my new hampshires.

[speckledhen]

They were the true dominecker. I started to order some but the roosters grandma had were always mean.

I've only had the Barred Rocks, not the Doms. I never keep mean roosters. Even with the Belgian D'Anvers, males known to be little snots, I only keep the milder mannered ones. Life's too short, you know? Don't want to watch my back, especially since we free range and we live on a rocky, root-ridden, uneven mountain property and I would rather not be knocked off my feet by some rooster with an attitude.

So many folks have tales from childhood about mean roosters, don't they?

 

[earlyredrooster]

I've only had the Barred Rocks, not the Doms. I never keep mean roosters. Even with the Belgian D'Anvers, males known to be little snots, I only keep the milder mannered ones. Life's too short, you know? Don't want to watch my back, especially since we free range and we live on a rocky, root-ridden, uneven mountain property and I would rather not be knocked off my feet by some rooster with an attitude.

So many folks have tales from childhood about mean roosters, don't they?

Her leghorns were mild mannered, she said it was just the dominecker nature.

 

[speckledhen]

Could be the line of Doms she had. Temperament is heritable, generally. If you breed from non human aggressive males, you tend to get more like their sire, though nothing is 100%, of course. That's why folks love to get the sons out of my Delaware rooster, Isaac. He throws super easygoing males almost every time.

Interesting that her Leghorns were easygoing. They have a rep as being flighty, but then, could be times have changed with big hatcheries messing with things as they have, as in messing things up.

 

[earlyredrooster]

New Hampshires are a great breed, though the hatcheries have messed with them, as they have some of the other great old breeds. They vary so much by whichever hatchery they come from. I had two from Ideal that were positively bright orange and a friend had one that was chestnut red. I now have one from Mt. Healthy, giving hatcheries one more chance to redeem themselves. Hope this one doesn't die from reproductive malfunction like most of my hatchery hens have. Some folks here have the old German line of NHs. I hatched some but they were all males so rehomed them all. Beautiful birds.

When you say "dominickers", do you mean Dominiques or Barred Plymouth Rocks? The Dominique has a rose comb and is the first American breed. Barred Rocks were developed from the Doms. I love the Barred Rocks, my absolutely favorites. I fell in love with them from my first hatchery hens and now have some of the long bred Stukel heritage line, so different from the hatchery girls, but I love them all.

Never owned a Leghorn, love the rounder breeds, personally. White eggs look strange to me now, LOL.

Oh, welcome to BYC!

I know what you mean about color. I bought these at t.s.c. all at the same time and they run from almost gold to a deep brick red.

 

[speckledhen]

I know what you mean about color. I bought these at t.s.c. all at the same time and they run from almost gold to a deep brick red.

I have two NH chicks here that are about 6 weeks old, one will go with a friend back to KY and I'm keeping one. They are definitely different shades already. One already has lots of black ticking in the hackles and tail and the other just has interesting lighter tipped feathers all over her.

 

[earlyredrooster]

Could be the line of Doms she had. Temperament is heritable, generally. If you breed from non human aggressive males, you tend to get more like their sire, though nothing is 100%, of course. That's why folks love to get the sons out of my Delaware rooster, Isaac. He throws super easygoing males almost every time.

Interesting that her Leghorns were easygoing. They have a rep as being flighty, but then, could be times have changed with big hatcheries messing with things as they have, as in messing things up.

Messing things up is right. I think I will use my grandpa's strategy, keep two roosters of each and turn one loose every day unless you are breeding true.

 

[earlyredrooster]

I have two NH chicks here that are about 6 weeks old, one will go with a friend back to KY and I'm keeping one. They are definitely different shades already. One already has lots of black ticking in the hackles and tail and the other just has interesting lighter tipped feathers all over her.

We bought ten, strait run, they are about nine weeks old, but I can only say two for sure are roosters, can't tell what the rest are.

 

[speckledhen]

We bought ten, strait run, they are about nine weeks old, but I can only say two for sure are roosters, can't tell what the rest are.

These were sexed pullets, but you know how that goes sometimes.

Here are the two NHs, so you can see they are a bit different from each other. Two pictures of each.




And the other,





And with those, got two Buff Orpington sexed pullets, one of which was driving me crazy feathering like all the blue Orp cockerels I ever raised over the years, but at 6 weeks, still no enlarged comb, though the little critter still has no real tail like the other. I really broke my new rule about buying hatchery stock, but my friend needed new blood in her layers and she's coming to take one NH and one BO back with her and my hens are so old now, I thought I'd give Mt. Healthy's birds one chance to have better genetics than the other big name hatchery.

 

[earlyredrooster]

These were sexed pullets, but you know how that goes sometimes. Here are the two NHs, so you can see they are a bit different from each other. Two pictures of each. And the other, And with those, got two Buff Orpington sexed pullets, one of which was driving me crazy feathering like all the blue Orp cockerels I ever raised over the years, but at 6 weeks, still no enlarged comb, though the little critter still has no real tail like the other. I really broke my new rule about buying hatchery stock, but my friend needed new blood in her layers and she's coming to take one NH and one BO back with her and my hens are so old now, I thought I'd give Mt. Healthy's birds one chance to have better genetics than the other big name hatchery.

Here are two of mine.

 

[speckledhen]

Since you got yours from TSC, and I do think they are mostly getting theirs this year from Mt. Healthy, we have them from the same place, I'd say.