Otcho
In the Brooder
- Mar 2, 2026
- 8
- 10
- 21
CW: brief discussion of bitty and hen loss; evaluation of chickens for breeding programs, culling, and processing
This is my introduction post, both for myself and my chickens. As of the time I'm writing this, I'm in a very transitional period of my chicken-keeping life. I had very little control of when and what birds were under my care for the past two years. That will be changing soon, but I'm making the best of the resources I have, carving out a productive and positive future for the silly yardbirds I've grown to care for. I own six hens and two roosters, here are their names and a bit about each one:
Fraternité is my Black Copper Marans rooster, the first rooster I've ever owned. He was purchased as a bitty in April 2025, along with Liberté and Égalité, from a feed store in the wake of a cat attack that claimed the lives of the majority of my first flock (RIP Miss Kara, Ellie, Buttercup, and Grapes). Fraternité is now almost a year old and a handful to deal with. He's friendly towards other roosters, but an absolute menace to human shoes. He's anxious, crows 24/7, and is notorious for "lying" (tidbitting at nothing
). He was picked on as an adolescent by my late Beauty and Eggbert (the only survivors of the cat attack), and it seems he's never gotten past it, so I'm patient with him and his peculiarities. Still, his sons are all destined for freezer camp.
Liberté is my American Bresse hen. She's the smallest, but the loudest and most territorial; her spot as the head hen is unilaterally unchallenged. Surprisingly, she's not a cruel feathery overlord. She's more concerned with finding a high-up place to nap. She's gone broody several times since she began laying, but her egg-sitting will is yet to withstand the temptation of dried worms. I'm in the process of securing her an American Bresse rooster to hatch out more Bresse birds, but as of March 2026, she's fiercely loyal to Fraternité.
Égalité is my Lavender Orpington hen (and current profile picture on here!). She has a quiet, "crunchy" voice that I rarely hear unless she's getting a health checkup, adorably beady eyes, and a comb/waddle-to-head-ratio that I adore. However, she also has a bad case of tail-shredder. "Tail-shredder" is a colloquial name for an understudied mutation that often rides with lavender, causing brittle feathers with a "shredded" appearance, especially on the affected chickens' back and tail area. She also has a non-standard ear lobe color (brownish-grey with white spots), and lays the tiniest eggs. For these reasons, as well as lav/lav chick mortality and space/biosecurity concerns, I'm not aiming to produce any more Lavender Orpingtons from her in her lifetime. I keep her around as my beloved pet whom I'll hatch some BYMs with ^^ That's an entirely different post, however...
Fraternité, Liberté, and Égalité were raised with two Silver-Laced Wyandotte chicks, Millie and Dottie. However, they both failed to gain weight and passed away before they were a week old. I was then gifted two Rhode Island Red bitties, Dorothy and Emily. Dorothy, Emily, as well as the adult hens Beauty and Eggbert, perished last summer (June 2025) in their coop, presumably from heat stroke. Fraternité and Liberté were miraculously fine, but Égalité seemed lethargic and was unsteady on her feet, shuffling sideways. I took her inside to sit with me on the couch while I processed everything that had happened, and she's made a full recovery since.
After this tragedy, I was informed that five more birds would be in my possession. Supposedly, they were all pullets, three Speckled Sussexes and two Sapphire Gems. None of them panned out exactly as I thought they would (nor as they were sold
), but I couldn't be any happier with the lot I ended up with.
Sassy is my confident, social butterfly Lavender Orpington(?) hen. She was sold as a Sapphire Gem, but carries two copies of Lavender, has shredded tail feathers, and is identical in body shape and size to Égalité, her closest pal. Sassy has wrinklier face skin than Égalité, however, as well as lighter, chocolate eyes and a larger comb and wattles. Sassy also has a purple band on her left shank. They can often be seen foraging in the leaves or "floating" across the yard together like two twin rain clouds. Within days of being introduced to the flock, Sassy climbed the social ladder and was roosting next to Fraternité. Her pacifistic nature, much like Égalité's, is the only thing keeping the Orpingtons below Liberté in the pecking order. She also possesses the same, non-standard ear lobe color as Égalité, so any of her offspring will contribute to my experimental projects/meat bird needs.
Thetis is my "Sapphire Gem"* hen. She's the most energetic bird I own, and admittedly difficult to catch whenever she won't go into the coop at night. She isn't close to any of the other birds in particular. Instead, she goes off on her own or hovers near me while grazing. She isn't low on the pecking order by any means, though. She's over both Bielefelder hens (Green Bean and Weezer) and isn't a pushover for Pheobus or Fraternité. Égalité, Sassy, and Thetis generally don't ever peck one another, so their exact hierarchy is ambiguous for now.
