New to BYC and the entire scope of Self-Sufficient Living

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Hi && Welcome!!!
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So now is the Attack of the Big Bird. We have 3 roosters and 5 hens left after all the "troubles." Lost a total of 4 birds (2 ducks and 2 hens) but now that the playing field has leveled out for the rooster and hen ratio we are experiencing some "domestic disputes" between the two largest Roosters. Booster the Rooster ( as he is properly named ) is the largest of all birds we have has been on a war path fighting the next largest of Roosters - Clyde .
It has gotten so bad that when i release them into the run in the morning, the rest of the flock sits back in the coop and those two go at it for about 30 minutes before the rest will even go outside.

my fear is that i have read that if one of my birds gets wounded enough to show blood, the others will pick at it until it is dead . then if the injured bird is removed from the "pack" until healed; when he/she is returned the others will shun him/her as they will not remember the association and think the bird is a stranger.

how much of this is true ?

how much of this can i not chenge, and should i jut let nature figure its on way with the birds ?
 
Well ...
we have been doing this for almost 6 months now and feeling quite a bit more comfortable. After the few problems we had with the death of 2 ducks (one from critters) and a loss of 2 hens (both to critters), we are not giving up.
We just added 5 more hens to our flock. now numbering 9 hens and traded a Rooster plus a few bucks for the trade to "seem" even. i think we paid about 3 bucks each. The hens are supposedly 1 year old and the Silke is 2.

i am for sure going to have to post some picks on here. i think the Silkie is the coolest by far. She is so tiny and totally black with little furry feet . i think she looks like no other chicken i have ever seen in person. my GF loves her.

The biggest difference in our birds and the new ones i got yesterday is the size (in general) . My birds , even hens, are huge. Almost 1 1/2 in weight and height.
Last night after we added them to our flock there was quite a bit of "pecking order" begin established. i figure that is somewhat normal and it , hopefully, will pass in due time.

i just cant see our Orphington Rooster (HUGE) and that little Silkie having much luck in the reproduction aspect . i just dont see how it is anatomically physical. but hey mother nature is one creative force.
 
Up to 6 chicks now with 2 more 'pipping' . I think that's what it is called when they crack open the shell but not outside totally yet. Already holding another set of 41 eggs for our next run at it.

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Back into the swing of things. Its been awhile and many yard birds later we have a very established flock both in the Chicken coop and in our home. We have added two children and at the sweet number of 14 yard birds. We tried to get a head start on added to our flock this year, but to no avail. We had around 30 we tried to incubate. But through frozen eggs and fluctuating temps we did not have one hatch. We tried a new method of leaving them alone for 10 days setting with large end upright. Then using the incubator. Well going back to our primary method. Has anyone had luck with cold temp getting eggs that had been frozen but not busted to incubate through the early months.

C & C Hatchery is running a bit behind schedule but will be in tune soon.

Good luck to all this season of Learning and growing less and less dependent on factory produced foods.
 

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