Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Phill98]

That sounds lovely! It sounds like summer where I grew up, much further north. Chilly fog that burned off in to comfortable warm. Are you near the sea? I wish I could say we've had t-shirt weather, but there's been an uncharacteristic amount of rain and wind this past two weeks. I hear you on the changing climate! We're getting a lot more precipitation over all. I said snow is rare here, but it has snowed at least once each winter since I moved here 5 years ago. Supposedly before that, my husband (he's lived here all his life) had only seen snow twice before. I brought my crummy northerner curse with me   

It started with just the white cochin back when I lived in an apartment. Now I have a couple pens of serama that I am breeding, and a mixed layer flock of 11 hens. I have a feeling I have a lot more NN in my future

I also love the weather, just reminds of summer. But we think that realy bad winter is coming after this ( you know that weird feeling)
Even tough I don't like snow, it does make Chrismass a Christmass and we didn't have it few years back so fingers crossed for this year.
I don't live near sea, actually I'm good 5 hours driving from it.

So you too have kind of big flock(s)!
I guess I'm the only human who ever had chickens that wouldn't be happy with flock that is bigger then 10-15 chickens. Even that is much. Good flock of eight is pretty much!
I think that's because when I start liking something, at the same moment I find something I liked before not so good and pretty and want to get rid of it. I do this with lots and lots of things.

 

[DesertChic]

Oh that sucks.

Don't worry much about introducing a rooster to the hens. A good rooster becomes extremely excited and constantly courts the hens immediately.

The hens can be anything from very wary to outright challenging him. again, a good rooster ignores the challenges and continues to court hard, but it is ok if he gives her a good peck and stops if she backs down immediately. The wary hens will eventually be won over.

Other okay things: if rooster immediately chases and breeds a hen.. but then starts courting after. It is also okay if a hen fights him and he fights back.. as long as he does not try to beat her up after she surrenders.

To be honest, I worry more about introducing new hens to other hens rather than rooster to hens.

I couldn't agree more! Also I find it a lot easier to introduce a hen WITH rooster to flock or a single or more hens to flock that already has rooster.

X 3 ....And in my experience, the more mature the cockerel is when you reintroduce him to the ladies, the more likely he is to court them and woo them before attempting to mate. I had kept my Ameraucana cockerel, Copper, in a lone pen for weeks, and when I finally released him into the yard there was the normal establishing of the pecking order with the other boys, but he was a real Romeo with the girls. I was thrilled when my first flock of girls clearly favored him and invited him to join their coop. He's been devoted to their welfare ever since and continues to be a perfect gentleman.

 

[ChuskaMtns]

Awww, I'm not sure anyone would mind. (Do you guys mind?). Here are photos of my girls. Here in the U.S., it's essentially impossible to get a greyhound puppy, and near 100% are bred for racing. Unfortunately, when they finish their racing career (age 2-4 years), they are destroyed if homes are not found for them (one of the very good reasons why you can't get a puppy - there's so many others needing homes). So adoption of retired racers is how one can get them as a pet. They have to be socialized a bit, from being a working and racing dog to being a household pet, but they are so amazingly affectionate and sweet - they get extremely attached to "THEIR" humans. Daisy (the black one) had a gastrointestinal disease and died at age 9, but Froggy (brindle one) lasted until she was 14, which is very old for a large dog (died this past Easter). They have zero body fat, so must be indoors (cannot be left outdoors in heat or cold). They are like giant cats - they sleep all day, and love to be near you at all times, preferably on a great big cushion. And Froggy in particular liked to sometimes sleep the very unladylike "dead cockroach" position... All that being said, greyhounds have a very strong prey instinct, and are bred to hunt and chase (and if they're retired racers, also trained from puppyhood to do so). They can't be in an unfenced yard or left off leash, because if they see something (e.g., a squirrel), they will chase, and they will not come back (no matter how much training they've had, you're fighting something like 3000 years of breeding). Froggy once turned a corner so fast in the back yard she got a spiral fracture in her foot. I would never have them anywhere near chickens - that's why I waited until after Froggy died to get chickens. If I still had them, they'd need to have their own secure separate yard. Aaaannnnd to bring it just a WEEEE bit back on topic - it's extraordinary how similar the Naked Neck pullet wounds I've seen look to greyhound wounds - very thin skin that splits and pulls apart alarmingly easily. But the pullets heal faster... - Ant Farm

They're lovely! I have IGs (Italian Greyhounds) for those unfamiliar with the breed they are miniature version of the greyhound. Same exact disposition, fast runners but mine are no threat to the chickens. My IGs fear my NN hens as they are the ones that run after and attack the dogs. The dogs are all smaller than all of my chickens so they fear them, they do chase the cottontail rabbits that come into the property.

 

[chickengr]

Wow those are tough ones... what color were their chick down?

I got him when he was 2 months old. that is how he looked. he is mostly mohagony/red colour. here is his pic again:



the black pullet was BCM, not the best sample (bad colouring), unfortunately she got sick and passed away this morning.

