I will go down and take a few pictures and do a video later today. I have had these young ones since they were day olds. They have been with the older chickens for only two weeks, but have been around them in the large free range area for over a month. No change in feed. They have been on Purina...
Good question. I went down to the coop and looked at the two chickens that are limping and saw no visible signs of anything unusual. In the past three weeks, I have had one older hen and 3 - 3 month old pullets die and none of them had any visible signs of trauma. This has never happened in the...
All of a sudden, I am noticing that several of my young and old chickens are limping and walking low to the ground. What could it be? Thanks in advance for all of your expertise.
My chicks are 3 weeks old and two of them are really being picked on...raw necks, missing down in other areas too. So far there is no blood, but I worry about them. There are about 20 in a large brooder area. I was thinking about moving those two to a "hospital" brooder. Should I put anything on...
This morning I found this cluster of webworms on our Sweet Gum tree and after looking, on an Oak tree, too. At first I thought about what I might do to get rid of them...spray or chicken protein...of course, the chickens won out. The worms were being held in place by a web so when I brushed them...
Our livestock guardian dog, now 2 years old, has grown up with the chickens on the other side of her fence. However, this spring, I began letting the chickens free range in her and the sheep area. I watched her carefully and she seemed to not care that they were there. The other day, I came out...
When we built our hoop coop we had an old set of laying boxes, but needed more. I went to Lowes and Home Depot and bought their buckets, had my husband build a frame and the hens went in immediately. I have since replaced the buckets with a row of wooden, partitioned boxes, which they also use...
I have over 80 hens and get between 40 - 50 eggs a day. How in the world would I know who is freeloading? I don't have a game cam in the coop but have thought about it. Most of my hens are at least one to two years old, with a few being 3. They all seem to be healthy and I see most in the boxes...
Yes, on Saturday! 3 days before your hatch day. Often times you will have an early bird hatch one or two days earlier, so have your brooder ready for the little ones.
I have that incubator and as long as I followed the instructions about the water levels and not opening the top to remove chicks too often, I have not had any issues. The one thing that you don't have control over is if your eggs are all fertile. I have my own roosters, so I take a chance when...
It seems that you have thought of everything. I love the special frame-shape cuts you made to make this attractive, too. I also like that you were able to repurpose some of the project from other items you already had. The only thing that I saw was the advantage of hanging the food and water...
It is always nice to see someone choose a beautiful spot for their flock to have lots of options. I like the garden setting with the forest in the background. It looks like you thought of everything and your young ones seem to like it, too. Good Job!
My daughter just bought a house that has a coop already built. These are the neatest nesting boxes! After cleaning and disinfecting the coop, I will be giving her 8 of my young laying hens.
We just finished our chick hoop coop made for our babies 3 weeks - 4 months. We were able to find some used hoops (old greenhouse frame), roof metal (north wall), a screen/glass door, old dog kennel, and lots of old wood and old coop parts (run, ventilation and pop doors). We got our affordable...
Thanks for your humor and your way of looking at our "hobby"! I agree with you that the benefits are priceless...how do you put a cost on the greatest joy in life? From hatching new chicks, to loving on them from birth to death, chickens offer us so much, not to mention the free compost for our...
I prefer incubators. I select the eggs; I set the eggs when I want to; and I hatch the eggs in a safe warm environment! I just had a very successful hatch yesterday: I set 28 eggs in 3 incubators. After candling (7 days), I determined that 3 were not fertile...25 left. 21 hatched Friday and...