Stormy Storm

[Miss M]

One of our hens successfully hatched one chick eight weeks ago (I know what I did wrong, so I can increase that next time ). Galadriel named the little black puffball "Storm", since it hatched during a storm.

Storm was, not unexpectedly, picked on quite a bit by some of the other chickens. Our rooster, Galaxy, ignored Storm, as did our more docile hens, but not all the hens did.

The last week, Storm has been turning the tables, having reached about the same size as the other chickens.

Now, up until this point, we had thought Storm was a pullet. Galadriel and Bunny-Wan Kenobi thought Galaxy was practicing his crowing by now, but now that I realize Storm is only 8 weeks old, I kinda doubt that. Yesterday, Storm climbed on top of one of the comets and began ripping feathers from her back and neck. Bunny-Wan Kenobi grabbed Storm, who finally let go of the comet, coming away with a beak full of feathers. Shay brought the little kennel into the rabbitry, and we incarcerated Storm, to prevent any further carnage while we figured out what to do.

I took a really good look at Storm today, and realized the tail I was seeing didn't quite look like a young hen's tail. A little closer look, and I swear I see longer rooster tail feathers forming. I think Storm is a cockerel.

Well, okay... with our chicken plans, we could use a second rooster. But... do cockerels ever settle down once they start ripping feathers out of hens? I thought Storm was a full-blooded Marans, but now I'm not so sure. Marans are famous for being very laid-back.

Not quite sure what to do.

 

[Marinea]

I hate to say it, but every rooster we've had that started out nasty never got better- only worse.

I will add this- we have had VERY good luck with the old farmer's tale regarding egg shape. When we collect eggs to hatch, we keep all the more rounded ones, and only hatch a couple of the eggs with the more pointy ends. The pointy ones are said to be cockerels and the rounded ones pullets. We hatched 48 two years ago, and 43 were pullets. Just a note for spring

 

[Miss M]

I hate to say it, but every rooster we've had that started out nasty never got better- only worse.

Ooo. That doesn't bode well, then.

I will add this- we have had VERY good luck with the old farmer's tale regarding egg shape. When we collect eggs to hatch, we keep all the more rounded ones, and only hatch a couple of the eggs with the more pointy ends. The pointy ones are said to be cockerels and the rounded ones pullets. We hatched 48 two years ago, and 43 were pullets. Just a note for spring

Wow, that's pretty neat! Although... our Buff Orpington lays nearly spherical eggs, and our Rhode Island Red's eggs look like missiles. Not quite sure how I would judge those, but I will definitely remember this for the next time we have a broody hen! Thank you!

 

[cmfarm]

Every rooster is different. I have had several different Marans roosters and some were docile and some down right mean. But it doesn't sound like the behavior he was doing was mean, more like he was practicing breeding.

 

[Marinea]

Wow, that's pretty neat! Although... our Buff Orpington lays nearly spherical eggs, and our Rhode Island Red's eggs look like missiles. Not quite sure how I would judge those, but I will definitely remember this for the next time we have a broody hen! Thank you!

We only raise Orpingtons, and it has taken me a bit to see the difference in the egg shape, but now it's much easier.

 

[MaggieJ]

We have had numerous roosters in the eleven years we've had chickens... and only one was what I would call nice. Most of them were okay with the hens, but very aggressive with people, especially women.

The best one we had was a Speckled Sussex named Napoleon. We were fond of him and very sorry when we lost him. The worst was a Welsummer named--appropriately enough--Lucifer. He was gorgeous... and as mean and sneaky as they come. He'd pretend to be scratching around for something to eat until you turned your back and then he'd come at you spurs first at the back of your legs. Eventually someone admired him and asked what breed he was. I said, "He's a Welsummer. Do you want him?" Last I heard he was making life miserable for the wife at his new home.

Give your boy as bit of time, Miss M, as long as he is not aggressive with people. Cockerels have no finesse when it comes to their relations with the hens. He may improve.

 

[Celice]

lol! sound like a rebellious teenager to me. Most of the roosters I've had where very nice! I've had different breeds and none of them bothered me the meanest I've has was a Mille Fleur, nasty little thing liked to claw at my pant legs. But because he was so little he never could do anything above my waist so I just always made sure to wear jeans when going into the coop. Now I have a Buttercup roster and he seems really nice though the hens beat the snot out of him.

all roosters are different and I'm sure when he gets old enough to challenge your other one he will ether get to be on top of the pecking order get his butt handed back to him and put him down a peg or two.

