Rocky: The rooster who loves killing hawks.. mating with hens.. and eating blueberries.

[TheHappyHen678]

Roadrunner

 

[Sylvester017]

I have 2 funny storys about 3 of my chickens. We had a little cochin silkie rooster (that wasn't silkie) named Coco. We also have a gray silkie rooster named Saoirse (searsha). Coco was generally the more dominant one, so he would try to mate with all of the hens, and kinda bully the hens about it too, but whenever he did that Saoirshe would come over and start pulling on Coco's feathers. Coco would try to run from this, but Saoirshe would chase him until he got a good peck on him. So, whenever the chickens were free-rangeing, sometimes we would just see the 2 roosters running back and forth around outside. The second story is about when Coco tried to get with our dominant hen, Roadrunner, a speckled sussex. He started doing the mating dance, when Roads full on jumped at him like a rooster, spurs out (she actually has spurs even though she's a hen) neck feathers ruffled. Also Coco was a super tiny rooster, so Roadrunner towered over him as well. Coco never tried mating with her ever again.
Here's pictures:
Saoirshe:
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Coco:View attachment 3860395
Roadrunner

I DO LOVE SILKIES! We started w/ two Silkies 13 years ago and cycled thru different breeds but now are back to having one old Dominique hen left from our bigs and now have 5 little Silkies w/her in our backyard flock. Sadly we aren't zoned for roo's but happy we can have hens:

 

[TheHappyHen678]

Awwwwww I love your chickens!!!!! Their so cute! Silkies are the best!!! We had to get rid of our silkie roosters (we had way too many roosters) but we have a silkie chick right now!!!! I think she's a partridge silkie. Your Dominique is so fluffy! I love her lol!

 

[Sylvester017]

Awwwwww I love your chickens!!!!! Their so cute! Silkies are the best!!! We had to get rid of our silkie roosters (we had way too many roosters) but we have a silkie chick right now!!!! I think she's a partridge silkie. Your Dominique is so fluffy! I love her lol!

Partridge female chicks seem to be darker than partridge males. But its hard to tell male from female Silkie chicks so w/ our last five Silkies we bought them Marecks vaccinated & DNA-sexed from the breeder so we didnt have to go thru heartache of unwanted roo's.

Our local feed store sells white Silkie chicks fairly cheap and straight run only. For one thing a white chicken in our yard could be an aerial target plus how could we tell them apart if all are white? We like to tell the Silkies apart at quick glance so we have 5 different colors -- Blue/gold Partridge, Moorhead Partridge, Dark Partridge, Silver Partridge, and Blue Partridge. There are so many partridge varieties in Silkies. There are Cuckoo, and even Red Silkies too but not recognized yet in SOP.

Silver Partridge "SUZU" and Blue/gold Partridge "GINNY"

Dark Partridge w/very slight gold collar & wing tips but looks mostly Black "MIKA"

Blue Silkie "BETTA"

Moorhead Partridge has gold body w/ black crest/tail/slippers
"KEIKO"

If you can post pics of your Silkie chick I'd love to see it.

 

[SkyAJK]

I DO LOVE SILKIES! We started w/ two Silkies 13 years ago and cycled thru different breeds but now are back to having one old Dominique hen left from our bigs and now have 5 little Silkies w/her in our backyard flock. Sadly we aren't zoned for roo's but happy we can have hens:
View attachment 3860452

They are so adorable.
I will pave my chicken run like your. We have lots of rain and heavy rain that causes flash flooding. No matter what I put in my chicken runs, those rain just wash them away and the soil is eroding & exposing my tree roots. I have to wait for the rain to be over and it will be a work in progress job as my chicken run area is not even surface, it is a bit on a sliding downward and bumpy.

 

[Sylvester017]

They are so adorable.
I will pave my chicken run like your. We have lots of rain and heavy rain that causes flash flooding. No matter what I put in my chicken runs, those rain just wash them away and the soil is eroding & exposing my tree roots. I have to wait for the rain to be over and it will be a work in progress job as my chicken run area is not even surface, it is a bit on a sliding downward and bumpy.

