Hi Zootjsj and welcome to the wonderful world of poultry. Your scheme so resembled ours I couldn't resist a reply, but as beginners, it truly is a mere 2 cents worth. We have 4 Indian runners, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Brown Chinese and 2 Toulouse. How's that for a mimic of your plans! We raised all of them from a home made brooder - as wonderfully educational as it was messy - so fair warning. All were very different. As we put it, "the chicks were dizzy, the ducklings were busy, but the goslings would look you in the eye!" The "buffies" (recommended by my Mom who raised birds for years) are good layers (brown eggs) very sweet and easy to handle. I'm told they're a dual purpose bird (okay for the table) but can't verify from experience. Were so pleased with them weÂre planning for more, or a good buff roo as they do go broody and will populate. The Runners are equally reliable layers, but too flighty to sit on a nest. We have 2 drakes and 2 ducks. They are very "patterned" birds - so what ever routine you begin, know that they'll count on its repeating, everyday. They will rid your gardens of bugs & slugs (of which we have no shortage in these parts). We give ours range of the garden in the mornings, it's hard to herd them back to the pen though. Our drakes are fiercely protective too, though not at all aggressive to humans. Early last summer when the geese were younger, though 3 times the size of the runners, we would put them together in the same yard to keep them safe while we were away. Rudy, our lead drake, would not back down for the sake of size. He once latched on to the tail of a goose that got too close I guess. She ran around the coop twice bellowing and trying to shake him loose. He held on tight, flailing and bobbing along behind her like a loose diaper. Finally Lincoln, our gander got involved and then things got even more exciting! Suffice to say that after that we got busy fencing a separate paddock for the geese. We free range our geese when we can. I believe they're healthier for it. Ours do not wander much. We raised our Chinese (thinking they were Africans), and added the Toulouse after we lost a pair in a dog attack. And yes, as someone mentioned, Fido across the street, who wags his tail every day as you retrieve the mail can surprise you and become your #1 predator. In nearly a year, this was the cause of our only loss (though I think weÂve also been plain lucky). We are finding our gander to be a bit of a handful now that breeding season is approaching. We tried not to get too chummy as we raised them and I would offer you the same advice. Don't hand feed them, etc. We are simply learning to work with/and around him now, and fortunately have the space to do so. We don't have children, which would worry me at the same level as an aggressive dog with kids about. Don't know if its due to his breed, upbringing or individual nature, but he is beginning to slowly charge us at night when its time for lock down. The Toulouse are more mellow, but were flock raised and are now beholden to our gander - so can't tell you much more about them. Just be careful with these guys. Oh and yes, gosh are the Chinese noisy! Good fencing and night shelter is a must, at least around here - we went the extra mile and have been grateful for it - cage wire 8"-12" underground then overlapped with chicken wire 6ft or so up! We supply grain and layer pellets supplemented with greens we've grown on our own. All are terrific foragers if you plan to free range. We get lots of advice from the homesteader down the way who blatantly told us that despite all you do, you have to expect some losses. If you have farmers in your area, make friends and ask lots of questions. Hope this was helpful. Good luck. You'll do just fine with what ever you decide, have a ball and learn lots along the way. Please, please keep us posted. No matter where youÂre at as your plans unfold, we can inevitably learn from your individual experiences too!

I have Barred Rocks, Light Brahmas, Speckled Sussex, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Cochin, Danish Brown Leghorns, White Crested Black Polish, Australorps and Golden Seabrights. My favs are the Barred Rocks, very sturdy and hardy birds, the chicks are very bold and are the first to try new things, sit on your lap, fly on your shoulder etc. The hens lay well and are very easy to tame and do not fight much even when confined in winter. The Danish Brown Leghorns are a bit skittish, Brahmas, Cochins and Australorps are all very calm beautiful birds, Polish are a lot of fun, we call them our Ârock stars, Speckled Sussex are sweet birds but get bullied the most and the Seabrights have a lot of attitude, the roos that is. One RIR used to be called Attila when it was a chick but has since stopped ambushing other chickens. I like them all and want to try some Buff Orps as well, maybe next year.

