# I'm just curious!



## kelixander (Apr 22, 2014)

I have 3 chickens and at least an hour before the other 2, 1 of them goes into the coop to roost. The other 2 wait until the last moment before the automatic timer closes the pop-hole.

I was just wondering if this is normal as I'm new to keeping chickens and am still only in to the first week of having them.

Thanks.


----------



## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

kelixander said:


> I have 3 chickens and at least an hour before the other 2, 1 of them goes into the coop to roost. The other 2 wait until the last moment before the automatic timer closes the pop-hole.
> 
> I was just wondering if this is normal as I'm new to keeping chickens and am still only in to the first week of having them.
> 
> Thanks.


Yes, while I don't have an automatic chicken door. When it gets dark out, they put themselves up. The degree of darkness depends on the hen.

Mine go up an hour before sundown but my cousins go as long as they can


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Chances are the one that puts itself up early is the low bird.


----------



## kelixander (Apr 22, 2014)

robin416 said:


> Chances are the one that puts itself up early is the low bird.


That's what we thought. She is the clever one though, she's always the the first to do things. She's the only one who went to roost from the first night too, the other 2 got locked out the first couple of nights until we went and opened the door for them lol

I did read that the pecking order wasn't established until they started laying eggs, which mine aren't yet, is this correct?


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I've seen chicks establishing hierarchy. So, I think there might be some misinformation there.


----------



## kelixander (Apr 22, 2014)

robin416 said:


> I've seen chicks establishing hierarchy. So, I think there might be some misinformation there.


Thanks, that's good to know. I'll keep an eye out now.


----------



## hellofromtexas (Feb 16, 2014)

Picking the first spot to roost may mean the opposite. My low one gets last of everything


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

The lower birds do usually out themselves in first every night. The higher birds usually come in later and push them out of the choicest spots, but that is irrelevant. 
My poor Sicilian buttercups used to be in the coop before 4pm, even when the sun wasn't setting till 9. They'd usually end up on the floor by the time every other bird got in there, and I'd put them back onto the perch when I did butt count after dark. 

The lowest bird is usually the more clever one as she has to be a bit more coy about getting what she wants, where the higher bird just demands and receives. My lower birds are also the first to the food dish, yet the last ones to actually eat. These things are not uncommon. As you keep chickens for longer and longer, they will teach you all sorts of things that you'd not expect.


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Fiere said:


> The lowest bird is usually the more clever one as she has to be a bit more coy about getting what she wants, where the higher bird just demands and receives. My lower birds are also the first to the food dish, yet the last ones to actually eat. These things are not uncommon. As you keep chickens for longer and longer, they will teach you all sorts of things that you'd not expect.


You can really see this behavior as chicks. And why sometimes we hear about one that is not doing well, too often its because the others bullied it away from the feeder.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Had one this year with wry neck because of that. A little mutt pullet was tossed in with my australorps as a "free gift" for her momma's astounding laying abilities. Apparently there was some racial discrimination going on in the brooder!


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Fiere said:


> Had one this year with wry neck because of that. A little mutt pullet was tossed in with my australorps as a "free gift" for her momma's astounding laying abilities. Apparently there was some racial discrimination going on in the brooder!


The racial profiling does happen.








[/URL][/IMG]

I had some strange stuff happening with my whites. Chicks hatched that were a deep gray color and were always males. It had everyone wondering what was going on. So, the decision was to keep this boy and breed him to a true black girl to see what color the chicks would be.

Problem was, he wanted nothing to do with the black hen. It took months before he finally bred her.

I could let everyone intermingle, the dark birds stayed with the dark birds and all of the whites hung out together.

The result was all black chicks, so he was proven to be a recessive white.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I'd note it in the yard as well. Even though most were all raised together since hatchlings, they'd pair up by breed while the foraged, especially the roosters who were still young and had no hens of their own.

I'm also dying for a silky! Good grief!


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If not for those wings he was stunning in every other way. The hen with him had nice tight wings and the chicks for the most part got her wings. 

I didn't see the by breed so much but the color thing was very obvious. I had a spare white male in with my two egg layers, he bred the white one but never the red star.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Absolutely horrendous picture of half grown lanky birds, but this is an example of what I'd see out in the yard at any given time. The blue boy you see in the left corner was paired with his brother behind me. 








It's too funny how they "know".


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I almost forgot about that phase in their development. All legs. Who knew that chickens just like puppies go through the all legs phase. Well, more the boys than the girls. Many times that was the only way to sex the Silkies, watch them walk away. If you saw nothing but legs then high probability it was a boy. 

Your group looks like they had moved past that leggy part of their growth. 

How many do you have actually free ranging?


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

They were about 5 months there I guess? Still very leggy, not high bred birds at all.
At that point, I think there was +/- 60 as I was still running meat birds. I lost the majority of my stock due to a roof collapse on my coop this winter, sadly. So I'm slowly rebuilding with much more focus. These birds were more pet quality with a few random "local show" quality mixed in. Most of the roosters went in the freezer before winter lol. I'm focusing less on "pretty egg layers" and more on show birds now. Thought I still love my pretty egg layers


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

This Winter was pretty awful for so many. I didn't know about the roof collapse. I would have been heart broken to have found something like that. 

I never had that many free ranging at one time. Usually there were six or eight. Sometimes I would let about 20 Silkies out at a time but with supervision. Hawks were a problem and without me keeping an eye on them chances are I would have lost some.

