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That is so awesome! Sadly, neither of these two are still with us. Thanks so much for the homage to their memories!

I'm not too worried about losing a few eggs or hatch rates, we get more than enough eggs to cover our needs (and then some) and we have two other broodies sitting on eggs plus a dozen eggs in our incubator. Also, our chickens don't lay in nesting boxes for the most part. A couple do but the rest...

I have a couple very broody hens sitting on eggs right now. They're displaying normal broody behavior that I am used to. However, I have three or four other hens who seem to be taking shifts sitting on a clutch of eggs. They exhibit all the traits of broodiness except they will swap out...

1) What type of bird , age and weight (does the chicken seem or feel lighter or thinner than the others.) RI Red, 3-4 years old, very light and frail, definitely exhibiting weight loss. 2) What is the behavior, exactly. Lethargic, I found her laying on her side in the run. I thought she was...

Quick update on my EE/Cochin mixes The rooster has turned out to be a big handsome fella with iridescent green mixed into his barred coloration. The hen did turn out to be an olive egger after all. I think the tiny brown egg I found earlier this winter was actually one of our mama hens starting...

One pullet and one cockrel. The hen just laid her first egg last week. However she didn't inherit the blue egg gene. The cockrel, however, has some very pretty green tail feathers coming in so we're excited to see their final form. Being cochin mixes they take quite a while to fully mature. I...

If you want to do fish and ducks together, it's possible but very expensive and requires a lot of work and management. You'll need a MUCH bigger pond (think large swimming pool) and either have to do lots of treating of the water (expensive and labor/management intensive) or use natural methods...

I've used those in the past and I can't stand them. The last two I have bought shorted out. The problem is the cord is too short. No matter how on top of adding fresh bedding I am, there's always some amount of moisture near the waterer that causes a short. Plus the girls like to mess with the...

That's the one I ended up getting. Of course, as soon as I ordered it the temperature jumped to 50° so I haven't bothered installing it yet. Gotta love midwest weather.

It's getting colder and waterers are starting to freeze. I've tried the commercial heated waterers in the past and I don't like them. The cords are too short and always manage to find there way into some sort of moisture and short out. I even had the cord melt once. This year I've rigged up a...

So I ordered a big assortment from Meyer Hatchery this year. I got ten of their "production pack" and ten of their "rainbow pack". I have most them identified except two that are perplexing me. They are identical as far as I can tell and at first I thought they were brown leghorns but then I...

Add another roost. Chickens get weird about certain resources and sometimes it's roosting space. She'll get over it eventually.

The only time I've found the whole ratio thing to be a problem is when you have a much heavier and/or particularly aggressive male with smaller females. We made that mistake with a very large cochin and four much smaller RI reds. If they're similar size she should be fine. The apron isn't a bad...

Is there a reason they're separated from the pullets? We've always kept all of our chickens together without issue. We had 4 males at one time. Two have since passed, otherwise we still would.

I had this problem with one of my girls recently. Just keep putting them in every night. It might take a few weeks but they'll get the hint eventually.

It sounds like they mean the lights automatically turn on at sunrise and off at sunset.

Well I went to put the birds up tonight and she was waiting for me at the door. She's done this the last two night so it looks like persistence won out. It only took the better part of a month. As for some of the concerns about the roosts, they are actually fairly level. They just prefer the...

I suspected as much but wasn't sure. How can you tell? We have three more that are a couple weeks younger that I'd like to try to sex as well.

Here are some pictures of inside the coop: This is the original coop. Basically a big bird cage inside our barn. We use a doggie door that was original to the barn as our chicken door. A view into the extension from inside the original part. Our nesting boxes in the front corner of the...

Mixed flocks are great. Always good to have a bit of genetic diversity and it makes for a hardier flock overall. We have about 40 birds and over a dozen different breeds.