Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Fire Ant Farm]

@Fire Ant Farm Bane has a very intense stare. His coloring and body shape are very similar to my Ozzy. It'll be interesting to see how Bane develops.

Yeah, he's the only chicken I have that wins staring contests with me - it's not for nothing that he's Mr. Smith. I just need to get him some little sunglasses and an earbud...

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

Yeah, he's the only chicken I have that wins staring contests with me - it's not for nothing that he's Mr. Smith. I just need to get him some little sunglasses and an earbud...

- Ant Farm

But how does he treat Neo?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Bane stares down the other chickens as well. Seriously, he lowers his head and stares at the cockerel in question, and they all back down. He barely twitches a muscle. I've never seen him physically beat on anyone, but they are all wary of him - they know he won't put up with any funny business. Neo (who is a bit of a pest) will come up to him, but then runs away pretty quickly.

(I haven't checked Neo's belly for bugs, though...)

- Ant Farm

 

[LeafBlade12345]

he would be great in a staring contest for sure.... He reminds me of a turkey, and his eyes are so beautiful....very strong yellow...nice bird!

 

[DesertChic]

Bane stares down the other chickens as well. Seriously, he lowers his head and stares at the cockerel in question, and they all back down. He barely twitches a muscle. I've never seen him physically beat on anyone, but they are all wary of him - they know he won't put up with any funny business. Neo (who is a bit of a pest) will come up to him, but then runs away pretty quickly.

(I haven't checked Neo's belly for bugs, though...)

- Ant Farm

You may have a really amazing cockerel in Bane, then. That's precisely the type of behavior my "great uniter" Bielefelder rooster displayed and he is an amazing rooster! I can count on one hand how many times I've actually seen him fight. He has a strong presence that is sufficient to get the others in line and he's protective of everyone...the first to sound the alarm when a potential predator is around...the first to round up the hens and usher them to safety...and the one rooster who seeks out the other flocks to bring them to the best grazing areas, dust bathing areas, etc. He unites all of my various flocks and keeps the peace. He's also very gentle with the girls when he mates in spite of his massive size. Given time, Bane could turn out the same way.

 

[chickengr]

OK, my NNs are 12 weeks old now. Yesterday was weighing day, but I was a bit under the weather, so they got weighed today instead. Interestingly, of the boys, the NN phenotypes (Tank, Mouse, Neo) have all dipped compared to the Nns (Bane, Dozer, Apoc - and well, Cypher's always been small). I wonder if it's an effect of the cold weather (in the 40s/occasional high 30s at night)...


I'm sort of obsessed with watching the cockerels in anticipation of having to choose two or three (I posted an insanely long stream-of-consciousness post about it over on the Breeding for Production Thread, in case you've run out of sleeping pills...)

Besides just having data, the advantage to doing this is to get my hands around each bird each week - at this point, visual appearance and weight isn't sufficient info re: body condition and shape... Bane/Mr. Smith has really pulled away from the others - he's huge, and has a wide blocky body. Like lifting a bowling ball. (And no, he didn't particularly enjoy weighing.) He's iridescent black, with very faint small red highlights showing up on his back, and he's getting red "hair". He's the only one crowing, and the Cream Legbar cockerel has been tutoring him in proper technique every morning. I am not sure about keeping him or not (rose comb, Nn phenotype). Dozer has pulled past Tank by a little bit, but he is tall and lanky - not a wide body/much breast, but his legs seem to have gotten so long and big this past week - it seems that all the weight is in those honkin' blue legs! Tank still looks good. Not sure if the weight fall off is real or not, we'll see, but he's not unwell or being picked on that I can tell. Again, maybe cold weather is slowing him down a little. Trinity (all black, NN) has now passed Mystique (partridge Nn) as biggest pullet - she'd make pretty black babies with Mr. Smith (I think of him as Mr. Smith as a grown up. He's certainly got the intimidating stare down...

)

Got some photos of Bane today. (I didn't have a lot of recent pics him.)


See there red coming up on the back? Like Neo, but much less of it so far.

On patrol...

His red hair's coming in...



- Ant Farm

he is handsome and aware of it!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

You may have a really amazing cockerel in Bane, then. That's precisely the type of behavior my "great uniter" Bielefelder rooster displayed and he is an amazing rooster! I can count on one hand how many times I've actually seen him fight. He has a strong presence that is sufficient to get the others in line and he's protective of everyone...the first to sound the alarm when a potential predator is around...the first to round up the hens and usher them to safety...and the one rooster who seeks out the other flocks to bring them to the best grazing areas, dust bathing areas, etc. He unites all of my various flocks and keeps the peace. He's also very gentle with the girls when he mates in spite of his massive size. Given time, Bane could turn out the same way.

Here's hoping...

Tank has been the same way as well (though he's not top any more). Dozer runs around picking fights, I'm afraid, and runs for cover when they are startled (while Tank and Bane both stand watch by the door).

But I keep telling myself that they've got more time to show their behavior, and I should be patient. Meanwhile, I'm working to finish the coop so I can give the girls a bit of a break in their new home before things get too rowdy. (Then the tractor will become a frat house!)

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

You may have a really amazing cockerel in Bane, then. That's precisely the type of behavior my "great uniter" Bielefelder rooster displayed and he is an amazing rooster! I can count on one hand how many times I've actually seen him fight. He has a strong presence that is sufficient to get the others in line and he's protective of everyone...the first to sound the alarm when a potential predator is around...the first to round up the hens and usher them to safety...and the one rooster who seeks out the other flocks to bring them to the best grazing areas, dust bathing areas, etc. He unites all of my various flocks and keeps the peace. He's also very gentle with the girls when he mates in spite of his massive size. Given time, Bane could turn out the same way.

Remind me again - do all your chickens run together when you're not breeding?

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

Remind me again - do all your chickens run together when you're not breeding?

- Ant Farm

Yep! They run together in the daytime, but they have separate coops to return to at night. It's kind of like a mini-neighborhood chicken style, with a daily block party. Most of the individual flocks still tend to favor the company of their "coop-mates" over the other birds, but there have been a few surprises where a bird from one flock suddenly jumps ship and joins another. And the boys also show a change in preference for certain girls. For example, one of my NN cockerels, Shiloh, has become very fond and protective of my White Rock girls that live in the Bielefelder pen. He hasn't convinced them to join him in the NN condo at night yet, but he sticks very close to them throughout the day and even stands guard when they go into the Biel pen to lay their eggs. And when one of the other roosters tries to mate with them they run to Shiloh for protection. It's totally changed the hierarchy in the yard. Chicken culture just fascinates me.

 

[draye]

Wednesday the 2nd of December I separated my cockerels from the pullets.

Funny thing today I've got a littke pullet that decided my feet are monsters or something. She walks in front of me staring at my feet, so today I wiggled them at her. She started to attack but backed off and ran. It was way too funny to watch.