Eglu Go & guinea pig zippi run

[AJuff]

I realise I have very negative feelings towards my three columbine/skylines.

 

They look stunning, lay me beautiful green and blue eggs yet I don't warm to them. All three are very flighty, unfriendly, bossy, dominent, aggressive and they rule the roost. I cannot help but compare them to the gentle nature of the others. Sweet Delia (Brown Nick), cheeky Daisy (Leghorn), friendly Amber and Alice the white stars, adorable Felicity and Flora the long waited for Sussex Stars.

 

I now find that when I see or hear about other people's columbines/Jasmines/Skylines and even Cream Legbars (because they have similar feathers) that I feel negative vibes.

[Snowy]

I must admit I probably feel the same way about my skyline. Lovely eggs, but not a very 'endearing' hen. Bless!

[Troy]

I think we all have favorites - and its alright to admit it!!!

 

Troy

[AJuff]

I feel reassured that I'm not alone. Phew!!!

[choppish]

My bovan nera used to be very friendly but now is very grumpy towards me. won;t let me near her at all. not sure why the change. i have threatened her with the oven and the 12 bore...but she is still grumpy.

 

the other one however, was quite skittish but is now the most docile friendly one ever! very strange. i think they may have recently changed pecking order and the lowest one is now sulking....

 

maybe. i have enough problem uderstanding theGF yet alone my hens....

[Ain't Nobody Here]

That's a shame . Understandable why you'd feel that way though.

 

Strangely, my Columbine is my favourite (shhh!). She's the nosiest, happiest to be picked up, cutest looking and is the star of my favourite story "Maisie's Great Escape" !

[abwsco]

Our cream legbar looks like she's going to poo her pants if you so much as look at her

[Angels4]

Our cream legbar looks like she's going to poo her pants if you so much as look at her

 

Really you forum members need to stop making me pass coffee through my nose!

[Troy]

Hey It could be worse!...Pepsi!

Troy

[chelsea]

I started off like that with my maran, she is the least friendly of our girls, flighty and "not so pretty", but after 5 months of broody cochins (and no eggs from that pair) I have definitely warmed to her - she is the most reliable layer and now the quiestest of my hens.

 

I hope the same happens with you, im sure you will warm to them soon

[abwsco]

Our cream legbar looks like she's going to poo her pants if you so much as look at her

 

Really you forum members need to stop making me pass coffee through my nose!

 

Sorry, LOL. Couldn't think of a more polite way of putting it

[Omletina Kyckling]

When I first got my new girls, Matilda the Copper Black was aggresive towards the other new ones and I started to actively dislike her for it, but felt so guilty for my feelings.

 

Now they've settled, she's bullied and the outcast, so I feel sorry for her!

 

One of my crested girlies is very friendly and inquisitive (and a bit of a pecker at times) and she is delightful, but the other who is in full lay, won't let me within the same county as her never mind the same garden! Matilda won't let me near her either and I find it to be really sad, as I just want to give them a stroke and pick them up, more than anything so that they are used to it if I ever need to!

 

I can entirely empathise with what you are feeling. I think I'm looking at them as people and thinking because they run away they don't like me, rather than they are silly chickens who are just skittish!!!

[BeckyBoo]

I LOVE this forum, guaranteed to make you laugh!!

 

I didn't think I was keen on our Poland, I don't really do fancy hens, until I couldn't find her after free ranging last week. Had to go out thinking she'd got into the field at the back of our house and become fox food. That's when I realised that actually I liked her quite a lot. In fact she was hiding in the potatoes so I was very relieved and now I'm actually thinking of getting some more!

She's like a handbag, because you can't see her coming you can just pick her up and carry her about under your arm, she doesn't seem to mind at all!

 

Mrs B

[Couperwife]

I agree to having favourites

 

I much prefer to liking the 2 brown ones (suffolk black tail - i think, they are just brown to me ) a lot more than I like the narky white ones (cant remember what they are - sure kev will tell me later )

 

the brown girls are soooo brave and funny

 

the white are flighty and silly

 

am i a bad chicken mummy

 

cathy

x

[FruitandNutCake]

I'm finding it difficult to like Annabella because she is so aggressive.

 

Even when I couldn't find her the other night, I didn't get that pang of panic that i do with my original girls. I felt guilty that I didn't lose any sleep over her being missing, and I didn't feel a sense of relief when I discovered her the next morning hiding in the shed with my original three.

 

However, she is slowly getting better, and I'm sure I will grow to like her when she stops being such a bully.

