Well, I have no hatch date, as the BA hen kept getting off her nest for hours at a time and moving to other nests, and the other hens were bothering her, so I had to toss the 8 eggs under her. I think I will have to build a separate mini-brooding coop if I ever hope to hatch chicks naturally.
I stopped in Custer this morning to eat breakfast and got to talking with a guy who turned out to be another chicken lover. He asked me if I wanted a free rooster, as he had four roosters and 12 hens. My rooster King has been getting pretty mean lately, attacking me on a regular basis, so I thought about it for awhile, and then said what the heck, King needs to be taken down a notch. I asked him for his biggest, meanest rooster, and he said none of his roosters were mean. So I followed him to his place and we herded two roosters into his coop and caught a nice Easter Egger/Leghorn mix rooster with a cool beard, and put him in a burlap bag. He settled right down once he was bagged. I took him home and released him in my pen, and soon he and King were at it. They fought for about 10 minutes - neither one was giving up, so I caught King and put him outside of the pen, to give my new rooster Prince (I just decided to name him Prince) a chance to get some food and water and get a feel for the place. The roosters are both crowing and King is quite P.O.'d. I know they will fight some more, but plan to free range the whole flock this afternoon. My new rooster is a beauty, but probably weighs about a pound less than King, and has smaller spurs and legs. He seems very agile, though, so I hope he survives. I am not into rooster fights, hope they establish a pecking order soon. Any hints would be welcome. Have a great weekend all!
I stopped in Custer this morning to eat breakfast and got to talking with a guy who turned out to be another chicken lover. He asked me if I wanted a free rooster, as he had four roosters and 12 hens. My rooster King has been getting pretty mean lately, attacking me on a regular basis, so I thought about it for awhile, and then said what the heck, King needs to be taken down a notch. I asked him for his biggest, meanest rooster, and he said none of his roosters were mean. So I followed him to his place and we herded two roosters into his coop and caught a nice Easter Egger/Leghorn mix rooster with a cool beard, and put him in a burlap bag. He settled right down once he was bagged. I took him home and released him in my pen, and soon he and King were at it. They fought for about 10 minutes - neither one was giving up, so I caught King and put him outside of the pen, to give my new rooster Prince (I just decided to name him Prince) a chance to get some food and water and get a feel for the place. The roosters are both crowing and King is quite P.O.'d. I know they will fight some more, but plan to free range the whole flock this afternoon. My new rooster is a beauty, but probably weighs about a pound less than King, and has smaller spurs and legs. He seems very agile, though, so I hope he survives. I am not into rooster fights, hope they establish a pecking order soon. Any hints would be welcome. Have a great weekend all!
We built that coop on a huge pallet, too- so it's movable if I ever want to relocate it. 