 

[Miss M]

Every rooster is different. I have had several different Marans roosters and some were docile and some down right mean. But it doesn't sound like the behavior he was doing was mean, more like he was practicing breeding.

Okay, I was wondering if mean Marans roosters ever did crop up. So you think maybe he was just being a bit precocious, trying to breed, and failing miserably and denuding the hen while he was giving it a go?

We only raise Orpingtons, and it has taken me a bit to see the difference in the egg shape, but now it's much easier.

Okay, I will start paying attention, then. What a neat indicator that seems to have a good success rate if you can tell the difference in the shape of the eggs. Scramble the boys, hatch the girls. Awesome!

"He's a Welsummer. Do you want him?" Last I heard he was making life miserable for the wife at his new home.

:rotfl:

Give your boy as bit of time, Miss M, as long as he is not aggressive with people. Cockerels have no finesse when it comes to their relations with the hens. He may improve.

So far, he's been scared to death of us, so I guess we'll see. I hope he doesn't pluck all the hens on the doorstep of winter before he figures things out. :roll:

I suppose he could come in handy as a plucker when we butcher... :hmm:

lol! sound like a rebellious teenager to me.

How long do you think the rebellious teenager stage might last?

I had to look up the Mille Fleur. Once I saw it was a Bantam, I wasn't surprised. I keep hearing over and over how mean they are. I saw a group as chicks, and they all had bald spots where their binmates had been yanking their feathers out.

I'm sure when he gets old enough to challenge your other one he will ether get to be on top of the pecking order get his butt handed back to him and put him down a peg or two.

That would be nice, if Galaxy would beat him up and let him know where he belonged. For now, Galaxy doesn't even acknowledge his existence. :roll:

 

[Marinea]

Thinking about this, we do have a teenaged rooster at the moment who just took over the top spot (we sold the older one). He has a few younger ladies that he grew up with, and he is a bit aggressive with mounting the girls. Maybe it's a learning thing. I'll keep an eye out.

 

[Miss M]

I hope it's a learning thing. We'll have to watch, for sure. I guess we'll let him out of the kennel today, and see what happens.

 

[Celice]

he'll ether grow out of it or get worse. Sometimes it depends on how many hens you have; I've taken in mean roosters that other people have given me and they turned super nice, I don't know why it matters but it dose.

I think your older rooster hasn't done anything because your cockerel hasn't really tried anything with the ladies. Hens get used to one rooster and then freak out if another one tries anything.

 

[Miss M]

Okay, we'll wait and watch, then. We let him out of the kennel today, and he's being chased around like a scared rabbit right now. :roll:

It's confirmed, though... Storm is a cockerel. He was trying out his pipes today, and sounded pretty pathetic. :lol: But not as bad as when Galaxy was just starting out. He sounded like a toad. <br /><br /> __________ Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:11 pm __________ <br /><br /> Thought I'd update... Storm has calmed down. Figured the whole deal out, apparently, and is no longer ripping up the girls to breed. He and Galaxy do fine together, but it is funny... when one of them is having trouble balancing on a hen properly, or she's just being difficult, and she's squawking some, the other will run over and knock him off. :roll:

 

[MaggieJ]

__________ Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:11 pm __________

Thought I'd update... Storm has calmed down. Figured the whole deal out, apparently, and is no longer ripping up the girls to breed. He and Galaxy do fine together, but it is funny... when one of them is having trouble balancing on a hen properly, or she's just being difficult, and she's squawking some, the other will run over and knock him off. :roll:

Glad to hear that Storm has calmed down and that he and Galaxy manage to co-exist. I think it's normal for a rooster to interpret a hen's squawking as a distress call. It's a wonder it doesn't lead to an all-out fight. :duel:

 

[Miss M]

I'm pretty pleased with how it's worked out. They mostly ignore each other, but will do shows with the neighbor's rooster on the outside of the fence.

We're hoping to pasture our chickens eventually, but may keep Galaxy in the rabbitry with young up-and-coming birds. Those legs of his... no feathered legs ever again. Not doing it. Also, I don't think we can pasture until the neighbor's rooster finally kicks the bucket. He sleeps about 20' up in one of our trees. He wouldn't have any problem getting over a pasture fence. And he has the sharpest spurs... I don't want to see what my hens would end up looking like, and I'm sure he would kill either or both of our roosters.

I need to post a picture of Storm. He's so funny... black chicken with a French beret. You can see only one of his eyes, his comb is flopped over so far. :lol:

 

[funnies50]

PICS!!

 

[Miss M]

PICS!!

Wellllll... about that.

