Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[ChiknKrazy]

Great story and great pic!   btw if that hen or other hens are laying, eggs would be fertile.. a way to get more naked necks?

Yes, that's true but I'd love to keep the lines pure. I want other naked neck hens and not only that but all of my hens have rooster to them already.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I just got our naked neck Turken today, he doesn't have his spurs and looks pretty young. The woman I got him from had an interesting back story. So back in October her lighter colored red sex-link hen got out. She looked frantically for her all over her neighborhood asking if anyone had seen her and if they had to please put her back into her fenced around chicken run. Well a neighbor found her and text the lady while she was at work and let her know her chicken was back safe and sound. She was eager to go see her hen, but her hen had been returned but with a companion also. She never had never seen this other chicken before, so that evening she went around asking if anyone had lost their pet chicken? No one claimed this odd chicken, she called animal control who informed her "She" is actually a "He" and roosters are banned in her town of Paradise. They took her report and told her she had to find him a home. She looked for a home while posting him to Craigslist and even in the newspaper. Which made matters worse she thought that someone had abused, neglected, cut off his feathers, or he had some disease and that's why he had missing neck and some breast feathers lol I answered her ad and eased her worry. I said "that is a naked neck turken, he's a young rooster. I told her I'd take him, and well here we are. He's healthy, vibrant, and beautiful. I'm putting him in a 30 day quarantine just in case. Just so in case something pops up that it won't spread to my clock. Her coops were extremely clean though. So now I have a Turken but need hens lol

Great story, and such a handsome sweet boy! I just want to reach right through the screen and hug him!!! (I think it's because he reminds me a little of my beloved Tank.)

Quote: I can relate - I don't really have a "pure line" thing going, per se, but I do have set families with devoted groups of roosters and hens, and so I know what you mean. But see if you can get him some girlfriends in the meanwhile so he'll be happy and not cranky. My Tank had some hatchery Speckled Sussex girls for a while, whom he adored. When I found a home for them (no place for them in my breeding plans) and gave him new girlfriends (German New Hampshires), there was a brief adjustment period, but he is just as devoted to them now. Won't eat a single sunflower seed without making sure that one of his girls doesn't want it first. I have found many NN boys to be wonderful (and enough are this way that there's no reason to keep a mean one).

I've been thinking about this - does anyone else find themselves getting more attached to their cockerels/roosters than hens/pullets, since usually you have to make more choices about which boys to keep? I seem to be much more emotionally attached to all my boys, even if we don't cuddle...

- Ant Farm

 

[ChiknKrazy]

Great story, and such a handsome sweet boy! I just want to reach right through the screen and hug him!!! (I think it's because he reminds me a little of my beloved Tank.)
I can relate - I don't really have a "pure line" thing going, per se, but I do have set families with devoted groups of roosters and hens, and so I know what you mean. But see if you can get him some girlfriends in the meanwhile so he'll be happy and not cranky. My Tank had some hatchery Speckled Sussex girls for a while, whom he adored. When I found a home for them (no place for them in my breeding plans) and gave him new girlfriends (German New Hampshires), there was a brief adjustment period, but he is just as devoted to them now. Won't eat a single sunflower seed without making sure that one of his girls doesn't want it first. I have found many NN boys to be wonderful (and enough are this way that there's no reason to keep a mean one).

I've been thinking about this - does anyone else find themselves getting more attached to their cockerels/roosters than hens/pullets, since usually you have to make more choices about which boys to keep? I seem to be much more emotionally attached to all my boys, even if we don't cuddle...

- Ant Farm 

Your Tank is absolutely stunning!! The lady said our Trump is very tame, but tried pecking my husband but I think the reason is we're new to him and he needs to adjust. She said her children played and hugged Trump and he never showed signs of aggression or aggressive behaviors. He let me feed and water him without trouble, in fact I called him over. He seems nervous and timid but that's to be expected. I talk to him softly and it seems to help, I know he'll adjust to me and it'll take time. I'm going to try and look for hens in my area, hopefully someone in Oroville CA will have a naked neck hen or two they'll sell.

