Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[NovaAman]

Its not just you.

Oz... Won't cook her. She is a daily layer normally. If she had went broody early in the year, before my spring chick limit, I would let her sit. She is Avery dedicated sitter. 100% egg hatch with her. She's just a dumb girl and after the chicks get about a week, starts to forget more and more. The first week she is a demon mom, then her craw takes over and her brains quit functioning. Lol. Love my poor bald pin cushion, Coco.

 

[lindz8504]

Wow, everyone must be busy this week! I know we have been! I was going to go do some errands for my grandmother on Monday, so Hubby left me the truck. On my way over there with our 2 youngest daughters the brakes went out! It was an adventure! I made it over there and didn't have any brake fluid, so I had my uncle run me to the store to get some, and came straight home (about 15 miles).... By the time I got home, I didn't have any fluid again. Hubby found a hole in the brake line and fixed it over 2 days, where he had to drop the gas tank, replace the brake line and put the gas tank back up. The good thing is that it was a $12 fix, and no one was hurt when the brakes went out!

On to chicken talk..... My fluffies are a week old, and already starting to get feathered out! Momma, is doing really good with all of them, including the adopted maran chicks! It has been chilly here this week, so I haven't let them out of the coop yet. Hoping to do that this weekend, when Hubby is here to help me watch the kids and the chickens! It is hard to keep up with everyone by myself, with 4 kids 6yo and under! I have an Australope rooster than I am debating on processing.... He is about 12-14 weeks old, and has always been flighty and somewhat "peckish" with the other chickens. I am afraid that he is going to end up getting rough and mean with the girls.... or even us! I have never touched him since he was about 4 weeks old. He freaks out if you are closer than 8-10 ft to him.... I have a cochin cockerel that is about 10 weeks old, and I am figuring that I will probably get at least one roo out of the hatchlings as well...... Any suggestions?

 

[scottcaddy]

Wow, everyone must be busy this week! I know we have been! I was going to go do some errands for my grandmother on Monday, so Hubby left me the truck. On my way over there with our 2 youngest daughters the brakes went out! It was an adventure! I made it over there and didn't have any brake fluid, so I had my uncle run me to the store to get some, and came straight home (about 15 miles).... By the time I got home, I didn't have any fluid again. Hubby found a hole in the brake line and fixed it over 2 days, where he had to drop the gas tank, replace the brake line and put the gas tank back up. The good thing is that it was a $12 fix, and no one was hurt when the brakes went out!

On to chicken talk..... My fluffies are a week old, and already starting to get feathered out! Momma, is doing really good with all of them, including the adopted maran chicks! It has been chilly here this week, so I haven't let them out of the coop yet. Hoping to do that this weekend, when Hubby is here to help me watch the kids and the chickens! It is hard to keep up with everyone by myself, with 4 kids 6yo and under! I have an Australope rooster than I am debating on processing.... He is about 12-14 weeks old, and has always been flighty and somewhat "peckish" with the other chickens. I am afraid that he is going to end up getting rough and mean with the girls.... or even us! I have never touched him since he was about 4 weeks old. He freaks out if you are closer than 8-10 ft to him.... I have a cochin cockerel that is about 10 weeks old, and I am figuring that I will probably get at least one roo out of the hatchlings as well...... Any suggestions?

If it was My bird, I would catch him up and manhandle him all over the place. Depending on how he handled that would tell me how long he had to live.
Scott

 

[lindz8504]

If it was My bird, I would catch him up and manhandle him all over the place. Depending on how he handled that would tell me how long he had to live.
Scott

The last time I had ahold of him he went ballistic and although I had his feet, he reached up and grabbed my wrist and pecked/bit me.... That was when he was still a small chick and he still left a purple place. So since you are in NC as well are you volunteering to come catch him and manhandle him? LOL....

Edited: I didn't mean that to sound snotty! He is the only one of my birds that makes me nervous.

 

[Bens-Hens]

For us Lindz, what roo we kept came down to genetics.

Our current chicken goal is to raise our own birds, head down to the run and come back with a dozen varied coloured eggs. Kind of a 'full cycle' thing, kind of 'like to freak people out with weird egg colours thing.

