Jersey Giants

[JerseyGiantfolk]

I'm in the National Jersey Giant Club also, in April it will be my 5th year owning Jersey's! When I incubated for the first time with my Jersey's Maggie and Mini Mega only one chick hatched, and you know chicks don't like to be alone so every five minutes we'd be in the room with him. He soon figured out that "hand" was his mommy. He didn't eat or drink so we had to go to the feed store and get 2 buff Orp's. They saved him actually, but they aren't showable

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I purchased my first 8 chicks in June of 2011. Two were Black Jersey Giants. They were both adorable, healthy chicks although different in temperament. Tyra from the first seemed to think that I was going to kill her and eat her every time I handled her (daily) but Diana was relatively calm. They both grew into beautiful birds that came running when they saw me (although Tyra continued to freak out when I needed to pick her up). Ironically, Tyra was killed by a bob cat in November. Diana started laying in Mid December (hatched June 13th) and has provided me with about 3-4 eggs a week. I don't know if that is good or bad for the middle of winter, but I'm OK with it. My Barred Plymouth Rocks and White Plymouth Rocks are a bit more productive, but then again, they've been laying since October.

By the way, it has been down to the single digits here and the BJG seems to be more than fine. They have the smallest combs and wattles of any of the 4 "cold-hearty" breeds that I purchased.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

I had the same problem October-December 2011 with a bobcat that would jump over our 6 foot barbed wire fence (sometimes in between) and stalk our chickens and it killed one of my Orp's and Australorp's, But it seems when you get more than one Jersey there will always be a flighty one. Usually the roosters are the calmer ones for me, just the hens have serious attitude to my other breeds.