Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

[thistlewick]

Oh wow Thank you so much @BlueTheBrahma that was SO cool of you to rate him it is awesome to see where he stands!! I really just wanted to know if I should keep him -- as I am considering breeding Marans at some point. Thing is, he's got a lovely disposition, he is SO calm. He is still very young, though - he's not a year old yet (very soon, 1 month away) so crossing fingers nothing changes.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Oh wow Thank you so much @BlueTheBrahma that was SO cool of you to rate him it is awesome to see where he stands!! I really just wanted to know if I should keep him -- as I am considering breeding Marans at some point. Thing is, he's got a lovely disposition, he is SO calm. He is still very young, though - he's not a year old yet (very soon, 1 month away) so crossing fingers nothing changes.

I personally have found that if you get past the 28-35 week old stage of highest testosterone without problems with a cockerel, he never becomes problematic after that.

But that might just be my luck.

 

[thistlewick]

Very cool surprise hen there! What have you named her?

It's funny, the more chickens I get the more I want poop boards. I'm afraid the large piles below the roosts are adding a lot of moisture. I'm not afraid of leaning into poop - I wear full PPE when entering the coop.

I HATE it when they eat their own eggs! It makes such a mess and I have to scrub out the nest boxes daily which is much worse, in my opinion, than scooping poop boards.

So sorry, that's a lot of birds lost! I'm very surprised my birds haven't been taken by raptors. I hear Great Horned Owls regularly.

YES the cleaning of the nests almost daily has really chapped my a&& lol I get those expensive nesting pads bc I don't have any straw for the time being - I should just cave and use the bedding. I just don't like it.

The chicken is named Goldie - not at all original or creative I'm afraid lol

All 52 have names - except I begun just being economical, the 3 Welsummer girls are all named "Welsey" lol

I LOVED the poop boards and will likely go back to them (after making them shorter, 4 feet was too high) after the flock is smaller. With 18, it was a dream and so easy. 50-60 birds, the poop is literally like 12 or 15 pounds lol

 

[thistlewick]

I personally have found that if you get past the 28-35 week old stage of highest testosterone without problems with a cockerel, he never becomes problematic after that.

But that might just be my luck.

You know what? He used to chase the duck to mate her. CHASE her - she seemed to hate it and run, so, for weeks and weeks, he lived in a coop that sits right next to the main hen house. He as confined and the rest of the flock is not, so he was in 'jail' but right there around everyone. Feet away from their food and water, etc. (he had his own of course)

We let him out, it was a long time ago now I don't even recall and he's been a GEM ever since. And the duck is IN LOVE with him. And he loves her right back.

Just yesterday I witnessed him mating one of the hens (he's very polite and quick) and the duck was doing the "happy duck head bob" while he was mating her -- I cannot make this stuff up -- then when he was done, the duck HONKHONK at him, insisting it was her turn, I kid you not.

So, he stood on her. Just stood on her. For about 10 seconds or so.

She was happy with that and they carried on about their day.

I really wish I would think to film this kind of stuff instead of watching bemusedly.

But yeah, he's great LOL I love him, he's probably the calmest boy I have. Plus so beautiful

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

YES the cleaning of the nests almost daily has really chapped my a&& lol I get those expensive nesting pads bc I don't have any straw for the time being - I should just cave and use the bedding. I just don't like it.

The chicken is named Goldie - not at all original or creative I'm afraid lol

All 52 have names - except I begun just being economical, the 3 Welsummer girls are all named "Welsey" lol

I LOVED the poop boards and will likely go back to them (after making them shorter, 4 feet was too high) after the flock is smaller. With 18, it was a dream and so easy. 50-60 birds, the poop is literally like 12 or 15 pounds lol

Do you have more pictures of your welsummer boy? I liked the look of him in the background of some of the others.
I don’t get to talk about welsummers much because I’m mainly on Marans related threads.

 

[wrathsfarm]

You know what? He used to chase the duck to mate her. CHASE her - she seemed to hate it and run, so, for weeks and weeks, he lived in a coop that sits right next to the main hen house. He as confined and the rest of the flock is not, so he was in 'jail' but right there around everyone. Feet away from their food and water, etc. (he had his own of course)

We let him out, it was a long time ago now I don't even recall and he's been a GEM ever since. And the duck is IN LOVE with him. And he loves her right back.

Just yesterday I witnessed him mating one of the hens (he's very polite and quick) and the duck was doing the "happy duck head bob" while he was mating her -- I cannot make this stuff up -- then when he was done, the duck HONKHONK at him, insisting it was her turn, I kid you not.

So, he stood on her. Just stood on her. For about 10 seconds or so.

She was happy with that and they carried on about their day.

I really wish I would think to film this kind of stuff instead of watching bemusedly.

But yeah, he's great LOL I love him, he's probably the calmest boy I have. Plus so beautiful

I'm going to add just a smidgen to the evaluation @BlueTheBrahma gave. My thoughts, if you will.

Your not breeding for SOP, so #1 priorities are temperament, how he treats his ladies, and he's handsome. Blue gave him just a quick once over, but he scored a very nice rating. So moving forward if you decide to work with him your looking to pair him with hens with long backs and low tails. As it stands now, you'll still be producing very pretty progeny from him, you may not fix his tail in one generation or two.

Overall at this time, you have a nice guy with just one major fault and other possible minor flaws. That's a good starting point if you choose to work with him. If not, then you have a very pretty rooster at the end of the day.