I have found that having a 10 week old German Shepherd is like having a 10 month old baby again. You are constantly monitoring what they are putting in their mouth, and teaching them that certain things don't belong there. Ironically, except for accidents he is potty trained. It is funny to...
A beautiful breed. They have odd quirks. If your rooster or hens carry a gene for black and splash when you have the Blue variety, they need to be separated. They tend to attack varieties that are not the same color as they are. I have had to take the Black variety and put them in with the...
EE's lay colorful eggs, but the most common is light green to light blue. They are naturally curious and great foragers when left to eat bugs and worms.
Roosters can be standoffish to man haters. But, they are one of the more delicious birds to eat. The man hater variety make wonderful fried chicken or crockpot birds. They are easy to clean. Hens tend to be standoffish, but lay beautiful dark brown eggs.
I purchased four long ago from TS for a coop build. The design is good, with one issue. Larger Fowl can't fit in the boxes. It took a hand held reciprocating saw to make the entrance holes large enough.
Oh, the land slopes fine. Some of the lower elevation coops, kept getting built up with gravel and sand, but with the torrents lately, it hasn't helped. Some places we took the precaution of putting up sand bags.
I built a brooder box that is big enough for my wife to lay down in. This has allowed me to use it as a grow out as well, so they are fairly large when introduced to the flock.
It is. My wife was helping measuring while I was planning, cutting, and barn siding was a pain to cut with a circular saw. It felt like my back was being ripped in half.
My understanding it is a blood test similar to P/T testing. The interesting thing about P/T is virtually eliminated as a disease. Things like cocci, Mereks, and predation are far more common. Honestly, I think they have it bassackwards, and they should be testing more A/I as that is what...
Maybe. Chickens have been known to eat certain snakes too. But, where there are rats they tend to attract snakes. You might want to bury barbed wire around the coop, that tends to mess of burying animals. Also, to deter the rodent population, we only feed once a day.
My NPIP is still good until next summer. The T/P test was done as normal by TAMU. We weren't even at home, and he did all the birds. He just taped the cleared results to the fence. I wanted A/I testing done by a Vet. But, the rural vet, said they knew how to do it, they just weren't...
True. It is quite normal for people to be attached to their animals. I am getting my German Shepherd Puppy this Sunday, and I definitely plan on getting him pet insurance, for that reason. Should something catastrophic happen to him and he could be saved, pet insurance would bear the brunt...
As long as you are practicing biosecurity, you shouldn't have a problem. Because the neighbor and his ducks are distanced from your chickens I don't think it would be an issue. However, if you are trekking over in your muck boots over there, and using your same muck boots with your birds...
http://www.brinsea.com/Articles/Advice/Humidity.aspx
This should help regarding humidity levels during development and the incubation cycle. A bit technical, but thorough. It is the system we use when hatching.
Chickens don't have teeth. So that is where their food they injest goes first. That is where the grit they used to grind up their feed. Everything goes there first before digestion can begin.