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lol, sounds like you made the right choice with that cockerel. Interestingly enough I discovered that it was always my sub par hens making what I dubbed 'illicit nests' (any nest not within the bounds of the cages and not approved by me, the chicken-law-maker for my flock). I'd always thought it...

Quote: I agree. In my experience you just can't get the same health from caged birds as from free range. It's not an option for me to not free range them since I keep them for my family's health; this leads to my seemingly very stringent culling standards for social behaviors. They must be the...

Originally I thought cockerel because I am no expert with purebreds and assumed the two you initially showed were of breed standard. The dark one beside it, which looked like a pullet for sure, made the paler one look far more like a cockerel. If both had been breed standard then this would be a...

They sound like great neighbours. Hopefully they stay that way. I'm fairly done with all the stress from people not being honest, I've always valued honesty and have often believed the best of folks just because they spoke the best about themselves. Stupid, I know... But, benefit of the doubt...

Lol yeah, watch out for the folks who say they like or don't mind the crowing.. Not to slur your neighbours, whom I have of course never met, but in my experience that sort is often a person who is so uncomfortable stating their mind that they resort to passive aggressive methods of obtaining...

Yeah, it did take a few generations. Each one showed some signs earlier and earlier until I could reliably sex them within a week of hatching. It's a good thing you're able to keep males where you are, takes the pressure off sexing it accurately when still young enough to not crow. And makes...

Not an easy breed to sex, as compared to some others. Best wishes with that. At around 20 weeks you might start seeing some definitively male feathering, in fact some might be showing now. Some of my little roos have had male feathers from 6 weeks and younger. Side effect of feeding them kelp...

Pretty bird. A lot of variation between yours. I wonder if you didn't get a cross somehow. The one everyone thought was a rooster still looks male to me, compared to the others, but we will have to see. I was basing my estimation of gender on its differences in development compared to the...

It doesn't matter where you get them, there will always be a dud every now and then, and sometimes the whole lot will be duds. Don't beat yourself up about it. Even buying from proven breeders brings duds occasionally too. I temporarily forgot your particular circumstances, sorry, lol, was...

Lol, I think you as thread starter are fully licensed to hijack your own thread. :D About panting: generally means distress, unless you are sure it's from fever. It usually means pain or nausea. If this is the case I don't think it's vent gleet after all. Are you sure she didn't just do a...

There's a few threads on the forums detailing how people treated vent gleet. Some used natural methods, some used man made products (need a better term for 'artificial' than 'pharmaceutical', it gets people to react a certain way lol...) But overall it seems quite treatable, if that is even what...

Yeah, modern worming is a bit like 'we'll poison both the animal and the worms, and see which one survives. I bet it'll be the animal because it's bigger!' LOL. Worming is a strain on the system when the method of worming is to poison the entire organism so the smaller parasitical organisms...

Sounds to me like they were kept on an insufficient diet (bare patches that might be moulting, dry cracked feet, mites etc being symptoms)... This is no slur to the person who probably fed them an approved diet, it's just the way it is; if the animal's on its feet it's considered healthy...

The wet feed could be doing it. When I made fermented feed, I made it by just adding enough water to cover the grain, so it was all soaked into the grain by the next day when I'd feed it to them. Not the orthodox way to make FF, I didn't even use ACV often, but it still works. It could be a...

Yes, kelp's a very valuable plant. There are some islands which were basically rocky outcrops which people managed to turn into lush pastures and forests over the years by harvesting kelp and digging it into the very shallow soil that already existed there. Now they've got deep, healthy soil and...

That's good, you're right to have concern and seek the facts. It's a sure sign of a responsible steward. I don't recommend any dietary additions or subtractions that I've not used myself for many generations, and I'm very aware I'm as fallible and unlearned as the next home poultry keeper. If...

No, it won't make them sick, you'd have to force feed them huge amounts to poison them, like you can do with any multivit or mineral. There's room for error, but a huge over or under dose will generally produce the same symptoms. It's like any other multivitamin or mineral, best had in natural...

Very strange they would reach the point of crowing without a single mature rooster feather showing! Except those two in one's tail... Hens can crow, especially the layer types, they seem to have higher testosterone. Also they can grow perfect spurs too. But I'd guess yours aren't hens, just...

Looked at the other pics, and I believe the barred rock type birds are possibly female. They show no rooster feathering, but that could be due to slow maturity; the bottom pic of a barred rock type bird has one or two green-sheened tail feathers which means it may be male. A red comb and...

That depends on diet. If you feed them a pinch of kelp per bird per day, by the third generation your week old chicks will have red combs and wattles. Kelp is a natural multivitamin and mineral supplement and an endocrine regulator and also a carminative. It makes them calmer and more...