RIR and Aracauna (EE?)- boys or girls?

[Alliegator]

We got two RIR's and two araucana's from the feed store last april- I'm afraid that three of the four are roosters. Front to back- Little Jerry, Mr. Gordon, then the white aracauna (EE?) is Fred and the brown one is Mario (I know, we've cursed them with their names...) Any Ideas. We know that at least two of them have crowed. Little Jerry for sure, and either Fred or Mr. Gordon.

 

[HorseFeathers]

Looks to be all boys except for the golden-red EE.

 

[mmajw]

Yup what she said

 

[peruvian_princess]

I third that. 3 roos and the one pullet.

 

[Alliegator]

Bummer. That's what we were afraid of.

We were hoping that little jerry was the only roo, and my husband "took care" of him last night, then this morning we were woken with crowing again.

Our chickens are kind of "on the sly" so we really can't have roosters crowing.

Any ideas on getting some replacements that will do okay with the one we already have? Will three chicks be safe with Mario (once they're too big for our brooder), or should I look into getting three older chickens. I haven't heard good things about mixing chickens...

 

[mmajw]

What will be the age difference between your chicks and Mario?

Maybe you could keep the two EE (Roo and hen) and sell the fertile eggs.

 

[Alliegator]

I wouldn't be able to get new chicks until mid august since we have vacations coming up soon, Mario was born early april, so they'd be 4 or 5 months apart. Would Mario be okay alone that long? She'd be alone at least a couple of months longer than that too since I wouldn't want to put the brand new chicks in with her until they got a little bigger (or would I?).

Another option, since I hate for Mario to be alone for so long is to see if my friend who has 1 chicken to take her (she had two but one was killed). Would that work?

I can't keep the EE Roo because if the neighbors complain about the crowing I'll have to get rid of all of my chickens.

I wonder if the feed store was selling sexed chickens or not. Last year they said they were all females...

 

[mmajw]

Mario could be alone just give her a stuffed animal and give her extra attention.
No new chicks will not be good with her. She could kill them you need to wait until they are big enough to stand their own ground.

 

[Alliegator]

I found a guy in the classifieds who is selling hens that are about the same age as mario, and he'll take my roos, (my husband it tired of killing chickens) so I think we'll do that, and hope that the new ones get along ok with mario.

 

[mmajw]

It may take some time for them to get along but they will.

Just watch for injury or blood in case you need to seperate them