The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Sudanpan on July 04, 2015, 08:41:05 pm
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Went to the Poultry auction in Truro today with the aim of boosting our little flock. We currently have 2 copper black marans, 2 maran x cream legbars, a cream legbar hen and cream legbar cockeral.
Only 1 of the marans and 1 of the crosses are laying with any regularity so we thought we would get some new hens in.
We bought a Rhode island Red pullet who is supposed to be 10 weeks old but is, quite frankly, huge! And I bought 2 hens that were described as Burford hens. NOw I know nothing about hens really, I had intended to get some Light sussex hens or Buff Orpingtons but they went for silly money (for me anyway) so got these BUrfords.
When looking up 'Burford Hens' on t'internet they are described pretty much as big brown birds - while our two are definitely NOT brown so anyone any ideas of what they might be?
Not particularly bothered, but it would be nice to know and increases my knowledge
The RIR is the one with the yellow legs, and the whitish one is the one I don't know about. The other hens are from my current lot.
Thanks :thumbsup:
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That is indeed a sizable 10 week old. She may have a bit of something else in the mix - the tail feathers are rather dark and she looks a bit leggy for a RIR but there are a number of strains and few have the correct colouring. The white could be one of several breeds, including a Sussex or one of the commercial breeds. If you want a good layer you could try one of the commercials that are a derivation of the Warren (ISA Brown, Lohmann, etc.) These originally had a hefty amount of brown Leghorn which brought good egg laying to the mix.
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One of ours is just like the white one and we were told it was a White Star. It lays white eggs. http://www.backyardchickens.com/products/white-star-hybrid (http://www.backyardchickens.com/products/white-star-hybrid)
But we have only just got our chickens so I have no idea if there are others that look the same!
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I've got pure white hens from ex commercial hens crossed with maran type cockerels. You must be pretty close to me as Truro is our local market too :)
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Are you sure the RIR is a pullet? Looks like a cock to me from what I can see in the pics!
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Ive no idea about your white hens but I think you do have a RIR pullet , albeit a bit more than 10 weeks old. No matter....she will just start laying earlier then you thought!
Burfords aren't always brown.... there are some cuckoo coloured ones. But white???? I don't know enough about their genetics to know whether white is possible
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Are you sure the RIR is a pullet? Looks like a cock to me from what I can see in the pics!
No not at all sure - am relying on the description in the auction particulars which said RIR pullet 10 weeks....
Ah well!
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Here's a previous thread about Burfords - http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=16857.0;nowap (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=16857.0;nowap)
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I never buy hens from poultry auctions as I have lost trust with sellers. Having said that I did buy two hens from the smallholders show in Builth Wells, which were fantastic (and still are). I buy direct from breeders I can trust and where I can see them in their working clothes, as it were. The reason being is because I once bought some black copper Maran hens, I still don't think they were. After I bought them (literally the next day) I let them out of the house and found one of them dead, I still don't know how because she was fine the day before. I told the breeder about it and she agreed to sell me a replacement, well I bought her and when I got her for about a few days she became very sickly and one day when they were ranging she just disappeared and I never saw her again. It really spoilt me buying any more black copper Marans after that, hence why I never buy from poultry sales. The moral of this story is don't always trust the seller in a poultry auction, be very careful.
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I raise RIR myself and would put a fair bet on that being a boy.
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I raise RIR myself and would put a fair bet on that being a boy.
Ah well - time will tell I suppose. As soon as there's some new crowing either he, or the current cockeral, will be for the pot.
At the moment the RIR is bottom of the pecking order....
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The RIR is getting more cockeral like every day - he/she has now got telltale curvey tail feathers.... but no crowing as yet and certainly still very much bottom of the pecking order.
The 'white-ish' hens are now laying - a large brown egg :thumbsup:
Oh and we bought some light sussex bantams recently to add to the mix :excited:
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If it's important to get a specific breed I suggest always trying to buy off farm, so you can see the parent birds. I bought some supposedly copper black Marans eggs this summer as I wanted dark brown eggs to sell at the farmgate. Some is, and some isn't - they include two black pullets and one huge white cockerel. All have feathery legs, though. That CBM cockerel sure put himself about.
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Was never bothered about particular breeds as such - but had wanted to get hens as opposed to cockerels. Not the end of the earth though :innocent:
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Just an update on the situation - the RIR 'pullet' was definitely a cockerel :innocent: He pretty much teamed up with the white hen (the other one died in Sept) and we let him be, but today we finally did 'the deed' as he was just so huge that he would flatten the hens when he mounted them and it was causing a bit of stressy friction.
I would still like to know what the white hen is as she seems to be quite a character and lays very regularly. I'm sure she is a cross as she has dark legs. Anyone got any poultry supplier recommendations in the West Cornwall area?
Thanks
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At a guess I would say White Plymouth Rock but could be a mix of all sorts.