Sumatra gender help...updated pics

[BirdieandFifi]

No she was not in a music video lol. I'm a big fan of Kpop music so I decided to name a chicken something kpop related. I actually had 2 splash sumatra girls but the other one died in a freak accident somewhere in the yard and her name was Inkigayo (which is the name of another kpop music show). I agree that friendly and Sumatra don't go together but my main breeding rooster is a blue Sumatra and his name is Whiney Whinerton and he his an extremely friendly rooster. Birdie is an extremely cute chick being snug. I hope to get more Sumatras in the spring from a local country store. I'm hoping to get a splash rooster to breed with Melon. How long have you had chickens? I've had chickens for

Birdie was my 1st and she’ll be 4 months at the end of this month. My grandpa had chicken though. He never knew breeds or anything. He used to get a kick out of the blue egg laying birds. I used to think it was so cool as a kid. I still do but now I realize it was probably just an EE he had lol. The birds came with the land he bought. It came with an assortment of chicken with a nice walk in coop. I’d die for a coop like that! He passed away a few years ago though and his new wife hates our family because she felt him dying (aka her pulling him off life support) meant that she should be able to keep his house and all this money (he was very well off) which she did and thats a long story but yeah. Not so sure what happened to the chickens lol

 

[RuBaltLion]

Birdie was my 1st and she’ll be 4 months at the end of this month. My grandpa had chicken though. He never knew breeds or anything. He used to get a kick out of the blue egg laying birds. I used to think it was so cool as a kid. I still do but now I realize it was probably just an EE he had lol. The birds came with the land he bought. It came with an assortment of chicken with a nice walk in coop. I’d die for a coop like that! He passed away a few years ago though and his new wife hates our family because she felt him dying (aka her pulling him off life support) meant that she should be able to keep his house and all this money (he was very well off) which she did and thats a long story but yeah. Not so sure what happened to the chickens lol

So sorry about your loss. Birdie will be a beautiful hen and I really like easter eggers too. Do you plan to free range the 2 or have them cooped up? I free range my birds and deal with predators every now and then. The Sumatras like to go rogue and not lay their eggs in the coop. Fifi is adorable. I have 2 silikes 1 white and 1 buff and would really like to add more. I would really like to add some oriental breeds like Shamo and Malay and even gamefowl like asil and American Gamefowl to my flock even if they have to be separated because they will fight. I really have a fascination with long tail breeds like Sumatras and Phoenix and Yokohama. Later on I'll share a couple pics of my breeding Sumatra rooster.

 

[RuBaltLion]

This is my breeding blue Sumatra rooster. The second pic isn' t very good.
Whiney Whinerton.

This is my black Sumatra Hen.
Nevermore

 

[BirdieandFifi]

This is my breeding blue Sumatra rooster. The second pic isn' t very good.
Whiney Whinerton.
View attachment 1643220
This is my black Sumatra Hen.
Nevermore
View attachment 1643223

Beautiful birds! From the looks of the quality, I take it they are from breeders? I love my Fifi but I can really tell the difference between her and my splash silkie (the splash is from a breeder). But I love them all the same!

And no worries about my grandfather. I guess it’s his fault he married such a cold lady. She was so crazy she wouldn’t even let his grandchildren like myself use their home restroom if my grandfather wasn’t around. She’d make us use the guest houses. She had a few screws loose. My grandfather’s death was very sudden and unexpected. Had he known he would one day be unconscious on life support I would have asked him for his pretty birds in the hospital. I’m scared to know what happened to them since he was the only one that cared about them.

 

[BirdieandFifi]

This is my breeding blue Sumatra rooster. The second pic isn' t very good.
Whiney Whinerton.
View attachment 1643220
This is my black Sumatra Hen.
Nevermore
View attachment 1643223

As far as free ranging, I really want to but we have tons of hawks. I worry because it’s only 3 birds and at any given time the hawks are circling above our home and land. It’s really bad! Many times it’s like 2-3 hawks. We live next to a national forest so I assume that’s where they all come from. But that worries me because both breeds I have are bantams so they’re small! What do you think?

 

[RuBaltLion]

Beautiful birds! From the looks of the quality, I take it they are from breeders? I love my Fifi but I can really tell the difference between her and my splash silkie (the splash is from a breeder). But I love them all the same!

