Giantess – Hen or Rooster??

You may remember in an earlier post that we started our homestead this year in January with four Buff Orpington chicks. We named them Giantess, Goldie, Lady, and Mini.

 

Since the first day we brought them home, I felt that Giantess maybe a rooster instead of a hen. She seemed very protective. For me and my belief, I would compare it to the role of a godly husband. I have included one of our YouTube videos if you are interested in seeing them the day we purchased them.

Why Giantess? We named her Giantess because she was the largest chick in the group. When we picked up the additional nine chicks in February, Giantess was still the largest. She established the pecking order amongst the entire flock of thirteen. Giantess was the first to get sick. Since we are new at this we posted a video on our Facebook page to see if anyone could help. Additionally, we researched what we could do in the meantime. We saved her; however, we lost three others to this similar illness. She is one tough bird!

Baby chick making a new noise

Posted by Three Crazy Homesteaders on Tuesday, January 23, 2018

When we started our homestead, we planned to have hens only for one reason; to save money on eggs. Buying four eighteen-pack cartons of eggs a month is costly. Eggs are beneficial in keeping the Crazy One’s blood sugar level low. With the production of eggs on the homestead, we save money not only in purchase cost but also in fuel cost. A con to reproduction at this stage is the creation of unnecessary stress to complete projects in preparation for the hatching of chicks. The purpose of our homestead is to produce our own food saving money in a minimally stressful environment.

With that being said, just this week we found Giantess is a rooster. Plain Crazy heard Giantess crowing, told us about it, and then we saw it. She beefed up her chest, opened her mouth, and out came a crow. It wasn’t quite like the adult “Cocka-Doodle Doo”, but we knew that we would have to get rid of her. I’m a city girl, I have never experienced the stages of a chick growing into a hen or rooster, so I thought that was pretty cool. We hoped to get the crow on camera before returning her to Blackberry Creek Mini Farm; however, she did not crow for us again.

Here are some pictures of her the day we returned her.

 

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