CHICKEN 'Fiddler On The Roof' for extra roosters! Success!

18 years ago

warning in advance, no farm here...less than 15 chickens...
"FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, rooster edition"

Spring 05: Came home with 11 baby chicks of various breeds, on a whim (they were cute). Some were from "mixed run" bins, some were from "pullets" bins. I knew I wanted A rooster, but I wasn't prepared for 5 of them to be roosters.

It seemed as though every week, another one revealed himself....Hand wringing and sighing, knowing that fate dealt the boys a bad hand.

3 of my favorites turned out to be boys: Jackie, Dorothy, Screebert...Only 1 of the chickens special enough to have a name, Quantess, turned out to be a girl.

roosters, 5 : hens, 6

[u]May 05[/u]: Bought a pullet, same age as my others (confirmed hen)!

roosters, 5 : hens, 7

June 05: My brother took the handsome Production Red, as the sole rooster for his 5 hens!

roosters, 4 : hens, 7

July 05: Bought 2 Black Silkie bantams crammed into a box, from a poultry auction. Paid $6 for the box of 2 chickens. Took them home, let them out of the box, they took turns crowing...yikes!

These Black Silkie boys almost don't qualify as roosters, because they are sort-of gay. They have no interest in the hens, and they are best-buddies, and, I have even seen them flirt with each other! And, they mimic the egg-laying call! But, they are just pals.

roosters, 6 : hens, 7

July 05: On craigslist.org in the "wanted" section, I stumble upon a "wanted: Barred Rock cockerel" post. New chicken owners, the couple had just purchased 6 Barred Rock pullets and wanted a rooster. There goes "Screebert's brother"! Hoooray!

They picked him up and they emailed me a week later to let me know that he, indeed, fit into the flock. Very nice people.

roosters, 5 : hens, 7

August 05: It's been obvious for a while that "Dorothy" is a 1st class jerk of a rooster, and the least attractive. (Dorothy was the cutest chick in the "Ameraucana pullet" bin.)

So..back to the auction, to sell roo-Dorothy. I fully expected young-n-tender Dorothy to end up in a oven/frypan/wok, but, to give him a chance, I put him in a big box, labeled him as "ameraucana rooster, 5 mos, lucky".

Someone actually paid $8 for him!!! I can't imagine who would pay $8 for a chicken they'd butcher, when you can buy one already roasted for $6. Maybe Dorothy really did get "lucky"!?

roosters, 4 : hens, 7

Late August 05: The Black Silkie gay-confused guys are very cute, but they intimidate all the other chickens, including Jackie and Screebert, the remaining favorite roosters. But they're so cute, I know someone will love to have them.

My funny post on craigslist got 3 responses.

http://portland.craigslist.org/pet/92495978.html

This weekend I'm going to deliver the Black Silkie boys to a woman with 5 acres and a barn. She has no other chickens. SHE JUST LIKES THE SOUND OF CHICKENS!!! For these noisy little gay-confused guys, how perfect a fit is that?!

roosters, 2 : hens, 7
THE 2 REMAINING ROOSTERS

Screebert:

Screebert is a Barred-Rock, who developed curly tailfeathers early. When I brought baby-chick home, my rottweiler nearly licked him to death, and the chick was limp for a whole 2 hours.

I actually had the chick sleep in bed with me for a week. That made the chick think I was its mom, and so it'd scree when I wasn't around.

Screebert was a late bloomer. Mama's boy. He still sounds ridiculous when trying to crow. He's good lookin' though!

Jackie:

The only baby chick in the store wearing a pillbox hat! I cracked up when I spotted the Polish Crested black-body white-crest baby. Named Jackie, after Jackie Kennedy in the pillbox hat.

Because of the silly hat, I suppose, Jackie got picked on by the others. Jackie needed a pal in life, so I purchased bantie chick Quantess. Again, thank goodness Quantess is a hen.
THE NEW FATHERThe handsome Production Red that I gave to my brother is a new father! The hen is a medium size yellowish red/brown. All 12 chicks are red! (not like there's a paternity dispute, with only 1 rooster around).
SUCCESS!!!CENTER>

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Comments (7)

