Another Rooster Question!

[Lolly]

Hi all.. :)

We have four lovely little chicks that are almost six weeks old. My partner (of the mad chook thread infamy :? ) has decided that he will lop the heads off any of the wee roosters. How long do they have to live before they condemn themselves to their eventual demise??

In other words, at what point will a young rooster begin to crow??

Cheers

[HoneydaleFarm]

Our 2 started at 3 months old...sounds a bit like craoking (Laughing)...by 4 months they were in the freezer!

[Tamandco]

Yeah, I've heard 12 - 16 weeks is a really good age to get a nice 'chook'. Some breeds are still really nice until about 6 months, but of course you need to be able to house them in the meantime.

You might even be able to 'sex' them a little earlier if you're really observant. Check out The Chook Shed http://members.iinet.net.au/~greggles1/sexing.html for some tips.

One thing you'll probably notice is that if they're free ranging on a varied diet, their meat will be a lot darker, instead of the 'white' you see in the commercial poultry.

I welcome others' observation in relation to this 'theory'.

Tam

[christopher]

Tam, your observations could be valid, but, being vegetarian, wouldn't know. I suspect that there would have to be a discernible difference of some kind in the meat, as there is in the eggs....

I can say with some authority that free range eggs are a darker yellow, and the yellow part is much firmer, standing UP, looking taller, stronger, and, well, tastier.

We started out raising chooks on industrial layer ration, selling the eggs, but we got tired of hauling in material for them to eat, and Dawn and I decided to try raising them offo of stuff we produce, as well as letting them foraage.

The free range eggs are better tasting, too.

You having a good day today?

C

[Lolly]

Thank you all.. :)

Now I'm off to recreate nature - anyone know how to explain to a rooster that if he crows he's dead.. ?? :lol:

[Lolly]

Tam :)

Great link, thank you! Ray and I have been watching the chicks closely over the last few weeks and noting their behaviour - I see that on that link you supplied they suggested doing the same. I am encouraged! We're on the right track.. :)

[christopher]

Lolly,

Your avatar makes me pause, before I answer... and I forgot to answer your question in my last post, so:

Eventually they will make noise, no two ways about it, so, what you hope for is maximum growth before that time.... and about that time they will start to fight one another. This is an excellent time to eat them, if you like eating them. Otherwise they are going to kill one another.

Roosters do not understand anything. In addition to being as stupid as a chook, about the stupidest of all domesticatd animals (in my book) they are also stupid chooks addled in their own testosterone, a terrible combination, resulting in a cowardly, strutting, self important bird, with a brain the size of a split pea, who likes to hop on the chooks, bite their heads, and hop back off in a fraction of a second, the mystery of chook mating done so quickly, its still a mystery. Doesn't look romantic at all. So, sadly you can't teach them anything...

C

[Lolly]

:lol: Christopher

My avatar makes you pause?! I wonder why?

I laugh at your description of a typical rooster.. :lol: :lol:

I have 3 daughters so Ray(Gargun) is considerably outnumbered in this household which at times leads him to liken himself to the rooster. After pointing out to him the mating ritual of an average rooster he quickly backtracked :wink:

I am happy, in the name of peace within the henhouse, to cook up any unruly roosters quick smart! :axe:

Linda

[christopher]

Lolly,

The avatar has a distinctly predatory look, a dark square with glowing yellow eyes... tha's why...

Roosters really suck...

C

[Lolly]

:shock: What on earth could be predatory about a Lolly??!

:( ... wanders off in search of a new lolly-like avatar...

:cry:

[Lolly]

:P Christopher... that better??? :D

[christopher]

Lolly/Linda,

Uh, no, actually. The predator thing had lots of character, and, uh, well, this one is a bit, hmmmm, well, I guess, cute? Yes, cute. Cute. But lacking in character. Definitely non threatening (I go for the dangerous type. Theres this other lady here, she flies around on a pig, with a big axe? Man, have I got a case of the hots for her.... ummmm, well, yes. Anyway... )

Yes, um, so roosters, um, that make noise, uh, should be, um, wonton soup....

But I like you no matter what your avatar is!

C

[~Tullymoor~]

You rang???
PwCw :love10: :love3: :love2: :love1: :love9: :love5: :love6: :love9: :love3: :love2: :king: :prayer: :king: thought you were at a conference?? (Is that how you spell that?? Hmm, don't think so :? ) Are you sitting on your hotelroom bed with your laptop and a scotch?? :shock: :goodman:

[christopher]

Tullymoor, oh great queen!
:love7: :love5: :love4: :love4: :love7: :love7: :love7: :love7: :love7: :love7: :love7:

No, I leave in about 20 minutes. Conference (spelled correctly) tomorrow. Just cheking emails and things before I leave.

I will be back Saturday, unless they have a wireless thing at the hotel, (yeah, sure), but quite unlikely, since this is Belize.

