Sumatra Thread!

[artblueggwanter]

did you have sumatras?

 

[troyer]

When I first got my chickens it didnt seem that too many critters were bothering them....I had them free range during the day. Then I noticed the mexican hawks were grabbing one everyday or so. Then my friends dog stayed the night and tore through the coops and killed all of my chickens. They were about five months old and a beautiful mix of silkies, yokohamas, cubalyas, OEGs and some phoneix. The dog tore through the gates on two coops, tearing the door off the hinges. On the third coop she grabbed the little ones through the chicken wire and killed them even though she couldnt get their bodies out....I was so upset...

I went ahead and bought a second batch of chicks after the dog was gone, but by then I guess my home had become the local chicken buffet-the hawks would pick off anything left loose, the foxes knabbed three older chickens I got and then I found snakes in the coop where the month old chicks were. Every weekend I would add more layers, but then the racoons ate all the babies one night after they tore through the mesh...

We just completed what my sister likes to call chicken alcatraz. I took part of my wrap around wooden porch, added 2 by 4 galvanized wire, layered with chicken wire, then layered with metal hardware meshing. Then we took sheets of plastic roofing and put on three sides and then concreted the entire base down into the house foundation and nailed all the meshing into the roof. Ive concluded the number of chickens I may have will be small, but I WILL have at least a few, as I love to watch them putter around and the oriental breeds are so beautiful!

Nice little Cubalaya cockerel in your avatar. Perhaps if you are interested in Cubalaya you should visit this thread.https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/newestpost/352331

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

I forgot to mention I put the coop inside a metal fenced in area, this will only keep large dogs out.

When I had birds before it was similar to register's story, at first all was well and then problems with chickens & rabbits getting killed. I had a dog keep climbing our wood fence to get into the backyard. During the day the birds/rabbits did well, it was night we had issues, though hawks would scope the yard out too when the girl's free ranged, the Vietnamese Jungle Bird I had was the best look out ever for a flock of chickens, so they never got lunch.

That is one reason I have only 2 birds, as I am using them as a test (see what they attract... my yellow cat, that was dumped here, they attract him for sure, he get's hosed a lot by me), the bricks (loose laid) seem to be effective as a barrier for burrowing animals, but with our dog now dead, there is no night patrol to discourage intruding critters out for a mid-night snack, like raccoons and opossums.

I would love to do the following: My dream coop (if I could build exactly what I want)

Expand run & add heaver wiring, completely covered run (the current one is small but covered with wood & I think this is helping as the hawks can not see the hens when flying over head, so no hawks eyeing them yet).
Add electric fencing.
Add outdoor & indoor monitoring system. Chicken cams that can be accessed from work computer, or my phone.
Add some sort of alarm that sounds and wakes me up if the coop is breached at night.
Add motion sensitive lighting to outside area.

I would love to add tons other things as well, I may try and add a nipple watering system.

I need power to this area of my yard... so that is one problem I must solve to go all maximum security for my 2 super cheap EE test chickens LOL, but I would like to go high tech maximum security. I am limited on a small budget right now, but I do have ideas I would love to do.

I find it interesting people on the EE thread say their birds get killed easy because they don't try to escape? The 2 EEs I have will jump straight up high, fly, spin and take evasive maneuvers if they feel threatened, they started some of this as chicks... they recognize the cat as a threat, they vocalize appropriately the threat. They know I am not a threat. So I do not know why my EEs got survival instinct and others do not. Unless it is that I have encouraged learning about threats... I allowed the cat to chase them a few times (when they where big enough and put outside) one to observe their behaviors and two to encourage them to understand not everything is friendly and hanging near the human who has the hose is safe versus wandering off.

Still waiting on eggs btw... half the fun of EEs is what color genetics for eggs you get. Every day denial, no eggs! I would like to add Sumatra, Phoenix & Cornish Bantams down the road but right now these 2 EE girls are my lab rats.

I am using wood chips right now, and have found their water was too easily fouled, I lifted it up on bricks to solve that problem, and hung their feeder up as well to cut down on food mess.

 

[Indyshent]

I've acquired my first Sumatra as of this afternoon. I am now the proud owner of one birchen Sumatra and one gold birchen mix (he as a single comb). Both are from a breeder in Bargersville, IN who raises them to standard, but she's fallen on hard times and also had almost all of her eggs hatch into boys this year. Due to economic problems and being unable to find buyers for about a hundred cockerels, she pretty much foisted them on another poultry enthusiast to grow out into meat birds... and Sumatra make less than splendid meat birds (but great lawn ornaments!).