*"Sapphire Gem," in air quotes, because I'm 99.9% sure that she is not that same production hybrid. She does have one copy of Blue-Black-Splash/BBS (Bl/bl+), but she appears to be heterozygous for Fibromelanosis (Fm/fm+); her comb is a desaturated shade of red, her wattles are spotted with black, and her earlobes are almost completely black with the exception of the lowermost part. Her skin beneath her down feathers has a purple hue and her legs are darker than Liberté, my Bresse's. If that wasn't peculiar enough, her "eyebrows" (the small feathers on either side of her comb, I can't find an anatomical name for these :< ) have begun losing pigment in the past few months, and this "bleached" appearance is spreading to the rest of her head. She also has pinkish leakage at the front of her body (e+/_ Wildtype salmon breast?). She's a visually striking BYM, and I may post a separate thread about her plumage alone. This May, I'll be incubating some of her eggs (fertilized by my Bielefelder rooster, Pheobus) as a test cross, and also to balance out my hen-to-rooster ratio. That's a whole other topic, though
Pheobus is my Bielefelder rooster. Both his sex and his breed were the most difficult for me to discern, though, to be fair, I was deeply in denial about him being a roo (his pointy saddle feathers and double-barring are what made me finally accept reality). He was sold as a Speckled Sussex pullet. He was clearly no Speckled Sussex, but he looked like a pullet upon arrival. I've heard that Bielefelder males can be late bloomers, and Pheobus definitely was. His comb stayed small and relatively colorless until after male-specific feathering came in. He was also mostly bald whenever I first started taking care of him, and had an awful mite infestation which has since been thoroughly taken care of. Pheobus is the most human-friendly chicken I've ever had. He comes up to me whenever I'm in the run, swiping his beak against my pants leg (I always joke that this is his "inspection," that he's making sure I'm safe to be around his hens), and that behavior has surprisingly rubbed off on some of the others! He's as respectful to the hens as a hormonal cockerel can be, but is an absolute feed hog! I've deluded myself into thinking he was ill several times, but his ravenous appetite assures me that he doesn't have one scaly foot in the grave.
Green Bean is one of my two Bielefelder hens, with a green band on her left shank to distinguish her from Weezer. Green Bean has brighter, clearer(?) barring than Weezer, her "sister," as well as a more masculine face with a larger comb and wattles. Their contrasting appearances are much subtler than the differences in their temperament. Green Bean is the second-to-lowest in the pecking order, and she never lets Weezer forget it. Weezer wants to eat in the same spot as her? Peck. Weezer flaps her wings a bit too loudly? Peck. Green Bean isn't cruel, nor does she chase and terrorize Weezer, but she's definitely the dominant one between the two of them. They fought long and hard for their spot since they were small, and for now, Green Bean has won, and she relishes in that fact. Green Bean has zero tolerance for being held, and will pretend to be still, only to tumble out of your arms as soon as you relax your hold. She's a charming, spunky hen, so I aim to keep her best son to continue the line with clean barring. I doubt that son will be hatched this spring, though. I'll be processing any males from the upcoming incubated clutch, to save space, avoid cockfighting, and get hands-on practice.
Weezer is my second Bielefelder hen. She a blue band on her right shank. With a smaller comb and wattles (which I'm biased towards), a more flighty demeanor, and an adorable squeaky voice, she's the perfect underdog. Her barring is harder to see than Green Bean's, but she's incredibly precious and polite when being held. Weezer was the largest Bielefelder whenever they were young, but ironically, both Green Bean and once-tiny Pheobe (now Pheobus) have outgrown her. I'm under the impression that hens produce hens that are similar in temperament to their mothers'. Operating under this assumption, I think I'll mate Green Bean's hypothetical best son to one of Weezer's daughters/Weezer herself. I want to accomplish two things by doing this: improve Weezer's fuzzy barring genetics (if that persists into subsequent generations), and establish a Weezer-like temperament in my Bielefelder line. Yes, I am the CEO of counting my grand-chickens before they hatch, but I like to call it "being prepared."
Information about me: April 20th, 2026 will mark my 3rd year of chicken-keeping. I'm obsessed with all things genetics-related, I've watched every video on YouTube about the topic (seriously), and picked through most of the websites I could find, so recommendations would be appreciated. Other than caring for my birds, I spend my time studying Japanese (I'm self-assessed N4 level) and Spanish, though I just started with the latter. I'm not comfortable with pms unless it's about a listing/sale/etc. I live on the East Coast of the United States.