I agree w/CI about the Buffs, I have heard the same thing. But if you have your heart set on one of the CW's you should like Maggie said remove all the other roo's from the flock. Also just a quick note, the marks on the waddle/comb could be from a hen. I have a Barred Rock hen who is like a senior Mob member. She proceeded to fight my roo and pinned him to the ground by his waddle, she stood on top of him and pecked at him. After their fight there were similar markings you described on his comb and waddle. He has had a few go arounds with this hen and has finally accepted his place under her (yes he is a whimp, the br is half his size). I chose him out of 20 others for his beauty and whimpiness, he does not overly mate the hens (that let him!) and has never shown any aggression towards people. I assume you are not a breeder so picking a roo with gentle behavior alone sounds like a good choice for a pet. Hope this helps :) -Sheila

Kylie, I will pray for your sister. Please let me know her first name, so I can pray for her by name. Ox, I am impressed that you can be vulnerable. So many people think that having a hard shell is strength, but that's simply a generalized fear reaction and not strength. It is really much stronger to be vulnerable. And as you are being vulnerable, stay away from all those damn people you can't be safe with when you are vulnerable. Relationships can only grow when there is an approximately equal amount of self-disclosure. And when you are vulnerable and tell someone your feelings, it is an invitation for them to be more open and vulnerable. If they cannot be, you'll find out pretty fast, because often they will be rejecting to avoid the fear of vulnerability. Stay away from those people, because the relationship will never gain any depth. As you become vulnerable, do it slowly with info that is not extremely close to your heart, so that you can get an initial sense of whether this person is safe. Then you can progress from there. I agree with others, who say stay away from bars. You'll mostly find barflys. Church or synagogue is a great place, but not just any church or synagogue. Call the preacher, priest, or rabbi--you don't have to identify yourself, and simply say that you'd like to eventually find a nice woman and settle down and that if they don't mind your asking, HOW MANY SINGLE WOMEN DO YOU GUYS HAVE IN MY AGE GROUP. Go where there are a bunch. And if you're a serious searcher, you can usually make two services on Sunday mornings at different churches and another Sun evening at another church. Catholic churches also have services on Saturday evening as do other denominations. I don't know the schedule at synagogues, and maybe some of you who are Jewish can help Ox with that info. Remember the stats, that we get rejected 90 per cent of the time when asking for dates and don't dwell on it. Just move on to the next person you're interested in. And then after developing a relationship, we all get rejected at times and have done the rejecting ourselves. Don't know how old you are, Ox, but physical beauty is very important up to the age of 25 and then the kind of person she is becomes much more important. Of course there are many multiple people out there who will want to spend time with you. I'll tell the ultimate example of that from my own life and experience. On internship in New York City, 1969-70, one morning in staffing at Bellevue hospital, two guys were interviewed. Not just one, but both of these guys had murdered their mothers, both had cut out their mothers' heart, and both had cooked their mothers' heart in a frying pan and then ate it. I realized right then that no matter how bad or ugly anyone ever got, there was someone out there for them to be close to. I'll make the assumption that you are not that bad off. So looking and meeting people becomes fulltime in your spare hours, right? This year is a prime year to meet lots of women in political campaigns. You can just take your ass down to a local place and sign up. You can sign up to work in democrat and republican races, for president, for Senate, for Congressional representatives and state and local races, and stay where you have the most prospects. At these places, you are also more likely to find smart women who are willing to put themselves out for the interests of others. And better than church for good women hunting, you get to talk to them more than at church. Of course when the tv cameras are there, you probably don't want to be seen by the public cheering at the McCain rallies AND the Obama or Clinton rallies. Happy hunting, Ox. BTW, the quickest nonverbal binding strategy is to generally adopt the body language of the person you are interested in. And whenever you can, keep a palm open and keep that open palm from being facing down. It's fine in a sitting conversation to have your hand at your ear with your palm facing the other person. And the final thing. Assuming the light on the person's eyes stays constant, if she is interested in you, her pupils will slightly dilate. If she's not, they'll stay the same, and if you piss her off, they will contract. So if in the conversation, you reach out and touch her arm or shoulder, look at those pupils to find out if they're expanding or contracting. If they expand, she likes it. If not, they'll contract. Jim Jim