Well, I placed my chick order with Murray McMurray Hatchery! My chicks will arrive the day after Easter Sunday!
After all your wonderful help, I wanted to let you know what I ended up ordering....
4 Buff Orpingtons - Females
4 White Orpingtons - Females
1 Standard White Cochin - Female (My granddaughter, Lilli's, chicken; she picked it out. :-) )
1 Standard Partridge Cochin - Female
4 Golden-Laced Bantam Cochin - Straight Run
11 Cornish-X Meat Birds
I'm hoping to get a rooster out of my Golden-Laced Bantam Cochin bunch. Cross your fingers for me! Watch, I'll end up with 4 roosters!! lol .....I'm hoping for an easy going, gentle bunch. I love the Orpingtons; guess I'll find out how I like having Cochins this time around! This is also the first time I've ordered meat birds; we'll see how my family likes the taste of the Cornish-X compared to "store chicken".
Thank you all so much for your input and info; I really appreciate it! You all were a huge help!
~: > Glenda
I need help picking out some chicks. .....I mean chickens!
Glenda, I will certainly hope you get ONE rooster. My luck has run that when I order five (which is usually the way I do it from the Hatchery I use) I get three roos, and two hens.....
Sounds like a great selection to me, can't wait to see the pic's and response from you as you raise those little darlings...Hay
Cool Glenda! That sounds like a fun flock of chickens! I'm seriously considering raising a bunch of meat birds this year.. it will be hard, cause I have to pack in the water, but the health benefit alone makes it worth it. (I think) LOL I'll probably be complaining this summer.. LOL
Sounds wonderful. I would love to see them too. Such fun!
I need to put my pretty partridge hen in with one of the partridge roosters, and see if I can get some babies. I thought this would be easy, one rooster, one hen equal babies right? Hmm. Could use some advice on breeding chickens.
Will the rooster be interested in the hen if she isn't laying eggs yet? Not sure what is going on with the splash hen, but the 10 days or so she was with the rooster, no egg. Maybe she hasn't started laying yet, and I wouldn't know unless I put her by herself for awhile. I felt sorry for her she looked so dominated and cowed down, I put her in the back yard again.
Oh, I hope you like this joke. I was looking in google to see if I had used the phrase "cowed down" correctly and saw this joke. :D
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Dominating Women
Everyone on Earth dies and goes to heaven. God greets them and says, "Men, make two lines: one for those who dominated their women and one for those who were whipped. All the women can go with St. Peter."
After about an hour, God returns to find 2.5 billion men standing in the whipped line and only one guy in the dominant line.
"You men should be ashamed of yourselves!" God cries. "I created you in my image, and all of you cowed down to women? Can any of you explain this?" No one dares says a word.
God then turns to the man standing alone and says, "Tell me, my son, how did you manage to be the only one on this line?"
"I don't know," the guy replies, shrugging. "My wife told me to stand here."
First, that is a great joke! Loved it!!
I have put young pullets in with the roo more than once and it worked fine. He does his dance, but really didn't terrorize them, or even try to jump them... and by the time they were old enough, I never even noticed, it was smooth.
If she is "cowering down" then she must be laying. That is her getting ready for the roo. They will "squat" ... If the roo didn't terrorize her immediately, and they 1/2 way get along, she will be fine. At least, that's my 2 cents. :) Just don't look at her for a day or so, and pretty soon, they will be like peanut butter and jelly.. :) That's what I do.. I know it's an adjustment period.. and I seriously think it's harder for us than it is for them.
LOL!! Good one LFJ! Thanks!!
I think it would be so cool to have a Momma hen with her chicks running around the yard.
......What happens when they go broody in the middle of winter? Do you let them hatch out their chicks? It's freeeeezing here in the winter; can she keep the chicks from freezing to death? For some reason, it seemed like the bantam I had before never went broody in the spring time when the weather was getting warmer and raising them easier. :-[
It's amazing what a momma hen can do! If she can keep the eggs warm enough to hatch, she can and will keep the babiez warm, that is, as long as she has a good enough shelter..
Trust me, there is nothing better than a mom and babiez.. can cure whatever's ailin ya! :) For a while anyway!
That's awesome! Well, I won't worry about it then. ...A good shelter is not a problem here; people often comment about my chickens living in the Hilton! My husband built me a beautiful coop that is [inside] another room inside our barn so they are not exposed to the outside elements or wind, and even have a heat lamp that takes the chill off. They really do have it made! .......My DH spoils me; I love that in a man! ;-) I think I'll keep him!
I have another hen who went broody. I don't understand why. We had two go broody last summer and now one of the newer hens is broody. We don't want broody hens. :) My husband keeps kicking her off the nest and taking the eggs away. I hope she "gets it" soon and gives up. That is the only way I know of to get them to stop try laying on the eggs. We don't have any roosters any more. Gave them all away on Craig's list. The last hen who sat on borrowed fertilized eggs hatched out 6 roosters and three hens. I don't want roosters. I plan to order females and stick with just girls.
Loon, what kind are they? Some breeds are more "broody" than others, some Silkies and banty Cochins will try to hatch rocks if there's nothing else. It's an instinct, and not something that we can control. Just ask anyone who WANTS a broody hen....
Loon, I've had a "hen house" (only females) for 2 years now and I really miss hearing the "cockle-doodle-do". I've decided that I'll keep trying bantam roosters until I get one that doesn't go mean and stays gentle. ~: >
I'm not sure what kind of hen this is. It was hatched by a broody golden comet last summer. I got the fertilized egg from the neighbors and my guess is as good as yours since they have a lot of different kinds of hens and roosters. The six roosters I gave away all had good personalities and weren't mean but maybe they were too young to be mean. I think they were 23 weeks old when I gave them away. It's too bad. They sure were good looking. One was solid white.
I'm fixing to order new female chicks. I may stick with the golden comets again since they are small they don't eat much and they lay eggs pretty consistantly and they're quiet and can take the cold weather.