Put a tarp up last night on her branch ( its always the same branch ) She just skipped it and went so high I couldn't get to her, so she slept outside last night, and now with this dang Falcon/Hawk diving at my kiddo's I don't know, guess I will have to catch her early and everyone else too and lock them all up before roost time. need to do that anyway with bold butt on the prowl ( the Falcon? ).
Yep it is an EE out of a brown egg, you were right, I got close to it yesterday and she has puffy checks,Same here!There was also a video circling the net that showed a flock standing around. They seem like they walk very tenderly. It makes me wonder if it isn't uncomfortable for them to be like that!
[COLOR=3B6281]The only game breed I've found attractive in looking at various breeds are Old English Game Bantams. They are on my special list of breeds I want to preserve!
The freaky upright ones don't do it for me, except maybe those little Moderns of yours.
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I've read the same thing about ducks, so I've been wondering about this as well. It's the same story with them, raising the drakes as pets results in aggressive drakes.
I've not had positive experiences raising roosters hands-on, so that to me lends some merit to that advise. I've had a lot of mean, mean roosters as a result of raising them hands-on and any advice I followed to try correcting bad behaviors with my boys was met with escalating aggression, so I personally do not raise chicken roosters hands-on anymore. My little Cochin guy, Po, was a hands-off raised rooster and the best boy I've ever raised, the only one I could trust around my little niece and nephew, though that probably had a lot to do with his breed as well. I love Cochins! Point is, my experiences have kind of pointed me toward believing the usual hands-off advise, at least for chickens.
As far as other species, since there's so much conflicting data and I have no experience...It feels like one of those huge life choices, because if you mess it up, it's pretty much a disaster! I wish someone would figure this stuff out for absolutely sure already!
Welsummers generally look like the baby I posted. I would bet your baby came out of a brown EE egg. That's a pattern I've seen on a few EE chicks. And yes, since Easter-eggers are usually not pure in the same sense as true breeds, and since the blue egg gene is dominant and so will show up if a bird carries only one allele, it's actually not uncommon for Easter-eggers to lay brown eggs as a result of not inheriting a blue egg gene.
Did not know that about Scovy's,I am so sorry. I have a few mutt pullets but we are pretty far away.
LOL more land is so awesomeWhite and pied appear to be less hardy. My IB were very sturdy healthy birds. My neighbor loves mine, its been too long to try to move them back here.
I adore him! Bacon is a tired fella tonight. He followed me through some of my chores today. Thats about 6 miles of walking. Lots of pets, hugs and encouragement for this big guy. DH adores him already. It was great to meet you, please feel free to visit again. I am waiting a few more days to introduce him to any other birds. My geese startled him a bit and he was pretty tired by 6pm.
Drakes. nope they stay put. Hens fly well the first year. I would clip both wings to ground them otherwise they will be over a fence and fully able to fly. They stay grounded after a year old. Scovy are quackless and your neighbors will not realize you have them.
I would have killed him on the spot! Don't mess with my kids!! Poor kid. Hope she aint scared of chickens now.Does anyone in NWI have Chickens AND Ducks? I posted in the Duck forum, but looking for advice from other Indiana peeps.
We live in NWI and this will be our first Winter with Call Ducks. I'm looking for any advice as to what to feed them besides Layer Pellets. I've been reading about Wheat, so anything would be helpful. What type of Wheat do I get and where would I get it?
We have our "Duck House" inside our Chicken run and wondering if we need to move the Ducks into the barn for the winter? I feel like they would be happier, left where they are, but afraid that they'll be too cold.
Am I worrying for nothing?
As far as Roosters go, we got 2 out of 12 and they "were" mean. One attacked my daughter yesterday and thankfully his spears weren't fully developed. He got both her arms and her chest. He was literally CHASING her. It was awful. RIP P DIDDY!
I agree with the aggressive part for sure, it has been back 2x now putting all the kids up and boy are they mad.
the one that is being held looks like it but that one is too small. Mine was bigger then that, smaller than a chicken hawk tho.Our floor is cement. We use pine shavings directly on top of it. The wood shavings are not excessively cold in the winter time, and the birds haven't had any trouble. There is no condensation.
We painted ours using epoxy paint. The cement floor stands up well to shovelling the old shavings out and putting new ones in. If there's a water spill or food spill, the bedding soaks it up, and I can remove the soiled bedding very easily.
That's very a traumatic situation you're describing. We live 3 blocks from White River. In my part of Indianapolis, we have multiple kinds of hawks. Red Shoulder hawks, Coopers Hawks, Sharp-shinned hawks, Kestrels, etc. The only one I'm familiar with that has a stripe on it's face is a Kestrel. Kestrels are very small hawks. How big was the hawk you ran into today?
Red Shouldered
Cooper's juvenile coloring
Cooper's
Sharp-shinned
Female Kestrel picture for scale.
Another picture of the female Kestrel.
The Male Kestrel has brilliant colors.
