Recent content by rfreedlund

I just found this thread. I have my entire flock on Hubbard Poultry Developer right now and I just noticed the last bag I gave them had a MEDICATED label attached. It looks exactly like all of the others except the label is light red instead of white, so it was very easy to miss. I know the...

I used some fence posts and chicken wire (about 5 feet high total) to build a circle into which the Dogloo and the other dog cage open into. At this point, as you can see in the picture, I have the opening to the Dogloo blocked shut with a mesh cover I created and the dig cage is closed. This...

This is my setup for separating a broody. Definitely do it at night. This picture is from last spring, but I currently have the exact same broody in the exact same place right now sitting on 10 eggs. I also have another dog cage just on the other side of this one with another broody. That one...

That's the trick I use to make sure a hen is truly broody before I separate her to set. If she'll stay on the golf balls, I know she is serious. I then pull her and her nesting box (milk crate with one side cut out) out to the broody pen at night. If she is still setting after that, I replace...

I only live four miles from Seward. I have a Winnebago Address with a Seward Phone Number, but my kids go to Byron because we are on the Ogle County side of Montague Rd. There are a few of us in the area within quick driving distance. I have gotten hatching eggs from three different chicken...

Hello from Rural Byron area, though I'm actually at work in Downtown Rockford right at this moment. What kind of birds do you have? Always good to find others nearby.

Definitely the daddy of a couple of my girls then. I like the look especially on the easter egger.

That must be where one of my Easter Eggers and other splash hen came from with the eggs you gave me last spring. Gray with some dark random feathers mixed in, right???

He came back. I don't think he was totally right. He wasn't very aggressive and I don't think he ate many (if any) eggs. I couldn't find evidence of it. It seemed mostly like he wanted to find a warm shelter and the chickens didn't seem overly concerned about it. I moved it to the opposite side...

I only relocated it a couple hundred yards away from the coop and run. Very much still on our property. I will be watching closely, though. He was nowhere I could see today.

I only relocated it a couple hundred yards away from the coop and run. Very much still on our property. I will be watching closely, though. He was nowhere I could see today.

Another new experience... Yesterday was chickens stuck outside night. This afternoon was possum in the nesting box day. I didn't think I would ever get it out. It looked quite comfortable in the nesting bucket. It doesn't appear it got any eggs. It looked like it just wanted shelter. It took me...

Another reason that chickens aren't necessarily the smartest birds around... After some bitterly cold days, yesterday was a nice enough day that I was finally able to shovel enough space so my birds could get out in their run again. Today most of them were out and were able to make it to their...

It is definitely not an ideal time, but I have done it successfully. Hatch rates tend to be a bit lower. I have also had a broody adopt chicks that were hatched in an incubator, but I agree with others, don't give her too many. If a chick gets separated from her mother for any amount of time...

Love it!! You are definitely speaking truth. Lock up the girls!! The hormones are flowing.