Recent content by d_rooster

In my incubator at the moment are about a dozen Silkie x Bantam Salmon Faverolles crosses. I've got about three of these that I hatched a few months ago and I want some more for future crosses back to Silkies. Here's a picture of a male resulting from this type of cross: Here's another with...

I use both digital and glass thermometers. In particular I found that a basal thermometer (the kind used to track the ovulating cycles of women trying to become pregnant) is fairly accurate. The range something around 98 degrees F. to about 102 F. I think the scale for my basal thermometer is...

I have some of bantyman's Faverolles, too (3 pullets, 4 roos about 2 months old). They just get cuter by the day and have great personalities. It's just a matter of days to be able to sex them because of the color difference between males and females. Do you just have the one SF chick or are...

Here's a better photograph of one of my Silkie X Salmon Faverolles crosses. I managed to capture one of them from the chicken tractor today and brought him to the back door for wife to take his photo. Of course, he wasn't too happy about this, at first, but after some snuggling he calmed down...

I just made a Partridge Silkie (Hen) x Bantam Salmon Faverolles (Roo) cross this summer. Chicks are about 1.5 months old now and are quite interestingly varied in color. All of this first generation are smooth feathered, as expected, five toes (since both Silkie and SFs have five toes), combs...

I've had mixed success adding bantam roos to standard sized pullet flocks. My first try, I added a black, frizzled bantam cochin to a flock of about ten girls. They didn't like him from the start, especially the top red hen. The minute I added him to the chicken run, the top red hen attacked...

Yesterday,morning I had ants coming after chicken food in the chicken/tractor coop. I bought some of those plastic ant bait traps and they seem to have worked within 8 hours. I don't really like using any poisons near my chickens, but I had to act fast as I had new baby chicks in that coop and...

I just hatched some chicks from a Partridge Silkie hen x Bantam Salmon Faverolles rooster. The resulting chicks all have five toes. However, the beaks on all of this cross are bluish in color. I believe all of them should have regular feathers, not silkie in this first generation (unless the...

How are things going with the broody hen and chicks? Did you try sneaking chicks under her last night? I was faced with the same prospect on some new hatchlings this week. I had once done the sneaky business of putting chicks under a broody, but that first broody had five eggs she hatched on...

Adorable chicks! I've had the same problem with very active hatchlings rolling around the rest of the eggs in the incubator. To keep eggs from being rolled around by the first hatchlings, I started cutting up the styrofoam egg cartons and making little egg holder pedestals. I cut in between...

In case no one else has posted it yet, here is a cute Easter chicken related cartoon: http://home.att.net/~solos_holiday/2008/_011/egg.htm

I couldn't resist some mixed pullets from TSC yesterday. However, now I'm wondering what I got. They supposedly had mixed pullets and RIRs. However, they were all dumped into the same metal bin brooder. I picked some light yellow chicks in hopes they might be Buff Orps. I also selected some...

I just phoned our two nearest TSCs. The closest one got some ducks today, but chicks won't arrive until tomorrow or Friday. The store that's futher away told me last week that chicks wouldn't be here until Friday, but they just told me on the phone tonight that the chicks are already in. They...

Well, I transferred the three hatched chicks to the brooder and checked the remaining three unhatched eggs while I was in the 'bator. I did a quick candle for movement and saw none. I also did the tapping and heard no response. I left them in the incubator and I'll give them another day or...

I actually started with another brand of incubator with its matching turner and that turner's motor overheated and died in less than two days. That motor got hot enough to produce a burn blister on my hand when I touched it. I wasn't going to take any risks with another one of those turners...