Recent content by SandyNest

Thank you all for your thoughts and replies. I have been slowly reading through the 2000+ pages here. I think I will just keep this guy for my egg birds. He is so sweet and a good protector for his hens. I have no idea what egg he came from. I got him from a local person, late in the fall...

I am wondering if some people would mind giving me some feedback on my BCM roo, Goliath. He is almost 3 years old. He did have a small amount of feathering on his legs, but I notice in my picture that he doesn't have any right now. I am trying to learn more about Marans. I am really enjoying...

Ahhh! Thank you ALL for your time to answer my post. The description of the oviduct material fit exactly what my husband saw when he found this in the egg. I knew it wasn't a roundworm, but besides that, I have never encountered something like that that was that big. Loved all the precise...

*bump* Would still love more opinions on if this is a worm/parasite or something else. Thanks!!

Surfing through this topic to see if I could find an answer to my own question. Haven't seen any picture like this but did find some info on wormers. I guess I will just worm them all if I can't get any info on what this thing is. Quote: Can anyone comment if it is safe to use Valbazen or...

Found this in one of our chicken eggs. Looks like some kind of worm, but not roundworm. Ideas Please?!? Most of our laying hens are new layers this year (roughly 8 months old) and we have 2 hens that are about 1 1/2 years old. We have never wormed them. Should we now?? I have Wazine brand...

PS - I love your greenhouse idea, and I think Ridgerunner's suggestions for ventilation will make it a great winter spot for your chickens! Wish I had one!! I will add that to my ideas for enhancing my run for wintertime!!

We have never had a problem with hawks, although most of my run is well covered with large trees, so my chickens have good camouflage. We have had problems a year ago in the fall, and then again this spring with a predator. We "think" it was a raccoon, but so far have only caught a skunk and...

I live in Michigan, have had egg birds for about 10 years. My coop is the east end of my barn, so it blocks the majority of the westerly winds. I don't heat anything. The 3' chicken wire section that I have on top of the west wall for ventilation gets covered with a heavy vinyl tarp during...

Thank you Ridgerunner! We lowered our temp down from 150 to 135/130 degrees and it worked perfectly! Birds came out looking like store-bought straight out of the plucker. No messed up skin. I'm especially excited because hubby wanted to go back to the Cornish X (which was our first batch of...

Thanks for the information. We're setting up right now to process the remaining birds, so we'll give that a try and hope for some nicer looking outcomes!!

We have processed the first batch of our Freedom Ranger chickens yesterday and had some issue with the skin getting ripped up in the plucker (Whizbang type of plucker). They are roughly 12 weeks old, so I believe they are old enough. Has anyone had this issue?? Is it the breed, or perhaps we...

One thing I did last year to the duck pen that I made (6' high chain link panels) was to dig a shallow trench along one side of the pen and I planted a bunch of tall wild grass clumps that grow native around the area. I was cleaning out the growth around some of my pear trees and I didn't want...

The Rubbermaid tubs are awesome. You might want to consider getting the 100 gal (deeper) tub rather than the shallower one, to allow your ducks to dive (and to make the water last a little longer). I plan on using the taller Rubbermaid tub for my new ducks I plan on getting in the spring...

I would agree with this! We had a similar situation as you a few years back and promised our daughter we would get some more chickens to replace a couple that had died. It was fall, so we ended up at a nearby auction (due to my daughter being very car-sick, we did not want to drive far to see...