sebright thread

[Joev1973]

Personality is right. I went out this morning to open the storm door and he saw me and was crowing his head off

 

[Faraday40]

@Joev1973
Glad to see you got your Sebrights. They have beauty, but it's the personality plus that makes me laugh. "Trouble" is our only Sebright and her name says it all. We keep LF & I never wanted a bantam. It was an accident she stayed, and I never thought I'd enjoy bantams ....... aka "useless chickens."

Here's our daughter's video. Trouble's training is the 1st half.

 

[SueT]

@Joev1973
Glad to see you got your Sebrights. They have beauty, but it's the personality plus that makes me laugh. "Trouble" is our only Sebright and her name says it all. We keep LF & I never wanted a bantam. It was an accident she stayed, and I never thought I'd enjoy bantams ....... aka "useless chickens."

Here's our daughter's video. Trouble's training is the 1st half.

I just love this video! How old is your daughter now?
How is Trouble doing with all those chicks?
What age does she decide they're big enuf to stop mothering them?
Ours are 5 weeks now, Moonshine still dotes on them, and they are all obedient large children.

 

[Faraday40]

Our daughter's 14 now and will be starting HS soon. She's moved on to silkies & seramas (even more "useless chickens"! She even talked us into putting a little coop with a heater in our screen patio for her tiny bantams. In winter we can get a couple -40'Fs nights during a polar vortex and daytime highs well below zero. Most of our flock (including Trouble) can manage the cold by staying dry and cuddling up in our insulated coop. Trouble is far too fierce to live with the bantams. She regularly puts the 10lb hens & 14 lb roosters in their place. Queen Trouble always gets her way. She's 4 yrs old and teaches all the big young pullets & cockerels to give her space. When Trouble's broody - LOOK OUT!

Trouble has 12 large English Orpington chicks and 4 serama chicks left. (We already sold some.) They're 2 wks old. She's in a play yard during the day (for protected grass time) and sleeps with them in a cage in the garage at night. We keep any chicks for sale up front in the garage so the rest of the flock in back does not get exposed to visitors. (biosecurity plan). Most people understand & they can look over the fence in back to see the adults free ranging.

Trouble will hold on to her babies for 6-8 weeks before letting them go. Usually it's more toward the 8 wks and by then the size diff is just plain silly. The orps reach Sebright size by 3.5 weeks, but she's rather stubborn, so they always obey her .... even when 3xs her size.

 

[SueT]

Our daughter's 14 now and will be starting HS soon. She's moved on to silkies & seramas (even more "useless chickens"! She even talked us into putting a little coop with a heater in our screen patio for her tiny bantams. In winter we can get a couple -40'Fs nights during a polar vortex and daytime highs well below zero. Most of our flock (including Trouble) can manage the cold by staying dry and cuddling up in our insulated coop. Trouble is far too fierce to live with the bantams. She regularly puts the 10lb hens & 14 lb roosters in their place. Queen Trouble always gets her way. She's 4 yrs old and teaches all the big young pullets & cockerels to give her space. When Trouble's broody - LOOK OUT!

Trouble has 12 large English Orpington chicks and 4 serama chicks left. (We already sold some.) They're 2 wks old. She's in a play yard during the day (for protected grass time) and sleeps with them in a cage in the garage at night. We keep any chicks for sale up front in the garage so the rest of the flock in back does not get exposed to visitors. (biosecurity plan). Most people understand & they can look over the fence in back to see the adults free ranging.

Trouble will hold on to her babies for 6-8 weeks before letting them go. Usually it's more toward the 8 wks and by then the size diff is just plain silly. The orps reach Sebright size by 3.5 weeks, but she's rather stubborn, so they always obey her .... even when 3xs her size.