Very nice to hear from you before I run out in to the big world.

See you Saturday,

Pw Cw (NoN)

[~Tullymoor~]

Have a nice time, :clock: drive carefully, :iroc: behave yourself :angel5: and see you when you get back.
:love3: :love10: :love2: :love6: :love3: :sex: :love10: :love7: :love6: :love5:

[Franceyne]

Ohhh Tully - you snuck the naughty emoticon in there :oops: :shock: :lol:

[Lolly]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: Tully & Christopher! Oh to have a love like yours!! Um, actually... lucky me, I do!! :D

Anyway, my powerpuff persona sucks more than noisy roosters, Ima goin back to my real self.. cos I may be many things, but cute ain't one of em! :roll:

[gargun]

Don't believe a word lolly says....she is absolutely gorgeous!!!!
(I should know...we're getting married)

:D

Ray

[Tamandco]

Oh Gargun, you're such a romantic. I wish there were more blokes around like you.

[Lolly]

Pfffft! :roll:

[~Tullymoor~]

How come nearly *every* serious thread turns into fluff...eventually :lol:

Tully wuvs Cwis :king: :prayer: :king: :love10: :love4: :love5:
:love3: :love2: :love1: :love6: ....have you *seen* his pic Lolly (prefer your eyes avatar too :D ) he's a bit too scrummy for his own good
I *do* have another love on here too :3some: ...that be Steevie Weevie, :heart: :rock: :heart: he thinks I'm an :axe: but I'm not, he's just a wee bit skeered...he's away at the moment though....hey, both my mens have gorn away, what's with that???

[Tamandco]

Oh, you too Lolly, wish there were more like you too!

[Tamandco]

In Christopher's absence, I'd like to say that I prefer the eyes one too.

Tam

[Lolly]

And the ayes.. oops.. eyes have it! :lol:

Tam.. he is a gorgeous romantic. I'm a lucky girl, although I've been starting to wonder if I may have to sprout feathers to compete successfully with the other girls in the henhouse!

Tully :shock: how on earth could you be an :axe: ?? Preposterous! :geek:

Oh and I'm sorry, things often get a bit fluffy when Gar and I are around.. :roll:

[Mcgrathfarm]

I have a rooster called Charlie, who is a cashmere Silkie and he looks after the babies in the chook shed. They all snuggle up to him and sleep with him at night as he is too dumb to fly up to the roost. If i hadnt seen it myself i wouldnt have believed it. I got photos of it to prove to my friends that I hadnt gone mad.

When we picked out our chicks (donated from the local kindy) we picked the ones with the smallest dooval (that thing on on top of their head) and they have all turned into girls. :D. We did notice from our previous bunch that the boys developed their head dooval thingy a lot faster than the girls.

[Lolly]

<<resolves to keep a close eye on our chookies' head dooval thingys!! :D

[Tamandco]

Mcgrathfarm,

What are Cashmere Silkies? Do you have any pics.

Thanks for the tip about the head dooval thing. I've got a batch in the brooder at present so I'll keep an eye of 'em.

What area are you in?

Tam

[Mcgrathfarm]

When I bought Charlie Chook (the rooster) we were told by the supplier he was a cashmere as he wasn't all white like normal silkie chooks. He has a few splashes of black and brown on his tail. I have not bothered to research this as I am a trusting soul! :roll:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/mcsteve/charliechook.jpg

He has extra toes, so I dont breed him, not for the lack of trying on charlies part, but he just falls off the back of the girls and tries for another one. He crows, but its a softer quieter crow which I doubt the neighbours mind.

I live in the Beaudesert Shire, and look at that green grass. That was taken today after a week of beautiful rain!

[Tamandco]

Oh, he's lovely! I think I've got a few of those too. It seems to happen when the other colours are mixed in to your whites and after a while, you sort of lose the purity of the white. (colour wise that is)

Silkies are supposed to have 5 toes so it sounds like he's okay, unless by saying he's got an extra toe, you mean he's got 6. :lol: Do you have others? More pics? I just love chook pics. Maybe you'd like to post some in the 'chook pic' thread too. :D

Mcgrathfarm, what can we call you for short?

And where is Beaudesert Shire? Country? State?

[Mcgrathfarm]

Beaudesert shire is about 45 minutes west of the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.

Not sure of the toe thing on Charlie, I checked him out when I first got him and I remember thinking he had too many toes. Could be ok for him I guess, like I said though, didnt do too much research on this guy.

He is such a sweetie. Doesnt like to be cuddled much, but he loves his 'girls' and is always happy when our chooks from the two chook sheds come together on a saturday morning.

We cant free range them during the week as we have a local fox population that I believe feeds soley from our flock of avians. He has taken 3 Ducks, 2 Geese, and too many chooks in the last 10 weeks or so. Last weekend was the first weekend with out a loss. Firstly my husband and I scout the property (around 1 acre, of 16) for the waiting fox and then let the chooks out. So far so good.