ccox
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
What a fabulous production! Great fun to read.
My two chicks that one of my first time mother hens hatched out are both roos, of course.;) They were hatched on July 7th and July 12th. That makes them just over 5 weeks old. I heard the most pathetic, yet unmistakeable sound coming from the brooder this morning---crowing! They looked ridiculous and sounded silly, but I fawned all over them with their new noises. They were so proud of themselves.
Congratulations on getting your roo number down to an acceptable level.
Carla
chick_mom
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
too funny, you have a way with writing.. Glad everything worked out so well.. I have been thinking of adding to my flock in the Spring and thinking of adding a rooster.. I just can't decide what breed to bring into my mixed flock..
My gardener keeps trying to give me a "game cock"(if he can catch one on his place) Sounds aggressive and I will definetely pass on this one..
Good luck with your gang,
Kit
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Congratulations Lisa on becoming a new chicken owner. Beware...they're VERY addictive. I started off with 6, and now have 850! Like you, I also started as a shepherdess, and still maintain my mixed flock who do great with the chickens. Anyway, stuff I wish I'd known when I first started..... Make sure your nest boxes are on your DARKEST wall, and put some kind of screening/curtains in front of the nest boxes (make sure they can still get in and have air). I just went through my drawer of old dark t-shirts, and cut those up, and stapled them to the front of my home-made nest boxes - worked a treat! Make sure your roosts are HIGHER than your nest boxes, and try and construct your nest boxes so that they can be closed up at night AND so that the chickens cannot roost on top of them at night. I did NOT do this, and my chickens roost on top of my first "efforts", AND inside them, leading to constant cleaning of nest boxes, to avoid filthy conditions. In another area, the nest boxes ARE slanted, but there is a ledge of 2 x 4's behind the nest boxes which they roost on, and somehow, poop lands in the nest boxes from the back - NASTY! Don't buy the expensive "Little Giant" water fountains - the "o" ring goes out rather quickly, so they leak out, leaving the chickens without water, until you figure it out! I've had better success with the one you flip over to fill, and screw on. Easy to fill, and no "O" rings to break. Put your waterers on blocks to keep them above the litter. Hang your feeders but make sure you buy ones that the chicks won't outgrow. Plus, make sure that your chickens have GOOD ventilation/air-flow to prevent ammonia build-up, disease, etc. Free-range when safe - but be sure to lock them up at night. It's so much fun watching them catch their first bug, etc. Good luck
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HerringboneD28
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
BRAVO !!!!
Well done, undercover owl.
undercover_owl
Original Author
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks! I had a lot of fun writing that.
It took a big effort on my part to help these roosters beat the odds.

BTW, I do eat chicken, just not the ones that that run around my yard.
sullicorbitt
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Well done! what a terrific job you did with your ad for the boys! they are very lucky indeed :)

Sheila
undercover_owl
Original Author
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I got an email from the lady who adopted the Black Silkie roosters. She says her kids named them Huck & Tom, and the kids like to hold them.
I think that's great!
Knowing that the roosters made some kids happy, makes the trouble worthwhile!
catherine_nm
18 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
This is my first visit to this forum, usually I'm over in the vegetable and fruit forums. But I have had backyard chickens for years, so I loved this rooster tail. ;-)

My first 2 backyard chickens were hens purchased from the "free-range" egg farm a couple of towns away. They had been laying for a year and were "worn out" for commercial purposes, but once they molted and settled in, they provided more than enough eggs for me. We had white leghorns on the farm when I was growing up, so I got one production white leghorn (x-large white eggs) and one red something (jumbo brown eggs). Then I started reading up about chickens, and discovered there was a whole world of different birds.

When Red keeled over dead the next spring and a lonely Henny Penny started following my 2 cats everywhere, terrorizing them, I went down to the feed store and picked up 2 Easter Egger pullets and, on my vet's advice, 2 bantams (one cochine and one Polish). Both bantams grew up to be roosters! I kept them for a while without any complaints from the neighbors, but I was working nights then, and the constant crowing when I was trying to sleep in the day finally convinced me to give them away. (I thought I had a dozen roosters at one point, but it turned out my neighbor's grandchildren were standing on the other side of the fence, crowing away for HOURS, just for fun. AAAK!)

A couple of years later I decided I needed a brown-egger, so I picked up a couple of Black Stars (sex-links). However, I didn't watch the clerk pick out the chicks, and when I got home darned if he hadn't put a barred chick (male) in with a black chick (female). This time a neighbor DID complain--pounding on my door and screaming at me at 4:30 in the morning. Dinner was then and remains the only chicken I have butchered (even growing up my dad did the butchering, although us kids did pluck).

This spring my flock was all killed when the meter-reader left my back gate open and 2 vicious dogs got in. My children (then 3 1/2) told me they were very sad that our chickens were gone, then in the next breath told me we needed to get some new chicks. This time I was VERY careful to only get pullets. We started out with 1 americanua, 1 buff Orpington, 1 barred rock, and 1 black star. Unfortunately a racoon got one, and a domesticated cat (not one of mine) got another, so we have "Blacky" and "Buffy" in the back yard, carefully confined to their dog/chicken run.

I know there is a rooster in the neighborhood again now, but his owners must keep him in the house until about 6:30 in the morning, because I don't hear him earlier than that.

Glad you found homes for all of your spares. I'd still like to try some bantams, but I don't want to deal with roosters again!

Catherine

CHICKEN 'Fiddler On The Roof' for extra roosters! Success!

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ccox

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CHICKEN 'Fiddler On The Roof' for extra roosters! Success!

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