The Urban Chicken Podcast - The Urbanite's Podcast Resource for Keeping Backyard Chickens - UCP Episode 058: Listener Q & A Session #5

UCP Episode 058: Listener Q & A Session #5

05/04/15 • 31 min

The Urban Chicken Podcast - The Urbanite's Podcast Resource for Keeping Backyard Chickens

Wright’s Book of Poultry – Plate on Page 488

It is time again for another session of Urban Chicken Podcast Listeners’ questions and answers. This Q and A session we consider and discuss ISA Brown chickens, a rooster who is acting like a hen, issues with spilt feed in the coop, identify a mystery breed hen, and hear about another crowing hen!

A few weeks ago I received several questions from Urban Chicken Podcast listener Ahmad Eido in a couple different emails. Ahmad is relatively new to keeping backyard chickens – most of his flock being rescue birds from his local humane society animal shelter. Here are the first two questions Ahmad posed in his initial email:

Hi Jen,

I hope all your flock babies are doing well. I have 2 questions for you.
1.) I have 6 hens and one rooster ... they are about 8 months old [and] just starting to lay eggs. I went in the coop today to check on the water and freshen their bedding and ... as i was in there, the rooster “Rocko” ([by the way] I love this bird so much) jumped in the laying boxes next to me and starting clucking like a laying hen. He then laid in the middle and looked at me like a broody hen. What do you think that means? Is that a normal occurrence?

2.) My flock does not free range as of yet – I have a large pen attached to my coop. ... I went to check on [my flock] and give them some treats .... and I noticed that the 30lb metal feeder that I use is almost empty, even though I filled most of it 2 days ago. All the feed is on the ground around the feeder. My chickens have never done that since I [have] had them. As I was investigating the site, I noticed that there was blood on the walls of the feeder. I checked all my flock one at a time and none of them has any injuries ... and there no evidence of a predator or any forced entry to the pen. What do you think happened? I’m very concerned.

Thank you so much for all your great podcast, keep up the good work.
Your Avid Listener – Ahmad

These are both rather unusual questions and my answers are more experiential and anecdotal in nature than scientifically based. It is difficult, if not impossible to give an absolute answer to either of these inquiries.

ROOSTER ACTING LIKE A BROODY HEN

Let’s start with issue of the rooster behaving like a broody hen. According to Ahmad, Rocko the rooster one day decides to strangely climb into a nesting box, cluck like a hen

Hen on Nest – photo by Karen Jackson

and pretend to be broody. Yup – that is some pretty odd behavior for a rooster. However, I suspect the cause of this rooster’s nuttiness is not as enigmatic as one might initially assume.

All animals, chickens included, are as individualized and full of unique personalities as humans. Consider how bizarre some humans act from time to time. Often there is not a reasonable explanation for their behavior – perhaps the individual was just feeling a bit silly or kookie that day or perhaps acting in such a way for their own amusement. Anyone who has ever owned a regular household pet would be able to recount how these dogs or cats have acted playfully and silly just for fun. Arguably, chickens are no different.

Here is a similar example from my own life. My sister owns a Black Copper Marans rooster named Napoleon. Recently, when one of the hens was laying eggs and crying out her “egg-song,” Napoleon began to mimic her. He was not clearly crowing – he was very carefully echoing this hen’s egg-song. Why was Napoleon sing a hen’s song? Truthfully, I have no idea. I suspect he was doing it for his own amusement or perhaps out of some deep-seeded rooster neurosis. However, Napoleon is not the only rooster to take up mimicking the “egg-song.”

Rooster Singing Hen’s Egg-Song:

Napoleon has not demonstrated any other female like behavior. If Rocko has not done anything more than act a little crazy that one day, I would not read too much into it. However, should Rocko begin to regularly behave as though he were a hen, that would be something different.

There are a few reports of roosters sex-reversing into hens, though those reports are not generally substantiated. More commonly are reports and studies on various species of animals (several of which are birds) exhibiting “homosexual” behaviors in the wild. There are reports of pairs of male birds partnering up and running female birds off of their nests to take-over the care and hatching of eggs. This is not likely to be the issue with Rocko – he was probably just being playful around with his owner.

