Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Progress with Yarrow

Yarrow is getting friendlier and less scared of us. He will even eat out of our hands sometimes! It isn't consistent, and unlike the girls he doesn't prefer his corn out of our hands, but he will eat it.



The girls love to eat out of our hand, and Kudzu, shown here will refuse to eat off the ground if we are around.
And they are always curious when the camera comes out.



Not bad for chickens we got as adults.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chickens are AWESOME! I'll be posting photos of our week old babies today or tomorrow ;-) Do try the homemade bator, we love it!

Carla said...

Hooray for brave Yarrow!!

Might I add a bit of information that you may not want to hear regarding Yarrow? Seeing him stand next to your hens reminds me of my roo, Tuesday and my hens. My roo is smaller than all my girls. All my girls are fluff butts (lots of thick feathers around their vent).
Tuesday tries and tries to make little chickens with my hens, but he never hits the mark.
I have never had one fertile egg in his 3 years of life. What I do when one of my hens goes broody, is I get some fertile eggs from a friend.
He's a beauty btw!!

Christy said...

CeeCee - he is a bantam so we never really expected him to fertilize the eggs. His job is just to get the girls out of the coop, which he does well. I've never seen him mount them, I think he is intimidated!

Joanna@BooneDocksWilcox said...

Have you ever fed your chickens meal worms? Mine chickens will mow me down for meal worms. Some chicken folks sell the worms or I buy some from the pet store.

I've had bantam roosters that mate my big girls. I don't keep too many roosters around because they get so rowdy. Since I don't breed my Faverolle girls, and they don't like being around a big rooster, I just keep a bantam rooster in with them, and they don't mind him. Although they don't need one to lay eggs, hens sorta like a rooster around.

Zachary and Jennifer said...

Are you getting eggs from your ladies?

Jennifer

The Scavenger said...

Our hens just aren't that brave for some reason. We have raised most of them from chicks too, they don't care much for our company though. Great pics and it's really good that your chickens trust you that much. Good for you.

Chris

Gail said...

The Chicken Whisperers!

Melody said...

I love your new look! Congrats with the nice chickens. It is always a relief when animals turn out to be nice and friendly.

Unknown said...

I wish I had my camera when some of my Banty cockerels decided to try to mate with the big girls. The Welses & Marans were having none of it & ran round the yard with their Banty jockeys for all the world like a hen race!

1 year, when I lived in Somerset, I went gleaning for fodder maize cobs, took them home, but had to sit on the step shelling the nibs off the cobs as the Cochins had no idea what I'd given them, nor what to do with it. I ended up with hens sitting on my lap trying to eat the nibs as fast as I shelled them off & the cockerels around my feet. I also got mobbed every time I went outside with a saucepan as they knew I'd cooked non-fighting worms or maggots for them (spaghetti or rice!) & they tried to get IN the saucepan to sit & eat. The dog I had at the time would follow me around as well as he loved pasta & rice ~ begging chickens & dog

I'm glad that Yarrow is accepting you. None of mine eat from my hand ( I don't give them the chance any more, but at feed time I do get them around my legs tripping me up

Anonymous said...

Hello Christy,
More awesome photos. Love the closeup. I have said it before, that is a handsome rooster. While my rooster's will get close, follow me and also greet me when I arrive home they will not eat out of my hand. Only Betty will do that, she has always been friendly. She is a Barred Plymouth Rock. I also have a small rooster but he does not let anything mess with his girls. If he finds some food he will call them and let them eat first.

linda m said...

Great pictures of the girls and Yarrow. Logan sure does have a way with animals. He is one special boy. I'm glad Yarrow is doing his job in getting the girls out in the yard.

Christy said...

Amy - chicken are awesome! I'll have to go check out your babies.

Joanna - I'll have to try the mealworms, sounds like fun. Although I'm not sure I could take my girls being any frienlier!

Jennifer - no eggs yet, should be any day now.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Wow, what progress, Christy. The girls look great..so happy and healthy, too.
Yarrow is a handsome little Roo.
Loved the pics :)

~Lisa

Gone2theDawgs said...

Hmmmmm, chicken whisperers....:) Yarrow is a handsome boy, and who would want to eat off the ground if you had trained your humans to feed you by hand!!?? Great pics!

Christy said...

Wrensong - Good point! I was wearing gloves when I feed them this morning and they did not like it as much as bare flesh. Kudzo gets a little over eager when eating though, and it can hurt!