INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

My ideal roosters have finally grown up & I need some advice.
As I mentioned before, I have 2 of Cogburn's sons. Both have always been together, sleep together, eat together, guard together, etc. for 9.5 months. Today came their 1st fight. The 2nd roo decided to spar with his brother. They had their heads down & hackles flared. I scooped up both & walked around for a bit with a roo under each arm. Shortly after putting them back down they went at it again. This time, they managed to scrape each other's wattles, so I sprayed some Vetericyn & applied corn starch. At the moment, one is locked inside the run & the other is outside in the grass. Is this challenging something I should allow? Do they need to settle it on their own? I'm nervous b/c they're both bloody. We have 15 hens, and I let them free range. What's strange is that they waited until I let them out before #2 challenged the #1. Did I make it worse by stopping them?
Are there things to do to distract them from fighting? If they do need to work out the pecking order on their own, what are the signs that it will never work? (Before a dead or very injured roo of course.)
If we simply get rid of roo#2 to stop the fighting, will one roo be able to cover 15 hens? Also will roo #1 stay people friendly?
Thank you in advance for any advice.

Let them be roosters. Watch for a real injury, but seriously you need both. A single roo is not a good situation, they get the "god mode" syndrome and may be human aggressive. Until I started keeping multiple roosters I had a lot of aggressive boys from hatches. I have culled hard to make sure all of my roosters are human friendly so they are safe around my parents and friends that visit. That said, if there's only one rooster he may act out for some reason.. there is no way to be sure.

 

[Mother2Hens]

Thanks. I'd rather look foolish & ask too many ?s, than keep quiet & end up with a bigger problem.

Faraday ~ Ok, now a teacher should not worry about looking foolish for being inquisitive!

Haha That's what we're here for— to ask and learn from each other. My teacher-like lecture has concluded.

fired up the Dickey this eve - got a nearly new incubator & hatcher set last summer - gonna do a small batch test run in a couple days to get familiar with it

iamfivewire ~ You are brave ~ what breed(s) are you planning to hatch?
Originally Posted by Too Fast
Lol those pennant flags are scaring things away because at night they all think it's a UFO that landed in your yard, so they don't dare come around.

@Too Fast Haha That reminds me — you and @Old Salt 1945 both recently reappeared on this thread around the same time. And coincidentally, you both used to talk about wearing tin foil hats! Hmmm, maybe there was something to that.

And it's easier to build a Ft. Knox when your enclosure only had to protect a small backyard flock of up to 12 chickens. We currently have 9, and got 4 eggs yesterday! Yay, 2 from our 5 new girls, and 2 from the 4 old girls.

Good point ~Very true! I have a small flock, too.

 

[ellymayRans]

The last 4 pair of rescue peas were taken to their new home today! What an exciting day!!

Thanks to everyone that helped me with adoptions, donations, time and materials to make this so successful for these beauties! They deserved every ounce!!

I spoke with the woman, neighbor of the rescues, and caretaker until rescued. There were approx. 25 remaining after our second rescue and last, as of this past week she thought there maybe 12 that remain on the property. I hate to think of what happened to them. We did what we could and found many cats and birds new homes. Which is always a win!

Pics i took before the last left. I should have taken the pics after they were in their transports but my hands were both bleeding from the males spurs. You'd think I would learn. ..Gloves..Gloves..Gloves! SMH! Lol

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

The frizzled olive egger and all her fluff!

Awww!! I like that!!!

I want a feather legged olive egger!!

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

I agree & share your torture.  I LOVE orps!  The idea of adding more colors to our flock -like choc or blue or anything laced -  is so tempting.  I also want to get Bielefelders & DD is begging for a silkie.  Then I see those cute Cochins....  

The problem is that we do not NEED any more chickens. Now our egg production is going up, so I'm also getting tempted to incubate a test hatch.  (Such a waste to eat our lav orp eggs!)  The incubator is still packed away in the attic, so I think I'm safe for now.  Of course, if Cookie decides to go broody, I may not be able to prevent some eggs from finding their way into her nest. LOL
.  

