One Chicken Keeps her Tail Held High

[ejtalbert]

I have a 10 week old flock. 2 barred rocks, 2 silver laced wyandottes, and 1 starlight green egger.
One of my chickens is odd, compared to the rest. She always has her tail propped up high, and she likes to sleep on her side.
She seems to have some sort of authority over the rest of the chickens, they always follow her where she goes.
I bought 5 pullets, but I am worried I might have gotten a roo.
Can anyone explain, please?
(the photo of her stretching out is from about 3 weeks ago, she still does it, but I don't have a more recent shot)

 

[rosemarythyme]

Oh, good. Thank you for sharing that option with me!

"Neutering" (caponizing) is pretty tough to do, very few vets are willing or capable of doing it, so most people who know how to caponize do it at home. It's surgery, their testicles are inside the body up behind the ribs. So not really an option for most folks...

 

[Kabootar]

Did they say they wanted to eat their rooster? And if they did do it, they would probably kill him...
And, worthless? In my opinion, no life is worthless.

I don't mean to be rude and I completely appreciate your perspective. However ever if we keep chickens, then we should try to harvest our own meat. We see baby chicks getting squished and killed in the cruelest of ways.

It doesn't have to be this way, we can caponize them and we can keep with hens and then we can process them and eat them as we need. We don't need to raise Cornish Cross chicks and harvest them all at once and put them in freezer. This is not how we were supposed to raise and consume poultry.

You know agriculture is not always sunshine and lollypopski, sometimes it's a lonely job. Sometimes I think about this industrialization of agriculture and I realise now we don't have farm cows, farm pigs or farm hens. Now we have dairy farms, pig farms and chicken farms. This is very unhealthy and cruel.

 

[FluffyBottomBantams]

Fertile eggs are just as edible as non fertile and the embryo doesn’t start growing until it’s been sat on or in an incubator for a bit. If you crack open a fertile egg you may not even know it’s fertile, sometimes they have a little bulls-eye or a blood spot on the yolk but we rarely see anything liek that and we have three roosters so our eggs are definitely fertile.(we’ve also had a hatch recently with 100% fertility)

 

[TheOddOneOut]

You could neuter him. His harmorns will settle down. They will be like a hen, he will not crow, and can't fertiliz eggs.

Nope! Nope Nope. Caponizing is super risky and expensive. It just gives you a sad, fat male chicken who tries to sit on eggs.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I don't mean to be rude and I completely appreciate your perspective. However ever if we keep chickens, then we should try to harvest our own meat. We see baby chicks getting squished and killed in the cruelest of ways.

It doesn't have to be this way, we can caponize them and we can keep with hens and then we can process them and eat them as we need. We don't need to raise Cornish Cross chicks and harvest them all at once and put them in freezer. This is not how we were supposed to raise and consume poultry.

You know agriculture is not always sunshine and lollypopski, sometimes it's a lonely job. Sometimes I think about this industrialization of agriculture and I realise now we don't have farm cows, farm pigs or farm hens. Now we have dairy farms, pig farms and chicken farms. This is very unhealthy and cruel.

Thank you for being very polite, I appreciate it. I understand your perspective better now.

 

[Kabootar]

Thank you for being very polite, I appreciate it. I understand your perspective better now.

You see when we keep a group of heavily inbred single breed of a species in unsanitary conditions in a confined area we make ideal conditions for pathogens to spread. The animals kept under such conditions are stressed that weakens their immunity further making them more susceptible to dangerous pathogens that's why those animals are heavily dosed with all kinds of antibiotics and medications.

Even after doing all that most of them need heavy government subsidies. I don't know about the States, but in Europe and other parts of the world, they always run in loss because there's always more supply than demand. These industrial farms are very productive, but they are neither profitable nor healthy nor ethical. That's just my two cents.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Looks male to me. The side resting is just sun bathing.

 

[Sammjochan]

Oh, good! Thank you! One more question, (sorry) will the hens become broody with a male around? Or is there no obvious downside other than one less chicken’s eggs?

The hens wont necessarily become broody just because there is a rooster around..our hens have had a rooster around their while lifes, but we only have one or 2 (our silkies) that become broody. So I wouldn't worry to much. And on the bright side, if you decide you would like to hatch chicks from your own flock you can!

 

[Kabootar]

"Neutering" (caponizing) is pretty tough to do, very few vets are willing or capable of doing it, so most people who know how to caponize do it at home. It's surgery, their testicles are inside the body up behind the ribs. So not really an option for most folks...

Well it never hurts to learn. Afterall "rehoming" a rooster is also difficult and so is managing a mob of rambunctious cockerels rampaging in your backyard. They also keep people from hatching their own farm eggs.