Red Pile Chickens

Hm, from your description of the "oddball" hen, it brings to mind either a Golden Sebright or perhaps a Gold Laced Wyandotte bantam....but it's hard to tell without seeing a picture. And yeah, I think the Barred Rocks are just about the "queens" of egg laying, and are also excellent broody hens. They will all tend to slow down on the laying when it gets hot out, though.

As far as the bird flu......well, I've thinned down my "herd" alot (not because of that, because of time constraints) and really don't worry too much about it at this point. If the time comes where there may be a threat here, I have few enough birds now that I know I have enough space to keep them locked inside and still have them be happy and comfy. I'd never be able to catch all of the pigeons I have flying around, but reasearch has shown that pigeons are all but immune to it. From there...I just don't know. I do know that I'm kind of paranoid about eating any wild waterfowl this upcoming hunting season, however.

Well you know your chickens, because it is definately either a golden sebright or gold laced wyandotte but I really can't decide which though i'm leaning toward sebright.

Well I guess the slow egg laying is just something I wasn't expecting because back when I had chickens about 4 years ago and then got out of it I had about 4 barred rock hens and a red pile rooster and got atleast 15 per week. So I guess im not getting so many because they aren't the all the barred rocks.

The Sebrights are really neat little birds, and tend to be one of the higher priced bantams if they are nice specimens. I don't think they tend to be really big layers, however. I haven't really kept them, as I've heard they aren't quite as hardy as some in the cold Iowa winters, but I'd don't think that's something you have to worry about in NC, lol.

If you want bantams that will put out a lot of eggs, the Araucana (sometimes called Americaunas now) are one of the best I've found.....and they lay cool colored eggs too. Most of the ones I have had have laid blue eggs, but some will lay very pretty pink eggs, and occasionally you find one that lays weird green colored eggs, lol. But they seem to lay right through the summer, and for their size, they lay a lot of eggs, and good sized ones to boot.

I have a new problem and one thats been going on. I'll start with the ongoing one. I have never seen my rooster mount a hen or even do the little dominance dance they like to do, I've been getting plenty of eggs since I started putting shell in their pen but i fear the eggs aren't firtile. any suggestions? the new problem is that my rooster is missing feathers around his neck and he's starting to look pretty rough, does he have a disease or are the hens picking on him? i have 3 hens setting, one not.

New question:

I got two baby chicks so i put them in with one of the setting hens, the hen took them in but two days later abandons the nest and takes care of the chicks only. should I just toss the eggs or what?

more feathers are gone please reply

Sorry, I hadn't seen your posts............

As for the missing feathers, well, it's hard to say without actually seeing them. I've seen hens very often with the missing feathers you describe from the roosters being "overly friendly".....or in the case of having more than one rooster and one doesn't seem to like the other or likes him TOO much and mistakes him for a hen, lol. It COULD be that the hens are just getting pissy with him getting near their nests...but it's really hard to say.

When you put the 2 little chicks under then setting hen, she figures her eggs have begun hatching, and will only sit on them a day or 2 longer, by that time she figures the rest are bad and aren't going to hatch. If you are going to put chicks under a setting hen, you'll need to move the eggs she's setting on under a different hen, or they will invariably be abandoned, unless those eggs are beginning to hatch as well. After 2 days, she needs to take the live chicks she has out and get them food and water, or they would die.

welp all that you said about the hen has happened as it should.. is it too late to pput the eggs under a new hen?

about the rooster is there anthing i can do?

thanks a bunch.

Well........you could try putting the eggs under another hen, IF you have one that has been setting on her nest for close to the same amount of time as the first hen. If the first hen was setting longer, those chicks will hatch sooner than her eggs would (if they still hatch) and you will have a big vicious circle going on, lol. Depending on how long she has been off the nest and what your low temps have been, there is a chance the fisrt eggs would still be viable, but I wouldn't count on it.

As far as the rooster goes, I would just try confining him elsewhere for awhile and see if the feathers stop disappearing. If they do, it is most likely just the hens chasing him away, and after they have had a break from him, they may put up with him better as well. If the feathers keep dropping, it may be mites or something similar, which can usually be treated with a good mite dust.

Alright I am in need of some help. Yesterday all six of my chickens looked to be perfectly fine, but today I walked out to their pen and three of them are dead! I don't know how or why, but I need advice.

Also, its winter now, but throughout the summer my rooster never really became a rooster. He was never too interested in my hens, he never 'danced' for them, I never caught him mating. What is his issue??