School hatching project

[Erinnlyn]

Hi all!
My daughter's awesome special education teachers have coordinated a small scale chick hatching project just for her -to get her to talk and communicate back and forth better! She is (we are) beyond excited! We have contacted an NPIP breeder here in central Missouri and she's going to give us 8 eggs for the project. We've decided on getting 4 Cream Legbar eggs, and 4 Jubilee Orpington eggs next week. I hear a lot of people love these breeds, but we've never had either one. Does anybody have either of these and what are they like? I'm particularly worried about the little boy babies. I'm hoping the roosters will be good around people. Thanks!

 

[thecatumbrella]

These are fantastic breeds! You can sex the Cream Legbars at hatch. Females will have dark stripes like a chipmunk, and the males should have a large white dot on the head. Jubilee Orpingtons are stunning, and Orpingtons, in general, tend to be docile friendly birds. You'll likely only be able to keep 1 male with your flock size (unless you hatch mostly males and want to keep a bachelor flock).

Here is a fantastic article on roosters that I have bookmarked for myself. It helps you to understand their mentality, potential causes for aggression, etc.

 

[Debbie292d]

You might want to visit Ms. Viss' Classroom Hatch Along just for some inspiration if nothing else. I'm sure she'd answer any questions for you too.

Here's some info on those two breeds from here.

Legbars

Orpingtons

You might find your more specific variety of the breed within those articles the author linked.

 

[Erinnlyn]

You might want to visit Ms. Viss' Classroom Hatch Along just for some inspiration if nothing else. I'm sure she'd answer any questions for you too.

Here's some info on those two breeds from here.

Legbars

Orpingtons

You might find your more specific variety of the breed within those articles the author linked.

Oh thank you for those links!

 

[Erinnlyn]

These are fantastic breeds! You can sex the Cream Legbars at hatch. Females will have dark stripes like a chipmunk, and the males should have a large white dot on the head. Jubilee Orpingtons are stunning, and Orpingtons, in general, tend to be docile friendly birds. You'll likely only be able to keep 1 male with your flock size (unless you hatch mostly males and want to keep a bachelor flock).

Here is a fantastic article on roosters that I have bookmarked for myself. It helps you to understand their mentality, potential causes for aggression, etc.

Awesome. Thank you for the article link. Yes, I have 2 bachelor boys. I'd prefer to keep it to just my 2! I'm sure the class would be able to find good homes for any boys that they need to. I do love roosters though. They are so entertaining to watch. I'm also in the Rooster Allies facebook group and have a copy of "Through Their Eyes", a book about befriending roosters. Thanks again for the info!!

 

[thecatumbrella]

Awesome. Thank you for the article link. Yes, I have 2 bachelor boys. I'd prefer to keep it to just my 2! I'm sure the class would be able to find good homes for any boys that they need to. I do love roosters though. They are so entertaining to watch. I'm also in the Rooster Allies facebook group and have a copy of "Through Their Eyes", a book about befriending roosters. Thanks again for the info!!

Oh wow! Then you must already be a rooster whisperer!
Fingers crossed for pullets, then? I hope you'll post photos of the hatch and let us know how it goes.

 

[Erinnlyn]

Oh wow! Then you must already be a rooster whisperer!
Fingers crossed for pullets, then? I hope you'll post photos of the hatch and let us know how it goes.

I've definitely befriended one of my boys who loves pets and rubs, the other still gives me the stink eye and starts to puff up, but I can pet and feed him. I'll definitely try to post pictures of the little fluff butts!!

 

[thecatumbrella]

I've definitely befriended one of my boys who loves pets and rubs, the other still gives me the stink eye and starts to puff up, but I can pet and feed him. I'll definitely try to post pictures of the little fluff butts!!

Did you raise both of them as chicks? I feel like it has to be a mixture of nature/nurture with roos and how they behave at maturity. I do know a couple of people with Orpington roosters. One is people friendly and easy to be around. The other is well-behaved until springtime, when you really can't let your guard down and turn your back on him.

 

[tviss711]

My Orpington rooster was an absolute darling, we lost him to neighbor dogs last year sadly, but I was able to hatch out a son of his and he is just as wonderful! My hens are completely smitten with him. His sister was also a very sweet lady while we had her. She did have something against buttons on pants, and would desperately try to rid your jeans of buttons, but other than that she was a complete sweety pie!!

I have an 11 year old cream legbar cross hen, and she is a lovely old gal. We adopted her in her senior years not expecting any production from her. She is my only experience with the breed, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but if I could duplicate her I would. She is turning 12 this year, and last spring was STILL giving us eggs. I couldn't believe my eyes!

 

[Erinnlyn]

Did you raise both of them as chicks? I feel like it has to be a mixture of nature/nurture with roos and how they behave at maturity. I do know a couple of people with Orpington roosters. One is people friendly and easy to be around. The other is well-behaved until springtime, when you really can't let your guard down and turn your back on him.

Yes, I raised them from chicks. They both loved to sit on my lap and to be petted until they were about 6 months old and it was also summer time, so then I'm sure hormones surged. I do have hens within their eyesight. The one that is still skeptical of me to this day started to jump and kick at me. It's just in their nature to make a split second decision on their safety or hens safety. I tried my hardest not to react. It just takes sooo much repetition and trust building interactions. Once they were mature like this I didn't go in their pen much, but we pet and feed them through small doors. They quickly learned they like wattle rubs and the like, so we just tried to spend time with them each day. We got to where we would occasionally let the boys out of their pen about 20 minutes before roost time to free range a little. We carefully interacted with them during this time and hand fed them. They were usually more docile since the sun was setting, so we used that to keep them low key while they acclimated to us walking around with no barrier. They are 3 years old now and we still limit their free range time, but we try to let them out like that occasionally and we still pet them through the fence and little doors on their house. My friendlier one likes his attention so much that he sinks down, closes his eyes, and starts to lay on his side while being petted. He'll also do a peck grab behavior at my arm which means, hey I want more attentions please! Lol