We have enough roosters already, thanks. By "successfully" I don't mean brutally. At this point I don't want to condition her away from broodiness, altho a response that entertains that consideration is welcome too.
12 hours of like white light & hot red light from heat lamps? This I ask cuz i suspect the birds need more of the blue -- daylight-signalling -- part of the spectrum more normally, or so i think, found in the usual spot-like lighting than is found from the reddish heat lamps. I can only tell...
Problems are, they stopped laying before winter set in here in Canada's Rocky Mtns., then a bear came, ripped open the coop sidewall & ate 5 out of 45 of our chickens, so that's gotta traumatize the rest? I heard I could check their vent/cloaca for suppleness then prep the rest for dog food...
Hi, I found this thread searching for how much daylight needed to trigger laying or somesuch string brought me here. We just passed the 12/12 mark at spring equinox. I was just wondering the timing to put birds out in a distal mobile coop with no lighting. I do this every summer, but normally I...
Much thanks for the replies. Funny that's just what I thought i saw in the nesting box, a wolverine. Thanks for the laugh. I'm extremely disappointed when people don't pay enuf attn to see the climate is changing, & for the worse. We're definitely losing the fertility needed to grow food & too...
She keeps protectively pecking at my hand. I suppose I could use a shovel handle, but I already feel like I'm disrupting a natural process, but it isn't it too hot a season for broodyness to successful conclusion? ... There, I did it. One mere egg forming the so called "pile". I guess the...
Got one sitting firm already this spring (it's been a cold spring, at night, anyway). Tomorrow when i feed them she'll likely come off to eat and then I can see how many in her pile. OFC, it's different for a Bantam, but an optimum for pile size of chickens large and small would be appreciated...
I heard it was buggy. Just got into it, dont see any bugs and certainly no mould. I'm putting it in a feed mix which includes molasses. Will add some hot water to help the mixing and hopefully soften the popcorn. Much thanks for the replies. Nick
It's even organic. My partner got it. Don't know what or if she paid for it, really. But we have lots of it now. I was joking about it going off in their guts, but surely i could only be joking about that, right? Really is popping corn good food for chickens, given they get layer pellets & other...
1000 yr. egg recipe from China. They bury their eggs, then eat them, but there's considerable prep involved. Also called Century Egg, i believe: https://www.silkroadgourmet.com/making-1000-year-eggs/
Variety is the spice of (soil) life. So that which is already suggested together including the wood chips already preponderating. We add wood stove ash, which keeps smell down as well as bio-charges however much charred wood is in the mix. Also deciduous leaves as well mixes well into garden...
Our broody hen is on a shelf and should be moved to a more spacious penned in space...or so I believe? My guess is sooner the better. Then too I can control from extra eggs laid on that pile. We have a 12 egg pile and maybe the broody bordering on Bantam size should reduce size to fewer eggs...
Thanks for suggesting my first thought. They're alternately called zap straps and cable ties around here. They're kinda squared, a bit rough around the edges, but'll prolly be what we go with. Just checking if som'n better than the immediate go-to.
Hi, Friends want to overwinter their birds at our Winter Chicken Palace -- really just a larger lusher warmer coop than they got. They want to band their chickens to ID them at winter's end. Any ideas of what can be used that's humane (doesn't hurt, nor get them caught up in fencing or whatever...
Of course Bantams are 1/2 size, but sorry for this dull thread not ending but cant be counted as 1/2 cuz each takes up space, so it's somewhere between 1/2 and whole. I hate math too. Dunno why i clicked myself here. Glutton for punishment, i guess
Luckily we got a mobile chicken coop (not so mobile anymore, but works as sits) cuz at time i thought it'd be redundant, but now I've seen its light. Instead of disturbing the broodies, which I didn't wanna do, or now seems isn't due. Took a while to get it together, fencing in the coo leaving a...
We're arguing here whether better to leave the broodies be where they are or sequester them from rest of flock...or within the flock by putting screens over the boxes they're in. Realizing pix are needed: the 1st pic shows a pile where the broody had just got off, probably expecting i was coming...
Yipee I eh! They went broody about 10 days ago and like someone said it is contagious! I got 4 broodies out of 25. Plenty 'nuf for us. Now I wonder....and this may take a different thread: is it better to leave flock intact or split the flock so to give the new families space to develop. I have...
Hi, Was just opening beds in garden near chicken run, looking at the dense Kooch grass, AKA quack or twitch grass, along the fence line. This weed is worldwide. Anyway, I thought wouldn't it be cool to have some things chickens like to eat growing along that fence line instead. Maybe something...
Oh. Now i get it. Well I may've missed my boat. I thought it was just too early when one of them appeared to go broody, but then got off the eggs and didn't go right back on them after feeding. Then i took the eggs and she wasn't being protective.In those early April days...well now i know...