If Rocko continues to behave like a hen or if any other Urban Chicken Podcast listener’s roosters (o...

Wright’s Book of Poultry – Plate on Page 488

Hi Jen,

Thank you so much for all your great podcast, keep up the good work.
Your Avid Listener – Ahmad

ROOSTER ACTING LIKE A BROODY HEN

Let’s start with issue of the rooster behaving like a broody hen. According to Ahmad, Rocko the rooster one day decides to strangely climb into a nesting box, cluck like a hen

Hen on Nest – photo by Karen Jackson

and pretend to be broody. Yup – that is some pretty odd behavior for a rooster. However, I suspect the cause of this rooster’s nuttiness is not as enigmatic as one might initially assume.

Rooster Singing Hen’s Egg-Song:

If Rocko continues to behave like a hen or if any other Urban Chicken Podcast listener’s roosters (o...

Previous Episode

UCP Episode 057: Understanding Chicken Molting with Meredith Chilson

Frida cooperating for Molting Picture – photo by Jen Pitino

Backyard chickens molt every year to replace broken, frayed and old feathers. Though conventionally, chickens molt in late summer/early fall, a bird can molt anytime of year that suits. Molting is both a physically and emotionally stressful time for the bird.

Meredith Chilson, a veteran chicken keeper with over forty years of experience and knowledge joins me on the Urban Chicken Podcast this week to discuss feather molting in chickens. Meredith also shares some practical tips on how to make the molting process a little easier for you flock.

Molting is a necessary annual process for all birds – including chickens. Chickens typically lose their feathers to molting when the summer weather begins to turn cooler and the daylight hours shorten. Though autumn is the most common time of year for chickens to molt, this physical transformation can occur at anytime during the year.

There are two types of molts – hard and soft. A ‘soft molt’ is when the bird loses and regrows new feathers in such a subtle manner that the process is often overlooked by the flock master. Under a ‘hard molt’ contrarily, the chicken will dramatically lose its feathers quickly, thus giving the bird a “semi-nude” look.

Pin Feathers on Frida – photo by Jen Pitino

Though most chicken reference sources state that the molting process takes between 6 to 9 weeks to complete, not all chickens molt within the standard time frames. Two of my hens, Frida and Beatrix, both shed the under feathers of their chest and leg areas in late spring. However, these two silly hens will not replace their lost feathers all summer or fall. Rather they renew their plumage in the dead of wintertime (usually just before Christmas.) Soft molts generally take more time to complete than hard molts. Perhaps the utter bareness of a hard molt trigger the chicken’s body to more quickly replace the missing feathers.

Aside from replacing worn out plumage, the molting process is very important for the health of a chicken as well. During a molt hens usually stop laying eggs. Their bodies divert use of proteins and calcium from egg-production to feather growth. There simply is not sufficient nutrient levels to support both egg-laying and feather-making simultaneously. The break from daily egg-laying is important for a hen’s reproductive system. Egg-laying is taxing on the body and the annual respite is importantly restorative to the hen’s reproductive system.

Meredith Chilson’s lifelong, hands-on experience raising chicken began when she was a child helping her mother with the family’s flock of 500 White Leghorn hens. Meredith’s mother kept this sizeable flock as a cottage industry selling the eggs for additional family income. Meredith continued to raise chickens of her own (though not in such quantities and in various breeds, except Leghorns) as an adult. Today she has a backyard flock of 27 chickens. Over her 40+ years of chicken keeping, Meredith has seen innumerable examples of chickens’ annual molting.

Meredith suggests two tips to help chicken keepers assist their flocks through molting. Her first suggestion is to provide your birds with access to a good dust bath. Dust bathing is a useful molting tool to help chickens dislodge the feathers which are being shed during their molt. Additionally, a good dust bath also provides molting chickens with an effective way to help relieve itchiness caused by molting and remove the waxy coating covering all new pin feathers.

