Tancho

Thanks guys. Yes peace is definitely restored - and the good news is we found a lovely lady that was downsizing her flock and had a 100% hen buff orpington for sale which is a pet, so her girl, called Lottie, came to live with us today! However, the stress of the other breeder is really getting to me now. I received a text from them today asking if i'd clipped the birds wings when I had it. In my confusion I said yes because we'd clipped all our newbies wings. He replied saying he'd "found me out" and i'd "taken him as a fool" and given him a cockerel back and kept the bird I'd brought from him! I have replied saying actually it was a mistake (because we'd done the others and talked about doing "him" but hadn't actually got round to it) so I have shot myself in the foot there but at the same time I was flabberghasted that someone would accuse me of driving 40 minutes each way twice to swap a hen for a cockerel! I have photographic evidence that he was the only buff orpington I own, and I replied saying how dare he accuse me of swapping the birds when it was him that sold me a cockerel instead of a hen in the first place. The only person who's done anything wrong is him!! I'm kind of fizzing with anger at the moment, I want to ring him up and start having a go but trying to calm myself down!! I had to laugh though because he said "I know my birds" - IT IS HIS BIRD!!!! I only had the bird for 3 days, how on earth has it changed so much he doesn't know it! Needless to say I will be avoiding like the plague!!!! And they seemed like such lovely people too

Thank you all for the support and opinions. You're right gavclojak, it's not like returning shoes, you get attached! However the decision was made this am after being woken at 6am sharp with a cacophony of crows from the coop. I contacted the breeder and they agreed to take him back. They were fine but I got the impression they weren't impressed. They were adamant it was a girl and wasn't a boy and that they had seen their blue orpington mating with it! Made me feel guilty somehow as if I was making it up!! However on a funny note, I took him to work with me and put his box out the back of the shop (as the breeder was near to it), and he crowed for an hour out the back - the other staff thought it was hilarious

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I've contacted the person I got her (or rather HIM) from, I can't keep a cockerel. My neighbours are fairly understanding (next door has pekins and they're noisy little devils!) but I think they would draw the line here. Otherwise i'm not sure what to do I did think it was really "going for it" with the mating thing, not just jumping on but positioning itself right down onto the other hens. The only thing that I found odd was that it submitted like a hen when I tried to pick it up (crouched and pushed its bum into the air). Really gutted as these guys really perked me up, we lost our house rabbit very suddenly a couple of days ago and the girls have really helped get me through it, I'm all stressed out now as to what i'm going to do!

Hi there, Thank you for the thread link, very useful! Hopefully this picture will attach ok of "her" taken today. I really wish it was just normal whinging instead of this throaty half crow/croak. It's so loud! And the fact that she keeps mounting the other girls. I have never seen a hen mount to show dominance before so I don't know if they usually just jump on top of them and hold on, but she's also angling herself around as you imagine a male would when mating. She has been better this afternoon, only had two bouts of crowing!

Hi again! So after the wonderful advice on here I have now purchased a small mixed flock of girlies. Part of the group was a lovely big buff orpington girl (the breed I longed for!). However over the past couple of days my cries of joy have been drowned out by the cries of her crowing! I have read a lot about hens taking on the responsibilities of a rooster in their absence but I'm still really worried I've got a roo. She doesn't do a full crow but rather a long drawn out Kaaaaaaa-kaaaaaaa sound that sounds like half of a cockerels loud call. She's also mounting some of the other hens too! I haven't had any eggs from her yet (not helping my sanity), but when I go to pick her up she does squat like she's wanting to be mated, bum up in the air etc. Would a cockerel do this squatting behaviour? Have I got a girl that wants to be top? I'm really worried as we live in a fairly built up area and her crows are really loud! I don't want to have to re-home her but I can't have her crowing at 6am! They are all very new, is there a chance this behaviour will pass? Is there anything I can do to stop it? I have some pics but can't see how to post them on to the forum for a second opinion! Help!

Hello again and thank you so much for the brill advice! I'm thinking the silkies would get on with others and stand their ground as they are really boisterous and act like they own the joint! They were absolutely merciless with the poor polish so we now have the garden split for free ranging (less for the mop heads because they don't really move far!). If I were to put larger birds in, do you think it would make a difference if it was say one larger bird with a mix of smaller ones? Or would I be better going for more than one larger bird so there is someone else of the same size to keep in line? I am not very good with chicken behaviour so have am image of a large evil overlord going at my other smaller hens!!

Hello all, I'm new to the forum My question is, how easy is it to keep different chicken breeds together? At the moment I have two very boisterous silkies that I have to keep away from my polish girls. I'm just in the process of getting a larger hen house and would love to add some variety to my flock. I love Pekin bantams and buff Orpington l/f but I think I'm pretty right in thinking its best to go for similar sized birds? Any input greatly received and other suggestions also welcomed!