Our Non-Human Animal Friends

[MoonShadows]

Roosters are only needed if you want fertilized eggs to incubate and hatch young ones, but hens will lay without one.
I've have both. My parents had chickens when I was little, we had one rooster, he would flog you every chance he got. I have a rooster now, he will come running if a hen is making noise, but he is really laid back and either lets me pet him or just walks off.

Sorry...didn't see you answered that question.

 

[Gemma]

Hens will lay eggs without a rooster, but you can't have chicks without a rooster. Some people don't like eating fertilized eggs, but unless you know what to look for once you crack the egg open, you would not know whether it was fertilized or not, and it does not change the taste. Hens will only hatch fertilized eggs if they go "broody"...sit on the eggs...some breeds are more broody than others.

Roosters can be very mean and attack humans depending on their temperament...and, if they think you pose a risk to the hens or the chicks. You can "convey" to a rooster that you are not trying to take over his job...and he will leave you be...but, it takes training from the time he is a chick.

I definitely do not want a rooster, is there a way to tell the sex of the chick?

 

[MoonShadows]

When you buy chicks from an online hatchery, you can request straight run (either sex) or buy just females or males, but the sex(es) of the ones you receive aren't always fool proof. When we ordered our original 16, we ordered 15 hens and 1 rooster, but we got 13 hens and 3 roosters. If you buy sex link chickens, you most likely will receive what you order. They call them sex link because the females are born one color and the males another color. But, sex link chickens are not heritage chickens; they are hybrids (an offspring of two heritage breeds...or what they call "commercial" chickens bred for their egg or meat production). Nothing wrong with them; they just aren't "purebreds".

 

[TAHOE]

Roosters do crow a lot...and not just in the morning, but they are also great hen protectors.

That's how we got our first batch of chickens. Our friends had gotten chickens for their kids to show in 4H. The rooster started crowing at all hours so the neighbors called the township zoning. Ended up, they needed 1 acre to have the chickens, they only had .9 so we ended up with 2 dozen hens and a rooster. Their neighbors then moved out 6 months later.

 

[Gemma]

Can ducks and chicken share a large enough enclosure?

 

[TAHOE]

Can ducks and chicken share a large enough enclosure?

When I was little we had two of the std white ducks in with our chickens, they were all raised together, but the ducks would still go after the chickens. Well mainly the jerk of a rooster, but they would tag a hen on occasion.
I've really never knew of anyone who kept them together. Ducks like to have a lot of water to eat their food, sit in, etc and they can be messy if not kept in a large enough enclosure.

 

[Gemma]

What about a couple of miniature goats then?
....I plan on a large enclosure with a chicken coop but I would like only a few chickens and some other creature in there with them

 

[Troutredds]

What about a couple of miniature goats then?
....I plan on a large enclosure with a chicken coop but I would like only a few chickens and some other creature in there with them

How about peacocks? Our neighbors have some and they're beautiful. I'm not sure if they'd coexist peacefully with chickens, though.

 

[Gemma]

I would looooove peacocks, but I thought they let out loud screams, am I wrong?

 

[TAHOE]

What about a couple of miniature goats then?
....I plan on a large enclosure with a chicken coop but I would like only a few chickens and some other creature in there with them

I've let my chickens roam in the outside goat pens/fields and they do fine together, I just don't like them together in the same inside enclosures. Chickens scratch and make a mess of the floor, roost on the hay rack, poop in/on everything.

 

[MoonShadows]

Brought home 8 - 22 week Red Sex Link Pullets today. I am keeping them separate in a temporary coop in a sectioned off area of the run from my old timers until they get used to one another.

 

[Troutredds]

Brought home 8 - 22 week Red Sex Link Pullets today. I am keeping them separate in a temporary coop in a sectioned off area of the run from my old timers until they get used to one another.

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Beautiful color.

 

[Troutredds]

I would looooove peacocks, but I thought they let out loud screams, am I wrong?

They do get loud occasionally - especially the lovesick males in springtime (insert joke here).

 

[MoonShadows]

Beautiful color.

Red sex-links are a cross between a Rhode Island Red Rooster or New Hampshire Rooster and a White Rock Hen. They can lay up to 300 eggs a year.

Rhode Island Red Rooster

New Hampshire Rooster

White Rock Hen

 

[TAHOE]

Those are some good size girls already. Any of them laying yet?
I had a few black sex link, they were good layers, only have 1 left from the raccoon feasts.