Chicken Breed Focus - Sumatra

[SeaHen]

I'm not sure this breed is one I would have ever chosen to raise but I have 2 of them now. Last week at the feed store my daughter and I saw them being pecked at by other chicks in the bin which prompted us to ask the sales clerk if they had other "bummer" chicks in the back room, which culminated in our buying a total of 8 picked-on babies of various breeds for .50 cents each, even though we had promised ourselves and each other that we would not bring home any birds this year (famous last words). They are Splash colored and unsexed, obviously from a commercial hatchery. If both are males will I have to worry about them fighting?

 

[Gray Farms]

Yes, if they both are males you'll have to watch for fighting. In my years of raising them Sumatras most always tolerate other rooster if they are of a different breed. But they don't tolerate other Sumatra roosters unless they have a lot of space to stay away from each other.

 

[Coopscraft]

Would it be a good idea to keep Sumatra hens as foster mothers for leghorns and other breeds? Also would it be wrong to breed hatchery leghorn rooster over Sumatra hens? I am kind of curious if I can breed a Sumatra that lays like a leghorn or a leghorn that has the flight and beauty of a Sumatra. I would try to keep a broody strain going for hatching purposes.

 

[Gray Farms]

Would it be a good idea to keep Sumatra hens as foster mothers for leghorns and other breeds? Also would it be wrong to breed hatchery leghorn rooster over Sumatra hens? I am kind of curious if I can breed a Sumatra that lays like a leghorn or a leghorn that has the flight and beauty of a Sumatra. I would try to keep a broody strain going for hatching purposes.

Nothing wrong with that at all, the result would be crossbreds/hybrids though not Sumatras or Leghorns. Sumatras are very good broodys and mothers. So if you gave one some Leghorn eggs she'd hatch and raise them. Crossing Leghorn to Sumatra would improving their laying "of resulting pullets" for sure I would think. But as far as the offspring being good broodys I'm not sure. Your crossing two breeds at opposite ends of the broody spectrum.

 

[Chooks man]

Ordered 4 Dz fertile Black sumatra fertile eggs .
I don t know much about them but I ll learn .
will receive the eggs next weeks .looking forward to add them to my small collection of rare breed in OZ .

chooks man

 

[Gray Farms]

They aren't like any other breed of chickens I've ever had. Sumatras are more like Pheasants.

 

[Coopscraft]

I had one fly off and get hit by a car in flight. You may want to give them a service ceiling.

 

[SlimPickens74]

Interested in starting a Sumatra flock. Hoping that this thread stays active. Looking at just getting a few to start, not looking to show , here in West Virginia Ive yet to find someone who keeps them. So what would be the hatchery to get them from would be my question. Any thoughts shared would be awesome

 

[Gray Farms]

I'd find the closest hatchery. That way the chicks would get to you fastest and least amount of stress on them.

 

[CaramelKittey]

Hi! We are about to purchase a breeding pair of Sumatras and was wondering if there is anything I need to know about keeping them for breeding? Right now we are just starting off with one hen and one roo but I'm hoping to get some more hens.
They are both bantam black sumatras.
I've read that the hens go broody often, and that the males are usually aggressive during the breeding season.
Thanks in advance!