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Monday night I was setting up my brooder for my chicks that were to arrive Tuesday, when a friend called to tell me she found a lone mallard duckling in the road in front of her house (she lives in the city). No mama to be found anywhere. She brought it to me and I put it in my brooder. It's...

This spring we hatched 5 chicks to add to our flock of 13 hens (all about 18 months old). At about 10 weeks of age, we put them in our meat bird tractor near our regular chicken run so the chickens could get to know each other. This lasted about 3 days when I discovered that a predator...

We had a hen that went broody a little over two weeks ago, so we moved her to our empty meat bird tractor. We put it on fresh grass with some food and water, and made her a nice nest out of a rubbermade tote and some straw. She was sitting on 10 eggs. It appears as though she...

Our power went out this afternoon and with no way of knowing when it would come back on, I decided to take the incubator with me to work. The egg (water wiggler) temp got down to 92, but climbed nicely once I got it back up and running. Temps were below normal for about 1 1/2 hours. Was this...

We built a homemade bator out of a styrofoam ice chest. I have two thermometers: one with a probe inside a water wiggler and one measuring the air temp. We test ran it all weekend and everytime we opened and fiddled with it, the wiggler always bounced back to temp quickly. We put the eggs in...

I normally would do all the research first, but a friend called and needs to relocate her rooster asap. They live in the city and already have the cops and city attorney on them about their chickens even though they're legal. One of their pullets turned out to be a roo and they've been trying...

I have a 7 week old colored ranger rooster that we discovered on Friday with all his tail feathers missing and a raw bloody rear end. He was just standing there dripping blood and letting the other chickens pick at his wound. I brought him into the garage and put him in a large box with...

We're planning on turning our trampoline into a hoop house for meat birds but we're not sure how much space they need. We're going to order the Dixie Rainbows from S and G Poultry, so they'll take around 12 weeks to grow out. We've offered to raise some for my in--laws, but before we can tell...

DH and I would like to get guineas, but I'm worried about angering the neighbors with their noise. We're outside of town in area with a few farms nearby, some woods, lakes, etc, so there is definitely a country mindset. However, on our road everyone has just a few acres so our houses are still...

My chicks will be a month old on Monday and they're still afraid of me. I feed them treats from my hand multiple times a day and I try to spend a little time each day picking a few of them up and holding them. I also have 3 young children that I homeschool, and I work part time, so I maybe the...

Last year was horrendous around here as far as mosquitoes go (midwest flooding). We spent most of the summer not even wanting to go outside because they were so bad. I've gotten a few bites already this season, so I'm expecting them to be worse than normal again this year. So I'm wondering if...

Is it necessary to cover the chicken run? Our original plan is to do a "chicken moat" style run around the garden. The plans that we saw for this on Mother Earth News' website, shows most of the run open. My good friend has a nice big run at her farm that isn't covered and has never had a...

As I was cleaning out the brooder this evening I noticed one of my SLW chicks had a pink/red bump on the top of her beak that I've never seen before. They're 2 weeks old. Is it possible she's a roo or is this some sort of infection? Here are a few pics although the bump/comb looks more red in...

This is our first time ordering chicks, so sorry if this is a silly question. I was expecting my chicks today from a local hatchery here in west Michigan, but they called yesterday to say they weren't able to fill my order. Now I'm scheduled to get them next week. I was pretty bummed and my...

Hi All, My name is Amy and I live in Kalamazoo, MI with my hubby and 3 kids. We only have a few acres, but we're hoping to squeeze as much homesteading in here as we can. I ordered our first chicks from a local hatchery yesterday and they should be here next Wednesday! We're getting 8 Buff...