INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Guess who's looking pink today?

Since her silkie is sitting on some eggs, DD decided to give Teddy a "spa day." Poor fella. He let's her do ANYTHING to him.

So what do you imagine his hens were thinking?

 

[Faraday40]

I had to go outside & experience the crazy nice weather today!

Here are my lavender orps:
Darling

and Deary

Deary's sister Schmutz (black/lav split)

My lav cockerel, Mr Potential

Here's Big Blue. She carries the lacing gene. Such a sweet girl.

Here are my Laced Orpingtons:
My Blue SLO, Stormy.

My youngest SLO, Treasure. (Daughter of Crystal.)

... and in a class by herself.... my sweet, little Cookie (bantam orpington)

Can you believe it!? Cookie's NOT broody at the moment!

 

[Pollitos6]

I had to go outside & experience the crazy nice weather today!

Here are my lavender orps:
Darling
View attachment 2017049
and Deary
View attachment 2017048
Deary's sister Schmutz (black/lav split)
View attachment 2017055

My lav cockerel, Mr Potential
View attachment 2017056


Here's Big Blue. She carries the lacing gene. Such a sweet girl.
View attachment 2017058


Here are my Laced Orpingtons:
My Blue SLO, Stormy.
View attachment 2017065

My youngest SLO, Treasure. (Daughter of Crystal.)
View attachment 2017057


... and in a class by herself.... my sweet, little Cookie (bantam orpington)
View attachment 2017067

Can you believe it!? Cookie's NOT broody at the moment!
View attachment 2017068

You have such a beautiful flock. All the girls seems they were posing for the picture, and you crack me up with the name of your rooster " Mr. Potential"

 

[Faraday40]

You have such a beautiful flock. All the girls seems they were posing for the picture, and you crack me up with the name of your rooster " Mr. Potential"

Thank you. We do have some pretty good roosters.

We had a Mr. Nice Guy, but decided Mr. Potential had better genetic diversity. Potential's basically sticking around until he either fills out and looks gorgeous (like Nice Guy did) or he provides us with a better-looking son.

Mr. Nice Guy

Mr. Potential

We have a Mr Wonderful and his son Awesome. (Can't decide which one to keep, so we have both right now.)

Mr. Wonderful

Awesome

..... Some past flock favorites:

Brick = shortened from "Dumb as a Brick" What this guy lacked in intelligence, he made up for with beauty and charm. All the hens adored him and he had his own little fan club on BYC!

Mr. Dummy-Pants (Our all-time fav rooster, but worst name ever!) It's what happened when I allowed my kids to name him. Here he was as a young & old rooster

Puppy (a rooster who followed us around like a dog) He wasn't up to breeding standards, but we kept him around a whole year until we could find him a good home.

We had a very leggy lav orp named Moose. Later his son, Mini Moose, took over.

Dinner (his orig. purpose) was one of Moose's accidental sons and no good for breeding. Yet he turned out to be quite handsome and also too friendly to eat. This rooster would actually "hug" by stretching & resting his neck on DD's shoulder. Again, the kids insisted he had to stay until we found him a suitable home.

 

[Pollitos6]

Thank you. We do have some pretty good roosters.

We had a Mr. Nice Guy, but decided Mr. Potential had better genetic diversity. Potential's basically sticking around until he either fills out and looks gorgeous (like Nice Guy did) or he provides us with a better-looking son.

Mr. Nice Guy
View attachment 2017223
Mr. Potential
View attachment 2017225

We have a Mr Wonderful and his son Awesome. (Can't decide which one to keep, so we have both right now.)

Mr. Wonderful
View attachment 2017194
Awesome
View attachment 2017183





..... Some past flock favorites:

Brick = shortened from "Dumb as a Brick" What this guy lacked in intelligence, he made up for with beauty and charm. All the hens adored him and he had his own little fan club on BYC!
View attachment 2017215
View attachment 2017226


Mr. Dummy-Pants (Our all-time fav rooster, but worst name ever!) It's what happened when I allowed my kids to name him. Here he was as a young & old rooster
View attachment 2017192
View attachment 2017242
Puppy (a rooster who followed us around like a dog) He wasn't up to breeding standards, but we kept him around a whole year until we could find him a good home.
View attachment 2017184

We had a very leggy lav orp named Moose. Later his son, Mini Moose, took over.
View attachment 2017219

Dinner (his orig. purpose) was one of Moose's accidental sons and no good for breeding. Yet he turned out to be quite handsome and also too friendly to eat. This rooster would actually "hug" by stretching & resting his neck on DD's shoulder. Again, the kids insisted he had to stay until we found him a suitable home.
View attachment 2017206

Wow they are beauty . I thought if you have more than one rooster together they will fight . Are your roosters getting alone ok ?

