Young Roosters
It appears that a few of my new chickens may be roosters. I'm not all together thrilled about this. They tend to be a little aggressive and sometimes down right frightening! Mr. Darcy, you know, became too proud of his hens and too prejudice against me and had to go to another farm to face an unknown fate.
Colonel Brandon has been very nice though and will continue to stay as long as he remains gentlemanly. He is however recently overcome by wander lust and is flying to coop to wander the far edges of the farm. I keep telling him he has 37 ladies and there is no need to tread so far. This can easily be fixed with a feather trimming but I have to catch him first.
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| Colonel Brandon |
I have been looking at a few of the little chickens (15 weeks old) and wondering about them. It appears that the "silver" Americana is a rooster. He's looking very manly in his strut. His comb and wattles are also very bright. See how he looks different from the Americana hens in the background? Jared swore he heard him crow this morning. I'll be listening carefully for a few days.
And then there is this guy. He's one of the Speckled Sussex's. He is a little bigger, brighter combed, and more colorful than the others. He seems a little goofy too.
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| Mr. Collins, maybe? |
Hmmm... I'm going to have to think of some more Austen names, I guess.
Including one for this gorgeous girl. Any suggestions?
You have beautiful chickens! The first set of 7 chickens we purchased this past year turned out to have 2 roosters in the mix. We kept them for as long as we could in our backyard, then we had to find a new home for them. I miss them. One of the roosters was as sweet as can be, a little Bantam and the other, a large Buff Orpington had lots of posturing moves, but wasn't too bad. But, he still terrified everyone.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see which ones are indeed roosters!
Lana
I'm not an Austen fan, so no help there. But I do believe the righthand reddish Americana "hen" in the picture just behind the silver possible rooster is also a rooster, judging by that tail.
ReplyDeleteDid you purchased your chicks already sexed? I had a nervous laugh going when reading this because we are going to get chickens in the spring for the first time -- hubby really wants them and I want the eggs ;) but I am kinda terrified of them! HA! And the thought of a rooster double terrifies me!!
ReplyDeleteYes, we did order only pullets (girls) but it seems there are always a few boys that sneak their way in. When ordering, be sure to request "no warmers" because those are all roosters!
ReplyDeleteI think the name Fanny Price would fit your new girl just fine. Two of my roosters have gone to new homes. I gave them away after I placed and ad on Craigslist. Of course mine were much better behaved them Mr. Darcy! Good Luck with your new roosters!
ReplyDeleteYes! Fanny Price! Like that. Or I was going to suggest moving on to Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford characters.
ReplyDeleteI second the name Fannie Price. so fitting.....;)
ReplyDeleteI am going to purchase "sexed" chicks later this year, but know the people who do this job can only offer a 98% accuracy rate, meaning I know I'll be raising more roosters. My grandson & I are taking about 10 roosters and 14 hens to a poultry auction tomorrow...roosters are so flamboyant and gorgeous, but they can sure be disruptive and sometimes dangerous.Not to mention, they eat as much as the hens without delivering any eggs.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful chickens !
All of the chickens are beautiful!... I like your selection.
ReplyDeleteCan't help with names. Can't help with determining sex. I'm loving your pictures though! I'm actually beginning to look at chicken coop designs! Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteI've had some pretty scary rooster encounters on my farm, to the point where when we do chickens in the future, I will not keep a rooster. We don't need the fertile eggs (and our hatches have been all or primarily boys, a huge disappointment), and the girls are wily enough to watch the sky for predators.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the first photo is of a roo. You can tell because the neck feathers are short and pointy, he's got a saddle, the long curvy feathers above the base of the tail. I also agree with a previous poster that the red bird behind your boy could very well be a roo, too...I see some pointy feathers on the neck, but also his stare looks very "rooster". (I know that look well. I don't like it! And in my experience with a hatch of 19 chicks where 11 were male, every boy had that head-up, cockeyed and watchful look.)
The second one, the Speckled Sussex, doesn't look like a rooster to me, but perhaps the pattern is throwing me off.
Your little white hen is lovely! Snow White would probably be too obvious...plus Snow White had black hair. :)
What beautiful birds.
ReplyDeletePearl! Mini Pearl! She's a beautiful old country girl & your ladies little pink spot reminds me of Mini's hang tag.
ReplyDeleteI love that you name all your chickens and coop after Jane Austen characters and places. She is my all time favorite author!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what names you already have but some Austen names from Pride and Prejudice are Elizabeth, Jane, Kitty & Lydia Bennet or Caroline Bingley.
I think Miss Pope from P and P would suit your sweet white pullet.
ReplyDeleteI guess we have been very lucky with our roosters...so far. Romeo is a real gentleman with his ladies and with us and our little Spicy Meatball was also a good boy. Hopefully the trend continues if we have any more! Looking at your photo's I'd say they are roosters..now lets hope they are gentlemen too. Your chickens are very pretty! I hope your day was a good one and have a wonderful week.
ReplyDeleteMaura :)