Note: links to our other chicken posts at the end of this post.
INTRODUCING FLOCK 3, A HYBRID OF FLOCK 1 AND 2
We did not know what we were doing when we started our chicken adventure. We purchased eight "Straight-Run" Bantam chicks at Tractor Supply.
WHAT DOES "STRAIGHT RUN" MEAN?
It means you're picking from whatever sex birds you get, no way to tell when you buy this way. We ended up with four roosters and four hens, that is three too many roosters for that number of hens.
WHAT TO DO?
We put three of the Flock 1 Roosters into a pen by themselves, as they matured they learned to hate each other and before too long they wanted to fight and kill each other.
ONE ROOSTER GONE
One of the roosters (Lemon) was very uncooperative, he would fly out of the pen and free range because he hated his brothers so much. One day Lemon disappeared. We never saw what happened to him, never found any remains but we highly suspect a raccoon named Roli grabbed Lemon and took him to meet the lord.
TWO SPARE ROOSTERS LEFT
This left us with Frizzle and Orangey.
FRIZZLE (AKA FRITZ)
Mary and this little Rooster, Frizzle, developed a strange relationship and ultimately, a friendship. We eventually moved Orangey to his own condominium to eliminate the fighting between him and Frizzle.
Frizzle was very unhappy as a solo rooster. He can't fly due to his frizzled out wings, so he would pace back and forth in his pen, next to the fence, glaring at us and hating life. If you tried to approach him he would attack you and bite at your legs. His sharp little beak can easily break the skin if he connects with one of his bites. A couple of months went by with Frizzle being very unhappy.
THE LOVE BIRDS
A month after we got the Flock 1 chicks we went back for more and purchased Flock 2, 10 straight run chicks. In this group we got one Frizzle (YoYo) and four Silky chicks, two Cornish and three Minky's :-)
As this group matured two of the Silky chicks were fighting and I thought they were Roosters, we separated them from the others. They both turned out to be hens. One is "Little Tom" (black Sikie) and one is "Marilyn" (white Silkie). These two lived happily on our screened-in porch and they were a joy to watch as they grew. We often referred to it as our "Chicken Aquarium", beautiful and relaxing to watch. These two Silkie chickens became instant favorites due to their gentle personalities and awesome good looks.
TOO MANY FLOCKS
Things were starting to get complicated with Flock 1, Flock 2, Orangey, Frizzle and the Love Birds all separated. I suggested to Mary, what if we introduced Frizzle to the Love Birds?
At that time, Frizzle was being a total ass-hole, only Mary could even get near him and even then she had to be very careful as she engaged him. She still has scars from befriending this little mean Rooster.
One day we were talking about Frizzle and the idea of combining Fritz with Tom and Marilyn was discussed. We both thought Frizzle was too mean and it would never work. Mary never let the idea go and a couple days later I came out to the porch and Mary had Frizzle and the ladies visiting each other with a folding screen between them.
Frizzle was a complete gentleman. He humbled himself to the Love Birds and they reached through the divider and groomed him. After a few days of letting Frizzle visit through the fence, we removed the barrier and let them at each other. Again, Frizzle was a total gentleman, er, gentle-chicken?
No matter, Frizzle and the Love Birds hit it off and after a couple more days of visiting he moved into their pen and started sleeping in their Formex chicken coop with them. It was a miracle. Over the next two weeks Frizzles' personality completely changed. He went from aggressive towards us to being the care taker of his two new hen friends. It was an amazing metamorphosis to behold.
Frizzle is now completely transformed, he never bites us or attacks us. If we get near him he glares at us as if to say, "don't change anything else or screw this up". He and his chick friends are the happiest birds on the planet.
They recently moved into an outdoor aviary with a new Formex house on stilts so they can run around the entire aviary. They are allowed to come outside the aviary and free range. The two girls free-range and Frizzle stands guard, watching out for his ladies.
Frizzle and these two Silkie hens became "Flock 3"
FLOCK FOUR
We never planned to buy any more chickens but one day I got an email from our favorite vendor of chicken stuff, "My Pet Chicken" (www.mypetchicken.com). They had an "overhatch" of chicks with several breeds we were interested in.
WHY BUY MAILORDER?
There is a way to tell the sex of the chicks when they are a day old, it's some kind of surgical procedure but suffice to say they can predict with good accuracy whether the chicks you buy are male or female. We paid extra, per chick, to get all hens. Flock 4 was born at the end of August, 2021. Sadly one of our Belgium Blue chicks did not make it, she developed an "impacted crop" which prevents her from being able to swallow. Fortunately her sister, who is the smallest in this group is doing fine and has made a close friendship with another hen we call "Candy".
FLOCK 4 TODAY
Around Friday October 1st we moved Flock 4 from their brooder box home into the screened-in porch where Frizzle and the Love Birds previously lived.
Flock 4 has been amazing. They instantly embraced their new Formex chicken coop. They retreated into it for safety. The very first night this little band of chickens went into their coop all by themselves. They've been some of our best behaved chickens ever, perhaps because they're all hens? We may never know.
THE FUTURE
Flock 4 won't be mature until January of 2022 so until then they will reside in the screened-in porch area.
We're hoping that the two Polish hens (Natasha and Svetlana) might be able to be integrated into Flock 3 with Frizzle and the Love Birds.
We're also hoping that Candy, Bunny and Belle (blue Belgium) can be integrated with Orangey so he has three ladies to care for and party with.
TIME WILL TELL
The chicken adventure continues.
GOOD CHICKENS TO YOU!
Chickens P2, the back story of Flock 1 and how our chicken madness began
