Adding Chickens to the farm... I've got questions!

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Mango20

…
Sadly, a raccoon broke into what I thought was a secure run this summer and killed two of them.

Sorry to hear of your losses. Those raccoons are so cute, but can be little devils.

I do really like the Laced Wyandotte - the black/silver variety. And as much as I think sending live chicks through the mail might be cruel (and how devastating it would be for some of them to arrive deceased), I think if we want more variety, that’s the way we have to go. Well, unless I find someone local that has a variety of chicks for sale that we want. Because I do want to start with chicks. I think its the only way to acclimate the dogs and cats to our new pets.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Palm Beach

Does he have any interest in Americaunas (they can lay blue and green eggs)? I guarantee you that if you get the chicken coop set up and then “run to TSC to get some little stuff” when chicks are in, you will come home with chicks.

I was telling him about the different colored eggs, but at the time we were at the fair, I couldn’t remember which breeds laid which colored egg. I have read about the Ameraucanas. I think all different colored eggs would be neat to have.

[Simkie]

Do keep in mind that you’re going to get more impressively “cool” looking birds from breeders who are breeding to the standard and focusing on the unique look than from hatcheries Make some friends at those shows and buy birds from those breeders!!! :yes: Bonus is a lot of those people are also selecting for temperament, so roosters are more likely to behave themselves and not be mean.

I’ve really enjoyed my crested cream legbars. They have a crest and lay blue eggs. They’re also autosexing at hatch, so you know who is a boy and who is a girl coming out of the shell. They’re not as crazy looking as polish or appenzeller or houdan, but they’re cool birds that are more unique than say, production reds

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Simkie

Do keep in mind that you’re going to get more impressively “cool” looking birds from breeders who are breeding to the standard and focusing on the unique look than from hatcheries Make some friends at those shows and buy birds from those breeders!!! :yes: Bonus is a lot of those people are also selecting for temperament, so roosters are more likely to behave themselves and not be mean.
. . .

Good point. Although, other than the county/state fairs, no idea if there are “shows” for chickens. I’ll have to look into that. And, oddly enough, there is NO county fair for my county.

[Simkie]

@4LeafCloverFarm

Good point. Although, other than the county/state fairs, no idea if there are “shows” for chickens. I’ll have to look into that. And, oddly enough, there is NO county fair for my county.

There are chicken shows Are you on Facebook? You should be able to connect with the chicken people in your area on there!

It’s also A BLAST to hatch your own, if you want to try that. Shipped eggs can be a bit of a gamble but you can get access to some GREAT birds if you’re willing to give it a go. And also on fb…there will be breed club groups where serious breeders congregate and discuss their flocks. Great places to make connections, learn about the breeds and see some stellar examples.

[stargzng386]

@4LeafCloverFarm

:lol:

I wasn’t planning on having a rooster. But if we got one in error/accident, then so be it. I’m worried more about how noisy one might be. I do like my beauty rest!

I thought this as well I’m a really light sleeper and super sensitive to noise. My house came with a flock of chickens including 5 roosters. It took me a few weeks but I sleep through them like a baby now. Your brain just learns that you don’t actually want to wake up when they crow and it very easily learns to ignore them. I actually really like my roosters they have a lot of personality. I have the old guy, the goofy Polish who can’t see and a young HUGE calico roo who’s afraid of his own shadow. My silkie roo tries to be boss and skitter at me but you just look at him and he skitters off, he’s very much all show no follow through. I have hatched out some roos and given them away, just don’t get too attached to any youngsters until you know for sure who’s a pullet and who’s a roo. Each roo has his own group of hens/ladies and it makes me feel better since I free range to have them there for some protection.

Chickens are REALLY addicting. I bought the house with 25 chickens, thought there were way too many so I sold some, gave away a few roos. Then I bought a few chicks to raise, then I let a broody hatch out a clutch of eggs herself, then I got a separate pen with silkies, I bought silkie chicks and let a broody hatch out silkie eggs. Now I have around 30ish chickens and I stopped trying to count exactly how many LOL

[4LeafCloverFarm]

Yes, I’m on FB. Haven’t joined any groups yet. Waiting until I’m absolutely sure we will in fact have chickens. I got way too excited about the chickens last spring… only to be disappointed that my husband thought the idea was bad/silly/weird.

I gave my DH the book ya’ll suggested - Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens - for him to peruse at work. He spends a lot of time making phone calls and takes a long lunch every day, so hopefully he’ll read it and the info will stick. Because I really don’t want to have to have the facts of life discussion again, concerning chickens. :winkgrin:

[4LeafCloverFarm]

I think maybe this was discussed way back, but now can’t recall - its best not to mix large chickens and bantams, correct? Because if that is a safety issue (for the much smaller chickens), I want to make sure to pass that along to DH, so he doesn’t get attached to the idea of a small breed.

