Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[froggie71]

Hope everyone is well.

Opa 90 chicks!

I can't even fathom. I can't wait to see how your emu eggs turn out. Your are a terrific friend.

easttxchick I love your lakenvelder chick

I don't remember ours looking so yellow.

YakLady what an awesome surprise. I've not seen a yak baby before. How adorable!

MagsC sounds like you had a nice day.

I'm sure I didn't catch up on everyone's posts, but I've found I spend way to much time on this laptop of mine and have begun to neglect my everyday chores.

ETA: After I posted this I checked my e-mail. I found this one to be appropriate:
MY LIVING WILL
Last night, my husband and I were sitting in the living room and I said to him, 'I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.'
He got up, unplugged the Computer, and threw out my wine.

 

[Opa]

Today is bright and sunny and my chickens aren't happy. The actually temperature got down to 15 last night and now it zoomed up to 19. The brief respite we had I think lulled everyone into thinking that spring was here. Even thought the calendar says it is when you live in this state you should never think that we are going to be rid of the cold until July.

 

[mamagardener]

Don't feel too bad Opa, we are having bad weather today too.
Yesterday was 58 and nice,
today 30 and SNOWING! I don't want to wear a coat today, I got spoiled and I have spring fever!

I have a question maybe someone can help me with. I have 6 hens, and am thinking of getting a rooster. There is a person nearby that is willing to give me a RIR 5 month old boy that she says is nice and has been handled by her kids. It is very important to me that he be nice because I have three children and the youngest is only 1 and a half.
Well my question is, will the personalities of my girls change once I get a rooster? My chickens are penned most of the day, but we let them out to free range about 3 or 4 hours a day. I just want behaviors to stay the same, they are friendly and allow my children to pick them up, eat out of their hands, and follow us around sometimes. Is the rooster going to change all that?

 

[Opa]

A rooster will change flock dynamics. You may find that he will not want the kids picking up the hens as he will perceive them to be a threat to "his" flock. If having you kids interact with the chickens is important I would advise against it.

 

[YakLady]

Hey, mamag!

I don't pretend to know all there is to know about chickens in general, but I can tell you how my experience went. I have a RIR roo, Jarhead, who I brought home when he was about 5 months old. He's huge and beautiful now. He was a sweet roo when I brought him home, and he's still a sweet roo. He follows me around with the entire flock if I'm out there with a bowl in my hand. It cracks my son up to see 27 chickens following at my heels. He's never once displayed any kind of aggression toward my son, who is 7 yrs old, or anyone else. If one of his girls calls him, though, he's right there. He takes his job seriously, and keeps an eye on all the girls. He's gentle with them, but I do have to keep his claws dull. He's so much bigger than some of them, that a few girls have lost some of their back feathers. I love having him around, even though I don't hatch out chicken eggs. It's good to know that he's out there watching over the girls. I once saw him chase after a hawk, flapping his wings and crowing the whole way. Then he ran back and rounded up the girls to make sure they were all present and accounted for. The girls are very laid back and personable. I have a few that are a bit stand-offish, but they were like that when I got them. I think the hens are actually more laid back, knowing that there's a roo looking out for them. If they get scared, they call out to him and he comes running to the rescue. Like I said, even though I have no use for fertilized eggs, I love having my roo.

ETA: Just saw Opa's post. Like I said, I know I don't know what's up with chickens most of the time, in general. Al I know is my own chickens. I would definitely listen to Opa's advice about such things.

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Good morning! My chickens are doing fine, although I'm SWIMMING in eggs.

 

[MagsC]

Hi all

Yes Sheila,lol, I think my oldest daughter was raised right. I am going here in a minute to let dogs outside and eat some venison stew my daughter brought.
Weather here, a little chilly, windy but its supposed to get to 50 so not complaining.
We have seen snow here as late as May....early as September.
Oh, got the notice in my email that my Pilgrim goose eggs have shipped!!!

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
I'm imagining you swimming in eggs. It's an odd vision. Are you doing the backstroke?

 

[Opa]

Mamma G, the YakLady's advise is every bit as good as mine. There are so many variables when it comes to chickens. You may get a very calm and gentle rooster and then there are the other kind.
Currently I have a very gentle welsummer rooster. He is easy on the hens and my other welsummer roosters have also be calm and gentle birds and reasonably quiet. I have a rather laid back bantam blue orpington, a calm spangled hamburg, and a more aggressive vorwerk. The three roosters are kept in large cages 2;x2'x4'with attached houses, so they really are a good indicator of how they would react in a large flock or free ranging.
My final rooster is supposed to be a pure mille fleur pyncheon bantam but I suspect that he isn't. I think in reality he is half chicken and the other half must be rattlesnake. He epitomizes the ultimate mean rooster. I had him in a breeding cage with a pyncheion hen and I reached in to retrieve an egg. It was laying less than a foot from the opening. Before I could remove my hand he had nailed me. I withdrew my hand to discover 12=14 holes in the back of my hand.
You can sometime change the aggressive temperment of a rooster and Rooster Red has a very good thread detailing the exact proven methods. I would recommend reading his thread because the techniques he discusses work.
I guess my best advice is that you try to evaluate your rooster, try him before children are allow anywhere near him, and determine if you want invest the time and effort to change his aggressiveness.
Also remember that there are lots of opinion out there and you must winnow through them to find what works for you.

 

[Opa]

Quote:
Doesn't that make your swimming suit hard to wash?