The Wyandotte Thread

[Lelilamom]

We just put our 6 week old (they will be 6 weeks old on Monday) GLW pullets outside in our "meet and greet" coop so they can be face to face with the rest of our flock without getting the snot kicked out of them. They were SO happy to run around and scratch! At sundown, we called "In The Coooooop!" and all the big girls came in from the yard and went into their coop but the pullets were clueless so we took each one, told them "In The COOOOOOP!" and put them into the secondary coop and then closed the door. All 15 of them will be snug for the night in a 3x4x6 coop.

This is how we've done it for several generations of chickens now and it's worked very well. I hope it continues to work well.

 

[NanaKat]

Wyandottes are fairly slow maturing breed, you will start to get an idea of quality of your birds by the time they are 4-5month old.
The males are at their best by the time they are about year to 18 month old.

Nice Columbian in your avatar!

 

[Dave C]

Stunning looking birds everyone

 

[Sylvester017]

We just put our 6 week old (they will be 6 weeks old on Monday) GLW pullets outside in our "meet and greet" coop so they can be face to face with the rest of our flock without getting the snot kicked out of them. They were SO happy to run around and scratch! At sundown, we called "In The Coooooop!" and all the big girls came in from the yard and went into their coop but the pullets were clueless so we took each one, told them "In The COOOOOOP!" and put them into the secondary coop and then closed the door. All 15 of them will be snug for the night in a 3x4x6 coop.

This is how we've done it for several generations of chickens now and it's worked very well. I hope it continues to work well.

Gradual introductions are the best! Even then there can be some squabbling/pecking order establishment but I throroughly endorse the face-to-face through a fence wire for getting acquainted. One day the fence is lifted and they hardly realize they're mingling.

 

[Lelilamom]

Gradual introductions are the best! Even then there can be some squabbling/pecking order establishment but I throroughly endorse the face-to-face through a fence wire for getting acquainted. One day the fence is lifted and they hardly realize they're mingling.

We did this for about 4 weeks last year and started letting our pullets out during the day to free range with our big girls- they were around 10 weeks old. We never had a squabble and were amazed since previous years we had some adjustments with younger girls getting put in their place. This year I want to keep them separated by the face to face fence for about eight weeks so that the pullets are closing to 14 weeks old before they mix with the big girls and get into the layer feed.

 

[Sylvester017]

We did this for about 4 weeks last year and started letting our pullets out during the day to free range with our big girls- they were around 10 weeks old. We never had a squabble and were amazed since previous years we had some adjustments with younger girls getting put in their place. This year I want to keep them separated by the face to face fence for about eight weeks so that the pullets are closing to 14 weeks old before they mix with the big girls and get into the layer feed.

Since I don't do chicks - I get a 2 to 3-month old juvenile and quarantine it from 4 to 6 weeks in house where we also develop a great bond and socialization with the pullet. Then she is released to the backyard with a rabbit fence dividing her side from the main flock's side. We do this until the pullet is full size like the other hens around 5 to 6 months old and then put her in the main flock side. There's not too much commotion and sometimes none if the newcomer watches her P's & Q's. Sometimes I bring one of the main chickens to the side of the newcomer's fence to get acquainted. Slow and steady works better than just dropping a newcomer into an established flock. When we had our old coop we were able to close a large nestbox with a grate and put the newcomer in the box overnight - that way the other hens could see her as an established part of the flock. We took her out of the box in the morning to her side of the fence - we did this for a week or until the newcomer was no longer timid and was anxious to join the main flock.

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

I would post this on the silver penciled thread, but they all seem to be dead. lol. I took pictures of my Jerry Foley hen's lacing compared to one from another breeder.

 

[Honora]

I would post this on the silver penciled thread, but they all seem to be dead. lol. I took pictures of my Jerry Foley hen's lacing compared to one from another breeder.

So beautiful!

 

[BlackwoodHollow]

Wow, what a difference!

 

[IvanTsary]

I would post this on the silver penciled thread, but they all seem to be dead. lol. I took pictures of my Jerry Foley hen's lacing compared to one from another breeder.

Your lacing is way cleaner! If we stagger our flock by adding a couple new birds when the current birds are year 3 then maybe we can find some pencil-laced like that!