~*Mr. Chicken 2010 Contest!*~ The Winners Are Anoinced!!!

[sheila3935]

This is Lindy
he is my Barred Rock rooster
he is 26 weeks old.

He is turning into a good rooster never aggressive to us good to his girls I think he is a regal rooster and think he would make a good Mr. Chicken 2010

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Handsome fellow!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

This is Col. Sanders. He's a Red Shouldered Yokohama, He's 1 1/2 years old.

He should be MR. CHICKEN 2010 because he's the most handsome rooster, treats his ladies well, & is the perfect dad!

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Beautiful!

 

[Desert Rooster]

Quote:
WOW, that is one BEAUTIFUL bird

 

[Louieandthecrew]

Quote:
WOW, that is one BEAUTIFUL bird

Indeed!

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Thanks, I have only 17 left after selling some this summer, but as soon as they start laying again.....it's incubator time!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

This is Clyde, my Langshan cock, he is 4 years old:

Clyde deserves Mr. Chicken 2010 because even though he's lost his eyesight, he can still make the ladies love him!

Edited to add Clyde's age!

 

[poultrycrazy]

Quote:
THANKS!!! This might sound stupid but what do you mean by back pockets?

 

[77horses]

Name: Ivory
Breed: Splash Cochin/Buff Orpington mix
Age: 299 days old (he will be 300 days old tomorrow afternoon, around 1:00pm

): 299 days old is also about 42 weeks, or just over 9.5 months old.

I think Ivory should be Mr. Chicken 2010 because, first of all, he's a very unique rooster. I have never had a more friendly, tamed, intelligent, and handsome rooster with as much character and personality as him. And well, to be honest, I guess I'll just tell most of his whole story right here.

(sorry if it turns out really long

).
First of all, Ivory is very special to me because I hatched him myself in my homemade incubator. Out of 3 other eggs, he was the only one to hatch (on January 29th, 2010). As a chick, he was a silvery/gray color with a golden mask. The silver/light gray downy feathers is where he got his name, though over time he has obviously changed and is now almost completely golden/buff colored, but the name stuck nonetheless. But when he hatched, I was told that if he was a rooster, I couldn't keep him. I already have too many roosters as it is, and not enough room. So, I immediately decided he was a "she" and he was called a "she" for quite a while. As he grew, due to my own fault, he was very small for his age due to a lack in nutrition in his feed. When he was nearly a month old, he looked more like a one week old chick. That was when I began to get worried and created a thread here on BYC about it. With the help of many kind BYCers, I got him on a better diet of high-protein feed and he immediately thrived. If it weren't for the friendly advice and information offered by my fellow BYC friends, he wouldn't have survived long in his condition. Nonetheless, as soon as I changed his diet, he grew quickly and the "help thread" eventually became a thread about him and his growth. There are countless pictures of him, starting from the day he pipped his egg to the most recent, on that thread and it always amazes me to see how much he has grown and progressed since then.

Feel free to visit the thread here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=308311&p=1

Anyways, up until around 3 months of age, Ivory was a house chicken, living in my bedroom in his own little brooder box. He was the most spoiled baby chick ever (and he's still the most spoiled chicken today, too!

). He had many adorably funny quirks about him, such as when I let him out of his box to run around on my bedroom floor, he was randomly leap into the air and flap his wings and run around like crazy in excitement and happiness. He loved having his pictures taken, and his favorite treats were warm, moist chick feed and cooked egg. Whenever the weather permitted, I loved bringing him outside to roam around the yard (with my supervision, of course), and he would follow me everywhere. I taught him to come to me when I called his name or when I tapped the ground with my finger, like a mother hen would peck the ground and cluck to call her chicks over to her. He also loved taking naps on my bed, taking "dust baths" in my laundry when I wasn't looking, and one of the most adorable things he ever did was at night, when he snuggled up on his small sock bed under his heat lamp, I would say, "Good night Ivory!" and he would make this cute little chirping/gurgling/rumpling sound in his throat as a response, every single time I said it.

I could see him from my bed when I laid down, and I used to watch him, after I turned off the lights, as he went and snuggled under his light and slowly fell asleep. It was the cutest thing ever!

Sometimes he would be just resting under his warm heat lamp, and he would fall asleep with his face in his feed dish.

Other times, he would be a little restless on some nights and he would stand by the wall, peeping and calling for me, and of course I had to get up and turn on the lights and cuddle him until he stopped peeping and fell asleep on his sock bed.
As Ivory grew, he eventually got too big for his box, so I switched him to a larger box. Even when I figured out he was a rooster, I couldn't give him up, no matter how many roosters I already had and what little space I had to keep him in. I didn't know where I would keep him, but I knew I would never give him up.
And so came the part of convincing my mother to let me build a chicken coop. My father already has chickens at his house, but my mother had never raised chickens. I told her I would build the coop myself and pay for everything, and eventually it paid off because that's just what I did; with some help from others, I built a fairly small coop and used up to around $200. But it was all worth it, if it meant I could keep Ivory.

One of my broody hens at my dad's house had just recently hatched three chicks, so I moved them and their foster broody mother into Ivory's coop; they would become his own flock of hens. Just a small flock of his own for company for for pets (and eggs!) for the family. I remember the first night Ivory slept out in the "big chicken's" coop; I was so worried about him, after raising him for 3 months (due to the cold weather and him being a runt) in the safety of my bedroom. It took a while before I got used to not seeing him every night before I fell asleep and every morning when I woke up in my bedroom. Of course, I visited him every morning just when the sun came out, and every day when I got home. Like many "chicken mothers" have to do, I watched as my sweet baby Ivory transformed into the large, manly rooster he is today. Though he caught up on his growth pretty well, and he may have become a huge rooster now, he is still the same sweet and friendly rooster he has always been. He still comes to me when I call him or tap the ground with my finger. He still loves cuddling and getting treats. He still follows me around the yard, like a baby chick following its mother hen, just not as much as he used to. And though he has grown and become a flock rooster, who has finally learned to crow and takes care of his flock of three young pullets (he also took great care of Pumpkin, the three young pullet's foster mother hen, but she passed away back on October 6th, 2010

), and he has definitely changed a lot from the runty baby chick he used to be, he will always be my adorable baby rooster.

And here's Ivory!

(most recent picture)

Here's a not-so-recent one, taken back in the beginning of this past summer:

And here's a collage-type picture of him I created, with some pictures of him as a younger chick and some older pictures:

Thanks for reading Ivory's story and good luck to everyone in the contest!