Chickens

[Bird]

Joe, there might be another way to deal with aggressive roosters. I've posted this before somewhere, but when I was about 12 years old we had a white leghorn rooster with some long spurs that became quite a problem for me. My dad said since a rooster will attack by jumping up and raising his feet to get those spurs forward, just grab both feet and dunk him in the cows' water trough to break him of attacking. So the next day, I did that. I dunked him quickly and threw him as far as I could and he hit the ground running. But the next day, here he came at me again. So I grabbed him and dunked him in the water and held him under awhile and watched the bubbles. And that time, when I pulled him out and threw him, he landed in a pile and I thought he was dead, which scared the daylights out of me because I knew Dad would be furious if I'd killed his big beautiful rooster. But then that rooster started flopping around like a chicken with his head cut off, eventually regained his feet and staggered off, and fully recovered, much to my relief. And from that day on that rooster gave me a wide berth. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[AbbyRoze]

Well that is good to know, we do not have any small children anymore, all grown up and flew the coop, (laughs).

We do have small grandkids, so I will keep a eye on Mister Rooster and if he gets to nasty, he will be in stew pot. I have learned sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

We would like to get, 3 more hens in time, so is it just the Roosters who can be mean or do hens get that way too ?

We do not need alot of eggs but Hubby dose like eating them and I mix them with his dogs diet (great dane) so we can use them.

We raise dogs and now learning to raise chickens and goats.

Abby [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[theboman]

As a teen I had some chickens and we had one red rooster that was meaner than a snake. He'd chase anything and when you went to open the chicken house door he'd fly right at your head..... Well, the darn thing never learned and was whopped upside the head with the door many times.... Finally, a local person came to the house and he took that darned rooster with him to, ah, ah.. I'll be nice... Baked rooster.

[opie744]

We have laying Rhode Island hens and they are all sweet, the girls and I hand feed them and touch them all the time. The one Rhode Island Rooster we had did become mean and we did make him dinner. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

[AbbyRoze]

thanks for all the good advice about the roosters,
we are going to get us a couple RIR hens and a couple more white leghorns, we feel our one RIR rooster should be enough and he has not showed any signs of being nasty as of yet, but he is still young, so we will see if he wants to be with the ladies or the stew pot. his choice !!

[img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[roughcut]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
<font color="blue"> No easy way that I know of... </font color>

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There are people in some of the big hatcheries who can determine male versus female,Murray McMurray hatcherie has a person who checks them after they hatch...and before they are shipped to there customers,this way you can order how many pullets versus roosters you wish tourchase. They are very accurate in making this determination. I have never heard of anyone being able to determine the sex of a chicken before they are hatched. They make there determination by looking at the "vent" on the chick.

[AbbyRoze]

update on chickens, well husband found a lady who was selling some chickens so he had to go look, and guess what, we got 2 black and whites now and 2 partrige's (sp) and one big black one and we got our first brown egg this morning, he has had them 9 days, and a friend gave him a old hen they had cause fox got all rest, so now we have 3 whites, and good ole RIR rooster and he is still not being mean at all. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

so we have 8 hens and one big rooster [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
so thats all we are going to get for now

Abby [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[roho627]

Oh yeah don't laugh but they call it sexing chickens and in Japan that's a big deal! U know like they have contest to see how many chicks they can sex correctly in a given time frame! They have world champions, etc! Never really got into it thou! enogh said about that!

[spunkey22]

I have 10 hens and 1 rooster, The rooster is a barred rock, and the hens are Well' rhode islane red, black sexlink. white leghorn and some game. Everyone says that the game will lay a lot. I get two eggs every other day. It is still cold, maybe when it gets warm they will do better. Should I feed them laying mash or let them eat corn and bugs and grass and worms. I don't really want to go with the laying mash. Hormones you know. But i love having chickens. A friend who raises chickens in houses for slaughter say when they catch her chickens they leave a lot that get loose and i could have them, what do you think? They have a lot wrong with them. would they survive outside after they have been raised in the warmth?I know that they have a lot wrong with because i work in a chicken plant.

[opie744]

http://www.poultryconnection.com/phpBB2/index.php
This is a great website for chickens.