After I post my "Meet the Flock" article in the Member Pages section, I'll edit this post and link it, as well as my Tumblr (if I ever get around to making an alt account).
This is my introduction post, both for myself and my chickens. As of the time I'm writing this, I'm in a very transitional period of my chicken-keeping life. I had very little control of when and what birds were under my care for the past two years. That will be changing soon, but I'm making the best of the resources I have, carving out a productive and positive future for the silly yardbirds I've grown to care for. I own six hens and two roosters, here are their names and a bit about each one:
Fraternité is my Black Copper Marans rooster, the first rooster I've ever owned. He was purchased as a bitty in April 2025, along with Liberté and Égalité, from a feed store in the wake of a cat attack that claimed the lives of the majority of my first flock (RIP Miss Kara, Ellie, Buttercup, and Grapes). Fraternité is now almost a year old and a handful to deal with. He's friendly towards other roosters, but an absolute menace to human shoes. He's anxious, crows 24/7, and is notorious for "lying" (tidbitting at nothing
). He was picked on as an adolescent by my late Beauty and Eggbert (the only survivors of the cat attack), and it seems he's never gotten past it, so I'm patient with him and his peculiarities. Still, his sons are all destined for freezer camp.
Liberté is my American Bresse hen. She's the smallest, but the loudest and most territorial; her spot as the head hen is unilaterally unchallenged. Surprisingly, she's not a cruel feathery overlord. She's more concerned with finding a high-up place to nap. She's gone broody several times since she began laying, but her egg-sitting will is yet to withstand the temptation of dried worms. I'm in the process of securing her an American Bresse rooster to hatch out more Bresse birds, but as of March 2026, she's fiercely loyal to Fraternité.
Égalité is my Lavender Orpington hen (and current profile picture on here!). She has a quiet, "crunchy" voice that I rarely hear unless she's getting a health checkup, adorably beady eyes, and a comb/waddle-to-head-ratio that I adore. However, she also has a bad case of tail-shredder. "Tail-shredder" is a colloquial name for an understudied mutation that often rides with lavender, causing brittle feathers with a "shredded" appearance, especially on the affected chickens' back and tail area. She also has a non-standard ear lobe color (brownish-grey with white spots), and lays the tiniest eggs. For these reasons, as well as lav/lav chick mortality and space/biosecurity concerns, I'm not aiming to produce any more Lavender Orpingtons from her in her lifetime. I keep her around as my beloved pet whom I'll hatch some BYMs with ^^ That's an entirely different post, however...
Fraternité, Liberté, and Égalité were raised with two Silver-Laced Wyandotte chicks, Millie and Dottie. However, they both failed to gain weight and passed away before they were a week old. I was then gifted two Rhode Island Red bitties, Dorothy and Emily. Dorothy, Emily, as well as the adult hens Beauty and Eggbert, perished last summer (June 2025) in their coop, presumably from heat stroke. Fraternité and Liberté were miraculously fine, but Égalité seemed lethargic and was unsteady on her feet, shuffling sideways. I took her inside to sit with me on the couch while I processed everything that had happened, and she's made a full recovery since.
After this tragedy, I was informed that five more birds would be in my possession. Supposedly, they were all pullets, three Speckled Sussexes and two Sapphire Gems. None of them panned out exactly as I thought they would (nor as they were sold
), but I couldn't be any happier with the lot I ended up with.Sassy is my confident, social butterfly Lavender Orpington(?) hen. She was sold as a Sapphire Gem, but carries two copies of Lavender, has shredded tail feathers, and is identical in body shape and size to Égalité, her closest pal. Sassy has wrinklier face skin than Égalité, however, as well as lighter, chocolate eyes and a larger comb and wattles. Sassy also has a purple band on her left shank. They can often be seen foraging in the leaves or "floating" across the yard together like two twin rain clouds. Within days of being introduced to the flock, Sassy climbed the social ladder and was roosting next to Fraternité. Her pacifistic nature, much like Égalité's, is the only thing keeping the Orpingtons below Liberté in the pecking order. She also possesses the same, non-standard ear lobe color as Égalité, so any of her offspring will contribute to my experimental projects/meat bird needs.
Thetis is my "Sapphire Gem"* hen. She's the most energetic bird I own, and admittedly difficult to catch whenever she won't go into the coop at night. She isn't close to any of the other birds in particular. Instead, she goes off on her own or hovers near me while grazing. She isn't low on the pecking order by any means, though. She's over both Bielefelder hens (Green Bean and Weezer) and isn't a pushover for Pheobus or Fraternité. Égalité, Sassy, and Thetis generally don't ever peck one another, so their exact hierarchy is ambiguous for now.
