Mystery Rooster Lineage

[Wonderling]

So this all started when my two hens: Marigold (Buff Orpington) and Poppy (Australorp), were joined by a mystery rooster who showed up at our house, we named him Dundee (since he was on a walkabout). I hatched a several small batches of eggs and thus began the Mystery Rooster Lineage since he was some kind of mix which we couldn't quite nail down I decided to start this thread after discovering today that his two daughters who I kept, threw me for a curve when I discovered they had started laying Olive colored eggs. Dundee is no longer with us because he decided he was a T-Rex so we shipped off to be someone's dinner. I sold/rehomed a majority of the chicks I hatched so my current flock is sitting at 7...but here's the other kicker...3 of those are cockerels, with the remaining four being the 2 pullets (that apparently lay olive eggs) and then the two that started all this, 2 hens (brown egg layers).

Because I'm a silly goose I also decided to take a chance after getting rid of the beautiful and beastly boy to hatch some of Poppy's eggs she laid after his departure, mostly because deep down I'm probably a mad scientist at heart but I convinced myself and the hubby that it was to test the hatchability of eggs laid after a rooster is not longer in the picture. Marigold had gone broody and was already on some eggs so she wasn't laying. Long story short (see other post) but I ended up hatching two eggs which were laid roughly 2 weeks after dad left the picture. Results of this experiment gave me two cockerel boys who are quite the characters.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to say goodbye to the 2 younger cockerel boys once they grow up or if I'm going to keep all 3 cockerels as long as they can work out a pecking order that doesn't bother then hens. The rooster in every case here would be related to every hen I have except my Buff Orpington since only one of the pullets is her offspring and all the others were from the Australorp. So I'm planning to get hens that don't lay brown or olive eggs, and then if I decide to hatch a batch of eggs (probably only 1 batch per year if I do) I can easily pick the eggs that aren't from a related hen. Another option I'm pondering is if I want to have two separate coops and have 1 coop I can hatch from and the other strictly for eating eggs. I'm also trying to figure out how I want to go about this without drowning in eggs and/or chickens so maybe I'll make sure any new hens would not be "laying" breeds and maybe just get some fancy types or something. Once I figure out what I'm really aiming for I'll just go from there.

Here is Dundee, the now absent father:

Here is the Trio that started all this: Dundee, Marigold and Poppy:

I'll post more pictures and updates in this thread once I get some good pictures of the rest of my little flock. Any new additions to the flock will also be added here and as any new developments occur I'll just try to keep this thread updated as things happen but that might not be very often.

 

[GrayChickens]

Cool keep us posted!

 

[Wonderling]

Update: Sadly Marigold the Buff Orpington has passed away, which was extra sad since she died in my arms after it seemed like she was getting close to a full recovery from whatever it was.

Previously I sold 2 of the cockerel/roosters and kept just one.

Awnry is now quite happy about being the only man around. I've noticed he is a little rough with the girls though and pulls out some neck feathers in all the excitement so now I'm not so sure if he'll be staying long term. He is quite a handsome boy but since the remaining hens are his mom and 2 sisters, I'm leaning toward replacing him anyway, in case at some point I want to continue the lineage experiment that I seem to have started. He is still young so we'll see how things go for awhile until I get a better idea what my chicken plan is.

Awnry

I finally got okay pictures of the girls, both are laying 1 olive egg a day and come running for treats which was very handy since we moved their coop across the yard and after a couple times of showing them were it is they have it figured out.

The white girl is Lady, she's from the Buff Orpington and got her mom's same need for glasses, poor thing has the worst aim for grabbing small treats, consistently misses by about an inch and keeps pecking the same spot and the others eat up the treats, I've started letting her take from the treat container just so she can't miss.

The black girl is Hawk, who looks a lot like her mom from behind but has a very different face so it's not hard to tell them apart which is nice.

 

[Wonderling]

Sadly, Poppy the Australorp has passed away. It appeared to be egg yolk peritonitis (EYP) but it seems she likely already had an internal infection before she was showing any signs we were aware off and it was all downhill from there.

My husband strongly suggested we not have chickens anymore or at least for awhile because we both find it incredibly depressing when they pass away. Though he doesn't mind just keeping the 3 we have. I'm thinking over if we'll continue keeping chickens or not, we enjoy them but the stress of having to keep tending to sick chickens, along with having to say goodbye to them so soon has made it a bit too much to bare.

As much as it sounds practical to simply cull any sick ones and only have the strong survivors around, I know I could never bring myself to do it. The 3 I have are nice birds but I think re-homing them sometime in the next couple months will be good. Then I'll take my time to build a coop that I really love. After that I'll decide when I'm ready and pick up some local free range eggs for hatching and start over. Might be a year or two, we'll see how things go. I'll probably be around BYC for coop ideas and it's always fun to lurk in some of the hatch-along threads.

There is a chance I might hang onto the 3 I have for now, we'll see how quickly I get around to building the new coop. Since it's nice to have the eggs right now while we stay at home during this pandemic I won't be giving them up too quickly anyway. Chickens are too fun for me to give them up forever so we'll see how things pan out. So for now I won't say for sure if this is the end of the Mystery Rooster Lineage or not since I still have them.