Storm started getting really aggressive with the hens again, ripping feathers out like crazy. Once we butchered the Cornish meat chickens we had in the tractor, we dumped him in it. Food, water, roost, treats. Meanwhile, two more Buff Orps turned into roosters. The Buff roosters turned pretty mean, and one of them spurred Galadriel. Or, he would have, if he'd had anything more than nubs.

Yesterday morning, we butchered the Buff roosters. I let Galadriel and Bunny-Wan Kenobi work it out and decide which rooster was going to stay, and Galaxy won. So Storm is in the fridge cooling his heels with the Buffs.

And I never did take a picture of him.

Oddly enough, after I skinned him, as Galadriel prepared to gut him, we noticed he had a severely crooked and indented keel. I have looked up pictures, and haven't found any that are even close to being as bad as his. It made it very difficult for Galadriel to get her hand inside.

I'll probably take a picture of his crazy keel and write about it on my blog.

 

[FourRingCircus]

Bummer he ended up mean. I haven't had much luck with cockerels, and it's true they generally just get increasingly more aggressive. The one I have now is not the norm, and I am going to be sad when he's gone. He's one to stand in the middle of prize food clucking for the hens to come and get it before he partakes... even feeding certain ones from his own beak. His favorites do get a bid bald on the back, but I think it's just b/c he's so big (and his spurs grow HUGE), not out of aggression.

I hate to say it, but every rooster we've had that started out nasty never got better- only worse.

I will add this- we have had VERY good luck with the old farmer's tale regarding egg shape. When we collect eggs to hatch, we keep all the more rounded ones, and only hatch a couple of the eggs with the more pointy ends. The pointy ones are said to be cockerels and the rounded ones pullets. We hatched 48 two years ago, and 43 were pullets. Just a note for spring

I have heard success with this as well, and then scoffers who claim it can't be true b/c certain chickens in their flock lay certain shaped eggs all the time - the hen determines the sex of the chick (opposite humans) and I have heard of breeders actually culling/breeding to have predominately pullets hatch out so I think it's possible that certain hens can lay more (or all) of one sex (thus actually confirming both side of the argument).

 

[alforddm]

I actually saw a scientific study a while back that proved that this particular ol' wives tale was correct to a high degree 75-80%. I'll see if I can't dig it up and post the link.

Ok this one was quail but I swear the one I read before were chickens...

http://www.academicjournals.org/article ... %B1nar.pdf <br /><br /> __________ Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:54 am __________ <br /><br /> This may have been it

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S15 ... ci_arttext

 

[funnies50]

Yesterday morning, we butchered the Buff roosters. I let Galadriel and Bunny-Wan Kenobi work it out and decide which rooster was going to stay, and Galaxy won. So Storm is in the fridge cooling his heels with the Buffs.

And I never did take a picture of him.

Oddly enough, after I skinned him, as Galadriel prepared to gut him, we noticed he had a severely crooked and indented keel. I have looked up pictures, and haven't found any that are even close to being as bad as his. It made it very difficult for Galadriel to get her hand inside.

I'll probably take a picture of his crazy keel and write about it on my blog.

OH NOES!! verreaction:

 

[Miss M]

He's one to stand in the middle of prize food clucking for the hens to come and get it before he partakes... even feeding certain ones from his own beak.

Oh, wow, even Galaxy isn't this sweet. At least the feeding part.

If only we could find a solution to the hens pecking at his legs. We're about to segregate him to let his legs completely heal, but we don't know if they'll stay healed once he's back with the girls again. It's not a constant thing, but it is a frequent thing. We hope his legs will feather back out again, and maybe they'll leave him alone after that. I am not doing feather-legged chickens again. He's a French Black Copper Marans.

the hen determines the sex of the chick (opposite humans) and I have heard of breeders actually culling/breeding to have predominately pullets hatch out so I think it's possible that certain hens can lay more (or all) of one sex

That's very interesting!

I actually saw a scientific study a while back that proved that this particular ol' wives tale was correct to a high degree 75-80%. I'll see if I can't dig it up and post the link.

Ok this one was quail but I swear the one I read before were chickens...

http://www.academicjournals.org/article ... %B1nar.pdf

__________ Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:54 am __________

This may have been it

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S15 ... ci_arttext

Thank you! I am not surprised, with chickens and eggs being such huge industries, that some scientific inquiry has been made into this. Interesting reads!

OH NOES!! verreaction:

Yeah, I know, I'm sorry. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of him and his funny beret.

On the flip side, though... that crooked keel was so bad, it's entirely possible he was in significant pain.