"rare chick" from McMurray

[merlg]

Any ideas what this chicken is? Male or female? 1 month old.

 

[Gallusfarm]

I'm going with Black Minorca - male.

 

[merlg]

Wow, 7-9lb rooster? Wikipedia says this breed is really flightly, but he's the most friendly chick I have so far (14 easter eggers, 2 spangled hamburgs) and certainly the most confident.

Looking at the pictures of week old chicks, I think you are exactly right. He may turn out to be a great protector! The hamburgs may be destined for the dinner table.

 

[Gallusfarm]

Wow, 7-9lb rooster? Wikipedia says this breed is really flightly, but he's the most friendly chick I have so far (14 easter eggers, 2 spangled hamburgs) and certainly the most confident.

Looking at the pictures of week old chicks, I think you are exactly right. He may turn out to be a great protector! The hamburgs may be destined for the dinner table.

Well I'm not 100% positive, lol but the longer beak and the fact that he is high on his legs makes me think he's Mediterranean, as opposed to an Australorp. Actually, these bird can be quite tame and friendly. I hope that you can update this post when he is older....

 

[merlg]

I'm pretty sure you were right about what he was.

Here is the last photo of him



Great rooster. He was just hitting sexual maturity and crowing ALL THE TIME. I had some other roosters but no one messed with him. I left the dogs out in the pasture with him and the other chickens for a week and a half after training them not to mess with the chickens for a few months. They were unsupervised for about 8 hours a day. They had no interest in them at all, and the chickens had no interested in the dogs.... until one day when this rooster started to challenge my lead dog Merlin. He got his head real low, fluffed up his feathers and started pecking at Merlin's nose. Merlin was like, "You wanna fight?! Lets do this!" I told him to stop and he did and walked away. I didn't think anything of it. The next day I come home and he's dead and two other hens as well. My second dog, Ellie, is a total follower. My guess is that this rooster challenged Merlin again, he won with Ellie's help and then Ellie went and chased some other chickens because it was a new fun game. When I came home Merlin still had no interest in the birds, but Ellie was ready to chase anything that was around. I guess they were just too young (9 months and 7 months) and not trained in all situations yet. Having a bird challenging the dogs is new and they didn't know what to do other than fight back. I just have to be there when it happens again so I can train them to ignore it and walk away. It's always something.

I'll miss him, but he may not have been good for the cold WI winters with that huge *** comb. As for the dogs, they will be supervised until I'm confident they won't attack in any situation.

 

[donrae]

Well, thanks for the update, sad as it is!