Polish Thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[polishmom1744]

You are not giving me much hope here... Not at all what I wanted to hear! I wanted a happy ending where the Orpington realised the repercussions of her evil ways and finally understands the true meaning of christmas and brought presents for tiny polish Tim on Christmas day!

...or something like that.

Bummer. My EE birds are totally mellow with the banties as is my barnevelder. I think my orp is insecure because shes the bottom of the big birds and is trying to stay above the little ones. She just lost a rank to my banty cochin who got really defensive after hatching her chick and has been pecking back when she or her baby gets bullied. I'm very proud of that little hen for being such a confident momma her first time, but it only removed one from the pool of 6 beaten up bantams, which includes my polish.

I'm so sorry but Sylvester017 is right. I only keep Polish and D'Uccles for the same reason, I had wyandottes first and then got several batches of mixed bantams from tractor supply the Game bantams got mean, 1 killed a full grown wyandotte Roo! The Wyandotte hens pecked at my polish and duccles head and foot feathers ...I got tired of the fighting and having to keep everyone separated! I sold off all my birds a couple years ago and started back with JUST the two breeds I love most and get along best!

 

[PoultryQueen101]

[COLOR=0000FF]My formula for mixing breeds with Polish:[/COLOR]  Polish are non-combative and lightweight so I would only mix non-combative breeds together like Polish, Sultan, Silkie, Araucana, Ameraucana, Easter Egger, Breda, Cochin, Faverolles, Dominique, and Houdan.  These non-combative breeds would rather flee than fight and are not aggressive bullies.  Sussex, Brahma, and Jersey Giants are supposedly gentle giants but because of their enormous girth I would not mix them with the lighterweight gentle breeds.  Even if a giant is gentle it will still be tempted to bully a smaller bird just because it can - it's a chicken thing!

Putting Polish or even EEs in a mixed heavier dual-purpose flock of assertive breeds is asking for the aggressive breeds to pick on the gentler smaller breeds.  There are also some lightweight breeds that are wilder in temperament (i.e. Buttercups, Jaerhons, Fayoumi, Campine, Mediterranean class breeds like Legs, Ancona, etc) and would not mix well with non-combative breeds either.

Most breeds mix well together as chicks but as early as juveniles the aggressive breeds can show signs of aggression on the gentler non-combative breeds.  We were lucky to have one White Leghorn that was gentle in the flock for 3 years and then suddenly went ballistic on the gentler flockmates.  Another Buff Leghorn went cannibalistic at one year toward the gentler smaller breeds.  Both had to be re-homed to halt bullying.  One Marans clawed viciously at 18 months old and also had to be re-homed immediately.  A colorful egg basket is no longer as important to us as having a non-combative flock.  Currently pecking order status is a much subtler occurrence between our remaining gentle breeds.

this is interesting... we have a completely mixed flock. Max, one of the two roos in the main coop, is a silkie at the top of the order. Mixed into our main flock are 3 other silkie hens, 6 ameraucanas, including one roo, 1 easter egger, 1 golden comet, 1 buff golden, 1 blue copper maran, and 1 silver laced wyandotte. Everyone gets along. In fact, its the ameraucana roo that picks on other birds. But we may be selling him soon, he is breeding his 3 daughters along with his 2 wives, and egg hatch rate is poor, most eggs dying in shell or needing assistance. So we need to get a new gene male for the flock... hopefully young.

 

[Sylvester017]

I free range ALL my animals and whenever i through feed out they fight over pecking order and sometimes when they are oustskde they'll play and jump at eachother and then walk away but my flock consists of OEGBS,japanese bantams, americauna bantams, polish,naked neck, silkies, americauna New Hampshire Red, SLW's, leghorns, sex links, and Dominique's so i have a big mix i have 40 in all but they don't ever hurt eachother accept my cow stepped on my leghorns foot and broke it and another one cut its comb and my New Hampshire got a cut earlobe so fun but mine never peck my polishes crown or my silkies!!

Sounds like you have a lot of room to have that many chickens. And with that many chickens minor scrapes and bruises are not unusual.

Small cottage backyards like mine are zoned for only 5 hens so we have to be more selective about having a compatible flock. In larger yards big mixes like yours can have a lot of areas where the non-combative gentle breeds can hang out or hide from the assertive breeds. It's been our experience that the gentle breeds hang out separately from the assertive breeds if there's enough room. Currently we don't have that much room with limited hens but at one time we had 25 acres and us having 50+ chickens was easy then.