[dancing cloud]

Favourites aren't even dictated by breed, as all of mine are ex-batts. I was determined I wasn't going to have favourites, so Joy is the favourite I don't have

 

She practically jumped into into my carrier on collection, the baldest and most pathetic-looking thing I'd ever seen, the first to escape to free-range into the garden, the first to want to be stroked and cuddled, still the chattiest, nosiest and cheekiest, and should probably have been called mischief because that's what she's usually in.

 

The least favourite (that I don't have ) is Hope, who is noisy and a bully.All the others have individual characteristics that are endearing - boss-who-sees-me-as-her-mummy hen, bottom-of-the-pecking-order hen, run-away-if-you-look-at-her hen, just-getting-round-to-being-cuddly hen, but at the moment Hope just doesn't have as much to recommend her.

 

I'm sure if Hope went missing I would be concerned but, if I'm honest , maybe not quite as concerned as if it were one of the others.

 

Good to have a place where we can confess our guilty feelings to others who understand isn't it? I thought it was just me

[Troy]

Do you think it could be Hope-I'll-be-loved-someday ?

 

Sorry if you feel bad now...Ok, Ok I confess. I'm not too keen on Matilda. When we lost Gwen the other day, I must have said a 100 times I'd wished it was Matilda. Awful isnt it.

I feel cleansed!!!

 

Troy

[chickenanne]

They're chickens. They won't be able to tell how you feel about them nor will they be able to get jealous of each other.

IMO, all meditarranean breeds and hybrids tend to be flighty, and just not as good as pets. Mine is really flighty, but has developed a habit of pecking the back of your legs/ trousers.

[chickencam]

My Pepperpots are the most easy to handle and full of character, Eggy is my favourite she bounces up and down like she is on a trampoline if she sees the meal worm pot, so full of personality.

 

Whereas my 2 white hens are scared of anything and everything and the only way that we can handle them is to shut them in the Eglu and get them out of the egg port They are also very noisy.

[Seagazer]

I keep changing favorites - it was my pepperpot to begin with as she seemed to have more character. Now she is a bit grumpy and noisy.

 

Ginger is very quiet and shy and doesn't like coming anywhere near us. She just stands on the outside of anything thats happening.

 

My favorite at the moment is Flo, she looks gorgeous with a really dark ginger neck, she lays the biggest eggs and she is little miss independent. She often comes over to have a little quiet chat.

 

[AJuff]

My favourite chooks is Felicity . . . . well that was before she found her way onto the patio and dug out all the pots!!

[cluckbok]

Our favourite is our Columbine "Matilda", she comes into the conservatory when she can cause she knows we keep the corn tub in there! She's so lovely and funny. She lays white eggs not blue/green like we hoped, but we don't mind they taste lovely!

[SLK69]

Ours are all ex batts and I had three favourites they all seemed to have off characters Pesky, Sooky and Brave - But top chkn named Penny by my mum I had written off as a characterless bully

 

Then the ohter night she kept tapping the patio door on and on and on and on ........ and I got up sighing and thinking b*****y chk bog off you are not getting in - Go away to bed - Then I remembered I had slid the top of the cube to let some air in - and I started to think what a clever chook looking out for the rest of the flock, the other girls were just stood at the entrance to the run looking bewildered.

 

So now she has a small corner of my heart - as she takes control and problems solves for the rest even if she is a wee bit of a bully top chook.

 

Especially now as I think she will be going back down the pecking order when we add a light sussex to the flock, which I think will be much bigger.

 

 

S.x

 

gosh what a ramble

[The Brown Clan]

I'm glad someone started this thread ,My favourite is My Betty she is so docile and loves a cuddle but I also love my Wilma for charicture she is the fuuniest of hens and the nosiest !!!! but I have a real dislike for my Sussex Hybrid who is twice the size of the others ( and all of similar age ) she is flighty and a big bully !! my other 2 are begining to look a bit downtrodden due to continious pecking and she is wearing a bumperbit sorry but I can't think of somthing positive to say about her apart from the fact she has all her feathers !!!.

[oatley]

I totally hold my hands up to having my own "pecking order" when it comes to who I like best.

 

My absolute favourite is Audrey - she is the friendliest, funniest, loveliest and a great mother to her babies (two lots now) and if the fox got her I would cry for days.

 

Now Elvis is a noisy toe rag who is like a teenager with hormones and pesters all the girls wether they want him or not. He does not like cuddles, but will humour me by taking treats from my hands. He is terribly handsome though.

 

Even the new chicks are in my list of favourites - flumpy was the first to hatch and please please please MUST be a girl (all fingers and toes crossed) because "she" is just so dared cute, followed closely by "lucky" - the seventh and last to hatch with a bit of help as "she" was stuck in her egg.

 

I am not keen on the light sussex chick "silky" because I think she has ADHD and she does not like to be held at all.

 

All the others are somewhere in the middle of the list.