from my experience, most of the time it doesnt work with more than 1 roo. and too many roos stresses the hens and they wont lay or injures them out right. i believe in keeping a roo around but only 1. i got a 1/2in scar on the back of my calf from a wynadotte roo named Elvis that nailed me with his spurs while i was collecting eggs. took 3 months for that to heal. he made the mistake of coming back for a 2nd hit. it ended badly for him. 
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Elvis likely had the last laugh I bet that was tough stew. Typically a tough old rooster like that is not received well at the dinner table. Most Chickens are ruthless, the barred rocks ate snakes and voles alive in front of me like a delicacy. Never in a million years would I eat one of them after what I saw. Pheasants and quail are not like that.
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nope. just stuck him in the compost pile. he wasnt even a yr. yet but one nasty bugger! cornered my wife a few days before he got me. she had to use the shovel to ward him off.
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One year should have been good eating.
Iāve chopped off the heads off a couple back in my younger days.
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So far they all seem to get along OK. Weāll see what happens as they get older. Iāll make Blue Stew if I have to 
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Yep, I think your mystery hen is Barred Rock
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yeah but this guy hadnāt started to bulk up yet. was all bones. wasnt worth my time.
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hell ive feed chicken to chickens and they loved it. they fight each other for fish guts. threw a freshly hit rabbit in there last spring. nothing but bones 6 hrs later. they are definitely omnivores.
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Wildlife NOT in my garden. Checked the garden fence to see how it is working this winter. There are rabbit prints in the snow showing a full speed sprint toward the gate and then a rabbit sized dent in the chicken wire. It looks like it bounced off the fence and landed a couple feet away. It left at a slower pace.
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bet hes got a headache.
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This guy was down in the leaf catcher for my rain barrelsā¦he would have had a hard time getting out had I not checked to clean itā¦must have washed in there during the last stormā¦
looks like some sort of tree frogā¦hoping not the Cuban variety as theyāre invasiveā¦
upon further inspection, I believe it was a Cuban tree frogā¦guess I should not have let it goā¦
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I have european cave lizards in my yard, donāt have the heart to hurt em. honestly I have been making habitat for them since they are insectivores.
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Absolutely Beautiful to see I have this guy hanging around. Only problem now Iād I have to keep a real close eye on my chickens and small dogs.!
Iāve been seeing two of them hunting around the area for days now. At dusk they fly south but are back every morning. 20220317_184904|690x920
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They like to roost at waters edge. There was a little island on Lake Fork that would have dozens in the trees.
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Sure looks like a Barred Plymouth Rock. They are very nice chickens, as chickens go.
We ordered chicks from McMurray, as well - years ago. We had so many breeds - and it was a lot of fun! We had Speckled Sussex. Buff Orpingtons. Wyandottes. Austrolorps. Polish Crested (very silly !) Minorcas. Araucanas (nasty roosters! very aggressive.), Silver Spangled Hamburgs (my favorite roosters! They looked like dandies in tuxedos! ) . . . and many more whose names I now cannot recall. It was fun to see the difference in the breeds. The Plymouth Rocks were among the best layers. And made the best āpetsā. Buffs - huge and ābroodyā.
I agree about the roosters. We ended up keeping 2 Silver Spangled Hamburgs. They āwork wellā in pairs, I found. This is why - One guy is top dog. He struts around with the hens. The underdog is ābannedā and takes on the very important job of āsentinelā. We watched him warn the flock when anything he considered dangerous, approached. Unfortunately . . . this also makes him vulnerable. But ours survived for years - even though he had the toughest (and most celibate!) job in the bunch!
Your coop is VERY cool! And VERY clean! Have fun!
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A juvenile king snake rattled its tail at me which I didnāt know other snakes besides rattlers did. The other picture is a green tree frog and Carolina anole kitty corner in the picture on a weigela shrub.
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Mommas been out feeding up. Im.sure she has a clutch of eggs in the woods nearby. I see her 4 or 5 times a day getting momma healthy
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I donāt have photos, but was out in the yard last week, inventorying a bunch of containerized seedlings that Iād not done anything with since January. Voles had burrowed under the geotextile fabric I had the pots sitting on, and had come up from beneath, into pots and had eaten the roots off 40 or so containerized pecans and a few oaksā¦ had not started on pears, mulberries or persimmons yet.
GRRRR!!!
Glad that I at least got all the grafted pecans/hickories in that batch of pots outplanted back during January, before the voles got to them, or Iād have been REALLY unhappy.
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