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With chickens, the hen usually pushes the egg out with onle a few minutes, if that, of obvious effort. It takes her a bit longer than it would take her to poop (something like one push to poop, half-a-dozen bigger pushes for the egg.) Some hens take a bit longer than others, and they may take a...

You missed one category: feed with no coccidiostat at all. I have used that plenty of times without trouble.

I've had plenty of clean butts when brooding with a heat lamp, of course with plenty of space for chicks to escape the heat. So it's more complicated than just heat lamp vs. brooder plate. Given your small sample size here (3 batches), I think there is just as much chance that the pasty butts...

At age 6 weeks, I would say that amount of red wattles is suspicious (chick might be male) but not definitey (chick might be female anyway.) I agree, a few more weeks will hopefully make the matter much clearer.

The Deathlayer definitely does have a rose comb, so she has either a 50% chance or a 100% chance to give rose comb to her chick (depend on whether she has one rose comb gene or two.) The chick almost certainly does not have the rose comb gene. I think the chick has one v-comb gene (must come...

On the black chicks, yes the barring gene should be the only thing affecting whether they have white dots on top of their heads (white dot male, no dot female.) Yes, you should be able to sex the black ones. For the lighter ones, it MAY be possible to sex them too, if you can identify which...

Why add any other birds? It sounds like those bantam males will be happy enough with just each other. Since there are three of them, they already have each other for company. Depending on how old they are, they might become a bit more bold about exploring their space as they get older, or they...

In that case, I think the hatchery sent one Barred Plymouth Rock (black with a yellow dot on the head), and two each of the Black Australorp and the Rhode Island White. I cannot tell the sex of any of them yet. Regarding the spot on the head of the Barred Rock, it is fairly common for the...

Plymouth Rock is a breed that comes in multiple colors. Barred Plymouth Rocks are a popular color. If that is what you ordered, you can expect both males and females to be colored like the chick you show, including the yellow spot on top of the head. You said you ordered 3 chicks, but then you...

I would check her crop, to be sure it does contain food (daytime) and empty properly (during the night.) I would also take a good look at her beak and face, to see if anything seems wrong there. If she is not much bigger or heavier than the others, she might not eating more food. She might...

Have you looked into American Eskimo dogs? Small to medium size, long white hair, temperament possibly right for your purposes based on what I've read. https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/american-eskimo-dog/ Some years ago, I was busy researching every dog breed with a Spitz-type appearance, trying...

Thank you for the update! Even though it is a bit late, it is good to know what the correct explanation turned out to be!

The other colored chicks should still have white barring in the males and not in the females, the trick is just going to be recognizing it at a young enough age to be useful. You could try identifying individual chicks (maybe with colored zipties for legbands), and taking several pictures of...

Is there any treat they particularly like to eat? You might be able to put the treat inside the coop, stuff in any that didn't put themself in, and then close the door. If you do it a bit before sundown, they will have to settle for the night inside the coop, and will hopefully start to get used...

Olive Eggers can be rather variable in what genes they have for egg color. Your rooster may have no blue egg genes (all daughters will lay brown), or he might have 1 blue egg gene (half of daughters will lay brown, the other half will lay green) or he might have 2 blue egg genes (all daughters...

Based on the amount of white in the wing feathers, and the size of the headspots, I think #2 and #3 are males, and I suspect #1 may also be a male.

Sometimes the crest gene causes feathers to stick up like that, and other times it just happens without the crest gene. I was more noticing the feathers that puff just a little behind his comb, like they aren't laying down quite flat, but I couldn't decide whether that was caused by the crest...

It's not just the chest. He's got a lot of areas in his hackles and saddle feathers that are not blue either. If his coloring is typical for the breed, rather than being blue all over like Andalusians are, then other genes may be common in the breed. I think you are probably right that he is...

Many of the distinctive Silkie features are caused by dominant genes. 5th toe is caused by a dominant gene. Crest is caused by a dominant gene. Muff/beard is caused by a dominant gene. Rose comb is caused by a dominant gene. Pea comb is caused by a dominant gene. None of those gene are linked...

If you have access to a Partridge Silkie rooster, maybe breed the hens to him, then breed a son back to the original hens. Choose the chicks that grow up to look most like what you want. For later generations, either interbreed them with each other, or cross in another Silkie every now and then.