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Well, just got home from NYC. DH just told me that one of my new hatched ducks got over an 8" high wall and somehow fell out of the nest and died! I am so upset! I have NEVER left home that something didn't die while I was gone!!! (my DH or DS watch the critters while I am gone) UGH! And, one of the little "pullets" my DH allowed me to get is now a boy! Luckily the lady I got him from is willing to exchange him. He is only 3 weeks old and already has the beginnings of wattles! My DH let me get 10 Welsummer pullets so that I can grow them for a few months and then sell them as starter birds. Oh yea, the local feed store got in over 100 mixed bantam chicks if anyone is interested. I got a Silver Seabright yesterday and tried to sneak him in with the 10 same aged Welsummer chicks.....somehow my husband noticed! hahhahah!


Anyway, trip was fun and my Grandson is growing so fast!

Eggs in the bator are due to hatch next Tuesday. Most of the eggs are my friends, but some are mine! Free ones (FBCM and some OE) from friends and 2 ducks! Yea!
 
So I'm thinking of keeping one of my three AM boys. Has anybody every tried any methods to keep the crowing down? I don't think my neighbors will appreciate it or my hubby for that matter. Anyway, I've read about rooster collars. I'm skeptical and don't want to hurt the guy. What do you guys think?
 
amandarc said:
excuse my lack of chicken knowledge, what are sex link? I have heard of red sex link and black sex link?
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Red and black sex link are the same as your red stars, golden comets, etc. It's a particular breeding in which the females will all inherit one color, and the males will inherit another. The cuckoo/barred pattern (both are the same thing) is one example. Males tend to inherit double doses of the genes, where females inherit only one. That leaves the males with a thicker white bar color, and makes it easy to tell which gender is which by just looking at their coloration.

Black and red sex links are the same way. Obviously, everyone wants hens, and not many people want roosters. But vent-sexing actually takes a trained eye, and even then it's not 100% accurate. Feather sexing doesn't work with all breeds (or even with all birds within that breed). And all of the other characteristics to sex young chicks are usually old wives' tales, or just plain unreliable. However, a sex-linked chicken can be sexed by anyone that isn't color blind. In one breeding, the males may end up black, and the females may end up red. In another, the males may end up with a barred pattern, and the females will just be a plain random color.

I can't remember exactly what all of the combination of genes are to create the sex link offspring. But it usually requires mixing two or more breeds together, so it's almost always a "mutt". Sex-link just means you can tell if it's male or female by the color of the chick.
 
christine9 said:
So I'm thinking of keeping one of my three AM boys. Has anybody every tried any methods to keep the crowing down? I don't think my neighbors will appreciate it or my hubby for that matter. Anyway, I've read about rooster collars. I'm skeptical and don't want to hurt the guy. What do you guys think?
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I personally wouldn't want to stop any rooster from crowing. It has good uses. One is to call missing hens back home. I experienced this first hand when I had polish hens that couldn't necessarily see. They'd follow the roo's calls to get home. Another is to help drive predators away. Think about the purpose of a car alarm to a car thief. The point is to make lots of loud noise to draw attention, and drive the thief away. If you were a stealthy predator, would you go for the big, loud, crowing rooster?

Of course it's also used to assert dominance (loudest/longest crow wins) so having more than one will drive you crazy. But I've never even thought about keeping a rooster from crowing, and probably never would!
 
Red sexlinks are a red/gold rooster over silver hens. You get red/gold pullets and golden roosters
Black sexlinks are non barred/non white rooster over barred hen. You get barred roosters and non barred pullets.

In both cases, the rooster passes his color to all offspring, and the hen only passes her gene to the male chicks.

Here are some pictures http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Sex-links/BRKSexLink.html
 
Personally I dont know I got mine older, but there is a chicks 101 section under the learning center tab you can type in search words. I would think right away but in a shallow dish or put marbles in it and just cover barely with water if you font have one of the watering trays. Otherwise they just filling their lungs and dont need much first day I would guess.
 
valleychicks said:
How soon can you give a chick water? My daughter had one hatch early this morning and it is dry, warm and peeping like crazy.
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You should provide water as soon as they are out of the bator. Make sure it's shallow and put in marbles or pebbles so they cannot drown. You might have to dip their beaks in the water to get them started drinking on their own.
 
Well I have some interesting news. I kept telling my husband that I thought that one of our hens was actually a rooster. He was like no no no they said at tractor supply they were all females. Well our hen crowed this week...hmmmm. I have never seen a hen crow.
 
Well ive seen on here folks thst swore hens can crow but roos will never lay an egg! I had one everyone swore was a female crow too, now im hoping I dont have 2 roos, I was hoping for eggs by next month lol.
 

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