Some photos of chooks? Here you go:

Charlie and the little chickens:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/mcsteve/P1010016.jpg

One very brave chook standing on the vegetable garden fence:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/mcsteve/chookonafence.jpg

Pup and chooks size each other up:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/mcsteve/letmeatemboandchooks.jpg


I dont mind what you call me, just dont call me ugly! haha McGrath is fine. Thats what my boss calls me so I am getting used to it. :roll:

[Tamandco]

Hi McGrath,

Love the pup!

What a lovely family you have there. What a pain about the foxes.

I've been looking after my friend's farm while they were OS on holidays and the fox came and reduced their flock of 23 to 7! :evil:

So now I know where Beaudesert Shire is. Thank you for that little geography lesson. I bet the climate's great where you are.

No wonder Charlie keeps slipping off the chooks' backs, they're all BIG ONES! :lol: :shock: Poor Charlie! Be nice and get him some his own size. :lol:

Tam

[Mcgrathfarm]

charlie had four silkie girls of his own,they left him,for the fox
call her mrs mac :lol:

[Tamandco]

Poor girls. :(

We're in a similar boat as you guys. We don't let ours out unless we're around to supervise. The fox seems to know when you're not there. They're so sly. :evil:

We lost all our chooks to the fox last xmas, every one of 'em. We were chookless. Last week I had to go door knocking to find the owners of some georgeous Boer goats which had made their way across the creek into our hay paddock. Good way to meet your neighbours too. Every one of them had lost chooks in the last 12 months too. One bloke shot one, but said there were 2 there that morning. He reckons that even though we refer to it as 'the fox' there's heaps of them. He's welcome at our place anytime.

I really envy people like Tezza who can have his chooks out day and night, to come and go as they please. Mine have a fox curfew into their run, and are only allowed out if I'm home, and able to keep an eye on them.

Tam

[Mcgrathfarm]

My husband got one fox, he used a dog trap, lent from the local council. I also have seen fox/cat traps at the local produce store for rent (about $10 a week). To buy they're about $100 to $200. He made a nice fox hat with the skin, which I wont allow him to use outside the property. Now we want to get the rest for a couple of winter boots! :lol: Gross I know, but we like to make use of the animals we have kept fed for the last year and a half! :twisted:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/mcsteve/P1010078.jpg

[Tamandco]

Trophies like that I don't mind at all.

We have a fox trap. :D ( It fell of the back of a truck. :lol: ) Never caught anything in it though. I put a chicken carcase in there after the fox's last visit, but 3 weeks later it was untouched. :pukeleft:

The fox knows when you've tampered with something. The bloke from DNRE said you've gotta be very lucky to catch a fox in a trap. So you guys were VERY lucky indeed. What did you use as bait?

We've had shooters here once but on that particular morning, the fox decided not to show. :(

I've been tempted to poison a carcase, especially after having to clean up 16 of them from my friends farm only last week. Trouble is, the DNRE bloke said there's too much risk of secondary poisoning of our domestic animals, as the fox will dig up the carcase and often bury it in another location a few time before devouring it. The poisoned carcase can be moved from property to property and taken by a domestic dog or other innocent carnivore without the property owners even being aware it's on their property.

Did anyone watch the series Outback House? The shepherds were losing lambs right left and centre to foxes. They really are a dreadful problem.

Good on you for making the hat. Bring back the bounty, I say. That way more people might take the fox problem more seriously instead of thinking they are cute and cuddly. They don't belong here.

Tam

[Mcgrathfarm]

I think we used a dead chook that had been already slaughtered by the fox or local dogs. We lots about 13 in one night, so we just used one of the left overs. They were just left strewn about the yard so I think it was a dog attack.

By time the trap was delivered (it was a big dog trap, not a small fox trap) the chook was fairly smelly. The fox was trapped about 2 or 3 nights later, and even heard another fox cry out when it happened around the other side of the house. We ran out in our pjs and took photos.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y217/mcsteve/FOXALIIVE1.jpg

We lost another chook today, but this time I believe it was to snake bite. Found it dead on the nest. We are now using this one for a trap for the fox which will be the left boot! :lol:

[Tamandco]

Wow!

I will take some pics of our trap and post them in this thread tomorrow. It is large, would hold a dog too. We tried quite a few years back to trap a fox using a cat trap (about 18"x18"x3') with a chooks that'd died and the chook got taken, and the door of the trap got buckled. No fox though!

In our old place (where the above occurred) we were working down the paddock one day with our chooks free ranging around us and heard a commotion. The fox which was on the other side of the dam, had grabbed one of our chooks. It was hard to see cos of the bushland, but the chook got away, fell into the dam, which saved it's life as the fox didn't follow. It managed to get to the bank, where I dragged it out. It had puncture wounds on it's abdomen, but miraculously survived. Lucky chook!

Tam