And no worries about my grandfather. I guess it’s his fault he married such a cold lady. She was so crazy she wouldn’t even let his grandchildren like myself use their home restroom if my grandfather wasn’t around. She’d make us use the guest houses. She had a few screws loose. My grandfather’s death was very sudden and unexpected. Had he known he would one day be unconscious on life support I would have asked him for his pretty birds in the hospital. I’m scared to know what happened to them since he was the only one that cared about them.

No I didn't get them from breeders. I got them from a local feed store. I would love to one day buy show quality/breeder quality birds but their a little bit more than my budget can handle at the moment. My whole flock came from hatcheries that the feed store uses. I have a few birds that I bought from a flock swap. Do you think you'll have a big flock or a small flock?

 

[RuBaltLion]

As far as free ranging, I really want to but we have tons of hawks. I worry because it’s only 3 birds and at any given time the hawks are circling above our home and land. It’s really bad! Many times it’s like 2-3 hawks. We live next to a national forest so I assume that’s where they all come from. But that worries me because both breeds I have are bantams so they’re small! What do you think?

It's very easy for a hawk to get a bantam chicken. Yeah they're definitely coming from the national forest. I have at most one maybe 2 hawks come around but during spring it's usually 3 or 4 and my guess is parents and babies learning to fly. You could try bigger breeds like Langshans and Brahmas that will be too heavy for a hawk. Do you have any other predators besides hawk? So is birdie a bantam Sumatra? i know they come in black and white bantam but I don't know about splash.

 

[BirdieandFifi]

No I didn't get them from breeders. I got them from a local feed store. I would love to one day buy show quality/breeder quality birds but their a little bit more than my budget can handle at the moment. My whole flock came from hatcheries that the feed store uses. I have a few birds that I bought from a flock swap. Do you think you'll have a big flock or a small flock?

Really? Your birds are so pretty. You are lucky. I only have 1 show bird (silkie) and geez was she expensive. I didn’t buy her for looks though. I bought her because her breeder DNA tests all her stock and at one point I thought I might have only roosters and my heart was broken thinking I’d have to part with them so I didn’t want to end up with no birds! I wanted a for sure pullet. Every breeder in my area wanted $20-$25 a silkie and that’s for a straight run and I was too afraid to get $50/$75/$100 worth of roosters! Plus half the time they didn’t even have silkies available. That also goes for the feed stores. Most of the time they only have sex links and they all have large minimum and I don’t have a large coop to support that.

And Sumatras, forget it. Can’t find anyone that carries them, breeder or feed store. I think I just got lucky and bought Birdie, my Sumatra at a rare time my local feed store had them. I believe they said they got lucky on this order since a seller backed out and they were able to get the chicks because they normally aren’t able to get Sumatras. At the time I had no clue about Sumatras. She was listed as a blue colored Sumatras. I saw Birdie, a little yellow and white odd-ball and wanted her. Imagine my surprise when she grew spots haha!

I’d love to have a large flock but I need a better coop. I already spent months reinforcing my coop due to all the predators in our area. I also made gravity feeders that clog and water is able to get in and make the food all clumpy *sigh*. I was looking at upgrading to a coop where I wouldn’t need to reinforce it aka not a cheap coop but dang they are so expensive but wow would it be nice.

My dream is a walk in coop with real brand name gravity feeders and waters that actually work how they’re supposed to. Cleaning out a coop and the waterer all through tiny 12” x 12” doors suck! Plus I would love to be able to go in there and hang it with them since whenever I let them free roam they’re too busy hunting to want to pay attention to me

 

[RuBaltLion]

Really? Your birds are so pretty. You are lucky. I only have 1 show bird (silkie) and geez was she expensive. I didn’t buy her for looks though. I bought her because her breeder DNA tests all her stock and at one point I thought I might have only roosters and my heart was broken thinking I’d have to part with them so I didn’t want to end up with no birds! I wanted a for sure pullet. Every breeder in my area wanted $20-$25 a silkie and that’s for a straight run and I was too afraid to get $50/$75/$100 worth of roosters! Plus half the time they didn’t even have silkies available. That also goes for the feed stores. Most of the time they only have sex links and they all have large minimum and I don’t have a large coop to support that.

