Reviews by duckwingmomma

I've had my babies since July 2013 and I wanted to review them right away but made myself wait til they got older and personalities had really developed. They are now 6 months old and I am just as happy today with them as I was the day they arrived from the hatchery. They are super healthy, easy to care for and very smart. I read all the information I could find before buying them and saw that the Roosters could be a bit aggressive. So I started out early with treats and trying to get the flock used to attention, being held and being around people in general. Out of 12 Roosters, I am proud to say that only 2 of them just aren't friendly at all. The others are dominant and watchful over the hens but they know I come in and handle their girls and might try to scold me once in a while but there's no flogging. The most dominant one see's me come in the coop and comes and dances at my feet and stays really close but he does it mostly in the hopes of being picked up before the girls are. I've noticed that if I reach for a hen first he will scold me by pecking my hand. If I pick him up first and give him a little scratch behind his head he is fine with the girls being picked up after that.

The hens are all for the most part very tame and sweet. Some will run to be picked up and if not picked up as fast as they want will fly up on the person who's attention they want. A few of the hens though are perfectly happy to be left alone. They're not aggressive if they have to be handled and they will eat treats out of my hand every chance they get, but they just aren't into the whole neck scratches and loves that the others are. Which is fine by me. I'm surprised that I have ANY chickens who actually like attention so I'll take what I can get!

My girls aren't laying yet. I'm expecting the first egg anytime though and can't wait to be hatching some new babies this Spring. They are literally the cutest chicks i've ever seen and they are so much fun to watch.

I have other breeds. specifically Silver Duckwings, BB Reds, Silver Sebrights and a few Production Reds and while they are interesting to watch and pretty to look at, NONE of them are as impressive as my D'Anvers. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a pretty, well rounded bird.

I have one mature Roo, Vince Neil, and 8 Mature hens, my favorite being Heidi Plume ( the hen on my profile pic). I also have 20 chicks at various ages that we hatched. We got the older birds in the flock when they were already mature and they had been kept in a cage all their life. They'd never been allowed on the ground to forage. So life here, where free ranging is the norm was a whole new life for them and they took to it well! They had been severely protein deficient and covered in mites but it didn't take long to get them back in top shape with proper feeding and lots of scratching in the dirt. So they rebound fast if they aren't healthy at first.

The only issue we really have with them is the Rooster. He seems to hate men, especially my boyfriend. He hasn't ever hurt Vince. He made him mad once when he had to be caught and caged so we could let some other hens out that we didn't want him to breed with and apparently he will never forgive or forget it. Every time he see's my boyfriend he tries to flog him. We finally had to de-spur him over it out of fear that he could hurt one of the grandchildren. He hadn't tried to harm any of the kids, but he was caught a few times trying to flog my 17 year old son who never did anything at all to him. So, we decided he might just have an issue with men and took care of it for everyone's sake. On the other side, he has NEVER been aggressive to me in any way. He walks right by me, pecks at my flip flops, inspects my toenail polish, with his beak of course and i'd honestly not believe he had a single aggressive bone in his body if I hadn't seen it for myself.

We are raising his boys to be different and so far they are awesome! They love to be held, they're very tame and will come to us for attention even if treats aren't present. They are about 2 months old and love their hatchmates dearly but they also are very protective over all the other younger chicks. Sometimes the older hens will come and try to take treats from the chicks and peck them. The little Roo's don't put up with that regardless of how much bigger the hens or even Vince is in relation to them. They defend the babies immediately and fiercely. It's ADORABLE!

2 of our hens hatched 4 each with no problem and are raising beautiful chicks. There's just really no downside to these birds and they're hilarious over how much they LOVE them some goodies! Especially watermelon!

I was not a chicken person til these I got a group of 5 of them. A Roo and 4 hens. As soon as I saw the Rooster, I named him Fabio because that's exactly what he reminded me of. A big guy with long golden locks! He was as sweet as he could be. never an aggressive move even though he didn't know me. he was super watchful of the sky and around the yard. At treat time, he never tried to take anything from the girls. He just stood back and watched over them to be sure that they were okay. He seldom even tried to get a treat for himself. if he did go for one, and a hen beat him to it, he'd just kinda look up at me like "did you see that?" so i'd try to toss drop several in one spot for the hens and toss him one a little farther away. He caught on to that game real quick so he was never left out unless he wanted to be. The hens, although a little greedy about treats, were just as wonderful. They were never ugly in any way and realized very fast that I was the Official treat giver so anytime they saw me they were at my feet to see if I'd brought them anything. if I didn't, that was fine, they were content to follow me until I rectified the situation.

The ONLY issue we had and it wasn't an issue for me, but for my boyfriend. As social as they were, if I wasn't outside they were all over him and he couldn't get work done without falling over them lol. That and he didn't appreciate the huge poops in his workshop, on his tools and lumber...........oops!

When I first got mine they didn't lay at all. But they were severely protein deficient at the time due to being kept in a cage and not getting any free range time. Which made their social skills all the more amazing. They were NOT used to attention but they sure acclimated to it quick! So I suppose that could be one downside, they require a good deal of food, lots of protein and time to scratch in the dirt and be a real chicken! It took me about 2 to 3 weeks of a good high protein feed schedule and extra scraps before they started laying daily and completely stopped picking each others feathers.

If you like full size chickens and have time to socialize with them they are fantastic!