Recent content by DesertChic

Sweetie, I'm the quintessential nerd. I keep track of EVERYTHING. :lol:

Okay...I'm inspired. I need to do a better job on the roosts I've built for my birds. Well done!

Personally, I tend to think that crossing anything with a NN "improves" the breed. ;) As for the egg laying though....I have a 4+ year old NN still averaging 5 eggs per week, each weighing roughly 2.3 ounces. She did take time off during the winter, but last year, her third laying year, she...

I know someone on FB who has some. She likes the birds and they're beautiful and good layers, but she couldn't tell me much about their personalities.

Do your chickens consume the aloe? I'd like to plant some in my backyard (aka "Chicken Yard), but I don't want them destroying them after I throw out my back digging in the dirt/rock here to plant them.

And that's the very moment in hatching when anything resembling sleep ceases to exist for me. ;)

It was 54* when I left the house for work yesterday, and only 48* when I returned three hours later. I've been watching my flocks run under cover every time it rains, and then run out to enjoy the sunshine and scratch in the moist dirt every time the sun peeks out. It's kinda funny...you know...

The reason I say feather picking is because of the location and because of the shape of the tattered, remaining feathers in that area. Mites typically like to congregate closer to the vent, under the wings and between the legs. The location of this feather loss is typical of feather picking that...

Feather picking can be about low protein, or it can be about behavior. There are some birds (and some breeds) that are prone to feather pick out of boredom, to maintain their dominance in the flock, or just because the like the taste of blood from the feather shaft and also like to eat feathers...

I've been working a lot...too much. I try to spend more time outside with the flocks and working on the garden, but I keep getting stuck at work.

I know this thread is pretty old, but can I ask how everything turned out? I just drained one of my own hens and all of the fluid was also green with no foul smell or anything to indicate infection other than the color. I was wondering how long your girl lasted after her fluid turned green, and...

It happens. I literally watched one of my former roosters running across the yard and then suddenly stop, lay down and die. His heart just quit. He was HUGE, strong, muscular, sweet....and he just dropped dead. Sometimes the genetics just aren't there. By comparison I have other birds I've...

Whatever it takes to make them happy. :D

I want to give them a full two weeks to get cozy with one another. I just finished checking on them and Rocky's doing an amazing job courting all of them, but has yet to show me who his favorites are. I figure I may break out the candlelight and Barry White in a couple days to get the all in the...

I just moved Rocky (my blue egg carrier) into a pen with nearly all of my blue & green egg laying hens last night. He's dancing around like the happiest rooster in the world. The girls are slowly adjusting to the change, but I'm giving extra treats to them to make the move seem more appealing...