Posts by debid

Do a search on "commercial black". Mixed breed brown egg layer with cuckoo markings.

You can feed grower for their entire lives. It's also labeled "all-flock". Same thing. The calcium supplement doesn't have to be in the food for it to be effective. Keep a hopper of oyster shell available and their needs will be met....

The free exotic is very often an EE cockerel chick. I'm amazed you got a Polish! And, I have to say that my EEs are production machines. Not quite Leghorns but reliably grocery-store large, blue-green eggs and 6/week still in their...

No, that doesn't sound normal unless you have two early-blooming cockerels both wanting to be alpha. If they are early-bloomers, you should be seeing comb growth. Now, I will add that some of my pullets have been drama queens. They...

I have had several fast-feathering EEs. I credit hybrid vigor plus Leghorn blood. Below is a pic of my latest batch at three days. See the gal looking away from the camera? She was fully feathered at about 3.5 weeks. The EE on the...

These are 3 days old (the chick with her back to the camera and the one to the right are EEs) Wings come in FAST. Oh, and they should be sexable by pattern once feathered so ~6 weeks.

I tossed a couple of overwintered beets to the chickens. I didn't cook them -- just knocked the dirt off and tossed them in. The chickens loved them!

Quote:Originally Posted by jenrysdam It wasn't the water in the bucket that froze, but the nipples themselves.  They were always wet and at night when they weren't being used they froze up.  The aquarium heater worked great for...

It's a security thing -- snuggling together takes the place of contact with a hen. With a broody, chicks move to the roost quite young so you could put them up there every night to teach them or you can leave them be and they'll move in...

They always look rough at that teen stage. I'd suggest giving them a nice dust bathing area and letting them go to it. If they're getting dirty from too small of a brooder, get them into a bigger space. But a bath? Nope. They'll be...