*"Sapphire Gem," in air quotes, because I'm 99.9% sure that she is not that same production hybrid. She does have one copy of Blue-Black-Splash/BBS (Bl/bl+), but she appears to be heterozygous for Fibromelanosis (Fm/fm+); her comb is a desaturated shade of red, her wattles are spotted with black, and her earlobes are almost completely black with the exception of the lowermost part. Her skin beneath her down feathers has a purple hue and her legs are darker than Liberté, my Bresse's. If that wasn't peculiar enough, her "eyebrows" (the small feathers on either side of her comb, I can't find an anatomical name for these :< ) have begun losing pigment in the past few months, and this "bleached" appearance is spreading to the rest of her head. She also has pinkish leakage at the front of her body (e+/_ Wildtype salmon breast?). She's a visually striking BYM, and I may post a separate thread about her plumage alone. This May, I'll be incubating some of her eggs (fertilized by my Bielefelder rooster, Pheobus) as a test cross, and also to balance out my hen-to-rooster ratio. That's a whole other topic, though
Pheobus is my Bielefelder rooster. Both his sex and his breed were the most difficult for me to discern, though, to be fair, I was deeply in denial about him being a roo (his pointy saddle feathers and double-barring are what made me finally accept reality). He was sold as a Speckled Sussex pullet. He was clearly no Speckled Sussex, but he looked like a pullet upon arrival. I've heard that Bielefelder males can be late bloomers, and Pheobus definitely was. His comb stayed small and relatively colorless until after male-specific feathering came in. He was also mostly bald whenever I first started taking care of him, and had an awful mite infestation which has since been thoroughly taken care of. Pheobus is the most human-friendly chicken I've ever had. He comes up to me whenever I'm in the run, swiping his beak against my pants leg (I always joke that this is his "inspection," that he's making sure I'm safe to be around his hens), and that behavior has surprisingly rubbed off on some of the others! He's as respectful to the hens as a hormonal cockerel can be, but is an absolute feed hog! I've deluded myself into thinking he was ill several times, but his ravenous appetite assures me that he doesn't have one scaly foot in the grave.
Green Bean is one of my two Bielefelder hens, with a green band on her left shank to distinguish her from Weezer. Green Bean has brighter, clearer(?) barring than Weezer, her "sister," as well as a more masculine face with a larger comb and wattles. Their contrasting appearances are much subtler than the differences in their temperament. Green Bean is the second-to-lowest in the pecking order, and she never lets Weezer forget it. Weezer wants to eat in the same spot as her? Peck. Weezer flaps her wings a bit too loudly? Peck. Green Bean isn't cruel, nor does she chase and terrorize Weezer, but she's definitely the dominant one between the two of them. They fought long and hard for their spot since they were small, and for now, Green Bean has won, and she relishes in that fact. Green Bean has zero tolerance for being held, and will pretend to be still, only to tumble out of your arms as soon as you relax your hold. She's a charming, spunky hen, so I aim to keep her best son to continue the line with clean barring. I doubt that son will be hatched this spring, though. I'll be processing any males from the upcoming incubated clutch, to save space, avoid cockfighting, and get hands-on practice.
Weezer is my second Bielefelder hen. She a blue band on her right shank. With a smaller comb and wattles (which I'm biased towards), a more flighty demeanor, and an adorable squeaky voice, she's the perfect underdog. Her barring is harder to see than Green Bean's, but she's incredibly precious and polite when being held. Weezer was the largest Bielefelder whenever they were young, but ironically, both Green Bean and once-tiny Pheobe (now Pheobus) have outgrown her. I'm under the impression that hens produce hens that are similar in temperament to their mothers'. Operating under this assumption, I think I'll mate Green Bean's hypothetical best son to one of Weezer's daughters/Weezer herself. I want to accomplish two things by doing this: improve Weezer's fuzzy barring genetics (if that persists into subsequent generations), and establish a Weezer-like temperament in my Bielefelder line. Yes, I am the CEO of counting my grand-chickens before they hatch, but I like to call it "being prepared."
Information about me: April 20th, 2026 will mark my 3rd year of chicken-keeping. I'm obsessed with all things genetics-related, I've watched every video on YouTube about the topic (seriously), and picked through most of the websites I could find, so recommendations would be appreciated. Other than caring for my birds, I spend my time studying Japanese (I'm self-assessed N4 level) and Spanish, though I just started with the latter. I'm not comfortable with pms unless it's about a listing/sale/etc. I live on the East Coast of the United States.
After I post my "Meet the Flock" article in the Member Pages section, I'll edit this post and link it, as well as my Tumblr (if I ever get around to making an alt account).
Glad you joined.
