Recent content by Homesteadin

. We will start locking them all the way up - in the coop. Yes I can see how that may have happened, too - abscesses that blew, perhaps.

Haha, yep none of those. At least not that we or anyone else have seen. We do have mice, though, and if the wounds on her legs happened after she died I wonder if mice were chewing on them once she passed. Which would still leave us wondering about the cause of death. The coop is warm, but we...

Thank you. It's the first time we've lost one. I wish I would have noticed something was going on because it does seem like it may have been a sequence of things, like you said. Well anyway, I'll just watch the others extra-close for a while.

There are no signs it was a predator, but I suppose it is always a possibility since they can be very sneaky. We don't have rats or weasels/minks. However we did have a skunk in our garage some days ago... But from what we can tell, nothing that we do have as predators in this area could have...

Thank you, Miss Lydia. We only have ducks, so no chickens or anything else that would have eaten at her. As we've been musing about it during the day we have started to wonder if she was laying outside and her legs froze to the ground either last night or the night before -- we had a couple very...

We found one of our khakis dead in the coop this morning, laying on her side. It doesn't feel like she was egg bound, and she had no bodily injuries -- except both of her legs look like this. Does anyone know what might have happened?

Yes we actually do that, too, and they love it. I am wondering if that's why they don't like the normal oyster shell "granules" -- they prefer the flakes. We are just running in to not having quite enough egg shells to supplement them as much as they need to lay regularly (at least, I think that...

We ferment, too. :) I can get regular oyster shell for cheap plenty of places. My problem is that my ducks won't touch it unless it is just like the kind in the link I posted when starting this thread, and I haven't been able to find oyster shell like that anywhere else and for less $$$

I've been avoiding layer feed because we have a drake and from what I understand it could make him sick if he eats too much calcium.

I checked and their product isn't available anywhere near me. Bummer!

Hi All. The only oyster shell my ducks will eat is the kind in the link below; they refuse to eat the usual "granules" you can find anywhere else for cheap. But at $9 per 4lbs it is not cost-effective for us to keep buying it from scratch and peck. I have not had luck in finding this type of...

Yes, Khaki Campbell. :)

I love stories of roosters and drakes helping to take care of the babies! I think I am going to have to force Cocoa to take a break - pick her up and set her out for a few - she hasn't gotten off the nest to eat or anything in two days straight or more. I remember the Black Forest fire so well...

And, a picture! This is Cocoa and a Lilly, mommy-ing their hatched and un-hatched babies. Good, good mommies. I went ahead and helped the babies find water nearby in case Cocoa and Lilly don't want to leave the nest with other babies hatching.

Yeah we had a big lightening/thunderstorm! Neat that you have relatives here. We get firewood from families in black forest who are still clearing out trees from the big fire. Last night before going to bed I put coconut oil (to fight bacteria) and arrowroot powder (to help keep dry) on the...