the right

 

[Faraday40]

Looking for homes for my 2 Crested Cream Legbar Roos. 4 months old. The smaller one(Leonardo) has great barring and color, but a large comb that falls to the left. The larger one (Raphael) has more white and barring is kind of mottled. Can you tell I have a grandson who watches Ninja Turtles.
Smaller one Leonardo

Raphael on left and Leo on the right

What's the temperament of a legbar roo? Out of all the chicks we hatched last year, I only had 2 males. One was Walter (my CCL) & the other was Tank (My Lav Orp). I thought the Orp would be better protection, so we sold Walter. I've always wondered if he stayed sweet. We'll probably replace Tank when a better roo comes along. He's fine but not perfect. It's not like we had a lot of males to choose from. And no, I don't know why we hatched mostly females. If I could figure that out, I'd do it all the time.

 

[kfacres]

Wanted: Incubator

Would like to purchase an incubator, prefer a higher quality with forced air and hydrostat. Less than 100 eggs in size.

Do not want a styrofoam one.

Just seeing if anyone has one that they'd like to upgrade, or knows of one.

 

[Bronson]

The large hawks are female red tails. The females tend to be larger then males, they are ramping up their food intake so that they are nice and plump for nesting in the next month.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Wanted: Incubator

Would like to purchase an incubator, prefer a higher quality with forced air and hydrostat. Less than 100 eggs in size.

Do not want a styrofoam one.

Just seeing if anyone has one that they'd like to upgrade, or knows of one.

I saw one of the brinsea octagon/with egg turner on I think either the hatch along page or one of the swap pages. I will check and get back to you

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I saw one of the brinsea octagon/with egg turner on I think either the hatch along page or one of the swap pages. I will check and get back to you

Someone else has posted on it, but I don't know if it sold. Here is the link page 335
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/754077/just-in-time-hatching-egg-auction-and-bin-thread/3340

 

[ChicagoClucker]

What's the temperament of a legbar roo? Out of all the chicks we hatched last year, I only had 2 males. One was Walter (my CCL) & the other was Tank (My Lav Orp). I thought the Orp would be better protection, so we sold Walter. I've always wondered if he stayed sweet. We'll probably replace Tank when a better roo comes along. He's fine but not perfect. It's not like we had a lot of males to choose from. And no, I don't know why we hatched mostly females. If I could figure that out, I'd do it all the time.

I wish I could have that luck of hatching mostly females. I shouldn't complain, I hatched 3 females and 3 males. I was happy. All 3 roos are a little bit different. Leonardo is the friendliest and bravest and smallest out of the males. He loves to be petted and picked up. He was the first one to venture out of the coop on his own, and has no problem trying to eat with my 3 older hens until they realize he is in there with them, haha kinda funny to watch and he is not afraid of the dog at all. He jumps on my back when I am bent over cleaning or feeding them which is kind of funny trying to maneuver with a chicken on your back. Leonardo is my favorite! It was a tough call between him and Michael Angelo. Raphael, seems to be all business, not afraid to come up to me, but won't really let me pet him much. He is always right behind Leonardo now out of the coop. I am keeping the third one who is Michael Angelo, which might be a mistake. He is always with the girls which is good. but, I would think he is a girl if he wasn't obviously a roo. He is very timid and doesn't really come near me much. When the older girls come into the coop, he scampers away with the girls and the other 2 stand their ground until they get pecked. I do have to say though, there is no fighting amongst them, unlike my 2 marans. I don't have much experience with chickens, but I would have to say that the legbars seem to have a good temperament for a backyard or family chicken.

 

[Faraday40]

We hatched many, many chicks as part of a sci project. Because we simply could not care for all of them at once, we kept only the purebred chicks from the shipped eggs & 4 from backyard eggs. Of those 16, only 2 were male. It made our decision of who to eventually keep very, very hard. (Normally 1/2 are male to make that decision easier.) We've always gotten slightly more females, but usually closer to 6 females out of 10 chicks.

In other hatches a few years ago, I've noticed that the same 3 hens who gave us females in trial 1, also gave us mostly females in trials 2 & 3. Our fav hen was the opposite. She gave us 2 female & 7 males. (We labeled the eggs & put leg bands on them after hatching.) The hens all ate the same food, lived in the same coop, & shared the same rooster, so perhaps it was genetic or just dumb luck. If I had the space, I'd really love to do this on a larger scale & see if it held true. Of course, I'm sure if there was really a way to increase the number of females hatched, the hatcheries would already be doing it.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

We hatched many, many chicks as part of a sci project. Because we simply could not care for all of them at once, we kept only the purebred chicks from the shipped eggs & 4 from backyard eggs. Of those 16, only 2 were male. It made our decision of who to eventually keep very, very hard. (Normally 1/2 are male to make that decision easier.) We've always gotten slightly more females, but usually closer to 6 females out of 10 chicks.

In other hatches a few years ago, I've noticed that the same 3 hens who gave us females in trial 1, also gave us mostly females in trials 2 & 3. Our fav hen was the opposite. She gave us 2 female & 7 males. (We labeled the eggs & put leg bands on them after hatching.) The hens all ate the same food, lived in the same coop, & shared the same rooster, so perhaps it was genetic or just dumb luck. If I had the space, I'd really love to do this on a larger scale & see if it held true. Of course, I'm sure if there was really a way to increase the number of females hatched, the hatcheries would already be doing it.

Well that is interesting. I would think it genetics, especially after 3 separate hatches. I will have to pay special attention to that when I finally get to hatch from my own hens, of which I hope to be this summer. I plan on crossing my CCL hen with a black copper maran roo to get an olive egger. Now if I can get at least 1 hen from the eggs I ordered, so I can have some dark brown eggs I will be content for a while, I hope. My husband is tired of having chicks in our mud room.