- Oct 9, 2012
- 15
- 0
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Hello. I've been lurking around BYC since this past June, when we got our very first chickens. Ever.
We got 5 hens and 2 roosters from the feed store. One of the roosters was fully grown, who I have come to decide is a Red Cochin Bantam (I'm fairly certain, but I'm also certainly no expert and could easily be wrong). He is also quite the little A-hole. When we first got him and I would talk to my husband each day about the chicken soap opera going on in our backyard, I would refer to him as Mr. D*ckhead since we still hadn't decided on a name for him yet. My husband said we could name him Richard, but call him Dick, for short. But I simply cannot bear the thought of hearing my 7 & 5 year olds calling him that when their daddy and I both know what it is really referring to. So, we just decided to call him Mr. D.
Mr. D, the A-hole Red Cochin Bantam who thinks he is 10 feet tall and bulletproof, but has no clue how to be a gentleman rooster because he always eats first, steals and hogs food and crows incessantly and attacks small children, clueless, nosy lapdogs who think chicken poop is a culinary delicacy, and squirrels and leaves and grass and air. But is completely and utterly oblivious to the 2-foot tall hawk watching his every move because he's too busy trying to decide which hen he wants to hump for the umpteenth time, or what inanimate, benign object may be worthy of attacking next.
The other rooster was barely even a "teenager" when we got him, still quite young and goofy, still twice as big as Mr.D though, and he is a Rhode Island Red. He has now gotten quite large, comb has come in nice and floppy and no longer has that idiotic look on his face while "galloping" across the yard for treats (in my mind I always thought he looked like he should be saying "DURRP....Dum Dum wants gum gum!.....AHUYCK.") He is turning out to be quite the little gentleman, and not only protects the hens, but also our nosy chicken-poop eating lapdogs, our small children, us, and anything else that Mr. D attempts to annihilate.
You see, over the last couple of weeks, there has been a "changing of the guard" so to speak. Mr. D, who tormented Dum Dum (we just call him Big Boy) all summer long with his antics and bullying, now gets rolled around like a booger in the dirt by Big Boy when he tries to act like his little D*ckhead self. And no, I am not even joking about him vindicating the dogs, either.
Our 5 hens, well, actually we have 6 now, but that's a whole 'nother story, anyway our original 5 hens are made up of 1 RIR named Molly, who is a nosy pig that runs like an ostrich. She has yet to lay her first egg even though she is a big fat cow. She blinked when we took this picture, so her eye is closed......even though she looks like a fat zombie chicken with dead gray eyes in this picture.
2 of what seem to be Americana/cauna, or clever impersonations of that breed. Fancy has the "earrings" and Nancy is the other one. They are both neurotic and insane and for some reason known only to them, run everywhere instead of walking, while flapping their wings like they'd actually rather fly from one spot to the other. Fancy has begun to lay absurdly small eggs, but Nancy is still holding out on us.
And 2 of what the feed store clerk simply referred to as "rumpless". I thought they were cute and odd and both were almost starved to death and most certainly would not have lasted the week if they had remained there, so I took pity on them even though one of them looked more like a buzzard than a chicken. One of the rumpless is white and her name is Gidget. She is the debutante of the chicken soap opera and both Mr. D and Big Boy's number one gal. If we made Gidget a little chicken chariot, they would pull her around in it all day long,..... between intervals of humping her of course. I have researched rumpless breeds and mine do not have any sort of ear-wings on the sides of their heads. The closest I've come to pinning it down as far as looks is DeGrubbe (aka Quail Bantam), but they don't have dark shanks. Their combs are like little blobs that sorta hang over to one side. Gidget is thickly feathered, but with the rounded-over butt which is completely bald below her booty hole.
The buzzard, who we call Bald-Booty Broody, is the ugliest chicken I've ever seen. She looks like she got hit by a car, then left out in the rain and got struck by lightening.
Her booty and entire under-belly all the way up to her crop are bald, and she has recently gotten two bald spots on her shoulders. Her feathers above her crop are lopsided and much longer and thicker on one side, than the other.
