The New Guy is Hen-Pecked

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Cockerel Added to Chicken Flock

Well, thanks to our friends at  Poultry Plus read bout them here we have a male chicken in the chicken pen. (That is NOT him in the adjacent picture, but he may turn out to look like that). He is a cockerel, an immature male Barred Rock, and he is a little bit shy around all those hens.  Hen pecked.  Last I saw the little feller, he was setting on a roost, up under the spruce tree branches, while all the hens scrounged around on the ground, looking for snack foods.

He is a handsome young bird, about 4 months old.  His rump hackles are just coming in, great shades of green, and his tail is developing, thickening, and starting to get longer.  Longer than the hens that is.  And he has a voice, barely discernible from the girls, but it is a voice-in-transition.  I think he will be crowing before too long.  And doing other cock-of-the-roost activities soon after.  So we might still be able to grow a batch of home-hatched egg layers this spring.

Once the new guy figures out who is the cock of the roost.

Poultry Plus

Many thanks to Mike over at Poultry Plus.  Mike has started incubating eggs for the 2011 season.  His breeding building has undergone many revisions, like an automatic watering system with nipple spouts and enhanced heating with thermostatically controlled brood room.  His current breeding stock includes Golden Sebrights, Speckled Sussex, Big Buckeyes, Barred and White Rocks, Auracauna (the easter egg laying chicken), and plenty more.  Contact Mike at   mgerringer2@gmail.com  for more details, other breeds available and especially if you want to place an order.

He sells day old chicks (if you get there in a hurry) and babies, and some folks order eggs for hatching.  He can ship them to you if the drive is too long.  And you can always get some eggs for kitchen use from him as well.  (Tell him Uncle Milton sentcha!)

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