I've long admired the breed and figured that this would be a good crash course in whether or not this breed could possibly fit at my home because they're choices are death or working out, pretty much. I had not planned to get into the breed because they fly really well and can be aggressive, but these boys were so social (and from a very social overall group of dozens of blue, black and splash Sumatra) and so gentle when I picked them up that I just couldn't abandon them. I may go back for a blue and/or black because they are such lovely, sweet-natured, scrappy little guys (well, little by comparison to my Brahmas, anyway). If they work out, I'll try to get some hens for them this spring.

So far, it does not appear the breeder was selecting for multiple spurs (or that multiple spurs take awhile to really come in) because I didn't see any with multiple nubs about their ankles while I was visiting. The oldest of the pair 9mos or less; the younger is about 12weeks. They're both as sweet and calm as I could hope for (and in a game breed, no less!).

 

[artblueggwanter]

I've acquired my first Sumatra as of this afternoon. I am now the proud owner of one birchen Sumatra and one gold birchen mix (he as a single comb). Both are from a breeder in Bargersville, IN who raises them to standard, but she's fallen on hard times and also had almost all of her eggs hatch into boys this year. Due to economic problems and being unable to find buyers for about a hundred cockerels, she pretty much foisted them on another poultry enthusiast to grow out into meat birds... and Sumatra make less than splendid meat birds (but great lawn ornaments!).

I've long admired the breed and figured that this would be a good crash course in whether or not this breed could possibly fit at my home because they're choices are death or working out, pretty much. I had not planned to get into the breed because they fly really well and can be aggressive, but these boys were so social (and from a very social overall group of dozens of blue, black and splash Sumatra) and so gentle when I picked them up that I just couldn't abandon them. I may go back for a blue and/or black because they are such lovely, sweet-natured, scrappy little guys (well, little by comparison to my Brahmas, anyway). If they work out, I'll try to get some hens for them this spring.

So far, it does not appear the breeder was selecting for multiple spurs (or that multiple spurs take awhile to really come in) because I didn't see any with multiple nubs about their ankles while I was visiting. The oldest of the pair 9mos or less; the younger is about 12weeks. They're both as sweet and calm as I could hope for (and in a game breed, no less!).

any pics?

 

[Indyshent]

Here's the birchen Sumatra:









And here's the little mutt who I just know is going to be the next Antonio Banderas/Johnny Depp/Robert Downey Jr./(insert chosen male sex god here)

 

[artblueggwanter]

Here's the birchen Sumatra:









And here's the little mutt who I just know is going to be the next Antonio Banderas/Johnny Depp/Robert Downey Jr./(insert chosen male sex god here)

does he have multiple spurs, is he a mixed Sumatra?

 

[Indyshent]

does he have multiple spurs, is he a mixed Sumatra?

The older one looks like he might be getting another pair further up his leg, but the younger one doesn't look to be getting any more. Do they hatch with more spurs or do those come in later?

 

[artblueggwanter]

The older one looks like he might be getting another pair further up his leg, but the younger one doesn't look to be getting any more. Do they hatch with more spurs or do those come in later?

they hatch lacking the lil single button and instead have a row of scales

 

[Indyshent]

Both of these boys only have one noticeable spur. The gold birchen we know is a mutt. Given the breeder's love of new colors, it's possible she's elected to breed more for those (and then work on type, #of spurs, etc). She produced a HUGE number of splash, blue and black Sumatras this year but--given the splash-laced Wyandottes' type--I'm not sure is she was selecting her breeding flock perhaps as rigorously as a more serious breeder should (the breed-a-ton-of-mediocre-birds-and-hope-for-a-diamond type of breeder).

The only type of chicken she sets out to breed with a pea comb is the Sumatra (the BLRW and RIR are the other two). The only other breed she keeps that has a pea comb are EEs in a separate layer flock. I know she has them though because there was an EE/Sumatra mix that was given away (to the same lady who received all of the other hundred-or-so unwanted roosters). He had the fluffier face, heavier build and shorter tail of an EE (he was a beautiful EE though) and was much fluffier in general than the birchen guy outside. This guy doesn't look anything like the other breeds she keeps, and her flock has been sporting some oddball birchens this year, and only throughout her Sumatras. All of the other birchen Sumatras were blue birchen though (kind of hoping to acquire one of those so we can see what they grow up to look like because it's sure to be amazing). so the only conclusion I can draw is that he's a fullblooded Sumatra who doesn't have multiple spurs (they do crop up even from parents with multiple spurs, though, given the other birds I saw from this breeder, she doesn't make enough of that fault to select against it).