Haha the cuckoo boy will produce single barring the first generation and the second will be double barred. They're beautiful. I'm actually a big bummed to have sent them off :/ but I don't have a pen for them. @jchny2000 will just have to remember to trim the hell out of their butt feathers because they are SO fluffy it's absolutely insane and I doubt they'll have good fertility otherwise.

Janet also has lavender orps that are SO gorgeous. Incredibly beautiful.

The lavender ameraucana there won't be a ton of because my "trio" was actually 2 boys and a girl. So I don't know if Janet is gonna put some or all of the black females in there for splits or what. But the black ameraucana are gorgeous too.

Anyway I understand the chicken math problems.

 

[LonelyPageTurne]

Just hatched out some standard show quality Speckled Sussex and Rhode Island Reds. I had a great hatch with 14 out of 15 hatching. I have Brown & Buff Leghorns, Black Copper Marans, Blue Cochins, Rhode Island Reds , Speckled Sussex & Cream Leg bar hopefully hatching this week.

NEED SPECKLED SUSSEX PULLET!!

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I have decided that I am going to keep only my SL Roo and work on better laced blues, Silver laced and Silver partridges. So, if anyone is interested, and all the ones pictured below are from Papa's Poultry.

I have my Blue Orp Thor available, he is a big boy!( can't wait to be able to use the hose on the deck.)




2 Silver laced orpingtons, 5 month old pullets and a black orpington pullet



I also have a Splash Orpington Cockerel about 6 months, and a Trio of Blue Isbars available. Need to get some current pics. If your interested please pm me.

Here are the Blue Isbars from Orchard Hill Poultry, breeders were from Greenfire's 2nd Generation

 

[SallyinIndiana]

Quote: I'm hoping for nubian kids this spring. And I know a good breeder of nubians up close to you as well as one down south in Evansville and one in Columbus, IN. But unless you want to pay top dollar, I'd stay away from the extremely famous place in Martinsville. Sure their goats will win shows but wow their animals cost 4-5 times more than the other good breeders I know and 10 times more than the goats on CL.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

[COLOR=339999]Btw, a side note about my "used car lot style" of metallic pennant flags to scare hawks[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]that I mentioned to @pipdzipdnreadytogo [/COLOR]
[COLOR=8B4513]I ordered these online in order to scare hawks since the metallic silver flags reflect sunlight and flap in the wind. Since they're attached to a long string, I can change the placement of where I want to hang them in the fenced-in part of the backyard. [/COLOR][COLOR=8B4513]It dawned on me that I haven't seen any opossums or raccoons in that area since I started hanging up flags. I'm thinking that the random sounds that the flags make have[/COLOR] [COLOR=8B4513]spooked other predators besides hawks[/COLOR][COLOR=8B4513]. After I first put them up and was outside at night, I heard noises that I thought might be animals creeping around. Then I realized that the sounds were coming from the flags rustling in the breeze. When the temps have been so cold, the flags have been even noisier. At night, the flags reflect the evening porch lights, which may further spook predators (and my neighbors!)[/COLOR]

Do you remember where exactly you got these? I only did a quick search online due to time constraints at the moment, but I was only really finding paper party banners that would end up as a light snack for my set of feathered velociraptors.

And it's easier to build a Ft. Knox when your enclosure only had to protect a small backyard flock of up to 12 chickens.  

All too true. It also helps not to have a forest of trees to work around on top of a large flock size to consider... But at least it's pretty out there.

@pipdzipdnreadytogo I did borrow a game cam. so far its a stray cat catching mice, (he can stay, busy fella!) and raccoon and possum I set traps for.
This cat looks exactly like our old girl that's been here at least 15 years. She was a kitten that DD found under the porch .She is a house cat now, too old to be outside. This guy has a white chest and bigger than our Sassy girl.
The possum is huge and theres a whole group of raccoon.

It must be so frustrating, I hope whoever is taking your birds is stopped. :/ And that all those predators don't stick around! Sounds like the kitty is working for his stay, though.


And regarding your other post, major hugs to you and your family. Take all the time you need.

 

[ellymayRans]

Such great weekend weather. .hate i spent it inside remodeling a bathroom! ! Mr P enjoying some lounge time at the front door today while we worked!