@SueT i started two years ago with a group of 5 EEs and a red sex link - obtained from a friend who had to get rid of her flock due to zoning restrictions. i lost the sex link last month, and of the 6 chicks i got in march, i have an amber link pullet, an asian black pullet, and fatty, the...
said goodbye to my remaining spitz, thus ending my saga of the spitzhaubens. perhaps someday there will be more...
between all the cockerels and losing my favorite hen, i’m ending up with not too many more chickens than i had pre-chicks.
clearly, you just need more hens so each rooster can have his own harem. :D
i am not to the point where i could dispatch of any of my chickens, either, and i’m uncertain as to whether i will ever get to that point. a few weeks ago, my favorite hen developed issues with her reproductive tract...
the girl who took my first spitz is taking this one, too. it will be a happy reunion - except probably not because i doubt they’ll remember each other. now i just need to find a home for my jersey giant roo!
i know, it stinks. the price i pay for straight runs. i look at it this way, if i hadn’t impulsively bought a bunch of random chicks from TSC i never would have been introduced to the breed, and what a shame that would be!
haha, no need to hide under chairs when you say it! :D it’s true, the face is on the red side, but she’s developmentally so much different than my other spitz, who was a confirmed cockerel, i find it difficult to believe that they’d both be the same sex.
every bird i have has curved tail...
this group of chickens is named after dinosaurs, as my son is currently obsessed (my first group was named after country western singers, at my husband’s request). so, this girl will be xi qi (pronounced ee-chee) after a late stage feathered dino. maybe i’ll get to pick the “theme”for my next flock!
at 11 weeks and counting, i think i can safely assume my remaining spitz is a pullet and give her a name. she is just as much of a space cadet at her hairdo would have you believe!
my seven year old son found our spitz roo a home. apparently he was chatting with his bus driver about the chickens, and she told me she had a friend who was looking for a rooster. i got in contact with that friend, sent her a photo, and she’s in love! i’m dropping him off at her house tomorrow.
well, i’m pretty sure i just saw my suspicious spitz try to crow. :hit
i’m going to look into local poultry swaps, otherwise he’ll be put up on the local farm swap FB page.
here’s my littles today, 9ish weeks old. they both look like their neck feathers are on the pointy side, but they’ve been that way since they feathered in. no saddle feathers on anyone.
all my littles wait until the big girls are in before they go to the coop, but the spitzes hop right up on the top roost, without a care in the world! my six big hens crowd over to the far end of the roost as though the babies were terrifying.
just a day or so shy of 8 weeks old now. everyone is out in the big coop now - big girls and little chickens appear to be getting along well. when i look at my chicks with a critical eye i can see they aren’t as refined and elegant as @SueT ’s spitz chickens, but since i thought i had orpingtons...