Woo Hoo! We've got girls!

[AmyRey]

I'm so glad to know that you guys (and ONLY you guys, apparently) will share in my chicken joy.

We picked our ladies up Saturday night. Four buff orpingtons. They're really tame and friendly. Will already eat out of our hands. The kids got to hold them right off the bat. I think we've found the perfect birds for us.

They were hatched around the 13th of March so I'm hoping they'll be laying in another month or so. *** fingers crossed ***

And when our rooster FINALLY saw the ladies... well... there was no keeping him away. I'm hoping they'll tame him some and he'll soon be much less shy than he is now.

They love their new coop, too.

And yes, I realize that this thread is worthless without pictures. Hopefully tomorrow.

 

[Joyryder]

Congratulations But do you have enough hens for 1 rooster? He may tire them out!
Jo

 

[AmyRey]

How many ladies does one rooster need?

If we need to add more later, I suppose we can. As long as he doesn't need... say... twenty.

One or two more wouldn't be that big of a deal once they start being let out to free range.

 

[Joyryder]

First, Im not an expert. My question was based on what Ive read here. The general rule (but not cast in concrete) is 8 to 10 hens per roo.
There are a lot of msg covering the subject. A search on "Hen to rooster ratio" wil bring up the discussions

Jo

 

[AmyRey]

Ahhh... yes, I see that. I'll keep a good watch on the girls. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[AmyRey]

Yay! I finally got some pictures of our new family members!

Will Photobucket hosted pictures post on this site?

 

[Chickenaddict]

Yep photobucket will just copy and paste the pic link in the thread and voila pictures!

The rooster to hen ration is 10-12 hens per rooster. Congrats on your girls, they sound very sweet.

 

[AmyRey]

Their home, Cluckingham Palace (which isn't quite finished yet). This thing has found muscles in me that I didn't know I had.

They sleep safely and soundly "upstairs" in the coop. Here they are first thing this morning, getting ready to come downstairs for breakfast. Rise and shine, girls!

For breakfast this morning, they got some leftover watermelon, which they seemed to enjoy.

And here's their caretaker, Cocky Balboa. Isn't he a pretty boy?

They're still young girls (about 4 months) so they aren't quite laying yet, but it shouldn't be long! And we have names picked out for them all, but since we can't yet tell them apart, we figure that naming them now would be somewhat pointless. I think I may wrap some tiestraps(?) loosely around their legs this weekend in assorted colors so we can differentiate the four ladies.

I must say... This week, I've found myself SO grateful to be living in a place where I can do kooky things like this. Isn't this a great world that God has made for us?

 

[msgenie516]

Hi,

Your pullets and roo are beautiful! I have ten pullets (7 were hatched at the end of March and 3 were hatched around the second week of April). So I am hoping to get some eggs from them about the beginning to the middle of September. I already have two BO’s so I got just one more for my Grandson to enjoy. I really have to limit myself as I already have TOO MANY chickens!

These are the new chicks:

4 Easter Eggers but, unfortunately, one has a severely twisted beak and I’m just hoping she can lead a decent life if she never lays, as she is smaller and less developed than the others. She does seem to be otherwise healthy. These were hatched at the end of March.

3 Barred Rocks. Two were hatched at the end of March and one was hatched around the second week of April.

2 Silver Laced Wyandottes. These were hatched around the second week of April.

1 Buff Orpington. This one was hatched at the end of March.

I don’t have any other BR’s or SLW’s but I do already have two EE’s. I bought 4 more because I’m becoming addicted to the green eggs!

As for the BO, she is incredibly calm. She NEVER runs away from me when I go to pick her up and when I do pick her up, she just stays there without wiggling or making a sound. The other day DH put his hand out when I had her and I perched her right on top of it and she just stood there. From experience, I know pullets get tamer when they get to laying age, so I can’t imagine what this one will be like!

All of the others act like I’m trying to kill them when I go to pick them up, but not her!

So, good luck with your BO’s! I’m sure you’ll love them!

Genie

 

[Debbienmousey]

They are beautiful

I love your rooster.

As far as tiring the hens out, we were fine having 8 roosters to about 20 hens. Things started getting out of control when the 16-18 cockerels started discovering themselves. Then and only then did our hens get over-mated. I don't believe that a good rooster will over mate a hen. It's when all the roosters get in that mad dash to mate the hens that they over work the hens.

And I thought the rooster to hen ratio was how many hens a rooster can successfully "cover"?


Oh, and I love BO's too

My friends have some and they're very nice birds. We got a little hen and roo from them, the roo was so gentle but unfortunately he was hawk food. The hen is now very annoying and probably off to the stew pot. She is skiddish around the other chickens, stays in the coop virtually all day, and likes to scratch the hay out of the nest boxes. All that besides, I'd love to get some more BO's some day.