About the only advice I can give on the show birds is make sure you have the space and a good way to rehome those you can't use for breeding. Those two things were the most frustrating for me.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Yep, 30 birds just gone. A few were nice, but I got burned pretty badly with a local breeder and most of my purebreds were in fact heavily tainted with other breeds and the ones at weren't were no better than culls. Happy and healthy birds, I still have 2 from the breeder as they're nice little hens, but I was wholly disappointed. It really was a cloud with a silver lining, because of that bad experience and the subsequent purge of the flock, I have become very diligent with my birds and got to make breeding connections and really learn what it is I want to focus on and what I just want for pleasure. So here I am now, rebuilding the flock, getting the best stock I can find "locally" and trying to get in with some national breeders to get more SOP stock. I'm very excited to grow everyone out over the next year and see what happens with my first clutches this spring. I have some common breeds and some rare ones so I'm just figuring out what can be sourced well enough to continue a linage and what can't. This seems to be the most humbling. I don't like being told "this is going to fail". As of right now, there are 3 of us in eastern Canada that I know of running Barnevelders. We all have the same lines, as I got them from the second breeder who got them from the first breeder, though were all working on expanding. It's a kick in the pants!

As far as the culls - what doesn't cut it for the breeding pen goes into the layer flock, no such thing as a bad hen if she lays eggs, cockerels are butchered. It'd be a lot different with silkies who aren't overly prolific layers and of no real size for meat.


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

And you would have to get past the black all the way to and including the bones. 

This breeding thing is fun, challenging, frustrating and rewarding. Hooking up with other breeders will be a huge help. Especially those that have been at it for a while. Shows, if you've got shows you can go to its worth it. You can network with other breeders and learn quite a bit. Seeing a nearly perfect bird up close and personal can give you a visual of what you want your birds to look like.

I was one for pushing back at some of the things they said were no no's. I learned they were right, never ever breed a wry tail bird. It will show up in the offspring. Wonky feet? Easy fix. There were others but I'd have to go look at what is left of my flock and then it might not translate to other breeds and is just Silkie related.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

I've noticed foot issues (crooked toes, etc) to be incubation related and not genetic, too. Like my buff cockerel. I've seen his get, the crooked toe that prevents him from entering the show pen does not crop up in his chicks. Bonus for me.

The barnevelders have such a precise colour marking that it is very easy to ruin and very hard to breed back. Pair that with finding the proper conformation and it's very over whelming. I've also noticed in my research that welsummer blood is a common introduction, I do not know why as it smutties the markings and pops up randomly in the bird crop for a long time. Luckily it is easily seen as chicks. So much goes into breeding the SOP I don't know why you'd try to take shortcuts and toss in a random outcross. It looks bad on you forever more. 

We have a tough go in Canada too, because it is such a huge ordeal to bring stock in from the states. I wasn't aware until very recently that you could bring eggs and grown birds in over the border, I thought it was purely day olds. But anyways there is so much involved a lot of breeders don't want to bother doing it and the travel costs for us to go get stock is so astronomical that unless you have a large bank account or live on the border it's really quite unfeasible. Pair that with the fact that a lot of breeders are prideful and would rather keep their imported lines to themselves to show against you than increase the number as a breed as a whole... Makes you wonder how more breeds don't die out. 

I won't even get started on people not wanting to spend more than 5$ on a chick whose parents cost 500$, LOL


----------



## kelixander (Apr 22, 2014)

Fiere said:


> The lower birds do usually out themselves in first every night. The higher birds usually come in later and push them out of the choicest spots, but that is irrelevant.
> My poor Sicilian buttercups used to be in the coop before 4pm, even when the sun wasn't setting till 9. They'd usually end up on the floor by the time every other bird got in there, and I'd put them back onto the perch when I did butt count after dark.
> 
> The lowest bird is usually the more clever one as she has to be a bit more coy about getting what she wants, where the higher bird just demands and receives. My lower birds are also the first to the food dish, yet the last ones to actually eat. These things are not uncommon. As you keep chickens for longer and longer, they will teach you all sorts of things that you'd not expect.


That sounds like the setup in our coop, although Belle (the possible lowest bird) still keeps her spot when the other 2 come in. The other 2 join her all squashed up in the one spot lol


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Fiere said:


> I've noticed foot issues (crooked toes, etc) to be incubation related and not genetic, too. Like my buff cockerel. I've seen his get, the crooked toe that prevents him from entering the show pen does not crop up in his chicks. Bonus for me.
> 
> The barnevelders have such a precise colour marking that it is very easy to ruin and very hard to breed back. Pair that with finding the proper conformation and it's very over whelming. I've also noticed in my research that welsummer blood is a common introduction, I do not know why as it smutties the markings and pops up randomly in the bird crop for a long time. Luckily it is easily seen as chicks. So much goes into breeding the SOP I don't know why you'd try to take shortcuts and toss in a random outcross. It looks bad on you forever more.
> 
> ...


Silkies and their toes present a different challenge. Five toes and the gene that produces those five toes can get a little wonky. Extra toes, double nails, fifth toes that crawl up the back of the leg.

There is a possibility there was a trait the Welsummer has that breeders are trying to introduce. Silkies have been out crossed a lot. Color being the biggest reason. That's how paints came to be but then it takes years to bury the characteristics whatever breed was used for that out crossing.

Its not easy in the States either. The Orpingtons are a good example. Costs a small fortune to import eggs but the process before they can even be shipped is expensive and complicated.


----------



## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

My Salmon Faverolles have 5 toes. I will learn quickly of the franken-foot annoyances, of that I have no doubt LOL
I have virtually no sources yet for that breed save the few I have on the way, so who knows, might not even try to breed them, just sell them to a backyard fancier. I think my stock had bantam introduced to it as a last ditch effort to put new blood in the lines, as they are on the small side. Siiiiiiigh


----------



## 2rain (Jun 2, 2013)

It is they want all the outside time they can get


----------