I have run out of ideas as to what type of chickens Gidget and the buzzard actually are and am interested in anyone's educated guess in an attempt to solve this great mystery. The buzzard lays fat smooth green eggs and Gidget lays smaller chalkier bluish ones.
The main reason I'd like to know what these chickens are, is because we just had babies! Yay!!
Their daddy is Mr. D, the Red Cochin Bantam, and Gidget and Bald Boody Broody are the mommas. All the chicks have feathered feet, and they all look like little chipmunks...lol. A couple of them look like they are Egyptian or something because it looks like they're wearing heavy black eyeliner, even though you really can't tell just how dark and distinct it really looks in this crappy picture (my husband took).
Two of them are yellow,
and a couple of them don't have markings as well-defined as the others, see the more blurred and strawberry reddish ones on the left in this picture.
But they are all sweet, and little and my 5 & 7 year old daughters are thrilled about them. I used a Brinsea digital, auto-turn incubator that held 7 eggs. They began hatching when the incubator still showed 1 1/2 days left, which was in the wee-early morning hours of Sunday, and the 6th one hatched yesterday evening around supper. There is one egg left and the incubator has shown 0 days since last night. From what I understand, it is normal and expected for the smaller, bantam chicks to hatch a bit early, and all 6 chicks that have hatched are Mr. D's.
I guess what I'm wondering is, if the last egg, which is the buzzard's, of course, may have been fathered by Big Boy the RIR? And that is why it hasn't even pipped yet? I used a stethoscope to listen to the egg yesterday evening, but heard nothing, and all of our eggs were impossible to candle because of how thick the shells are. We've even used the bright led torch lights and can't see a thing.
Sorry this thread is so long, but I just wanted to try and fit as much info as I could
)
I've got to get ready to pick up my girls, but I'm excited to finally join the forum I've been lurking around for several months now, and very much looking forward to meeting all of you and especially hearing y'alls thoughts on my questions above!
Thank you so much!!
We got 5 hens and 2 roosters from the feed store. One of the roosters was fully grown, who I have come to decide is a Red Cochin Bantam (I'm fairly certain, but I'm also certainly no expert and could easily be wrong). He is also quite the little A-hole. When we first got him and I would talk to my husband each day about the chicken soap opera going on in our backyard, I would refer to him as Mr. D*ckhead since we still hadn't decided on a name for him yet. My husband said we could name him Richard, but call him Dick, for short. But I simply cannot bear the thought of hearing my 7 & 5 year olds calling him that when their daddy and I both know what it is really referring to. So, we just decided to call him Mr. D.
Mr. D, the A-hole Red Cochin Bantam who thinks he is 10 feet tall and bulletproof, but has no clue how to be a gentleman rooster because he always eats first, steals and hogs food and crows incessantly and attacks small children, clueless, nosy lapdogs who think chicken poop is a culinary delicacy, and squirrels and leaves and grass and air. But is completely and utterly oblivious to the 2-foot tall hawk watching his every move because he's too busy trying to decide which hen he wants to hump for the umpteenth time, or what inanimate, benign object may be worthy of attacking next.
The other rooster was barely even a "teenager" when we got him, still quite young and goofy, still twice as big as Mr.D though, and he is a Rhode Island Red. He has now gotten quite large, comb has come in nice and floppy and no longer has that idiotic look on his face while "galloping" across the yard for treats (in my mind I always thought he looked like he should be saying "DURRP....Dum Dum wants gum gum!.....AHUYCK.") He is turning out to be quite the little gentleman, and not only protects the hens, but also our nosy chicken-poop eating lapdogs, our small children, us, and anything else that Mr. D attempts to annihilate.
You see, over the last couple of weeks, there has been a "changing of the guard" so to speak. Mr. D, who tormented Dum Dum (we just call him Big Boy) all summer long with his antics and bullying, now gets rolled around like a booger in the dirt by Big Boy when he tries to act like his little D*ckhead self. And no, I am not even joking about him vindicating the dogs, either.
