Recent content by JeanR

These are OLD ENGLISH GAME bantams. No white ear lobes, legs too long, Hackle is DARK and has no black striping, Saddle is short and has no black striping. All color is too dark (Red Shouldered Black) and not the LIGHT BROWN of DUTCH BANTAMS. Enjoy them as lovely bantams, but not as DUTCH.

Hatchery Dutch are not DUTCH, see his pink legs. Dutch have dark blue legs. But enjoy him as a lovely Backyard banty, but not DUTCH.

TAke out the heat lamp before you "cook" your chicks or burn down your coop (unless you have carefully placed a thermometer under the lamp and KNOW that the temp is not too high for them--or on the floor or sides of your coop)! 6 weeks olds need about 70 degrees f. for comfort, food and water...

NO HEAT LAMP!!!!!A 60 or 75 W Incandescent lamp will be very warm for few chicks and use a thermometer on the floor under the light to BE SURE of correct temperature with ability to raise the lamp a little each week as they feather and grow. AND as others have suggested: Do not try to hatch...

Could be the typical botulism poisoning. Treatment for botulism poisoning is a Flush: 1 t Epsom Salt in 1/2 cup water, eye- droppered or poured into throat 2x a day for 2 or 3 days until recovery. In over 30 years of bantams(and years of large fowl before that) have had just 2 birds with...

Cover them to keep them dark and they will not be so stressed, and cover and carrier/box solidly held down in back of pickup. Wind is known to "pick" up things and evict them, without your noticing! 2 hours is not a long trip (I ship birds country wide, Express Priority, and they are delivered...

No comb showing up into crest--pullet.....Dear one....

I do not EVER recommend HEAT Lamps. They have burned down more coops and people HOMES every year, than you read about as most are reported just locally. Our County lost 2 homes, 3 barns and 7 coops that were reported==just here, last year! There has been 1 reported already this year...

Not a good idea to WORM any animal that is sick and "may have worms"! Worm medication is a poison that kills GOOD and bad bacteria in the gut. This leaves a pet without any protection from infections. After treatment of worms must include yoghurt or other forms of the good bacteria that we...

It is so sad to have a sick hen and then to lose her. But chickens hide their first symptoms, so often, that we can do nothing to "cure" them, too late when we find them unable to hide it longer. And we must realize that chickens are 'Prey" animals, and as such, do not suffer as we feel they...

Do not force feed or water. When well enough, they will drink and eat--you may cause fatal distress by forcing water. If one bird has worms (actually most all chickens have some, with no harm) they all do--and the treatment is a poison that must be used carefully, according to directions...

Notice the blood on that first egg. It was certainly not easy for that pullet to lay her first egg. Hope she waits a bit for her next eggs--may be soon, or a week or 2. Fertile or not (but it likely is, as you have rooster), she will not become broody until she has laid a"clutch"--which for...

At 5 years old, most hens lay fewer eggs and at sometime, stop laying all together. My 11 year old hen, a bantam, did not lay this year, at all. Last year, she laid just 4 eggs and the year before, also, just 4 eggs. All were fertile and I hatched the chicks. Before that, I did not keep...

Hatchery employees may not know one breed from another. Most hatcheries do not raise many of the chicks they sell, but purchase EGGS from folks that they trust are sending the correct breed and variety??????While Hatcheries do a great job of hatching eggs (that they cannot see inside those...