The Little Red ... Hen?

Back in the Spring, our overly-broody Wyandotte, Kate started to sit on a small clutch of eggs.  After weeks of sitting, she only hatched a single chick.  Since Kate was a Silver-laced Wyandotte and Dad was a Speckled Sussex, we were fairly certain the chick was a girl (see notes on sex-linked chicks in Greenhorn Tips at the end of this post).  We planned to let Kate raise  the chick in the traditional way, until she started pecking the baby's head ... a lot, much more than the normal 'get under my wing' momma hen pecking.  

Red with Momma Kate (before Kate went crazy)

We removed the chick, brought her into the house, and made a brooder box. Although it wasn't terribly original, we started calling the chick 'Red.'  Red loved to be held and cuddled, and she bonded to all of us to the point she cried whenever she couldn’t see someone nearby.  We gave her a stuffed chicken to sleep with at night, but we knew that wasn’t enough; it was important to socialize her with real chickens.   

Totally adorable, but kind of sad.

Putting her in with the adults was out of the question, so we immediately went looking for some chicks we could buy locally.  We found a breeder that was selling Black Copper Marans that were the same age as Red, so we bought ten chicks and tried to integrate her.  It didn’t work.  At first, they just ignored her, then after a few attempts by Red to nestle into the group - we were hopeful for a few brief minutes - she started aggressively pecking at the other chicks, almost taking out an eye on one of them.  Several of them returned the favor, pecking back, and eventually it got bad enough we had to put her back by herself (unless you count the stuffed chicken as company).  

Socially awkward ... it's not just something people experience.

I know that some people would consider culling a chick for overly aggressive behavior to other birds, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.  We all cared about her, she was the very first chick we hatched, she was healthy, and although she didn’t like other chickens, she was very sweet with people.  However, between our adult chickens and all our new chicks, we knew if she couldn’t socialize, we wouldn’t have the housing or space in the long run for a loner chicken like her.

I reached out to my sister Stacy and her husband, Doug, asking if they wanted a pet chicken.  I let them know it would likely be a chicken that wouldn’t ever do well with other chickens (in all the research I'd done to that point, I'd learned chicks who weren’t well-socialized often didn’t do much better as adults).  They agreed to give it a try.  They set up a brooder in their bathroom, while they made plans for a chicken run they could put her in when she had feathered out.  

Red at our 2-week visit to Stacy and Doug's

We were happy Red was with people who would care for her the way we did, and we enjoyed going over for visits to see how she was doing.  The big surprise for all of us came when she was about 4 weeks old.  Her legs, which were becoming noticeably longer, started to develop spurs.  Our Little Red Hen was actually a rooster! 

Apparently, Momma Kate, had hatched out another hen’s egg; a common occurrence since chickens are communal nesters.  What we thought was a red-sex link pullet was actually a New Hampshire Red/Speckled Sussex cockerel.   If the spurs didn't seal the deal, the humorous attempts to crow a week or two later did.

Under Stacy and Doug’s care these past six months, Red has grown into a beautiful rooster.  My sister and I had heard of cases where a poorly socialized cockerel did well with a few hens after he was a little more mature, so when Red was a few months old, Stacy and Doug decided to try and re-social him.  They got him a few Speckled Sussex hens to care for, hoping that his natural rooster instincts would kick in, and fortunately, they did.  The once socially awkward chick became a genuine ladies man.  He takes excellent care of his girls, and is the kind of rooster that every chicken owner would love to have in their flock.

Still getting all his rooster bulk and his tail feathers, but a handsome boy for sure!

Red and his ladies

The happy ending to the story doesn't stop there - Red was also the humble start of Stacy and Doug's chicken adventures.  They now have over 20 chickens:  Ameraucanas, Marans, a Black Australorp, a Buff Orpington and several Brahmas.  They even plan to breed a few of the rare Brahmas they’ve acquired in the last several months.  Who would ever have guessed what a little red rooster could start?

Greenhorn Tips (i.e. things that should be obvious, but sometimes aren't): 

• 'Sex-linked' refers to breeding two specific types of chickens to create chicks that have color variations between the males and females, so you can easily tell them apart at hatching.  Many chicken breeds are difficult to sex until the young chickens crow or lay eggs.  Red sex-link chicks are all red female chicks and all white male.  For a great explanation of sex-link chickens, complete with pictures and charts, check out this thread:  http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information. 
• When bringing chicks hatched from different hens/incubators together, put a tiny dab of vanilla on each chick (a Q-tip works well for this).  When they all smell the same, the chicks are less likely to peck at each other.  This is something I unfortunately learned after the problems we had with Red and the Marans, but it worked great when we combined two different hatchings of Marans.