LOL! Thatd make a funny cartoon, chicken ninjas surrounding you in the barn! Its just the opposite at my house! Mine can hear me coming and bombard me as soon as I walk in the coop! Plus, my cats seem to think they're chickens, so I get swarmed by them too!
Mine usually start chattering away and yelling the minute they see me, so there is no sneaking happening anywhere with the older chickens! The babies haven't learned that I am something to look forward to yet. They still run away in terror lol.
Speaking of babies! Here is an updated pic of my 11 week old Marans from Brad. I think the gender confused one is a pullet!!! I have named her PeeWee because she is so small! They have been outside next to my chickens for about a week. I had planned on putting them in with the older chickens at around 12 weeks, but PeeWee is so small I may wait. What do you guys think? The cockerel sure is beautiful! If anyone wants a Birchen Marans cockerel let me know! I will try keeping him if I don't find a home for him that won't eat him. I'm hoping he and Chewie will do ok but I don't really have the number of girls I need even for one Roo (he is starting to pull head feathers out from over breeding) so I am a bit worried about keeping two. It was obvious pretty early that he was a boy so I didn't handle him much to preserve his natural respect of humans (I had heard that handling them a lot as chicks can lead to mean roos later). He is free to a good home!
Also, I know that saddles can help if the roo's spurs are causing injury to a hen's sides, but what do you guys recommend for a hen with a bald neck from breeding? Chewie is not exactly the athletic sort and I think he is hauling his fat but around by their neck feathers!
