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I hadn't really considered breeding a LF to one of my hens. They're so tiny, I just assumed they would get crushed in the process. Now I think maybe my ideal cross would be a small Marans to one of my hens in hopes of getting a small-ish brown egg layer... Too many choices lol! I was wrong...

Ack, all the talk about poor laying has me I'm worried my hens' eggs are going to permanently dry up by next year and I'll have to go back to eating regular eggs. I've been spoiled by the extra delicious bantam eggs. Right now I'm getting nothing, and I'm not sure I will until spring. 6 weeks in...

My girls have been co-brooding two eggs. One egg hatched and the other has pipped, and both hens started pecking at the hatched chick. Zeste actually pulled fluff out. I tried removing Zeste from the nest hoping Sel would be more motherly, since she was reacting to the cheeping less, but she...

My girls have decided to co-parent lol. It's adorable, and it's great because they've started taking shifts so the eggs are never without a warm hen sitting on them. It was a bit early, but I candled yesterday and got confirmed veins in one egg and possible veining in another. Send black pullet...

It seems to be a very male year. On a few groups I'm in everyone seems to be getting all or almost all male hatches. My trees are also dumping a lot of leaves. My SO said they do that when it's really hot and dry to conserve energy/water. I'm so close to being done the coop renovation. Right...

Ack, this morning when I was bringing my one-day-shy-of-10-week-old cockerels out to their pen one of them attempted to mate with one of the other cockerels. The whole shebang. Tidbitted for a few seconds, grabbed him by the hackles, did the screaming rodeo ride around the pen, then looked...

Oh my gosh, Piep is adorable! Black animals will always be my favourite, I think. That's good to know about Schnute's wattles not passing on, at least to his direct offspring. For my upcoming clutch I don't need to worry about 3rd generation because the chick(s) I produce won't be bred...

Does anyone know the inheritance rate of wattles? Of course the cockerel with the best size, structure, beard/muff, hackles, and temperament has huge (well, huge for a d'Anvers) wattles hanging off his face . Aside from those he's looking pretty fantastic. 8.5 weeks and his beard/muff are...

Yeah, I think the odds of that chick being female are less than 0.01%. All my chicks (who are probably all boys) are extremely adorable, jostling at the coop door to jump into my arms. My last rooster was very sweet as a chick but turned into a tiny terror when he hit puberty, and chances are...

I don't know about Wisp, but I would say Chinchilla is for sure a d'Anvers and a girl. In the quails you can tell the girls and boys apart by the feathering. Boys will have red shoulders, girls will have lacing on their backs. Here's a really young pic I have showing my blue quail girl on the...

As much as I'd love to contribute to the betterment of breeds I care about I don't think I'm cut out to be a breeder, chickens or any other animal. I know my dog's breeder is getting burnt out and it just seems so emotionally taxing, I applaud people who are able to do it. If my three do turn...

Sigh... All my blacks have red combs at 4.5 weeks. Starting to really think I ended up with all cockerels, when I really wanted none. These guys are extremely friendly too, they'll come running and jump into my arms for attention, so even choosing just one is going to be extremely difficult...

For getting my guys out on pasture I have a little portable pen with a top that I put them in. I just move it to a new spot every day so they don't eat the grass down to nothing (except at the moment I've put them to work removing the grass for their run expansion). It lets them get fresh forage...

The waiting game to find who's a pullet and who's a cockerel is tough. It was so much easier with my quails lol. The blacks are my dream colour though. As much as I've grown to love the dilutes and the fancy markings, plain black animals will always be my favourite. For some reason the sight...

My 3.5 week olds' combs look exceptionally dark in photos, and sometimes even in person. Is that normal for the blacks? It's almost like their combs transition from black to red to the flesh tone my blue quails had at that age. I cleaned the coop/run and set up the introduction fence. Then...

This batch of chicks has been really interesting. One especially stands out. Within the first week she was already perching. They turned two weeks yesterday and both the ones I think are girls have already progressed to taking naps on their little perch. Both the suspected girls will climb into...

I'm sorry for your loss . --- Yesterday we drove 3.5 hours each way to pick up black chicks. Thankfully it was very sunny and the windshield was like a hot magnifying glass, so I was able to place their box under the window to keep them comfortable while we waited for the ferry. I had...