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

[mrchicks]

My eggers are much nicer than my Marans, Wyandottes or Red Sex Links. When we thin the flock, we'll be keeping just the eggers. And the Polish stay of course.

 

[quailtrail]

Silkies have five toes.:/

thats what I am thinking but the seller said they were not together...who knows maybe one snuck in lol!!!

 

[Sylvester017]

My eggers are much nicer than my Marans, Wyandottes or Red Sex Links. When we thin the flock, we'll be keeping just the eggers. And the Polish stay of course.

Many people drop in EEs or Ameraucanas into Heavy LF or Dual Purpose flocks thinking they get along. Well EEs do get along because they avoid conflict - they'd rather run than fight. This running nature to avoid conflicts/battles at all costs makes people think they are kooky and skittish. Our girl is the sweetest chicken in the group and lets us pet her and pick her up and she vocalizes conversations either with flockmates or with humans - but she is respectful of all the other girls in the group and will run from them if she thinks they are challenging.

It's stressful for an egg layer Ameraucana/EE to be picked on by Heavy LF or Dual Purpose breeds. In my experience I would keep Ameraucanas with Silkies, Polish, and/or maybe Faverolles or Crevecoeurs since those breeds are docile and less intimidating toward the gentle natured Ameraucana. I'm not saying there won't be a pecking order established but it won't be quite as brutal as Heavy Dual Purpose LF can be. Even my little Silkies want to get into pecking wars and go about chest bumping the Buff Leghorn and the Ameraucana.

Maybe you've seen my prior posts where I stated that OurFlyBabies.com keeps Blue Wheaten Ameraucanas becasue they will take in orphaned chicks or injured birds where other breeds are not so friendly or willing. Most of the time you can plop new birds into an Ameraucana flock and they don't get abused by the Ameraucanas. My friend loves her Ameraucana and 3 EEs because not only are they non-combative in a flock, they are terrific egg layers. She would love Polish for egg layers too but she has too many Heavy LF to put the gentle Polish into the mix.

 

[mrchicks]

My eggers have their own coop, as they do pull feathers from the Polish. I'd like to just have 2 coops to clean daily, so the LF will be the ones to go to freezer camp.

 

[Sylvester017]

My eggers have their own coop, as they do pull feathers from the Polish. I'd like to just have 2 coops to clean daily, so the LF will be the ones to go to freezer camp.

Poor crested birds get the short end of the coop. I had a bald Silkie I thought was moulting only to find that the mean Marans was picking both her crest and her comb while they slept in the nestbox at night. The Silkie practically has no comb left to this day but at least her crest came back. We rehomed the troublemaker Marans and will never have another again. My friend also has a Marans and if not for the somewhat darker brown egg (not chocolate like pictures show) she would send them to freezer camp.

 

[mrchicks]

My hubby ended up building a separate coop for the polish, they are much happier birds now. They run to their doors to greet me. While my Marans lay a beautiful egg, they are only slightly above the Wyandottes on the pain in the butt scale. The Marans run to me, the Wyandottes run the other way. They were all raised together, and are all so different.

 

[Twinklin]

We wanted pets with benefits (eggs) so spaced our hens' ages so they don't get old all in the same year. With untimely deaths and re-homing of a couple aggressive hens we have an assortment of ages. Next year we plan adding two more egg-laying rare breeds. From all I've researched the consensus is to add to the flock every 2 years to keep a supply of eggs. Even a very old hen can still pop out a couple eggs a month and still be a good fertilizer source and forager in the backyard. The main thing for us is to keep gentle under 5-lb breeds so we can enjoy them as pets when the eggs stop coming so often.

We technically only "need" 2 production chickens because it's just my bf and I and we eat maybe a dozen a week. Usually a little less. I mostly just have them for pets. Right now we're getting around 2 dozen a week so we give away a lot. We got a polish and a silkie in this new batch so those probably won't be the greatest layers but we also got a Wyandotte and an Orpington so we'll have eggs coming out our ears. Even when they're several years old and only laying 1/2 as much as they do now, or less, we should still have plenty of eggs. By that point I hope to move to a ranch property too and be able to have a lot more birds.

 

[Sylvester017]

My hubby ended up building a separate coop for the polish, they are much happier birds now. They run to their doors to greet me. While my Marans lay a beautiful egg, they are only slightly above the Wyandottes on the pain in the butt scale. The Marans run to me, the Wyandottes run the other way. They were all raised together, and are all so different.

So happy for your Polish. They are such gentle souls.

Our bully Marans was ok around us but she was sneaky and nasty to the other chickens. She loved to eat (she was 7-lb) so maybe she was mean to the other birds to get dibs on food - I don't know but I think I've had it with Heavy LF. My friend rehomed her BCM, a BR, and BCM hybrid because they were not nice to the others in the flock. Her Orp was a bit pushy and nasty when broody but she's not as mean as the rehomed girls - just a bit pushy.

Tilly's Nest website had to rehome their SLWyandotte because she was mean and it was contagious making the other hens nasty tempered. After 6 months of giving her chances to settle down they finally rehomed her. Some people love their SLWs and BCMs and say it depends on the strain you get. I don't want any in case I'm the unlucky one to get the bad strain like last time!

 

[mrchicks]

I agree. We're only doing heavy breeds as meat birds from now on. My smaller gals still give me eggs, and are a pleasure to be around. I like birds that want to be near us, and the Polish and Eggers always want to be close to us. The Marans follow me, but it's for food. They are piglets.

 

[quailtrail]

My BO roo and mixed breed girls run for us when they see us for food. My BO hen is very timid and hides until we are gone. Now having Polish that are 5 weeks old they are the 2 most flighty things ever. They just hear us coming and are banging their heads off the cover of the brooder.