Recent content by Chooksaurus

Quote: That of course depends on the airspeed velocity of an unladen hawk. Is it an African or European hawk?

Since they are not fully feathered, I would suggest that you leave a lamp in there that they can get under if they want it.

You can have a coop full of different breeds together. You do need to take steps to get new birds used to your current birds, but as far as breeds, they can be mixed. Keep in mind some smaller breeds may not mix as well with heavy breeds due to size differences.

We were planning to point a heat lamp toward the nest boxes this winter, but we got quite lucky. We had a Barred Rock hen go broody on us, and after 2 weeks of trying to get her off the nests, I gave up and am letting her work it out for herself. She is keeping most of our eggs nice and warm...

Quote: I think this is the key phrase. When we had Cocci run through our flock, all of the birds that were infected continually showed that they were infected. Their poo went from runny to bloody runny to a puddle of blood in a matter of about a week. While it is possible that your birds...

We have been sitting ~20 below zero (F) for the last few nights, and I am seriously contemplating popping another hole in the wall for more ventilation. The reason is that while 26 chooks have been able to keep the coop around freezing, they are putting so much moisture into the air that I...

Quote: How's your ventilation? Caulking the cracks and sticking a heater in there without proper ventilation is just going to build up moisture and create more damage than if you let the temp drop with drier air.

Nice work!

Quote: I am crossing my fingers hoping the same happens here. 2 weeks of Christmas vacation is too long to be accumulating eggs. We have 10 dozen sitting on the counter and there are still 5 days to go!

Quote: Do what makes you happy. It's not like they are critical to your personal survival, so you can afford to give up some productivity for a breed that you like the looks of, etc. Plus, if you are anything like us, you won't end up where you started anyway, so don't try to approach it...

Quote: It may be semantics, but those are probabilities for each offspring, not a definite result where 1/4 will display white. You could hatch out 10 birds and it is possible that they would all display white, even though each only had a 1 out of 4 probability. Just like you can hatch out...

It seems that way here too, but I think it is more of the fact that they are just inside more now. We got 1/2" of what is apparently white, fluffy, deadly nuclear fallout (and here I thought it was just the first snow of the year) and they will not set foot outside regardless of what kind of...

Ours love the rain, hate snow. You would swear the little white flakes were trying to kill them. Walk into the coop with snow on your boots though, and they will run over each other trying to peck it off and eat it.

I realize that now, and I put up a shelter for them last night. Now I am concerned with how to address their naked butts so that they do not end up with frostbite. Am I correct in assuming that they will not regrow those feathers until a regular growth cycle ensues? Being 7 weeks, I am not...

We have 6 Cochin Bantams that are 7 weeks old. They were hatched in the coop via a broody and were living happily alongside their "big sisters". On Thanksgiving day, we took in 8 hens from my parents' flock that they are getting rid of. I had a few concerns at the time, mainly because I...