Chickens on the homestead

[Country homesteader]

Mama keeps Munchkin close by and watches very carefully. She's a very protective mama. Munchkin eats on his own especially cracked corn! Loves cracked corn. I give Mama a little bit of feed and cracked corn a couple times a day and Munchkin will steal it.

 

[treerooted]

@treerooted you have a beautiful flock.

Thank you! I've been really happy with my breed choices so far...but that being said they haven't reached maturity yet!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

We have a mix.
I don't know the breeds. I think most of them are mixes. Most days half of our eggs are a tan/brown color, and half of the eggs are varying shades of green. None truly blue. None white. We're interested in eggs and meat, but mostly just for the experience. We're not interested in showing.

All 15 of ours seem to get along well, but we've got our eye on two, and think they are young roosters. These two are Patches and Rusty. Too bad because they're such pretty birds! I don't think we'll ever see eggs from these two...

We have three Buff Orpington (These two are Lola and Loosy, Lilly wasn't participating - she's lighter in color than these two), or at least a BO mix:
Then we've got our three old ladies, given to us by friends who couldn't bear to eat them (we call them Dumplings, Coco Vin, and Enchilada):
Our two youngest are Char (as in charcoal) and Ash. They're not consistently laying yet, but we think one of them gave us the tiny mouse fart of a green egg.

Big Red is a loner, but not anti-social. She just doesn't seem to have to be around the others to be comfortable. We think she's a partridge colored Rock or Road Island Red.
Jon Staples is grey with black head. Lilo, Marcy, and Vi are all Easter Eggers as far as I know. Lilo does not have a beard and sideburns but looks like the other two in coloring. Marcy and Vi have beards and ear muffs (no picture of Marcy but she looks like Vi with the ear muffs but is slightly smaller). We're planning on adding some Bard Rocks. So this is our motley crew.

 

[Country homesteader]

I guess you do have a mix of chickens. Here's a pic of the latest additions to my flock:

Mama #1 and Munchkin who is approximately 3 1/2 weeks old.

Mama #2 and Peepers who is approximately a week old.
Both babies are BO/RIR crosses.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I love to see the momma and babies. We haven't raised any from chicks yet, but almost bought some yesterday. I want to raise some next year from "scratch"

 

[Miss Lydia]

I have a mama and chicks now it is very enjoyable watching her teach them they are now 5 weeks old and doesn't look like she's through yet with the training.

 

[CrealCritter]

View attachment 2950

This was the sweetest pullet in the flock. Total lap chicken. Mine were all lovely, even the rooster.

Man what are you feeding those RIRs to make them lap chickens? I switched to BOs because.mine we're mean as could be and my grand daughter loves chickens. There is no way one of my RIRs would ever come anywhere near me willingly , let alone be a lap chicken. Mine would scratch and peck you up one side and down the other just to get away from you.

 

[Beekissed]

I've had a few really sweet RIRs but recent strains offered by hatcheries seem to have very little personality besides being cranky. I'd say standard bred RIRs from a reputable breeder may still retain their docile, sweet personalities.

 

[sumi]

Man what are you feeding those RIRs to make them lap chickens? I switched to BOs because.mine we're mean as could be and my grand daughter loves chickens. There is no way one of my RIRs would ever come anywhere near me willingly , let alone be a lap chicken. Mine would scratch and peck you up one side and down the other just to get away from you.

Brooder raised, lots of attention, lots of treats, lots of handling them and see if there is a cuddle bug in the hatch. I lucked out with those chicks, they were mostly really sweet birds.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I always stayed away from the RIR because I heard they were not nice especially to other birds. I saw first hand what some did to a bantam frizzle a friend had [She finally gave the lil one to me after she healed her up] Boy was she a mess though.