Recent content by steve&kris

No... this is the beginning of day 5 now I guess.

It's on day 4. It hatched late, on day 24. It's still in the incubator b/c it's warm and if I put it in the brooder with the other chicks I'm worried it'll get picked apart.

This is a link to a google drive file with a video of this chick... trying to figure out if I should cull it to keep it from suffering(?)... starving or being picked apart by other chicks... it seems blind(ish)...it doesn't open it's eyes much (it can...just normally closed), stumbles around...

This is a link to a google drive file with a video of this chick... trying to figure out if I should cull it to keep it from suffering(?)... starving or being picked apart by other chicks... it seems blind(ish)...it doesn't open it's eyes much (it can...just normally closed), stumbles around...

So... last night, on what would be day 24 going into 25...we had one hatch. It's not right...doesn't keep it's eyes open, stumbles around, keeps it's head held way up high when it's standing... I don't think it's going to make it but we're trying. One more seems to have pipped the size of a...

Hi, Looking for some experienced thoughts/knowledge.... We've hatched 3 or 4 sets of our own eggs (not-shipped) before, and generally hatch about 70% (or close to). We run the incubator at 50-60 with egg turner on until lockdown, then run 60-65%. This is the first time we added eggs on the...

This sounds genius... I'm going to try it. We are losing half our eggs from our 23 hens right now, if this works it will be awesome.

bummer... that's the part I was wondering about, if a BoP would pick the head and neck like that. It was weird how the whole head was bare of skin. It seems really weird that a hawk would work that far on the ground to get to the inside of the coop...but it's entirely possible that it sat in a...

Update on this... I'm now thinking it was NOT the other chickens that pecked her to death upon re-entry into the coop. I went down to check on them, and none are in the coop. They're all perched up in various places around the yard, generally in hidden areas. I think they witnessed the murder...

Unfortunately, free ranging is a must for us. It's healthier for the chickens, they make healthier better eggs, and they lead happier lives. They just have a higher murder rate. When they don't get murdered, they have the happiest chicken lives in the world. Honestly, if we could get rid of...

It would reeeeeally surprise me if a hawk or owl would get into the coop. Not saying it wouldn't be possible, but they'd have to walk a significant distance like a chicken to do it. There's no flying in. I've always heard of hawks and owls killing from above with a fast smash on chickens...

We have a walk in chx coop with auto door that leads into netted run. We generally leave the netted run open (through a door under the coop) so they can wake up and free range. Our chx are totally free ranging, and we lose chickens now and then. More to our own dog than anything (he'll be...

I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this.... but I'd put money on it that the chicken was killed by something else and the hawk went in scavenging. Hawks don't kill too many adult chickens...it happens, but it's infrequent. Also, hawks don't walk up to chickens and peck...

Next questions on this.... So I'm guestimating then that my birds are about 4 months old or a little over right now. 1. When would they start breeding/egg laying? 2. Assuming I'm not lucky enough for my 6 birds to be 3m & 3f, if I have more fem than male, will the uncoupled females still lay...

Sorry for the slow response to this... i haven't been on in a while. Thank you very much, that was very helpful.