It all sounds good and I gotta say, AWESOME cardboard brooder!! A couple things are apparent to me...you're much better at construction and design and your duct tape beats heck out of mine I'm going to have to build something bigger this weekend and I'll be ripping off a couple ideas I see...
I'm thinking once they're well feathered, they'll be good outside
I"m in Michigan and our weather is nuts...but I can't imagine brooding them (even though they're in an RV that we're fixing up outside right now with an electric heater and heat lamp) for much longer than 6 weeks. They just...
I had this issue last week. Same thing...one chick with all it's tail feathers missing, a raw tail and it was also picking at itself. I tried to isolate it and find the culprits. I thought I"d found the culprits, isolated them too but actually, I'm not even sure if it was the two I isolated...
Ack! I"m so sorry!
I just got a great book in the mail today...The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow. It's awesome and REALLY comprehensive. It wasn't expensive through Amazon, like $12.00 I think for a brand new one.
I played it safe and started them with medicated feed and...
Ooops...forgot something!
I've read somewhere here on BYC that you shouldn't introduce grain until they're 8 weeks or so old. I could be wrong, but I think that's the commonly accepted age for grains.
I'm not sure if it would make her have a hard time passing poo, but if they're getting any kind of food besides chick crumbles, they need to have some grit too. If they're ONLY eating crumbles, they don't need it but if you're supplementing with greens or other treats, they have to have it
At...
It shouldn't last much longer than the first four or five days or week at most. I quit doing worried "butt checks" more than a week ago and mine are a little over 2 weeks old now. Traveling (if they were shipped) is hard on them and getting a little too cold can contribute to it as well. Make...
I would think that even if you secure the sides with hardware cloth or chicken wire, that something pushing the crate over is a fear too! There may be wires on the bottom of the crate (duh! at first I thought it was open on the bottom !) but if they aren't protected, and it tips, then they can...
That's just bull...I would definitely cancel the balance, ask for a refund and after I got it, tell him exactly what I thought of his hideous "business" practices. Is the guy a complete moron or what???
I don't want you to screw up your chances of a refund but after you settle things, it would...
My two-week olds freak out at the darkness, even when it isn't total or sudden.
I try not to leave bright lights on them at night ... they're in heated place and I can keep it warm enough ~ if I don't need a light at night for extra heat, I prefer not to have one in their brooder, even the...
Quote:
What do you mean they don't??? I WANT my compost pile to be a mile high
What an hilarious thread
Mine actually don't poop on me ~ the only time one did was when it was pasted and I cleaned it off and got just about a handful out of the poor thing!
Obviously, I'm not handling mine...
Hi Noel...
Oh my...I so hope it isn't the cocci
It's good that a normal poo happened so maybe they got into something or maybe the shavings irritated their systems. Or they caught something. Doesn't make any sense to separate them if they're all doing the same thing. It's hard on them to...
Quote:
That's a really good idea...how come I never think of the easy, simple COOL stuff like that?
I didn't have chickens last year and after awhile, I started feeling bad for dumping out so much tomato skins for Bubby (pot bellied kid in my avatar!) so I just tossed them out...I didn't...
Quote:
I work full time too (well, 35 hours a week and I. HATE. IT.) and I have a great trick for putting up tomato and spaghetti sauce that is super easy and fast!
I use the plum or paste tomatoes...oblong, kwim? OK...so get a mess of them, enough that when you cut them in half and stand...
Quote:
I LOVE fresh beets. I had my first fresh beets last year - - - now I plant them every chance I get. I hear the leaves are better than the beets - - but I just didn't have time to try them out this year. I just pulled up the last of my beets.
STRAWBERRIES - - - I have some planted...
It's OK...I'm happy to offer what little help I can! I worry too...I'm having an issue with some feather picking and had one chick with a tail feather pulled out last night again so I had to spray her with blue-kote. Second one and it's really worrying me.
I think that water coming out ALONG...