Roosters Fighting, Crowing, and Free Ranging, The Black Minorca is my favorite Free Range Breed.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 พ.ย. 2022
- In this video I explain some of the traits of my favorite free range breed of chicken. The Minorca is the largest of the Mediterranean breeds, and they are outstanding foraging birds.
As a Certified Poultry Technician, I've seen and handled thousands of chickens through the years, and I've visited with their owners.
It's a great way to ask questions and learn about why people are attracted to the breeds they keep, and how they work out.
When you free range your birds, they have to be smart, alert, and capable of avoiding predators.
Minorcas are in that category, they can fly into the trees, or run and hide effectively.
They are among the top producers of white shelled eggs, and are on par with the battery operations regarding production.
They are vocal and bold, expect your roosters to make themselves known from sunrise to sunset.
Because they forage so well, that results in a much smaller feed bill. During summer months, we save 60% on layer pellets. But in winter, when they are all cooped up, they depend on full rations as to all of the other breeds. Their desire to forage in winter also works out well as they don't mind the cold. It's the snow that keeps them inside.
I hope you enjoyed this video. If you are looking for a good source for healthy stock, try a local breeder, or you can support a hatchery such as Murray McMurray.
www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/blac...
We've had free ranging chickens continuously on our property for over 22 years. You need to know how to protect your birds and what predators are in your neck of the woods. The breed you choose makes a big difference in their survival.
WATCH MY 3-HOUR Guide to all things chickens, right here: • Raising Backyard Chick...
I have black leghorns. The black Minorca is their ancestor. Fantastic foragers!!! And not so sensitive to feed density as the commercial industrial white leghorns.
It's about time Mr Dunn, love hearing about your chickens 🐔. Thanks for giving them much needed air time
@UCVmPauAlOLKR9QZzFKn-uFw You can talk about birds, you can talk about bees, you can talk about the man in the moon. Matters not; I'll be watching. I always, ALWAYS enjoy learning from you on any topic. And your photography is the cherry on the sundae. Thank you for everything you say and do. 😊
Yet another installment of infotainment excellence.
Well done Fred.
Now that bees are put to bed, I’m eager to learn about your fowl as well.
Great looking birds
Thanks Brian.
Your Minorca's are beautiful.
Thanks, Mary :)
I’m always listing to your bee videos because I can watch them without video (except the introduction) … but just audio doesn’t do this video justice, which is why I watched it over several sittings! Thanks!
Thanks, George!
I love the slow mo and dramatic music. 😆
Thanks :)
Fred! It's me, Grillmaster33 aka Luke! I'm so glad I came across your vids. Thanks for everything. I loved this video.
Glad you enjoyed it! It's so nice to hear from you again! :) I hope you're still teaching!
Nice video and very cool info on this breed. Thank you
Fantastic into to these chickens! The battle music was spot on! 😂. We got our first ever chickens this Spring and they are something else.
wonderful video. the tip on handling the chickens and holding them until they are calm is great advice. I will start doing that now instead.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks, I learned something about chickens! Have a super weekend.
You're welcome Bill :) you too!
Slow mo crow lol. Great video. Thanks for sharing the info.
:)
Absolutely an amazing video Fred you were so knowledgeable about so many things and then to top it off with amazing videography
Thanks Robert!
Beautiful birds.
Many thanks
Thanks for such a wonderful video aboit this chicken! They are beautiful! Slomo sound is funny.🤣
You're very welcome :)
More chicken videos please! amazing work!
Agreed,more chicken videos!
Thanks George :)
I was thinking about you. I just got back into chickens after not having any for a long time. I'm happy to find ONE new chicken video here. Hoping one day you'll go back to just chickens. I miss your videos in my inbox. I still have your dvd and enjoy it. Lovely footage as always. These are pretty and I agree I like the rose combs better. I have an accidental rooster now. I put him in a cage every night and toss him out to free range in the morning. No one's complained yet. I have a video about him if you want to see. He's a mixed breed.