Ha, they always obey her. Well, if Trouble is raising some Seramas, won't she always be friendly to them?
Moonshine has made up her mind that the 2 orphans are evil, and she has taught this to her chicks, even tho one of these evil ones is their biological sibling. They are NOT allowed to communicate. I don't see any hope for integration. These 2 will be outcasts, I'm thinking it will be simpler to find another home for them.

 

[Faraday40]

Well, if Trouble is raising some Seramas, won't she always be friendly to them?

Trouble isn't exactly "friends" with anyone. She loves and fiercely protects her chicks -when she's broody. After that she merely tolerates the other chickens in the flock. She's very vocal and lets everyone know when she feels unhappy about something. It sounds like chicken swearing.

If a young male attempts to mate her, he soon learns his mistake. I've seen her all out attack a giant orp by continuously jumping at his head & on his back & chasing him around even after he ran away. The roos simply don't mate her, but thankfully our gentle boys still protect and tidbit for her. Since she never had fertile eggs, I tried to bring our serama roo to her for a visit. He thinks he's "all that" and did his best little wing & tippee-toe dance for Trouble. Poor little guy got pecked for his efforts.

Trouble still flies up to an arm when called but it's mostly because she knows treats are coming. Sometimes she wants to be near us and will sit on a lap, other times she flies away as soon as she gets her treat. However, she HATES to be held/confined. She will let us pet her and spoil her, she'll come when called, and she'll sit on my arm, hand, knee, shoulder, etc, but if I try to restrain her, she begins her chicken swears.

 

[Joev1973]

Today i had an older relative (real old) come over to see the Sebright rooster. Instead of having him walk all the way back to the coop in the heat i went back to get the bird.

While walking in the coop he crowed at me and i opened his pen and he let me grab him. I could tell he wasnt happy about it but didnt fight me.

I carried him into the cool house and showed my relative and he began to tell me about chickens he had long ago. All while im holding the rooster.

I ended up sitting him down on a newspaper on the coffee table and he just sat there. So yes i had a live rooster in my living room. He sat there 15 mins and i took him back out.

He tolerates me petting him but i can tell he is not thrilled. Im pretty sure he probably had little human contact where he was raised as there were many many birds. Hundreds of quail ducks turkey etc. So i am suprised he is letting me touch him without fighting or freaking out.

I am going to make it a point to touch each and every bird once a day and have some sort of contact.

Except the guineas they can go to heck

In a few days i will let the birds out into general population and watch how he behaves.

Yesterday i witnessed him being rough with the 2 hens he is cooped up with. Im sure its normal rooster behavior but some of my chicks are small so I am going to be careful.

Somehow I feel like I am not the only person in this thread who had a Sebright in the house.

Fess up !

 

[Faraday40]

Somehow I feel like I am not the only person in this thread who had a Sebright in the house.

Fess up !

We sometimes have "house chickens" when a bird has an injury. Our "hospital" is a simple plastic tote with food and water. During their hospital stay, it's not uncommon to allow the bird some time to stretch their legs and walk around on the tile in the basement. Also in the evenings, if we're watching a movie, the patient may spend some quality lap time with us. Chickens really love to watch the screen. Of course, we have to make sure the bird is put away before making any popcorn.



Although all are pampered, our most spoiled chicken is our silkied serama rooster, Teddy. He's more pet than livestock. He actually sleeps in a rabbit cage in our daughter's room. He has dual residency and "visits" his hens outside during the day. Thankfully, he's a lazy rooster. He waits for the alarm to wake him up or for DD to start moving around. THEN he crows to let us know it's time to wake up. This morning he slept in until 7:30am. (It's summer, so our daughter doesn't have an alarm set.)

Here are some pics of our beloved Teddy. He's more like a cuddly, loyal, pet dog. (Our Sebright, Trouble, is more like a cat. LOL)

 

[Joev1973]

Ok i dont feel so silly now i just had him on the coffee table for 15 mins. No movie night lol

 

[Joev1973]

I imagine people would think we are crazy but they wouldn't be chicken people who thunk it lol