[HungarianHippo]

I’ve never found the crowing to be disruptive, but our coop is 150 ft from the house, so you may have different results. Our roo does start early, like 4am. Honestly it’s soothing to me, in the way that rain on a metal roof is loud but one of the most awesome sounds to sleep to. And if you have close-in neighbors, best to keep them happy with lots of free eggs.

While we’ve been lucky to never have a mean rooster (not that he’d be kept around in that case anyway), I really advise against multiple roos because aside from the high potential for fighting, another way they assert dominance over each other is by constantly mating the hens. And I mean constantly.

The mail order process is not cruel-- they arrive chirping and happy as can be. (Pssst: your farm store got their chicks by truck too. No different.) They ship with a sponge-like thing that keeps them hydrated, and our chicks tend to dive right into eating, no sign of stress. Your post office will call you as soon as they arrive,and you typically go pick them up. The tradeoff on mailorder is: the earlier in the year you order, the higher number of chicks you need (so they stay warm in the box). But later in the spring they typically won’t have the rare / high-demand breeds such as the copper marans which lay chocolate brown eggs. And the shipping cost isn’t cheep :winkgrin: (unless you order a whole lot, then shipping is often free. My neighbors and I will often band together to meet the minimum order and avoid shipping$)

If you know you don’t want 20+ chicks: Around here, the farm stores will take orders for more specialized breeds that ship in with all the regular birds. So you might ask about that.

[Sparrowette]

@4LeafCloverFarm

I think maybe this was discussed way back, but now can’t recall - its best not to mix large chickens and bantams, correct? Because if that is a safety issue (for the much smaller chickens), I want to make sure to pass that along to DH, so he doesn’t get attached to the idea of a small breed.

Banties can get very broody, they like to set their eggs, and raise their chicks. I had one, a little silkie, but she stopped eating until I let her have ~a~ chick. Then, she was the best mom… She got along with the larger hens fine. But mine was a very small flock.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

We are fortunate that our nearest neighbors are a quarter mile away - one over the hill from us, totally out of sight and the other, down the hill from us, through a thicket of trees. So I would not be worried about rousing the neighbors, them getting on the neighbors property (we have 40+ acres) or causing issues.

But if we get a rooster, don’t all your hens and the rooster need to be the same breed? If you let a hen raise her babies to replenish your flock, I’d imagine having odd mixed breed chicks might make them more susceptible to being picked on or sickly or have conformation/feather issues? Or is my thinking totally off base?

Glad to hear that shipping chicks by mail across the country is normal practice. Maybe chicks don’t stress easily - because a long distance trip in a small box sounds traumatic to me! :winkgrin: But I guess they have their buddies, and that makes it easier on them.

The next time I’m in TSC, I’ll ask about their ordering process for Chicks. I’ll check at our Co-Op too. Just doing more breed searching today (for some “cool” looking chickens lol), I did find several farms/businesses around the US that ship the day old chicks - besides the mypetchicken site). Silkies are definitely out, as they shouldn’t get wet because of their feathers (they need to be toweled or blown dry :lol: - which I am not going to do if they are caught outside and it starts to rain!).

So I’m warming up to having a rooster. Our pig stable we are converting is, gosh, 800+ feet from the house? And they would be put up at night. But the more I read, the more it seems that the Rooster serves as watchman and helps protect the hens, which I think is a good thing.

But will a rooster only really like “his” breed of hen, or are they hardwired to protect all hens in his harem, regardless of breed? So if we ended up with 4 breeds of chickens (hens) and picked one breed to get a rooster from, would that still work?

[Sparrowette]

He’s a guy and they are gals. That is all you need to know. He won’t care. And be prepared to put “hen saddles” on at least some of the gals to protect their backs.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

Too bad you can’t “geld” a rooster. Because it would be great to have a protector that didn’t constantly annoy the hens for nooky.

Are their certain breeds where the roosters are known to be more calm, gentle and well, less annoying to his ladies?

[Bluey]

Keep in mind that everything likes chicken.

If you free range, that means they will be free for the picking.
There will be attrition to the flock every so often from all kinds of predators.
Bobcats, big rats, skunks, coons, foxes, coyotes, hawks, owls, pet cat/dogs, etc.
You name it, they all want chicken.
Roosters are chicken too, don’t overestimate their protection value.

Chickens on the other hand are very adjustable as to space requirements.
They will fill whatever space you designate for them if you choose to confine them for their own protection and be contented there, as much as a chicken is.
They won’t be looking longingly to freedom across the fence as other confined critters may.

Either way, you still need to put them up at night in a chicken Fort Knox.
That is when the highest predation tends to happen.

You will figure what works best for you and your flock.

[Simkie]

You can geld a rooster. It’s called a capon. But they lose the rooster qualities, just like how a gelding isn’t a stallion.

