POST YOUR FAVORITE CHICKEN OR ROOSTER

[shelbylewis]

WOW! Who is he and what breed?! I wanna hug him, too! Is he a Buff Orpington, because I saw one at an auction this summer and he was magnificent!

Yes he is! He is definitely one of a kind, a true sweetie pie but will kill for his hens! He actually belongs to my neighbors and he is free range so he visits me for pets, snuggles, and treats

 

[Compost King]

This Mama bird was my favorite bird, I may even have a thread about her somewhere. Her name was Ms Ugly. Those 2 chicks are Male and Female Maran Black Sex Links and they are my current favorite birds. Ms Ugly was viciously torn apart by dogs while brooding these 2 about a week or 2 maybe 3 after this photo was taken. All but my Maran Black Sex Links were killed from her brood of about 6 chicks. She was the only chicken I had that figure out she can follow me around as I work in my nursery and find all sorts of crickets, worms and grubs because I am always turning something over or picking something up. She was a loner and the other chickens didn't like her. She had taught her kids to follow me around too.

This is Ms Uglies Daugther, a Maran back Sex Link female. She wasn't very friendly after the dog attack. She went from the good life to the brooder life and absolutely did not want me to touch her even though before her mother was killed she would fly right into my hand to eat grubs. this was when she could barely even fly. I figured she was traumatized but turns out she had a broken wing that never healed correctly. She must have been nipped by the dogs but escaped. I keep her in my Juvenile bird coop for life even as younger birds have been assigned a breeding pen already. I don't want her having to deal with a pecking order or roosters mounting her. So her flock mates are birds fresh out of the brooder. So far she hasn't pecked the single one, just keeps to herself and when some hens or cockerels get older and she like them she will follow them around. When I discovered her wounds and did my best to treat them she became friendly again and realized I am never going to harm her and she follows me around but will stay out of grabbing distance. Her wound was so bad I thought she might end up getting worse and then euthanized. Yesterday I saw her move that wing in a flapping motion but you can tell she is never going to be 100%. She forages well and will probably start laying in January.

The favorite Rooster. Although he is still a cockerel in this picture where he is working in my nursery. I moved some pots so he could eat all the crickets and worms under them. After he runs out of Crickets and Worms he starts eating the weeds out of the pots and leaving the evergreens alone. My chickens do a lot of labor for the nursery. He like his sister, was a survivor of that dog attack that killed his broody mom. He stayed friendly even after his mom was killed. I almost started crying having to put him and his sister in a brooder. He has been following me around since August (before and after his time in the brooder) but today he went to "rooster jail" he went outside of the boundaries I set and tried to argue with me about them. I put him in a breeding pen where he is going to get lonely for a few weeks. He isn't quite breeding yet but I like to nab them out of the free range flock before they start. My free range flock is juvenile birds and wounded hens who can't stay in a breeding pen. I expect crowing to start any day now. This little fellow is going to be missed from the free range flock. When he gets to breeding age he is going to be replacing an older brother in my Olive Egger program, His brother, just like their Black Copper Maran father, is calm and has shown no aggression towards humans and very gentle on the ladies. The BCM Patriarch is the rooster that calls females to any thing I give as a treat before he has some himself. If he finds a worm he breaks it up and gives it to the females. His older brother was the first chick I hatched and now I have 2 Maran Black Sex Link Males with an emotional tie to. I should only really keep one.