IT's so nice to see your comment! Yes, it's been far too long. I will always have chickens and raise them. I'm sorry not to be making very many chicken-related videos. I do need to put one up once in a while. We are really enjoying the Minorca line. They are the best at avoiding predators that I've ever had. I hope you have a great year ahead! :)
Nice prehistoric chicken growl! Reminds me of myself after the time change. What a hoot! thanks for sharing Fred. See you at the Q&A.
It's fun to slow the crow down and listen to how similar they sound to the Jurassic Park dinosaur sounds. Always fun.
My husband watches you for bees and sends me all your chicken videos. 🐔 I so wish you would do more chicken context. I love your voice and knowledge . Waiting for more.. Yes I have your chicken 📀 ❤️
You have my Chicken Video? Thank you! :)
Hello Fred, the Minorcas are beautiful! You aren't kidding about the feed prices, I'm tired of this inflation.
You and me both!
Just lost my only rooster in my free-range flock. Now, the race is on to hatch the fertile eggs
Wow, I'm so glad you have those eggs to recover that loss. I hope it all goes well for you!
Very interesting, Fred…looks like you just mowed… last time before the white stuff comes! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving… hope the mead is good! 🍻🍻
I haven't mowed for 5 weeks :) and I love "not mowing" :)
Thanks for sharing Fred. I live in a small Boro outside of Philly and we are allowed to have a few hens. I will have to consider adding a Minorca to our little flock.
I did not know about ear color and egg color. That is a good example of Leghorns and white eggs and my Orrington and brown eggs.
If you slow-mo them in their bouts you will find roosters are south paws and their connecting blows are almost always made with their left spur, you'll also notice even upside down they use their wings and throw a flurry of 6 to 8 blows faster than the eye can see.
Interesting.
I enjoy chickens so much. My gals never let squirrels or other birds in their yard. Learned something new with mine this year. This recent rooster I tried to keep was a disappointment in many departments, other than beauty (Ha!). I found several pages about a rooster becoming stressed if he had too many hens to manage, which never occurred to me. Recently I lost 5 hens in about 3 months and got suspicious. Pulled up my Ring recordings of early mornings and he was culling my flock by ostracizing the Buff Orpington hens , and they are my oldest. He'd chase them away from the food and he was really a bully. Five morning recordings in a row I heard no sound of my Grandpa feeder clanking.....meaning he was not letting them have a lot of access. In Monty Python style..."He is no more". It was sad because he was a mix of a neighbour's rooster with my hens and they produced all black skin, black eyes, black legs, and black combs (Swedish Black Hen type) . His comb went to a deep mulberry colour when he matured. Thnx Fred! The slow motion stuff is fantastic. Your Minorcas are so beautiful. Looking forward to more chicken videos while the bees rest for winter.
Yes, they can definitely cause division, and birds low in the peck order can be left outside the coop as they are too bothered to go inside at dusk. This is why we have three coop structures so they have more options and can find their way to a more suitable grouping. We had a Rhode Island Red hen that ended up sleeping with the goats :)
Great looking birds sir. Great presentation as always. I hatched a clutch of eggs which is a mix of Black Australorpe rooster and Amberlink and ISA brown hens and they seem great so far. There is a little of inconsistences with the egg size which is to be expected when cross breeding occurs. I have added Black Jersey Giant female baby chicks and Blue Sapphire Gem female baby chicks as well due to their larger size. I do believe moving forward I am going to try to keep chickens in the future to one specific breed. Either way love the chickens free ranging here on the little homestead farm. The Minorca's look a lot like the Jersey Giants except for the white ear lobes. I hope you have a fantastic year and look forward to seeing your other content as it becomes available.
Thank you so much! Jersey Giants tend to eat you out of house and home during winter, but if you're where they can get out all year round, not as much of a feeding problem. They lay brown eggs, the Minorca's produce white shelled eggs and have a very high production rate :)
@@FrederickDunn yeah I go for brown eggs and did read about their food consumption. I do let them free range for the most part year round but winter I do tend to keep the up a little more. We will see. Worst case scenario I will just harvest them.
Love the chicken video as much as your bee videos!,as always spot on well done ! Thanks for showing us my new chickens, lol Does Murry other both the rose comb and single comb?