And Sumatras, forget it. Can’t find anyone that carries them, breeder or feed store. I think I just got lucky and bought Birdie, my Sumatra at a rare time my local feed store had them. I believe they said they got lucky on this order since a seller backed out and they were able to get the chicks because they normally aren’t able to get Sumatras. At the time I had no clue about Sumatras. She was listed as a blue colored Sumatras. I saw Birdie, a little yellow and white odd-ball and wanted her. Imagine my surprise when she grew spots haha!

I’d love to have a large flock but I need a better coop. I already spent months reinforcing my coop due to all the predators in our area. I also made gravity feeders that clog and water is able to get in and make the food all clumpy *sigh*. I was looking at upgrading to a coop where I wouldn’t need to reinforce it aka not a cheap coop but dang they are so expensive but wow would it be nice.

My dream is a walk in coop with real brand name gravity feeders and waters that actually work how they’re supposed to. Cleaning out a coop and the waterer all through tiny 12” x 12” doors suck! Plus I would love to be able to go in there and hang it with them since whenever I let them free roam they’re too busy hunting to want to pay attention to me

That's chickens for ya though. When I bought my first Sumatra I knew nothing about them either. My first Sumatra was Cobalt and she was listed as a blue Sumatra but ended up being black. After her I fell in love with the breed and have always bought new Sumatras for my flock. It took me about 2 years just to get a breeding pair and Whiney is from that pair. He gets caged a lot because he's really special to me and an absolute sweet heart of a rooster too. When he comes in the house and I sit anywhere he will rest right by me on the floor and just hang out. I finally had a pair and before I could get them caged to breed I lost the pullet to a coyote. Just about every year my local feed store has Sumatras and they usually get around June. Melon and Nevermore are his designated girls. Right now I have 3 boys and 2 girls that I hatched out from Whiney with either girl.

The biggest my flock has been is 50+ birds. My coop holds at max 50 but I will sometimes push the boundaries with more. My coop is just made out of pallets. Have you thought about buying Sumatras from a hatchery. I know Cackle sells them.

 

[BirdieandFifi]

That's chickens for ya though. When I bought my first Sumatra I knew nothing about them either. My first Sumatra was Cobalt and she was listed as a blue Sumatra but ended up being black. After her I fell in love with the breed and have always bought new Sumatras for my flock. It took me about 2 years just to get a breeding pair and Whiney is from that pair. He gets caged a lot because he's really special to me and an absolute sweet heart of a rooster too. When he comes in the house and I sit anywhere he will rest right by me on the floor and just hang out. I finally had a pair and before I could get them caged to breed I lost the pullet to a coyote. Just about every year my local feed store has Sumatras and they usually get around June. Melon and Nevermore are his designated girls. Right now I have 3 boys and 2 girls that I hatched out from Whiney with either girl.

The biggest my flock has been is 50+ birds. My coop holds at max 50 but I will sometimes push the boundaries with more. My coop is just made out of pallets. Have you thought about buying Sumatras from a hatchery. I know Cackle sells them.

Wow a 50 bird coop my boyfriend would just die I would have so much fun! I thought about ordering them online from a hatchery but they all have minimums and even if you meet that minimum you still have to meet an even higher minimum or they send you packers! And then I’ll not want to get rid of all of the packers and I’d really be in trouble.

But I would love to add another Sumatra. Especially since poor Birdie is a lone wolf. She likes to do things the others can’t like fly up onto things and other silly Sumatra things that silkies just can’t do. I know she’d love having a Sumatra friend. Maybe when I can expand my coop.

The coyotes around here are very bad. They go up and down our street constantly. It’s such a battle. During the day it’s the hawks and then at night it’s the coyotes and raccoons among plenty others. That’s when I really feel a rooster would benefit but I just can’t have one where I live. Already thought about a crow-collar if one of my babies is a roo.

I’m thinking of at least maybe using a dog play pen during the day. One that has a top on it and use it like a tractor so they can graze and I can move it around. It’s actually been raining here the past week and every time I go out they’re doing this dance like.......but literally looks just like that. I have this feeling they’re trying to get my attention because they want to come out and go look for worms. Do chickens have instincts that when it rains they know it’s a good time to look for worms?!! Sounds crazy but it sure seems like it. Birdie is clucking extra loud by the door while doing the dance as the silkie watches and tries to mimic her lol