I hope you'll like the paver stones. There was a warning from reviews that said snow/freezing temps can crack or crumble pavers. We have a mild climate so pavers have lasted some of them over 14 yrs both front & back yard. We have no front or back lawn at all ~ no squishy soggy grass to sink into when walking in the rain, no lawn mower, no gardeners, no grass fleas. We have dirt in the chicken yard & have pavers there too. The chickens don't like mud during rain & walk on the pavers. It keeps our shoes mud-free too. It didn't build overnight ~ took me 4 yrs a little at a time each day. What took the longest was leveling the soil. I was a woman in my 70's doing little by little paver work.

Front yard when I worked on pavers.

 

[Ponypoor]

They are so adorable.
I will pave my chicken run like your. We have lots of rain and heavy rain that causes flash flooding. No matter what I put in my chicken runs, those rain just wash them away and the soil is eroding & exposing my tree roots. I have to wait for the rain to be over and it will be a work in progress job as my chicken run area is not even surface, it is a bit on a sliding downward and bumpy.

You can use brick pavers rather than slabs. These work well on uneven ground and slopes.

One caveat about ‘paving’ a slope, this smooth surface will increase the rate of water flow over the surface.

What you can do is choose ‘rip-rap’ stone along with the pavers to prevent erosion. In fact I would use the rip-rap around trees to protect roots and help prevent chooks from digging up the soil.

You can read about it here

https://ozinga.com/product/rip-rap-stone/#:~:text=Rip Rap Stone Overview&text=Rip rap simply refers to,range in size and shape.

 

[SkyAJK]

You can use brick pavers rather than slabs. These work well on uneven ground and slopes.

One caveat about ‘paving’ a slope, this smooth surface will increase the rate of water flow over the surface.

What you can do is choose ‘rip-rap’ stone along with the pavers to prevent erosion. In fact I would use the rip-rap around trees to protect roots and help prevent chooks from digging up the soil.

You can read about it here

https://ozinga.com/product/rip-rap-stone/#:~:text=Rip Rap Stone Overview&text=Rip rap simply refers to,range in size and shape.

Thank you. It is raining over here now, I will check out the brick pavers and rip-rap. I won't be able to do it until probably after Christmas as we still have rain to then.

 

[Ponypoor]

Thank you. It is raining over here now, I will check out the brick pavers and rip-rap. I won't be able to do it until probably after Christmas as we still have rain to then.

What no snow ?!

 

[SkyAJK]

I hope you'll like the paver stones. There was a warning from reviews that said snow/freezing temps can crack or crumble pavers. We have a mild climate so pavers have lasted some of them over 14 yrs both front & back yard. We have no front or back lawn at all ~ no squishy soggy grass to sink into when walking in the rain, no lawn mower, no gardeners, no grass fleas. We have dirt in the chicken yard & have pavers there too. The chickens don't like mud during rain & walk on the pavers. It keeps our shoes mud-free too. It didn't build overnight ~ took me 4 yrs a little at a time each day. What took the longest was leveling the soil. I was a woman in my 70's doing little by little paver work.
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F

I hope you'll like the paver stones. There was a warning from reviews that said snow/freezing temps can crack or crumble pavers. We have a mild climate so pavers have lasted some of them over 14 yrs both front & back yard. We have no front or back lawn at all ~ no squishy soggy grass to sink into when walking in the rain, no lawn mower, no gardeners, no grass fleas. We have dirt in the chicken yard & have pavers there too. The chickens don't like mud during rain & walk on the pavers. It keeps our shoes mud-free too. It didn't build overnight ~ took me 4 yrs a little at a time each day. What took the longest was leveling the soil. I was a woman in my 70's doing little by little paver work.
View attachment 3997253
View attachment 3997263
View attachment 3997259
View attachment 3997260

Front yard when I worked on pavers.
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Thank you for the pictures.
That is awesome yard! It mostly likely to take me longer to do my yard. The pavers look really nice. A little space in between the paver allow chickens to peck at and still they have clean surface to walk on. Some of my chickens have furry feet so dry surface is healthy for them. Our climate here is a bit similar to California, so no risk of snow there.