Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

[Perris]

I heard something interesting today—maybe someone else can speak to this but I have no experience with it personally except the two night time experiments I’ve done. A flock of wild turkeys hangs out near my mom’s place and she says the males roost lower in the trees than the hens—presumably to guard the hens. Is it the same with chickens?

I have 4 cockerels roosting in trees atm. Three roost at about the same height in a holly. The other one roosts in a conifer with half a dozen pullets; he roosts lower than they do. But, he is also less capable at flying up, and at picking his way through branches to find a good spot. So in his case it may be needs must, rather than a deliberate choice to roost lower.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

She's head hen, and she's not going to give up that position to a teenage punk.

I think you are right. My coop-to-tree experiments are not inspiring any of the girls to defect to the trees. And the yellow game hen (head hen) gave me a long telling off when I put her in the tree last night. I am going to try putting the black Hatch up again tonight and I will just keep doing this with her instead of messing with any of the other hens. She at least slept next to the rooster last time. I think the yellow Hatch is just too independent to submit to the rooster—she doesn’t spend the day with him, she doesn’t eat with him (he won’t let her), so she sure as hell doesn’t want to spend the night in the same tree with him. At least that’s what I understand from her monologue last night

 

[Hablo]

I've almost read the whole discussion.
Interesting to read and thanks to all of you who contributed!

@LaurenRitz
When you write about your breed crosses: Which breed is the abreviation "BA"?
And what does "BYM" mean?
Greetings!

 

[LaurenRitz]

Black Australorp, and Barn Yard Mix. Basically unknown parentage. I keep pretty close track of which birds are related and how.