I know that Murray McMurray has the single comb Minorca line in stock, not sure about the rose comb. I mix my own :) I'm so glad you enjoyed this presentation!
The rosecomb kinda reminds me of the Black Asil game breed, a friend of mine that used to buy straw, shelled corn and oats from me and bred raised and sold about a thousand game clocks annually, once gave me a trio of pure Wingate Brown Reds of the double spur Irish breeding, all domesticated chickens came from jungle fowl which fight to death when called out, that's why they crow at sunrise, it's simular to queens piping, it's a war cry.
Yes, they all come from Gallus gallus... It's actually not a war cry, but interesting take on that. Some of my most aggressive roosters in the past didn't crow at all and just attacked.
LOL, those are the stealth breeding genes
Hello Dear Frederick Dunn 🥰🥰🥰🥰
Wish i could let mine free range like this. Hawks are a real menace in the middle of the day.
You need to make friends with crows. :) We have nesting crows, and they don't tolerate hawks, so they serve as another alert system as well as chasing the hawks off.
@@FrederickDunn oddly enough we have a lot of crows in our area. They'll actually come down sometimes and walk and peck the grounds with the chickens no problem. We even got more black hens and roosters to try and fool the hawks. Unfortunately none of that worked. One time a hawk even swooped down not more than 5ft from me and attacked one of my hens. Had to resort to a kind of zoo enclosure type area with big panels and netting over top.
Hi Fred. Thanks for all your videos. David
beekeeping in Brisbane Australia. We are in the northern state from New South Wales where the mites have been found.
I see you guys use OA on your hives with the supers still on. Down here we are being told that we will have to remove the supers before using OA. I have flow hives. What is the best way to remove the bees from the flow frames so I can use OA. No mites here yet but planing ahead here.
David.
Hello David! This is interesting, and there are several aspects to consider so I'll be discussing this on Friday during the next Q&A. Thank you.
If you keep the roosters until they're a year old, how do you dispose of them when they are grown? Do you eat them, give them away, or euthanize them?
I'm fortunate that I have a waiting list of people who want my surplus roosters. After I've made my breeder selections, I give them away. If I had a truly "terrible" rooster, he would go to the wildlife recovery center as a food resource. Wildlife rehab centers always have problems getting meat for their recovering raptors and other animals in their care.
I would love to see more about chickens from you. We will be starting our own flock this spring, so I’m trying to learn all I can about them. We live in Wisconsin on 10 acres, and have lots of wildlife. Do you have any problems with predators? I’m jealous of the fact that you don’t need a bear fence for your bees, it’s a must here in Wisconsin! 🐝🐓
If you want the full load on chickens from me, here you go : th-cam.com/video/msko6-fbLoE/w-d-xo.html
I got some Minorcas now about six weeks old. They sure are nervous. Handling them when they were small didn't seem to help. So I just sit and watch them. Maybe they'll get used to me.
Try feeding them black soldier fly larvae whenever you're around them. Winning them with treats like that can be a test of patience, but they will be comfortable near you. Their high-strung nature is part of why they are so successful on free range.
Nice video! Beautiful birds! As a chicken keeper myself how do you keep your flock safe while free ranging? I have a worse than usual predator problem this year. Just lost 3 birds to a fox..also have a bobcat sneaking around and a big red tail hawk!
These are very savvy birds, and extremely alert. The breed of chicken you select can have a big impact on their ability to navigate predators. Encouraging crows to nest in your area will drive off the hawks. Our daytime land predators are few, so the biggest threats come through at night, and that's when automatic hen doors and well constructed coops come into play. the Minorca breed has been the best so far. Many other "nervous" breeds also do well, such as the Leghorns. Rhode Island Red roosters can be formidable, pardicularly when they cooperate against something that just doesn't belong.
Beautiful Chickens Fred, do they have any issues in the Bee Yard. ❤
I actually think my free-ranging birds may have something to do with our very low to non-existent small hive beetle population. They roam through the apiary and under the coops un-hindered by the bees.
They're beautiful! How do you keep them from leaving when free ranging them if they can fly well?