 

[Faraday40]

Wow they are beauty . I thought if you have more than one rooster together they will fight . Are your roosters getting alone ok ?

Yes. Good temperament is a must. If they don't get along with other roosters, then they must go. It helps when they are hatched & raised here together. There must also be enough hens....or no hens to fight over. (I would never try to put 2 roosters together with only 4-5 hens. ) Orps are gentle giants, quiet, and not very aggressive.
Opposite: I had an Easter Egger rooster who couldn't survive 5-10 min without mating and crowed all day long. He had 9 hens and was our only roo. All the hens were bald backed. The hens were very happy when we rehomed him. Although gentle with people, he had to go.

 

[Faraday40]

Here was Awesome strutting around this afternoon.

He then became a little concerned about the shadow rooster following him.

A moment ago I just realized it's Groundhog Day and our rooster was afraid of his shadow! Does that mean 6 more weeks of winter???

 

[man_of_fishers]

On day 16 here and my Silkie momma has started rejecting a couple of eggs. Sure enough, after candling them, they weren't developing into anything. Somehow she just knows.

Regarding a comment someone asked me about Silkies being good moms, she's been my first, so I don't have a comparison, but I'll tell you this much, she is gentle with me. She lets me pick her up, pet her, move her eggs, etc. She just sits there patiently while I do so and then casually and carefully walks back on her eggs. She's a sweet one. She's also extremely tiny, even compared to my other Silkies. So she's my sweet little girl.

 

[man_of_fishers]

In other news, I've got a silkie/something cross that has turned out to be a roo (about two weeks ago started crowing). His crow is almost a squeek and is far quieter than the Maran roo that I culled. I'm pretty sure he's going to develop a full crow soon enough, but for now, he sounds more like any other wild bird than he does a chicken. If he can stay close to this level, I may keep him! He's been very timid so far. Of course, my chances of finding the world's first timid, quiet roo are very slim.

 

[Faraday40]

On day 16 here and my Silkie momma has started rejecting a couple of eggs. Sure enough, after candling them, they weren't developing into anything. Somehow she just knows.

Regarding a comment someone asked me about Silkies being good moms, she's been my first, so I don't have a comparison, but I'll tell you this much, she is gentle with me. She lets me pick her up, pet her, move her eggs, etc. She just sits there patiently while I do so and then casually and carefully walks back on her eggs. She's a sweet one. She's also extremely tiny, even compared to my other Silkies. So she's my sweet little girl.

Yes, hens just "know." They even know when the eggs are about to hatch and "talk" to their babies.

What you describe is how my silkie (Xansie) acts. She's sweet, never pecks, likes to be a mama, and allows us to hold her & her chicks. Our other silkie (Mai Mai) has tried to hatch her fav food dish - twice. Just patiently sits on it waiting for another treat dish to hatch. When some chicks hatched (from Xansie) we tried slipping some under Mai Mai and she pecked at them. She had no desire to mother them; so after 2 days, Xansie got all the chicks. Mai Mai's sort of "special" and has other not so intelligent quirks.

Xansie went broody a few weeks ago & Mai Mai decided to join her. This time I separated Mai Mai and put eggs under her. She's still in a plastic tote in the house and thankfully she's sitting on the eggs & not the food dish this time. If it doesn't work out, I know Xansie will raise whatever chicks come along, so we might as well let Mai Mai try again.

Tip: Sometimes 1st time broody hens take a little while to transition from sitting on eggs to mothering chicks. I've had hens peck at their babies when they 1st crawl out from under them. Pushing the chicks back under mama's fluff helps mama hen adjust. Also keeping the lighting dark keeps the hen calmer.