Thread: My Splendid Cock

They were fvcking massive with all the scraps I gave them.
They would eat absolutely anything, even chicken.

Must have weighed a couple of kilos each. But Goldie the last to die and our personal favourite was more like 3 kilos.

He had personality and would listen to you talking.

Well today was a good day!

My first bum nut i.e. egg for those of you who didn't know.

AND

She laid it in one of the nests I built not on the ground.
Who said chickens are dumb (probably me!!!)

I might even have my first grandkid on toast for breakfast tomorrow.



And for Mendip
I have some more chicks hatching as of yesterday, now have 6 more, 5 yesterday and 1 today) so I would make that day 18 & 19 in the incubator.

Well today was not a good day, one of my hens died, don't know why or what from but she was alive when I fed them in the morning and 3 hours later dead, literally fell off the perch.
The SIL was happy took it home and ate it for dinner.
I couldn't believe that they weren't worried about eating a bird that was sick enough to die. Amazing Thailand!

Hopefully no more catch whatever it was.

I'm sorry for your loss ootai.

I've found that these red egg layers die quite regularly. They don't seem very hardy at all and I don't think I've had any live longer than around three years. I think they just burn themselves out laying an egg every day. The ones in battery farms are culled at around 18 months old I believe, as soon as their egg production drops off.

The wild jungle fowl are completely different and seem to go on forever, and apart from when we got hit by fowl cholera I don't think I've had many die at all. My last cock 'Ziggy' was at least seven when the fowl cholera got him. I think they can live to around twelve years of age which gives 'Robin Hood' at least another eight years with his harem.

The red egg layers seem to die in a variety of ways. The first batch of six we got years ago all crammed into the same hutch on their first night, and one got smothered to death - I don't they're the brightest of hens. She was eaten by a brother-in-law (shame that fowl cholera doesn't pass to humans as I would have sent a load his way).

Getting egg bound is a constant problem with these hens and they can get a kind of prolapse at their rear end. I've tried bathing their rears in warm water, using olive oil to help the egg out, etc etc, but they always seem to die in the end. I now tend to just let nature take it's course. We had one old chicken last year who had gone partially blind and just sat on the floor looking sorry for herself. I spent weeks feeding her twice a day with mashed up egg and fruit in a syringe to keep her going. I kept her in an isolation cage within the chicken run and it was interesting as all the other hens sat around the cage to keep her company. Apparently hens are one of the few animals to show empathy towards others. It didn't end well for this one however... a few days after I had to go away to work I was told she had suddenly died. I don't think the gardener was willing to nurse an elderly chicken for an hour a day and I think her 'sudden' death may have involved a broken neck, followed by a long bath in a pan of boiling vegetables.

Sometimes we just get an unexplained death and find a dead chicken, who was seemingly healthy beforehand, lying dead in the chicken run. I guess there's always a chance of illness or maybe snakes being responsible, but I think some may die of heart attacks when the jet fighters from the Korat airbase go screaming over. They fly very low and make an awfully loud noise.

My, what a splendid cock you have!

My mom has been raising chickens on & off for the past 20 or so years. I have scars on my hand from when I was pecked by a rooster. At the moment, they're more of a hobby for her and they keep her busy. She stopped for a while, but bought chickens again soon after my dad's death some years ago. Whenever I visit her, I buy feeds and get the occasional egg in return. Not a good ROI for me, but hey, it's for my mom's mental health.

Have you guys experienced a hen developing male characteristics? Last time I visited mom, she had 2 hens (Blackie & Whitie). She said that she observed Whitie developing rooster-like traits, such as calling the other hen during eating time and trying to crow! (They're free range.) I told her that maybe Whitie is becoming a tomboy. They were both egg layers, but now only Blackie is laying. They're of the same age, I think.

I know that sex reversal happens in fish, but haven't heard of it in birds.

Originally Posted by katie23

My, what a splendid cock you have!