I like my araucana boy and I am trying to figure out what to cross to him in order to get nice colours. 1 is NN, probably 1x dominant white (white and black chicks), 1 blue (gold) birchen araucana - ? colour chicks, buff orpington - ? and maybe lakenwelder.

 

[Phill98]

They're lovely! I have IGs (Italian Greyhounds) for those unfamiliar with the breed they are miniature version of the greyhound. Same exact disposition, fast runners but mine are no threat to the chickens. My IGs fear my NN hens as they are the ones that run after and attack the dogs. The dogs are all smaller than all of my chickens so they fear them, they do chase the cottontail rabbits that come into the property.

I knew that they were smaller version of greyhound, but that they were that smaller I didn't know. So how tall are they if chickens are bigger?

 

[ochochicas]

Okay....strange question here....I've noticed behaviors displayed by several of my cockerels/roosters that I simply don't know how to translate.

1. My Bielefelder cockerel, Bosch, frequently lays head-first against the exterior wall of the chicken cabin and makes these quiet, deep throaty sounds while keeping his head down. I usually find that some of my girls are on the other side of the wall in the nesting box when he does this, and other girls gather around him enmasse.
2. My mixed cockerel, Copper, actually climbs into the nesting box with some of the pullets in his flock who are just starting to lay, essentially blocking their exit from the box, and makes the same gentle sounds that Bosch makes.
3. My mixed buttercup-combed cockerel, "Q", will lay on the ground with his head to the far corner of the coop he shares with my Easter Eggers and makes that same noise.

What the heck are they doing? In the case of Copper, he actually seemed to be teaching the pullet to lay her eggs in the nesting box, not out on the ground where she'd started laying them, but is this even possible? I've grown familiar with my cockerel's/rooster's tendencies to stand watch and guard their favorite girls when the girls are in the process of laying eggs, but I'm not entirely sure what to make of the seemingly submissive behaviors they sometimes display while making those "purring" sounds.

Most of my cockerels go through a phase at around 6 or 7 months of age where they exhibit strange "hen like" behavior. I had one that would sneak behind a bale of hay by himself and make all kinds of cooing noises. We couldn't see him so he was either laying down or had his head lowered to the ground. Now his son is about the same age; he goes in the nest box in the afternoon and lays in there doing who-knows-what. When I go in at night to close the coop door, he jumps out of the nest box and looks all surprised that he was caught in there.

Someone told me before they are just adolescent boys doing what adolescent boys like to do when they are alone.

 

[HTChick]

ACK!!
Okay, so this morning I moved leghorns inside and turkens back outside. i checked on them at least once an hour cause I was doing laundry and it is outside. No problems for 6 hours. I leave for grocery store for 2 hours and came home to find the smaller one with a bloody nub for a tail. Which means it isn't just the leghorns and I do not know what to do. I haven't taken down my brooder and I had called a wire dog crate into service for the leghorns so I can isolate her for healing. But I am beginning to wonder if it is possible to have just two turkens in a mixed flock. What do you all think? Should I rehome my pretties? I think they may be a roo and hen though not sure of course at this age (5 weeks). I ended up getting Pick No More the other day so I have put some on her poor rear end.

 

[Kassaundra]

ACK!!
Okay, so this morning I moved leghorns inside and turkens back outside. i checked on them at least once an hour cause I was doing laundry and it is outside. No problems for 6 hours. I leave for grocery store for 2 hours and came home to find the smaller one with a bloody nub for a tail. Which means it isn't just the leghorns and I do not know what to do. I haven't taken down my brooder and I had called a wire dog crate into service for the leghorns so I can isolate her for healing. But I am beginning to wonder if it is possible to have just two turkens in a mixed flock. What do you all think? Should I rehome my pretties? I think they may be a roo and hen though not sure of course at this age (5 weeks). I ended up getting Pick No More the other day so I have put some on her poor rear end.

When my flock was first mixed I had almost all EE and a couple of NN and had no problems. I even have raised completely naked chicks w/ others w/o any problems at all. My flock now is all NN and nakeds

 

[ChuskaMtns]

I knew that they were smaller version of greyhound, but that they were that smaller I didn't know. So how tall are they if chickens are bigger?

My female is 7 lbs and my boys are 10 and 11 lbs. My biggest Orpington rooster is 16 lbs but it's the NN girls and one of my Silver Ameraucana hens that seem to be the IGs antagonists. As soon as they see any of the dogs near their area they run at them full speed, if the dog doesn't see them, the chasing hen usually gets a nice peck in to remind the dog to stay out of their territory. It lasts for about a week until the dogs forget, they're not the brightest breed but fun to have and little couch potatoes.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

That is really sweet.... loved seeing the greyhound pics.

Here's Froggy again (low res photo) - I had my legs propped up, and she snuck up under to stick her head between my legs to say hello... She had huge ears that when perked up made her look like a bat.

I miss her.

- Ant Farm