Recent content by RidgesideBeauty

I currently have two "flocks" of chickens that I need to rehome. All individuals have been obtained from NPIP hatcheries as either 1-day olds or hatching eggs, with the exception of one"home-grown" backyard mix. I have a mix of breeds, but all are something with the exception of the one...

Hoping to be a happy Metzer farms customer soon! Back in March I had placed an order for a Sebastopol pair, for the May 31 hatch (wanted to get one of the last dates because had a lot going on with sick family members). Got a call that they didn't have the numbers laying that they expected, so...

Thankfully I have not had any dog issues. (Coyotes, yes). But I did find a cat in my chicken coop back in October... the birds were out free-roaming and he was just hanging out in the coop. Young unneutered male, ears bloody with mites, and an untreated abominal hernia. Most darn expense...

Quote: Love it!

You have absolutely beautiful birds, and if I didn't already have eggies in the incubator, I would be sorely sorely tempted. I did have one question since you are answering questions for newbies... what is the typical age that one culls birds when breeding for quality? (i.e., in terms of...

Hope you get a response.... I am interested as well. I feel that I lost most of my first hatch to issues related to this on shipped eggs... they made it all to lockdown. Then, not so much... plus one genuinely shrinkwrapped chick. Just put my second batch of shipped eggs in the incubator...

Set the two that were the last eggs laid by my buff orp hens that were killed by the raccoon... one has popped his way out already, kicking and cheeping (totally like his dad... my alpha roo). The other, nothing. I candled before lockdown, and both were active and good. So I may be raising a...

My Pumpkin Hulsey baby was a roo... he was killed by a raccoon while still young (it jumped 8 feet out of a tree onto the top of the coop, and squeezed through a tiny inch vent hole). Because of him, I totally fell in love with the breed. I was keeping him in a flock with some older birds once...

Got mine in the mail today... will let them sit overnight to settle and pop them in tomorrow for a March 25 hopeful hatch. I didn't have a successful hatch last time with shipped eggs, so I'm hoping this will be better (in reality, it was my first incubation EVER, so the problem was likely not...

Long-stewing chicken and wild rice soup? Okay, somewhat joking, but somewhat serious. I generally keep dual purpose breeds, and do have plans to raise meat birds too. But I recently had to cull an extra (mis-sexed) aggressive rooster of a small breed not normally considered as a meat breed...

Still have two of two... candled today briefly and they are going strong. Can't wait!!!

Pickled eggs... I know they exist, but I have never tried them (either making or eating). I'm willing to try anything once. Anyone have a good recipe they'd be willing to share?

I have a small contingent of "customers" (I'm backyard scale). I have actually had a few people get really excited about pullet eggs. Mostly people who had relatives with farms growing up and fondly recall that their mothers/grandmothers loved baking with them when they could get their hands...

Best of luck to you... my first hatch was not so great too. I set 17... I got 4 hatches,plus one I helped because I was just so desperate at that point I figured why not (would die without help, might still die with help and did, but I tried). All of my losses were late incubation ones... it...

It was incredibly sweet! It resulted in a lot of weird responses though when I excitedly called some of my friends to tell them the story. "I just watched Lady Gaga feed a hen egg salad!" "You... what?"