My guys are getting pretty big. The New Hampshires weigh in about 4-4.5 lbs, the Buff Opington (sp?) is a little heavier. The little silkies are much smaller, coming in about 3-3.5 lbs. I believe I lucked out some how with only 1 roo with the 5 silkies. The little black is definitely gonna be a looker.. the tuff of poofy feathers on her head kinda looks like she stuck her beak in a lightsocket.. or she saw Tina Turner in the 80s too many times. But, damn are they DUMB!! DUMB DUMB DUMB.

What I have them in is a large (48"x24"x24") doghouse that the bedding's changed weekly. The opening of the doghouse has a 50"x25"x25" chickenwire pen so they can get out during the daytime & be protected (I have a family of kites living next door, so I don't want them to get eaten). When I get home in the evening, I open their pen & let them roam around a specific section of my back yard so they can rummage around & eat weeds / grass / bugs. And, unfortunately, they find *other* things to eat, like my honeysuckle, 2 pieces of aluminum foil (NO idea where THAT came from!), a styrofoam peanut (took the aluminum foil & styrofoam away immediately).. and my toes. I wear sandals & the buff likes to try & eat my toes... I guess she thinks they're giant worms? Next year, I definitely will NOT be getting the New Hampshires. They're mean. They always try & peck at me - I guess they don't realize that human's hands a wee bit bigger than their beak, especially when I'm just trying to put their waterer back in the pen!! Thank goodness they taste so good.. 'cuz they're dumber than dirt!

Here's some of the chickens (I didn't get pix of the New Hampshires)

I agree that New Hampshires are a bit more aggressive than others, but I doubt that they actually think that they are attacking you. "Exploratory pecking", perhaps? Curiosity is supposed to be a sign of intelligence...
How have you been able to sex the Silkies? Which is which? They all look like big powder puffs to me.

Chickens, like people, get smarter as they age. A lot smarter. My 15 year old hens have me well trained.

PPal - with the silkies, 1 has a much much much bigger comb than the others. But I won't 100% say he's a roo until I see eggs, but since I'm probably going to sell them in June, I doubt I'll see eggs! And, no, I state that they're aggressive. Not exploratory pecking like the Orpington. Wings flared, staring me in the eye.. that's aggression. Have to remember that these are just teeny little bitty velociraptors that taste good, but without the fangs/claws.

I love my Chickens, all 4 of them....

Yep, that sounds like war, not research!

There is a technique that Haystack describes either on Cubits or DG for subduing aggressive roosters by holding them and pushing their heads down. I find it works with nasty hens too.

You have to show them you are top chicken. It's called a "pecking order"

porkpal said:Yep, that sounds like war, not research!

There is a technique that Haystack describes either on Cubits or DG for subduing aggressive roosters by holding them and pushing their heads down. I find it works with nasty hens too.

Sounds like doing a top dog thing by pushing a dog down & holding it to the ground by it's throat. But chickens.. I'd rather pick on a chicken than my two dummy dogs like that. Do hens also do the flap at each other & charge each other with their feet while jumping? I'm going to check out their claws tonight & trim them if I have to. I don't anyone getting hurt that way.

Hens have a pecking order too, although they don't do it quite like roosters do. Instead they just peck nastily. But it needs to happen and once done it's done unless a newcomer is brought in.

My Abigail hatched out a chick last fall. I love NCIS so I named the chicken Kaitlin, Well it is a rooster. she fights Kaitlin away. My other roosters do o.k. But they do fuss sometimes..

Here is my goofy flock.....

wow, they're so pretty, especially that big black one w/the green feathers! I'm really enjoying keeping chickens. Not half as fun as my canaries, but a LOT cheaper & lot less a mess to clean.. not to mention I get to eat them! Well, I suppose I could have eaten my canaries, too, but that'd be more like a saltine cracker snack rather than dinner. Not to mention I'm not too broken up if one of my cats happens to eat a chick versus them killing a canary. I only lost 2 chicks this year, and that's 100% my fault.

Got only one pic of the chickens yesterday. I let them roam around during the afternoon/evening when I get home from work. They've found a hole in my yard from where I dug up a rose & never put the dirt back.. boy they love scratching in the dirt!! And they have really eaten my honeysuckle.. they graze on it constantly! Almost every single ground-creeping vine they've eaten! Doesn't seem to have hurt them. They also like to eat my Veronica but they're leaving the irises (and thistles!) alone. They have also discovered that they can sneak between the slats in the fence, so they can get into the "dog area". My dogs don't hurt them.. just nudge them with their noses & try to give them kisses (weird dogs). The NH don't really care for that. I definitely have a little roo.. saw / heard him try to crow yesterday. Funny thing. Here's a pic of the two NH & the Buff Orp.. one of the red ones is running 'cuz I just shoo'd her away from the Veronica.

Chicken plucked rose. They love to peck at red things too....

Ridesredmule said:
Chicken plucked rose. They love to peck at red things too....

I remember my rooster following my little daughter around because he wanted to eat the strawberries printed on her shorts. Scared the heck out of her.

That rooster tried to peck on me, When he does I start trying to catch him, he doesn't like that at all. He leaves me alone. They do have a pecking order.

Sad sad sad news. Some how, some way, almost everyone got slaughtered. Friday night, I wasn't home until almost midnight and it had stormed pretty badly. Saturday I was going to take almost 100% of everyone to Kiowa to their annual Animal Swap/Sell. I had planned on selling the black silkie, 2 of the white silkies (keeping the roo & a hen), and the two NH red, keeping the buff. Saturday morning, when I went into their area, which is RIGHT next to my bedroom window, so it had to have happened between 6pm & 12am, that's when I found the carnage. The only birds to survive the disaster was a NH red & the buff. All the silkies & one red NH were literally in pieces everywhere. I won't go into graphic details, but it looked like a horror movie. I'm going to blame either skunks (which I doubt 'cuz I didn't smell any skunk) or the neighbor's cats (which I do believe it could have happened). And because everything is mulched, I couldn't look for tracks to identify what kind of animal did this. Couldn't have been dog / raccoon, had to have been a smaller animal. And wasn't a bird of prey because they wouldn't have shredded all the chickens, they would have taken them back to their nest (I see this regularly.. not to mention birds of prey don't just slaughter for fun and whatever did this, did this for fun).

Could have been a raccoon, sorry girl.

How sad! It could also have been a possum. It is quite amazing what it takes to make coops preditor-proof.

We don't have possums here, and I haven't seen raccoons in our area in years. We had a raccoon pox that went through in '06 and killed off every single raccoon in the area. Haven't seen any since, plus I haven't seen any signs of raccoon damage with garbage or whatnot.

It was a sad sad morning. And I really can't understand why coops are so damned expensive! Now, this is an extreme example, but a coop for $1400? Why? http://denver.craigslist.org/g...

http://denver.craigslist.org/s...

Looks like the average is around $325. I can't justify that cost to myself. I just can't.