Yeah yeah... I've heard it all before.

The worst chicken related injury I've had was when I was training one to sit on my shoulder and she pecked me in the eye. That really did hurt.

We also have several called Blackie and Whitie, or dam and cow if I want to mix it up a bit.

I've seen a few young girl hens that develop as a boy... big, tall and with a long tail and a comb, and they have even tried crowing. I put it down to inbreeding since I have just one cock to service all the hens, and then their offspring, and so on. I'm more careful which eggs I put under the broody hens now.

Maybe you can get tomboy chickens... nothing would really surprise me in Thailand any more.

Well it is a good day today I now have 2 hens laying. I got 2 eggs yesterday but wasn't sure if I had forgotten to collect the previous days, so I waited and today 2 eggs again so all is good in the hen house. I also have seen the rooster doing his job so hopefully they will be fertile. I need to wait until all 5 hens are laying so that I can collect 24 eggs (needed to fill my incubator) within 5 days. That way i hope to have them all hatch within a couple of days of each other.

The latest batch of eggs I put in has been weird as I had 7 hatch after 5 days and now I have another 9 hatched after 16 days so it is a bit hard to manage because I want to try and keep the chickens in batches that are the same age and believe me a week is a long time in the development of a chicken.

Mendip I took note of your comments about "bumblefoot" and spend some time on Google as one of the hens had a bad limp so I immediately thought of what you had said.
Anyway it seems that it is not all about trauma due to landing but rather an infection (see picture below).
Anyway I wen and ordered some Epsom salts to see if would work but while waiting to get that I thought why not try the anti-bacterial spray I have for Co-vid.
So i have used a combination of both and it seems to have worked.
When I first noticed it she could barely put any weight on one of her legs and today I seen her break into a run with barely any noticeable limp.

^ Ootai, I also tried Epsom salts but with no success, so that's interesting.

I think that the impacts can maybe make them more susceptible to infection?

Next time you're in Korat you could take it to Bung Talua Animal Hospital. The main man there once operated on one of my chickens with bumblefoot and it was fine afterwards and had a long, happy retirement.

You could always question the wisdom of paying for a 500 Baht operation on a 200 Baht chicken, but as I've mentioned before I think that I'm probably too soft these days.

Mendip
I think it is actually the hand sanitiser spray more than the Epsom salts but it seems to have worked.
I never did see anything that might have been an abscess or any swelling / redness in her foot.
There's no way i would ever take a chicken to see a Vet but then I don't have a young daughter watching me.

To many roosters in our village that no-one wants. Apparently rooster isn't as tasty as hen!

Sad times in the Mendip household... I was told yesterday that Robin Hood has passed on.

RIP Robin. He was only young, maybe 3 or years, so this was a surprise.

Here he was in all his glory.



I'm trying to get to the bottom of how he died. I think this is one of the reasons I find it stressful living in Thailand... my Western mind likes answers to things... why did he die, how did he die, how can I stop it happening again? The Thais don't seem to be so enquiring. So far I've discovered that he was hard and lying upside down under the perch. I think that's as much as I'll find out and have left it there.

Maybe he over-shagged himself?



We have two young cockerels who were soon off to join the local temple flock, so these have now been given a reprieve and can stay a while. Robin was the father of both but their mother's are a bit more difficult to work out.

My daughter sent pics today...

I think this one was the chick I helped out of it's egg back in July. If so, he came out of a big brown egg from a warren hen, so maybe his progeny will be good egg layers?



I don't know a lot about genetics, but I think the second one's mum is a little easier to work out.

I've never had a black cock before.



And here's a picture I took back on June 14th... Blackie had two of her own eggs and two warren hen eggs.

Originally Posted by Mendip

I don't know a lot about genetics, but I think the second one's mum is a little easier to work out.

I've never had a black cock before.

Mendip
I think your boy (above) must have snuck up to my place as I recently hatched 12 chickens and every one of them is black.
Bit suspicious to me.