I had 9 Roo's raised togather since they were chicks and while there were a few little fights, they never came close to really non-stop fighting; the larger issue for me was that one roo would start his thing with a hen and then that was just an invintation for all the nearby roo's to jump on...
Do you want to have apples from your orchard ??
I had my chicken run and coop right next to my two apple trees and they ate every apple that fell from the trees which was nice as I didn't have to clean up the apples on the ground.
BUT after they cleaned up the ground of all apples, they got...
I thought I had one that didn't crow, out a weird group of chicks I got last fall, I ended up with 9 roosters & 7 hens; I was living in the country and the crowing didn't bother me or anyone else but I moved and brought my hens with me and I kept one roo that I never once heard or saw him crow...
My girls had their very first snow yesteday and they refused to have anything to do with it! They stayed in the covered part of their run at least as my wife explained, I went out to feed them this morning and found they refused to trek though the snow to the waterer, I gave them their fav treat...
I have on of those wireless temp sensors, just those inexpensive ones that are designed to tell you the outside temp from inside, mine works great; I put mine on the side of my coop and honestly I'm a little jealous as there coop has been warmer than were the inside receiver is by the kitchen...
My hens have responded to violent situations and curtailed their laying habits; late this last summer I was forced to cull the majority of my young roosters and it took several days for them to return to their normal laying habits; including this last summer a thunderstorm blew apart their run...
If a person came to me that needed food to feed themselves or their family, I would give them anything I have to help esp a couple of my hens including helping them start their own egg laying flock, if a needy person came onto my property and tried to take my chickens without me knowing their...
After several months of working with my golden retreiver who has constantly tried to raid my chicken coop and earlier this early summer did get a couple of chickens, after working with her all summer I believe I'm making progress with her!
I tie her up when a let the chickens range and this...
so the eggs I bought at the store acouple of months ago before my hens started laying could have been older than my hens.....
Yuck!
But the fried eggs I had for breakfast this morning were 3 days old and they were good!!
Interesting question again though, how much time is there typically...
After reading the thread about peeling hard boiled eggs, I am curious since my fresh eggs are difficult to peel compared to store eggs but on average, just how old are store bought eggs you can buy at the store??
I have never had real fresh eggs until now and i LOVE them!
Also I found this site which lists harmful things of pets (dogs in particular but most still applies to chickens)
http://www.qeok.com/dogs/1158-qeok.html
I never thought apple seeds were bad... but in doing a little more internet googling:
As I understand now, apple seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides, which when the seed is digested, releases hydrogen cyanide
In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_cyanide
it states (without confirmation of...
After my chicks turned about 3 three months old one of what I thought was a leghorn hen was being beat up and could hardly walk much less socialize with the rest of the flock, I took her out and kept her alone for at least a month while she healed and once she was doing better I introduced her...
Bricks work excellant for me, I kept raising the height until the waste of feed and water stopped. I started my 5 gallon waterer about 4 inchs off the ground and now it's almost 10 inchs off the ground which keeps the water very clean, the food in the same way, high enough that the chickens...
It's so easy to spoil them but, if they don't eat the regular feed, you must remain firm; they will eat when they are hungrey enough. my teenager kid's will down the soda and treats when there's some around and ignore the good food, they aren't near anything similer to starving but they know as...
My thoughts are that I personally wouldn't take the chance of the completly free ranging roo's as that can result in attracting preditors as while it keeps them out of the mix with your hens, it also sets up preditors who might be attracted by the free roo's who other otherwise might not get...
I don't believe that groundhogs will hurt the chickens but it's the whole burrow thing they leave behind that can attract bad critters, good idea to sealing it off but you will want to check for others, foxes and skunks will run off groundhogs and take the hole over.
My poor boys have the same infliction except they don't get much ridding time as one roo will start and another will run over and knock him off and take over.
I get the Jimi Hendrix lyrics in my head, "move over rover and let jimmy take over"!!!
My first thought would be groundhogs as those critters are all around were I live in Missouri BUT a couple months ago I was checking my coon traps and my dog chased a skunk into a groudhog burrow so sometimes other animals will take up in groundhog dens.
Was there fresh dirt as if it was...
I thought I was just being too soft hearted, I have to cull my flock as I fell into the situation of having too many roo's, the last couple of weekends I have considered doing myself but I instead I'm going to see if I can find a processor to do it for me, I don't want them to suffer including...