Hey gang !! Well it's been an exciting day in our house !! We got 4 beautiful birds today. They are 1 month old ... not the little fluff balls but not quite a pullet. Kind of like a tweener. I am glad that I called around to other feed stores in the surrounding towns - we had to drive about 30 minutes but fell in love with they birds this farm store had. We got 2 speckled sussex's and 2 golden laced wyandottes. My husband was instantly drawn to the speckled sussex's and I to the golden laced wyandottes. After a couple of times of sitting and holding them all they calmed down and one actually fell asleep in my daughter's hands...soooo cute. They already are a kick to watch. One of the sussex's seems to be spunky with lots of personality. And it seems as though the 2 sussex's kinda sound like a dove a bit..it's pretty sometimes when you catch them making that sound. The kids wanted to tell the "girls" good night and made sure they were comfortable in their makeshift home until they get a bit older. This is gonna be fun !!!
I look forward to having chickens someday. We can't have them in town but when we move to the country I plan on getting some. Babyboy, our grandson, will love them!
I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets giddy with new chickens! I grew up on a farm and had chickens my whole life. I didn't care for them then because we had 100 or so and roosters that would attack you whenever you went to gather eggs. Now that we have just enough hens for us, it is a joy. Even our rooster was nice, but he was stressing the hens so bad it wasn't worth it. Enjoy your birds....and you know how much we all love pics around here.
YAY!! I love my chickens! I get all excited when the feed store calls to tell me the babies are in. I am especially fond of my Buff Orpingtons. Have fun with them and yes please take pictures!
We usually get rid of the roosters because they won't leave the hens alone. They tend to gang up on them and finally, many of the hens will be naked on their backs from the roosters holding them down and such, besides, most roosters are mean. If you aren't going to hatch, then you don't need a rooster anyway...they just take and don't give in that situation (eat food and don't give anything back). Joyfully, Jackie
I would love to show pictures of our birds.. but I am not tech savvy. Please bear with me. Would anyone care to briefly explain how I do that? Brooke? Monkey Mama? Ok so on to the chickens. How do you deal with a bully ? We think we may have a bully on our hands. I am wondering if this is because of the change into a new home and she's insecure.... or she's the alpha female. The other three are so sweet and just take her pecking and pecking. Will this go on for months and months ? We contemplated calling the store to see if we could trade her for another one. Anything we could do to get her to back off a little? Has anyone ever had these breeds before ? ( golden laced wyandotte and speckled sussex ) Glad to find that there are some chicken enthusiasts here !!
I am attempting to attach a picture of one of our speckled sussex's. She was sitting on my husband's arm and then flew up onto his hat. Apparently she liked it better up there The are growing fast and starting to show some personality.... not sure if it's individuality of each bird or the specific breed. We are finding that the golden laced wyandotte's are calm, mellow and friendly. They are patient with our kids as they are learning how to hold them. The 2 speckled sussex's on the other hand are spastic at times which can be hilarious and challenging. They are harder to catch and are more opinionated than the wyandotte's. Another observation of ours is that the wyandotte's seem really tall and lean and the sussex's are kind of short and pudgy & round.
I was away for the weekend at a VOM conference and missed your questions about the pecking order. There is a reason for that term. Chicken hierarchies are set up that way. The dominant hen in the pecking order will rule the roost. Wow, we get a lot of our phrases from chickens, huh?! :lol: We have found any of the smaller breeds seem to be more aggressive than the larger ones. That might just be our own experience. At any rate, the behavior you are seeing is normal, especially if the chickens were not penned together until they got to your coop. Great to see your pic! Here is one from my flock when we still had our rooster.
I love seeing the pictures of the chickens. I really want to get some but we have to wait. It isn't against the town ordinance, but our neighbor would complain if she knew we had them. She is not an easy person to live near.
Brooke I saw your picture... they are beautiful !! Do you still have them? Is that one in front a silver laced wyandotte? The other hens look like either buff orphingtons or sex link's ? Sloan I hope you can enjoy your own chickens someday !!
Yep, we still have them....the date on the camera was wrong. We got ours from an old farmer who just has whatever mix of chickens he has. Most of the hens are Buff Orp. crossed with some type of "Easter Egger." The one in the front there is also a mix with Easter Eggers, but he really didn't know. Next time, though, I'll be getting a specific breed so the egg size is more consistent. We have hens that look exactly the same and yet their egg sizes vary greatly.
