Sumatra houseing needs.

[flyingmonkeypoop]

In the winter we keep them in a heated shed, the roosters tails dont get messed up, we have wire on 2 sides. In the spring,summer,fall we keep them in the shed row which is basically a row of pens that has a solid back and a roof, the other sides are wire, those pens are 4' x 8', we never seem to get messed up tails, even with a few crazy roos. When you handle them, be sure to not grab their tails, it can ruin them for show, be calm and pick them up, dont grab them like you would any other chicken. Our sumatras seem to be nice and calm, we dont really have to worry about fighting with them. Here is our largefowl sumatras http://www.infinityheartfarm.com/sumatra.html and here are the bantams http://www.infinityheartfarm.com/bantamsumatra.html
Maybe our birds are different than others, they say all lines are different.

 

[K&H Chicken Farm]

This line has been breed for 15 years now by 2 people who show all over CA. I was told that they cull for behaivior so most of the birds are really calm. We saw a roo that she had breed in the 4-H meeting sleeping on its young owners lap.
I will say I was a bit worried about my son getting a sumatra after reading some of the comments on the web about them, but after going to the farm and seeing how nice her birds are, I will watch but not worry half as much. This hen has never been worked with and still this morning she sat on my sons lap to watch the morning news with out a fuss.