My Liege Fighters at 20 weeks

[sasg]

Guess who’s a boy!! Never have I been so happy to hear a little chick crow. Lol.

 

[Digby57]

He’ll be a looker too!

 

[Digby57]

Oh man, I just hatched out a dozen chicks from my LF and they all have markings above the eyes...hope I don't have 12 roos! ha

I was wrong about this too. I swear my original batch wasn’t like this, but now I see I have either 5 pullets and 5 cockerels in this batch or 4/6. Must have just been coincidence that half of my original chicks were fairly drab and grew up to be hens.

 

[sasg]

My boy Phoenix is 4m old now. He’s a sweet boy. Getting some more coloring now too.

 

[Digby57]

He's got some unique color! Of the ~30 cockerels / roosters I've had I haven't had one quite like that. The closest was my boy blue who I sold after the breeding rotation. Not a great picture but he was basically like yours but a little less colorful. Excellent personality though.

 

[Amos-Moses]

View attachment 1483304 View attachment 1483303 View attachment 1483302 View attachment 1483300 View attachment 1483301 My boy Phoenix is 4m old now. He’s a sweet boy. Getting some more coloring now too.

He is beautiful! How does he get along with the other birds in your mixed flock? Is he looking like he'll turn out to be a good flock guardian, or is he rough on the smaller breed hens?

 

[Digby57]

I’m curious to see what sasg says, but the Liege hens are remarkably smaller than the males. My biggest hen took a long time to get to about 7-8lbs. So they are bigger than a typical hen, but they’re not as aggressive with each other as you may imagine.

The only time I had an issue was when they all came of age and I still had all the roosters and hens together all day and night. What I found was happening was that a rooster would proceed to mate and the alpha (or another) would try to interject himself. The males would never hurt each other, but there were instances where the hens took some collateral damage.

The real issue is that the roosters have huge toes and nails. I found that you better file their toenails (and spurs) regularly and you’ll be good. We just file them down so they’re good and round with a normal fingernail file. It’s a two person job, but monthly is plenty. Their feet are really large, even proportionally. I mean that middle toe is over 4” long. I’ve never specifically measured them but they are strangely large.

And I think they’re great guardians personally. They don’t run, that’s for sure.

 

[Amos-Moses]

Largest Rooster (6lbs at 20 weeks)
View attachment 1209951

Do you have any updates on this guy? Is he still the biggest? I’d love to see a picture of him now at 55weeks

 

[Digby57]

He (I called him Gene) ended up being second heaviest and 3rd tallest. I sold him and all the rest except the best hen and the very best rooster (a red partridge type color) after my breeding rotation was complete. So now I have those two plus 44 offspring from the 3 best roosters and 5 best hens (out of the original dozen). The oldest offspring are now 4.75 months, then 3.5 months, 2.25 months, and the youngest are 8 weeks old.

The rooster I kept I may breed again next spring and I will definitely be breeding that keeper hen again. I got some outstanding (I think) offspring from this rooster and this hen is the best layer I had by far. She is extra pretty and she lays 5+ eggs a week on average and some others laid about 4 weekly. A couple laid less than every third day. They are not great layers by any stretch.

The rooster I kept (Tiger) threw some noticeably larger chicks than all the other roosters, and now they’re still a little larger, but if they follow in their old man’s foot steps they will end up being significantly larger than the rest by 6 months or so.

Size isn’t my only criteria, but he also has the best temperament, both as far as being easy to work with and willing to challenge whatever comes around that he doesn’t like. That includes our dogs, hawks and the squeaky wheel on the wheel barrow, etc. lol.

I’ve slacked off on taking pictures, but I should start again. It’s just so hot out lately that I’m trying to do my chores as quickly as I can. I’m selling my culls for cheap and I’ve butchered a couple cockerels that I knew I wouldn’t be breeding. Those have been at 3.5 months and a little over 4 months, and they both were a meal for 3 easily. I expect them to be much better eating at 6 months and I really only need to keep a total of 3 (maybe only 2) for breeding next year. I’d rather not sell culls but there are a couple I might sell instead of butcher just because they are pretty though they don’t have the size.

Here in a couple more years I think I’ll have some great stock that I would be proud to sell for a fair price. Those that I’ve sold so far I’ve sold for $25 or $40 for a pair.

 

[Amos-Moses]

What is their flight capability? I'm assuming that as large birds it is limited. Do you think a cock be able to clear a 5' wire fence if he saw a threat he felt was worth attacking on the other side?