They naturally return to their coops at night, it's rare for them to travel more than 150 yards from the coop during the day.
Do these have access to the bee yard? As in eat the hive beetle larvae
Yes, they cruise through the apiary several times a day.
Fred- Been watching your bee videos for years. Looking at adding some chickens to the farm (43 acres in SC). I have zero knowledge of chickens at this point, but have been watching videos and reading the books. Really stupid question, I am sure... If you have a rooster, how do you prevent him from mating with everything he can catch in order to be able to harvest eggs? If I want more chickens, great, but if I want to eat the eggs, don't they need to be unfertilized? Mick
Hi Mick, it makes no difference if the eggs are fertilized or not. Since you collect your eggs daily, sometimes morning and evening, there is no development. When selecting for breeding, we put them in trios for two weeks to get the exact birds we want. I have a 3 hour online guide that covers everything :) th-cam.com/video/msko6-fbLoE/w-d-xo.html
@@FrederickDunn Thank you, sir. I have come to rely on your beekeeping videos. I suspect the same will apply to chickens... Happy Veteran's Day!
Is this a standard version of the bantam?
These are large standards. Wow, Luke! It has been a very long time my friend :)
Do you know how Minorcas do with barn cats?
Hi Linda, that's a tough question, our cat doesn't chase chickens at all and the chickens ignore her. This will be a cat by cat situation == Cats could be a problem if your chickens have chicks, but then mother hens are not easily overwhelmed.
Never had true free range chickens before, do the roosters try to flog you like the close quartered penned ones do? I built a good sized pen and coup for my Dad back around 1990 and his rooster was the sneakiest flogging attacker I ever saw! As soon as your eyes and head turned, he was heading in your direction, and he watched for you head movement and would stop his attack before you could look back at him. But he had covered 20' in a few seconds that you had your eyes off of him! He really didn't like me at all!
I used to have a rooster that only went after my mother-in-law, I miss him.
@@FrederickDunn That's funny!
😁🇱🇨👍🏼♥️
What kind of feed do you give your chickens?
We offer Dumor complete ration inside the coops at all times. DuMOR 16% Layer Poultry Feed Pellets, Calcium Fortified
What’s the average cost of these birds
Is that a question of maintenance, or the initial cost to buy them? There is a link in the video description for buying chicks. I don't have them for income, so I'd say they cost more than they contribute after all costs are considered. However, they are a huge pest control advantage. We never see ticks, and Japanese Beetles within 2 feet of the ground are goners!
I have a minorca rooster and he's very aggressive and can pack a kick
You can also breed for disposition :)
Easter Egger not an Ameraucana. Look up mottle java chicken breeds . They come in 3 recognize colors. Black java and white java and mottle java. They are 2nd oldest chicken breed in USA. Very hardy and broody and excellent foragers.
Thank you, that's an Ameraucana. Thanks for sharing what your favorites are.
Hello . Federick . You excellent information on honeybees. But I been raising all different kind of chicken breeds , other poultry breeds and exotic birds pass 40 years plus .Only poultry hatchery mills carries true Ameraucana chicken breed is Cackle hatchery. Others poultry hatcheries trick their's customers mispelling their Easter Egger as Americana not Ameraucana. Murray McMurray misleads their's customers . Poultry Hatchery mills do not carry real Dual propuse chicken breeds. I used buy my birds from poultry hatchery mills. I went back with APA chicken breeders to get true standards dual propuse poultry breeds . Look up Sustainable Poultry Network TH-cam videos and Responsible Chicken Breeding prodcast TH-cam videos. Even APA judge Jim Adkins talk about Poultry Hatchery mills in his TH-cam videos. Even P.Allen Smith TH-cam videos on true heritage chicken breeds. Ameraucana do not have a rosecomb .
Can I get a hen
I don't sell chickens, sorry.
I know this may seem silly but have you ever had one as a pet in the house? I know you can have diapers for them.. no accidents in the house.
Depending on the time of year that we are hatching, they may start out in the house as chicks. If you're talking about adult chickens, that's not good for them or us to be inside. They are definitely outdoor birds.