Just about all the breeds you have are non-combative types except for the NHR, SLW, Legs, and Sexlinks - when younger these assertive breeds are ok and not so aggressive. We found that from 18 months to 2 years of age they start showing signs of obnoxious to sometimes mean behavior. We had a White Leghorn who was sweet for 3 years and then suddently turned aggressive toward all her flockmates. Another Buff Leghorn started going cannibalistic on the gentle breeds at one year of age. A Marans at 18 months old was nice to humans but vicious to her smaller flockmates. Just have to watch the assertive/dominant breeds for the age when they start showing aggression and separate them out before there's injuries or comb-chewing.

Did your Leghorn's broken foot heal ok? I absolutely love Leghorns for so many reasons and was sad that I had to rehome both of my aggressive girls.

 

[Sylvester017]

My formula for mixing breeds with Polish: Polish are non-combative and lightweight so I would only mix non-combative breeds together like Polish, Sultan, Silkie, Araucana, Ameraucana, Easter Egger, Breda, Cochin, Faverolles, Dominique, and Houdan. These non-combative breeds would rather flee than fight and are not aggressive bullies. Sussex, Brahma, and Jersey Giants are supposedly gentle giants but because of their enormous girth I would not mix them with the lighterweight gentle breeds. Even if a giant is gentle it will still be tempted to bully a smaller bird just because it can - it's a chicken thing!

Putting Polish or even EEs in a mixed heavier dual-purpose flock of assertive breeds is asking for the aggressive breeds to pick on the gentler smaller breeds. There are also some lightweight breeds that are wilder in temperament (i.e. Buttercups, Jaerhons, Fayoumi, Campine, Mediterranean class breeds like Legs, Ancona, etc) and would not mix well with non-combative breeds either.

Most breeds mix well together as chicks but as early as juveniles the aggressive breeds can show signs of aggression on the gentler non-combative breeds. We were lucky to have one White Leghorn that was gentle in the flock for 3 years and then suddenly went ballistic on the gentler flockmates. Another Buff Leghorn went cannibalistic at one year toward the gentler smaller breeds. Both had to be re-homed to halt bullying. One Marans clawed viciously at 18 months old and also had to be re-homed immediately. A colorful egg basket is no longer as important to us as having a non-combative flock. Currently pecking order status is a much subtler occurrence between our remaining gentle breeds.

Quote:
Other than my folks' farm I have not had any experience with a roo in our all-hen backyard flock. My understanding is that roos have a way of holding down squabbles between the hens but since we are zoned for just 5 hens and no roos at our cottage our experience and research in my posts is regarding an all-hen flock in a smaller backyard or penned-up kennel - I'm not referring to large acreage or barnyards where there is plenty of room for the gentle breeds to avoid the assertive breeds or where there are roos. I keep stressing this point but many seem to miss it. So I'll stress it here so people don't panic about having a mixed flock. Not all situations are the same and my posts are regarding the smaller backyard owner who can't have roos to keep their hens in civil order.

With no roo in the flock an alpha hen will assume the role of a roo and if she's an assertive breed can lord it over the gentle hens quite heavily. So that's why we stay with non-combative breeds and under 5-lbs so that pecking order is established more peaceably. Since keeping just an all-gentle non-combative flock we've had no political pecking-order dramas. There is a pecking order established but very subtle.

A flock of all-assertive breed hens is ok together and just a flock of non-combative breed hens together is ok but to mix the two types of hen breeds leaves it open for bullying or injuries especially as the assertive hens get older anywhere from 18 months to 2 years of age. We had one hen that was quite a sweet alpha Leghorn and didn't get obnoxious until 3 years old and then she started to bully all her flockmates that she had previously got along with. I wish I had heeded research advice that said not to mix gentle breeds with assertive breeds - I learned the hard way and eventually had to rehome the obnoxious and assertive breeds. They were good birds but not in a gentle flock.

 

[dharmasister]

Lucky birds!

Sadly I can't range mine because of my dog who thinks they are animated squeaky toys.

. Mine look at my chickens and see lunch!

 

[Peep-Chicken]

I am pretty sure one of my polish hens are crowing. For sure I have a crower, as I have no rooster.

 

[flufssilkies]

Lucky birds!

Sadly I can't range mine because of my dog who thinks they are animated squeaky toys.

That's funny! My dog know what will happen. If they mess with my polish she gets after them!

 

[FoxholeFarm]

Lucky birds!

Sadly I can't range mine because of my dog who thinks they are animated squeaky toys.

That's funny! My dog know what will happen. If they mess with my polish she gets after them!

Mines is a jack Russell/basest and his ratter instinct is just too strong. He wants to shake anything small and fluffy.

 

[nate1the1great1]

Here's a pick of my polish today how long until he crows hes 4 months!!

 

[Twinklin]

Here's my SL, Padme, at a little over 4 months.