 

[DesertChic]

Great story, and such a handsome sweet boy! I just want to reach right through the screen and hug him!!! (I think it's because he reminds me a little of my beloved Tank.)
I can relate - I don't really have a "pure line" thing going, per se, but I do have set families with devoted groups of roosters and hens, and so I know what you mean. But see if you can get him some girlfriends in the meanwhile so he'll be happy and not cranky. My Tank had some hatchery Speckled Sussex girls for a while, whom he adored. When I found a home for them (no place for them in my breeding plans) and gave him new girlfriends (German New Hampshires), there was a brief adjustment period, but he is just as devoted to them now. Won't eat a single sunflower seed without making sure that one of his girls doesn't want it first. I have found many NN boys to be wonderful (and enough are this way that there's no reason to keep a mean one).

I've been thinking about this - does anyone else find themselves getting more attached to their cockerels/roosters than hens/pullets, since usually you have to make more choices about which boys to keep? I seem to be much more emotionally attached to all my boys, even if we don't cuddle...

- Ant Farm

YES, YES and YES! I have more friendly affectionate roosters than hens, which makes it tough too. They're so beautiful and so good to the hens....and I can come up with dozens of excuses to keep each one "just in case".

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
Yep - and I can recognize each of their individual crows at 4:45 am, too!!!!

It doesn't bother me, I just think "Good morning, Tank! Good morning JoJo and Earl! Good morning, Monkey! Good morning, Snape! Good morning, Goodwin! Dumbledore, you seem to have overslept!"

- Ant Farm

 

[ChiknKrazy]

Great story, and such a handsome sweet boy! I just want to reach right through the screen and hug him!!! (I think it's because he reminds me a little of my beloved Tank.)
I can relate - I don't really have a "pure line" thing going, per se, but I do have set families with devoted groups of roosters and hens, and so I know what you mean. But see if you can get him some girlfriends in the meanwhile so he'll be happy and not cranky. My Tank had some hatchery Speckled Sussex girls for a while, whom he adored. When I found a home for them (no place for them in my breeding plans) and gave him new girlfriends (German New Hampshires), there was a brief adjustment period, but he is just as devoted to them now. Won't eat a single sunflower seed without making sure that one of his girls doesn't want it first. I have found many NN boys to be wonderful (and enough are this way that there's no reason to keep a mean one).

I've been thinking about this - does anyone else find themselves getting more attached to their cockerels/roosters than hens/pullets, since usually you have to make more choices about which boys to keep? I seem to be much more emotionally attached to all my boys, even if we don't cuddle...

- Ant Farm 

Do you have pictures of Tank X with speckled sussex?

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Also - anyone notice that the older the boys get, the less likely they are to crow early in the AM? Nice to know - most of my older boys only call once or twice and then shut up when it's before sunrise. It's the young ones who love hearing their own voices...

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
I never hatched from them - but I have photos of them together. They ADORED each other...




- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

I've been thinking about this - does anyone else find themselves getting more attached to their cockerels/roosters than hens/pullets, since usually you have to make more choices about which boys to keep? I seem to be much more emotionally attached to all my boys, even if we don't cuddle...

- Ant Farm

Hmm, trying to think if there was any overall trend in favoring one over the other.. think for me it's more even, or rather I can think of about as many favored roosters as hens..

My top favorite chicken was my first NN, McMurray- guess where she came from, ha. She followed me around all the time, waited on the back porch for me in the mornings, was the first chicken that let me pick up and pet despite zero attempt at taming or handling. This will come across as silly to others but I truly got sad on the day she died of old age.

Now that thinking about it some more, it does seem that mostly it is the roosters that get the attention, greeting me first and telling the hens to come over. Hard to miss them, while some of the hens are 'easy' to miss. Interesting question.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
I certainly agree that hens can be absolutely precious and sweet - and certainly easier to cuddle. (Just look at Sweetie and Puppy!!!!) I think the thing for me is that each of the 8 boys I have were CHOSEN and explicitly valued, with a decision that they were worth keeping. 8 cockerels/roosters is a lot for an urban neighborhood - no restriction on roosters, no complaints from neighbors (yet), but it's not like I'm in the country and can keep as many as I want, and I live with my fingers crossed all the time. Each one has to be explicitly valued, and there has to be a good reason he's here. The hens are really sweet, for sure, but for correct ratios of males to females, in my current flock, NO pullets get culled unless grossly abnormal/deformed/diseased. (I can always exclude them from actual breeding.) Boys need to be special to be kept, vs. the boys resting in the freezer...

- Ant Farm