SO, for that reason, we needed different genes. We could mix dark roo genes over blue layers, or blue egg genes over dark layers and so on. Basically, none of our roo's really stood a chance once the short list was drawn. We processed based on size, spurred on by crowing. When it came down to one Barnevelder roo and one Araucana roo it was decided on nature. Our BV was nice, but he was flighty, hated to be touched or carried and was not showing any signs of being a good rooster. Where, Smudge, was already covering girls, was looking after them while out ranging, could be handled and never pecked anyone outside of mating.

Sorry it got kind of long, but that was how we came to decide who we kept. We will be attempting to re-home our last roo next week as roo duties will not be required for another year or so. We may keep one from our next hatch and see how that goes for a while again, but we can't make long term goals about roosters in suburbia!



Sorry about the average shot, but this is Curly's (BV) second keeper. It's next to Rosie's (RIR)She seems to have a try at laying about every 3 or so days, and a few have been thin shelled or broken. This one was in the sand this morning. Hope she settles into a nice routine soon. Really loving the colour she is producing!

 

[ozexpat]

The last time I had ahold of him he went ballistic and although I had his feet, he reached up and grabbed my wrist and pecked/bit me.... That was when he was still a small chick and he still left a purple place. So since you are in NC as well are you volunteering to come catch him and manhandle him? LOL....

I would throw something at him - about 40 grains of lead sitting in front of enough powder to make it travel at 1080 feet per second.

Balancing a problem animal with a little lead normally quietens them significantly.

Then I would turn him into soup.

 

[scottcaddy]

Quote:

I am over by the Fort Bragg that Ben liked so well <BG> and you are a fair bit to the west of me. I understand the grabbing and twisting with the beak that birds do. Use one hand on the legs and one hand around the neck. If you just want him dead, grab the neck and an hand axe.

Scott (who does have that talk with young roo's, sometimes they live, sometimes they end up soup.)

 

[lindz8504]

Thanks for the input Scott and Ben and Oz (you responded while I was typing this!). He is growing into a huge beautiful rooster, but his personality is very much a put off. I haven't talked the Hubby into processing our own chickens yet, and I haven't done it since I helped my grandparents when I was about 12. Even then I only helped pluck them!
As of right now, I am not overly concerned with the genetics. My cochin hen lays a cream colored egg when she isn't broody, and I am hoping that my Golden Comets (RSL) will lay a fairly nice brown egg and I have no idea what to expect from the BLR Wyandottes. When this set of hatchlings get older I will have FBC Marans who I am hoping are pullets, so that will be a dark brown egg. I would eventually like to add some blues and greens but probably won't until maybe next year or the following.



This was several weeks ago. He has nearly doubled in size!



And here are my buff Cochin bantam and French Black copper maran chicks!

 

[NovaAman]

I got a different take on roos... I don't handle them, I walk purposefully thru my yard, I don't threaten them, I don't man handle the hens so they don't get upset. Tired the hens from my hands, a few will let me pick them up, a few don't. I only man handle when they are on the roost. My boys I leave be for the most part, but they ALL come running for me when they see me, treats usually help.

That said, I will not tolerate a rude cockerel. They raise their hackles any little bit from early on, I know there destination. I continue to raise and feed them just as well, if not better because they are going to feed me. I do have cockerels that have had conniption fits at the age of your guy and totally freak out at being touched. There is no need to feet grab. The biggest part is to subdue the wings while bringing them in close, so you end with an arm around with that hand just under the crop, think football hold. The other hand you can then use to scratch on the keel, stroke the comb and wattles as they become more comfortable. Do that at roost time. Get them used to you this way. But honestly, if you want a lap roo, get a silkie, OR. Keep him with YOU as his only company for a while.

I have Strutter, Rod, Florus, Fritz, Mr. Ed, Ray, Yokie, Blue Boy, Big guy, and Pretty Boy. All are friendly enough, not attack roos, and all serve a function. They have good attitudes(once past the hormonal teenage stage) and they all refuse to be randomly picked up. Off the roost, they are ok though. Jeez... 10 freaking roosters! Didn't realise I had that many till I put all their names down.

As for eating, atleast 10 a year go in the cooker. No reason to keep a bad roo, no reason to kill them to early either 16-18 weeks is ideal. If your going to eat him, fatten jumpy with meat builder and corn.

 

[NovaAman]

Oh, can you pen him separate while he goes through the glass mole stage of cockerels? He's at the right age to start being a real jerk for the next two month or so. Nice thing here, Rod Stewart, my top roo, he does a great job at teaching them youngsters to behave... I have lots of missing tails prior to processing. Lol