Our 5 hens, well, actually we have 6 now, but that's a whole 'nother story, anyway our original 5 hens are made up of 1 RIR named Molly, who is a nosy pig that runs like an ostrich. She has yet to lay her first egg even though she is a big fat cow. She blinked when we took this picture, so her eye is closed......even though she looks like a fat zombie chicken with dead gray eyes in this picture.
2 of what seem to be Americana/cauna, or clever impersonations of that breed. Fancy has the "earrings" and Nancy is the other one. They are both neurotic and insane and for some reason known only to them, run everywhere instead of walking, while flapping their wings like they'd actually rather fly from one spot to the other. Fancy has begun to lay absurdly small eggs, but Nancy is still holding out on us.
And 2 of what the feed store clerk simply referred to as "rumpless". I thought they were cute and odd and both were almost starved to death and most certainly would not have lasted the week if they had remained there, so I took pity on them even though one of them looked more like a buzzard than a chicken. One of the rumpless is white and her name is Gidget. She is the debutante of the chicken soap opera and both Mr. D and Big Boy's number one gal. If we made Gidget a little chicken chariot, they would pull her around in it all day long,..... between intervals of humping her of course. I have researched rumpless breeds and mine do not have any sort of ear-wings on the sides of their heads. The closest I've come to pinning it down as far as looks is DeGrubbe (aka Quail Bantam), but they don't have dark shanks. Their combs are like little blobs that sorta hang over to one side. Gidget is thickly feathered, but with the rounded-over butt which is completely bald below her booty hole.
The buzzard, who we call Bald-Booty Broody, is the ugliest chicken I've ever seen. She looks like she got hit by a car, then left out in the rain and got struck by lightening.
Her booty and entire under-belly all the way up to her crop are bald, and she has recently gotten two bald spots on her shoulders. Her feathers above her crop are lopsided and much longer and thicker on one side, than the other.
I have run out of ideas as to what type of chickens Gidget and the buzzard actually are and am interested in anyone's educated guess in an attempt to solve this great mystery. The buzzard lays fat smooth green eggs and Gidget lays smaller chalkier bluish ones.
The main reason I'd like to know what these chickens are, is because we just had babies! Yay!!
Their daddy is Mr. D, the Red Cochin Bantam, and Gidget and Bald Boody Broody are the mommas. All the chicks have feathered feet, and they all look like little chipmunks...lol. A couple of them look like they are Egyptian or something because it looks like they're wearing heavy black eyeliner, even though you really can't tell just how dark and distinct it really looks in this crappy picture (my husband took).
Two of them are yellow,
and a couple of them don't have markings as well-defined as the others, see the more blurred and strawberry reddish ones on the left in this picture.
But they are all sweet, and little and my 5 & 7 year old daughters are thrilled about them. I used a Brinsea digital, auto-turn incubator that held 7 eggs. They began hatching when the incubator still showed 1 1/2 days left, which was in the wee-early morning hours of Sunday, and the 6th one hatched yesterday evening around supper. There is one egg left and the incubator has shown 0 days since last night. From what I understand, it is normal and expected for the smaller, bantam chicks to hatch a bit early, and all 6 chicks that have hatched are Mr. D's.
I guess what I'm wondering is, if the last egg, which is the buzzard's, of course, may have been fathered by Big Boy the RIR? And that is why it hasn't even pipped yet? I used a stethoscope to listen to the egg yesterday evening, but heard nothing, and all of our eggs were impossible to candle because of how thick the shells are. We've even used the bright led torch lights and can't see a thing.
Sorry this thread is so long, but I just wanted to try and fit as much info as I could
) I've got to get ready to pick up my girls, but I'm excited to finally join the forum I've been lurking around for several months now, and very much looking forward to meeting all of you and especially hearing y'alls thoughts on my questions above!
Thank you so much!!
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Who incidentally, shares the Dum Dum nickname occasionally. Most recently while trying his heart out to convince even dum-dummier hens that deep under the house is a great place to lay eggs... "What spiderweb crown, lady-who-shakes-the-chicken-feeder?" "Dum Dum want yumyum? Gerrout from under the house!"