You don’t need a single breed flock. Babies hatched will be crossed bred–aka “barnyard mix.” A boy bird will breed whatever hens he has, he doesn’t care what they look like.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Simkie

You can geld a rooster. It’s called a capon. But they lose the rooster qualities, just like how a gelding isn’t a stallion.

AH! I think I skipped the part of my books on raising chickens that talked about roosters, breeding and such, since I wasn’t really considering having one. Some quick searches on the internet shows that the practice of caponizing a rooster is considered inhumane now, but used to be widely practiced on farms. No article really explains why it is considered inhumane though. I don’t consider gelding a stallion or neutering a dog inhumane. So I’m a little confused on that.

Anyway, In order to get a rooster, I would have to get past my squeamishness of potentially eating fertilized eggs. :o Or maybe I could solve that easily by getting mine from the grocery still.

[Sparrowette]

@4LeafCloverFarm

AH! I think I skipped the part of my books on raising chickens that talked about roosters, breeding and such, since I wasn’t really considering having one. Some quick searches on the internet shows that the practice of caponizing a rooster is considered inhumane now, but used to be widely practiced on farms. No article really explains why it is considered inhumane though. I don’t consider gelding a stallion or neutering a dog inhumane. So I’m a little confused on that.

Anyway, In order to get a rooster, I would have to get past my squeamishness of potentially eating fertilized eggs. :o Or maybe I could solve that easily by getting mine from the grocery still.

It is considered cruel now because of where the testes are in the roosters body. It is an invasive surgery and was usually done without anesthesia.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@Sparrowette

It is considered cruel now because of where the testes are in the roosters body. It is an invasive surgery and was usually done without anesthesia.

Well I get that, but with modern vet practices, would they not use a local or put the rooster under, remove the testicles, glue the incision, and then wake the rooster up? What I was saying is that I wouldn’t consider that inhumane, so I didn’t understand why a procedure like that would be frowned upon.

[Simkie]

@4LeafCloverFarm

Well I get that, but with modern vet practices, would they not use a local or put the rooster under, remove the testicles, glue the incision, and then wake the rooster up? What I was saying is that I wouldn’t consider that inhumane, so I didn’t understand why a procedure like that would be frowned upon.

So let’s unpack this.

Caponizing a rooster (really, a cockerel–you have to castrate then when they’re young) was traditionally done so he could be housed with other boys, and because caponizing a bird yields a larger, less gamey carcass. Chickens are livestock, and like livestock, they were castrated on the farm, by farmers. Much livestock is still castrated on the farm, by farmers, and without anesthesia, because drugging them is expensive, risky, and may limit how the carcass is used after slaughter.

Birds are often covered only in an “exotics” course in vet school. My large animal vet, who did learn about livestock, did not learn about chickens. Finding a vet who will treat chickens at all can be difficult–finding one that would be comfortable anesthesthetizing your chicken would be harder. Because of that scarcity, having a vet caponize your boy birb would likely be pretty costly.

All of the reasons you want a rooster in your flock–protection, they’re pretty–are lost with a capon. If you’re not raising them to slaughter, the only benefit is maybe just keeping a boy that you like. I’ve also read they go broody on eggs and make nice mommas, but if you don’t have a fertile boy in your flock, that doesn’t really matter.

So, no. The overwhelming vast majority of birds that are caponized are not done at the vet…just like how most cows and pigs castrated are not castrated by the vet.

[Mosey_2003]

Fun that this is back up and running!

Agree with Simkie, you’re not getting your cockerels caponized at the vet usually. Birds don’t do well with anaesthetic, and I’m pretty sure locals aren’t that great for chickens either. People DO still caponize, themselves, at home. It’s not an easy thing to learn to do, and you will lose a percentage of them. Chicken geldings simply are not a thing.

Personally, I recommend you not get a male on purpose, at least initially. They’re just unnecessary drama and they eat for nothing. As far as which ones should be gentle vs not, when you get them from a hatchery (like in the stores) it’s really a crapshoot, because the only thing the hatcheries are breeding for is egg production and for their appearance to be somewhat close to the original breed. Personally, I know a LOT of people with truly horrid, rank “Rhode Island Red” roosters from hatchery bins. They’re actually Production Reds in reality, but I digress. The Silver and Gold Laced Wyandottes from the hatcheries also seem to be pretty scrappy. More likely than not, if you get Silkies, you’re gonna end up with Silkie roosters. Which should be fine, as far as roosters go. Buy more Silkies than you think you want, as they only come straight run I do believe.

If you’re wanting a variety of fancy breeds, I’d talk to your local TSC and find out when they plan to order chicks in the spring. Usually you can reserve some, and most of the stores get quite a few “fancies” in - they’ll have Polish and Silkies and often even Frizzled Bantam Cochins. You can mix bantams and large fowl as long as they all have enough room and don’t have extra reason to fight. Most of the fancies are bantam-ish sized anyhow.