A dust bath does not have to be complicated to construct. Simple provide some container which your birds can easily access and fill it with an appropriate dust bathing medium. Typically, dust baths contain either dirt, sand or wood ash or (ideally) a combination of all three. You can consider adding food grade diatomaceous earth as well to your dust bath. Though diatomaceous earth can be a helpful dust bathing ingredient for lice and mite control, it is not particularly useful or necessary to dust bathing for ...

Next Episode

UCP Episode 059: The Livestock Conservancy – Saving Heritage Our Breeds (Discussion with Jeannette Beranger)

How many grizzly bears are in the United States? 1,800. How many grey wolves in America? 5,443 in the lower 48 states (there is an estimated additional 7,700 -11,000 in Alaska.) How many Redcap breed chickens in the States? Fewer than 500 (and fewer than 2,000 in the world.)

There are currently twelve different chicken breeds listed as “critically endangered” and an additional twelve breeds on the “threatened” list (fewer than 1,000 in the U.S. and 5,000 worldwide) according to the Livestock Conservancy. While the WWF is fighting to protect pandas and rhinos, the Livestock Conservancy is tirelessly working to protect threatened heritage horse, cattle, donkey, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and rabbit populations.

Jeannette Beranger – photo courtesy of The Livestock Conservancy

Jeannette Beranger, the Research and Technical Programs Manager for the Livestock Conservancy joins me on the Urban Chicken Podcast to discuss the mission of this organization, some of the projects the Conservancy is currently involved in and how backyard hobbyist chicken keepers (like you and me) can help save some rare and special breeds from becoming extinct from our own backyards.

Jeannette has over 25 years of experience working with animals first as a veterinary technician and then later for several years with the Roger Williams zoo, where she eventually became the head zookeeper. For the past few years, Jeannette has worked with the Livestock Conservancy researching, educating, networking and implementing various programs and efforts to save endangered heritage livestock breeds with the Conservancy. She has a depth of knowledge on animals and particularly heritage breed livestock to share on today’s show.

Agricultural systems in the United States (as well as worldwide) have increasingly

My Isa Brown – photo by Nico Nelson

become very industrial since the 1950’s “green revolution.” Consequently, industrialized farms utilizing hybridized breeds have replaced the traditional and varied livestock once found in backyards and on small family farms across this nation. Though these “improved” hybrid poultry breeds (e.g. sex-links, ISA Brown, ISA Warrens, Cornish-Crosses, Leghorns, etc.) may grow faster or lay more eggs, they are not necessarily the hardiest or most delicious breeds for the table.

The Livestock Conservancy is working to protect nearly 200 breeds of livestock and poultry from extinction. The organization seeks to save these rare breeds, not by trying to have them replace the hybrid breeds used on large-scale, commercial farms, but rather as complimentary alternatives found on small-scale farms and private lands. The Livestock Conservancy works tirelessly to protect the future of agriculture in the United States through safeguarding the genetically diverse bloodlines found in each of these endangered heritage breeds.

The Livestock Conservancy’s Mission in Action

A three prong approach is used by the Livestock Conservancy in its fight to save our heritage breeds: 1) Discover, 2) Secure, and 3) Sustain. Each of these conservation prongs is crucial to saving rare livestock breeds.

photo by David Goehring

The discover prong means to actually find rare breeds. These rare breeds often have quietly survived for generations until they are found again. Historical research, DNA testing and physical examination and comparison are some of the techniques used in “discovering” rare breeds that need protection.

The second prong, secure, means to safeguard discovered rare breeds from further genetic erosion. This is accomplished mainly through encouraging breeders to save these breeds by continuing to raise and breed them. Conservation of genetically diverse bloodlines within these breeds is crucial as well to prevent inbreeding. Helping breeders to maintain several bloodlines secures these breeds for the future.

The last prong – sustain, is crucial for the continued success of a rare breed. In order to sustain a breed, efforts to grow interest and enthusiasm in the breed, practicing good animal husbandry and helping the breeders find markets for these animals are all necessary to prevent the breed from slipping back into peril of going extinct.

Discover, Secure and Sustain are the three steps that the Livestock Conservancy has used for more than 30 years to enact its mission ...