post your chicken coop pictures here!

[Chicken Egg 17]

Personally, I see no reason to keep an aggressive/mean rooster, especially if there are kids around. You might feel differently in a few years if you have kids of your own. Or God forbid, a guest with kids has one of their kids attacked and you end up facing a law suit. Part of the joy of the farm animals is the interaction with the kids. My kids are all grown, but my grand kids love to be out around the animals. You can have excellent, people friendly roosters who care for and protect the hens from threats without being mean and flogging you or your kids. Being mean and aggressive towards you has nothing to do with protecting the hens. It's purely a dominance issue.

Roosters are very easy & cheap to replace. People are giving them away because they aren't allowed to have them. Look on Craigs List. Or you can spend a little and get a whole passel of them real cheap from any of the hatcheries or from a breeder/local chicken farmer. Then just choose the one you like best and send the rest to freezer camp.

well personally I do agree with you also but I don't do freezer camp here so they either find a new home or they stay until they die. but ya I get that I could have company with young children, but don't have any aggressive roosters mine are all unhandled after maturity but they are handled a lot when younger. I do get rid of roosters at sale because of tomany but just because of young children with aggressive roosters I see no need to get rid of them all of my roosters spurs are clipped and filed down once every 1-2 months so the spurs are not a problem after a while of aggressive ness I would get annoying after a while of trying to get them to calm so they could go to sale once I give up.

 

[gpeters3]

Personally, I see no reason to keep an aggressive/mean rooster, especially if there are kids around. You might feel differently in a few years if you have kids of your own. Or God forbid, a guest with kids has one of their kids attacked and you end up facing a law suit. Part of the joy of the farm animals is the interaction with the kids. My kids are all grown, but my grand kids love to be out around the animals. You can have excellent, people friendly roosters who care for and protect the hens from threats without being mean and flogging you or your kids. Being mean and aggressive towards you has nothing to do with protecting the hens. It's purely a dominance issue.

Roosters are very easy & cheap to replace. People are giving them away because they aren't allowed to have them. Look on Craigs List. Or you can spend a little and get a whole passel of them real cheap from any of the hatcheries or from a breeder/local chicken farmer. Then just choose the one you like best and send the rest to freezer camp.

My chicken project is a family recreation project. There is no place for dangerous or potentially dangerous animals. You can not replace a damaged eye. It isnt worth it. If you think you can control kids well enough to absolutely gaurantee their safery then it just has not happened to you yet. You can not be focused on each one 100 percent of the time and it only takes a few seconds for one to get into trouble. My roosters were ranging in the yard and my mother in law didnt understand the danger and kept walking the kids toward the chickens. I tried to get them to go a different way but she misunderstood my concern and before i could get between him and the rooster he was hit twice in the face.

I had a Doberman i really liked too but the very first sign of aggression toward my kids had him gone. Again it only took a few seconds of distraction and my son wandered into the garage where he was and cornered him. He was bitten on the arm, no punctures but it could have been worse. It was gone the next day.

I no longer take any chances with the kids safety. They are much more important than any project or any animal. After 3 marriages and 50 years of adult life experience i finally learned how to sacrifice my own wishes for the wellfare of my family.

At the zoo there will be one adult for every 2 kids. My wife and i have taken as many as 8 kids to the movies, but never the zoo. I can tell you lots of near disasters with kids and it was not due to negligence, they are just very quick and you cant anticipate every possible move.

Its a personal choice for each of us. My choice is no roosters (or dogs)

 

[gpeters3]

Here is a pic of my wannabe rooster. She has no spurs and doesn't crow as often as my roosters used to so I'm still hoping for a hen:



She was bought with 2 other 'chipmunks' all of which were identical when purchased and all are completely different thus the general term 'Easter Egger'. They were supposed to be Auracana's. I have one leghorn laying now (I think) small to medium size and store bought white at this point but they usually lay larger eggs as they mature in my experience. Still bigger than bantam eggs but way smaller than my others. They range over 6 weeks in age so it may take a while to see more eggs.

Can't pray over something like this and don't believe in crossing my fingers so here's hoping (Isn't she pretty?)

 

[islandgirl82]

.

 

[islandgirl82]

Here is a pic of my wannabe rooster. She has no spurs and doesn't crow as often as my roosters used to so I'm still hoping for a hen:



She was bought with 2 other 'chipmunks' all of which were identical when purchased and all are completely different thus the general term 'Easter Egger'. They were supposed to be Auracana's. I have one leghorn laying now (I think) small to medium size and store bought white at this point but they usually lay larger eggs as they mature in my experience. Still bigger than bantam eggs but way smaller than my others. They range over 6 weeks in age so it may take a while to see more eggs.

Can't pray over something like this and don't believe in crossing my fingers so here's hoping (Isn't she pretty?)

Sorry but that's most definitely a cockerel.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Here is a pic of my wannabe rooster. She has no spurs and doesn't crow as often as my roosters used to so I'm still hoping for a hen:



She was bought with 2 other 'chipmunks' all of which were identical when purchased and all are completely different thus the general term 'Easter Egger'. They were supposed to be Auracana's. I have one leghorn laying now (I think) small to medium size and store bought white at this point but they usually lay larger eggs as they mature in my experience. Still bigger than bantam eggs but way smaller than my others. They range over 6 weeks in age so it may take a while to see more eggs.

Can't pray over something like this and don't believe in crossing my fingers so here's hoping (Isn't she pretty?)

she looks like a hen, maybe she and her siblings are Auracana mixed with EE

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

well before I clicked on the pic it looked like a hen but I checked it once I clicked on the pic but that a cockerel if you see how the tail feathers curl and looks like a bit of saddle feathers there. And the spurs they should be starting t come in by the looks by age of the bird hope this helps.

 

[MeepBeep]

And the spurs they should be starting t come in by the looks by age of the bird hope this helps.

When you get into mixed breeds like EE, spurs are hit and miss... Some of my mixed breed roosters have 3" or longer spurs, others have little nubs that are insignificant, while some hens have clearly visible spurs... Then I have the EE that are mixed with Sumatra that have multiple spurs up and down their legs...

 

[FarmerPhronc]

Might be time to look into how to freeze eggs (no not in the shell!) for winter. I had 7 pullets laying this last winter but a dearth of eggs the prior winter. Wish I have planned ahead instead of having to buy eggs for Christmas cookie baking! This year I either get a few chicks to stuff under my broody BA or freeze some eggs in the fall (ASSUMING I can figure out when the girls are going to shut down).

Yeah it probably is. I'll have to do some research however I do recall seeing something about breaking them open into ice trays.

 

[Intheswamp]

Check out my coop here:
http://www.thecraftydisaster.com/the-coop-is-complete/

Let's see... Your first post to the forum and it is a link at a site with the words "the crafty disaster" in the domain name. My first line of internet defense says "NO!!!!...DO NOT CLICK!!!". It's probably harmless but I'll pass for now.

Best wishes,
Ed

Ok, I went and looked. Nice job of re-purposing that playhouse!!! Good plan and execution of it. I like the sheltered porch over the outside nest boxes. Nice run, too!

Ed