Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps - Page 784

Quote:

Originally Posted by BantyChickenLuv 

She just drank some more water and actually are a few pieces of crumble, so hopefully she's getting better. She's also starting to run around the brooder more with her buddies.

Glad to hear that! You can always syringe feed her some more of the vitamins and gatorade type stuff instead of allowing her to do it herself. Just to give her the upper hand instead of relying on her to save herself.

Hi All,

I have a 10 month old Favorelle Rooster:

c

Yesterday he and my 2yo Cochin rooster got into a fight.   They bloodied each other's combs but no  chunks or holes.  The young man at the beginning of the road came over last evening and caught and held each rooster for me.  I smeared liberal doses of bag balm all over their combs and waddles and we put them back in the coop.

I am afraid that this fighting will continue and probably escalate.  The Favorelle seems to be the agressor as he went after my Cochin several times yesterday afternoon.  We have three ducks and the drake and one of the girls (I don't know what you call a female duck) absolutely despise this Favorelle rooster.  Whenever they come near him they both hiss and sorta quack while moving their heads up and down.  They chase him around and chase him off.  Now they are really ticked off and did this to him for an hour yesterday.  Our Cochin rooster is so big and his wings are too small to allow him to fly.  He sleeps in a hutch and when the ducks go in the coop at night, they sleep with him.  My Cochin has always been very tolerant of other males and he is so sweet to his girls.  I have two Araucana cockerels - who hang out peacefully with the Cochin.  I am worried the Favorelle might go after him.

I was interested in keeping him to breed some winter laying qualities into future pullets.  I have read that Favorelles are usually at the bottom of the pecking order so this attack surprises me. I absolutely cannot have him going after the  Araucanas.  I have only had chickens for two years and I just don't have any experience with this situation.

What do you all think?  Will they learn to get along or will it just get worse?  If you all think it will get worse would there be anybody who would be interested in taking him?  If you have to eat him just don't tell me.  He is about 8 lbs according to the neighbor who helped me.  He has been on Flock Raiser, scratch, and free ranging during the day.

Vickie et al

Kelso, WA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farmin Momma 

Quote:

Originally Posted by FirewifeJess 

Well this afternoon I stapled some fleece over the wire front of the rabbit hutch, put in a basket, but I need to trim down the front of the basket so that it's high enough to hold in bedding but low enough for chicks to get in and out of. I'm not worried about predators and the chicks, and I'm only slightly worried about Lucy successfully keeping eggs warm enough. I'm gonna let her give it a try sitting on them out in the chicken run in the hutch. If it doesn't work out well, I'll change things up for next time I guess, but DH isn't very happy with the suggestion of bringing the hutch in the garage, so outside it will stay for now.

Well if you want eggs to hatch, I have plenty for ya. But they would be mutts or EEs. They are Free to you or any other BYCers.
As far as her nest in the hutch, IMO I would not put a basket or any thing in there other then stuff for a nest (straw) that way the chicks can go in and out easily. Again kust my opinion.

Thanks! That's helpful, I've never done this before so I didn't know what to have in there for now. I'll take a pic of what I have and y'all can tell me what to do to make it chick safe. I'm going to move her in there tonight before I go to bed and see where she's at tomorrow morning.

FM - if nobody closer offers eggs, I'll be there tomorrow sometime! Thanks for the offer!!

Today a gal at church whom I barely know gave me a wrapped present! I was so excited to get home and open it up, and it is a 1945 publication of Betty Macdonald's "The Egg and I." I'd never heard of it but after doing a bit of online research about the book it's pretty old and famous. I'm already laughing my way through it, she's such a great author and to top it off, she talks about chickens too! LOL

Well I went to the hutch to grab any eggs from the other girls and take out the laying basket. I added more shavings and there's a substantial layer of bedding on one side of the hutch to keep both her and the egg warm. I can't wait to go move her tonight! Will give her one more wood egg too, to keep her happy there in the hutch. I only have 5, think that'll keep her there since I'm moving her? I hope so! She should be plenty sheltered but BRRRR it's gonna be an awful cold sit for her the next 3 weeks! I'm **thistempted** to give her a heat lamp but I'd rather things go as nature intends of this winter hatch. She's so adorable all ruffled up though; even DH was amazed at how different she was acting when I showed him today. If she doesn't cooperate and stay sitting in the hutch though, I have no idea if I'll give her real hatching eggs. I don't want things to go badly with the other girls killing chicks in the main coop.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurtlePowerTrav 

Quote:

Originally Posted by FirewifeJess 

Should I move her sooner or later to the rabbit hutch? I can't let her stay in the big girl coop, the chicks wouldn't be safe enough. If I need to move her ASAP, I'll have to get that curtain over the front of the hutch so she can be warmer. It's SO cold for me to think of putting her outside in the covered run in the hutch. Poor girl!But the nest boxes in the coop aren't any warmer I guess.

Jess, calm down. You don't even know yet if she is broody and you don't have eggs under her(at least I hope). Once you know she is committed, yes you should move her to a safe location to hatch out the chicks. Move her at night in the dark so she wakes up on the nest where ever you move her to. She would be fine in the run in your rabbit hutch. I had my broody in the tractor with the tarped sides down to protect from wind and side rain. She will do fine in the cold by herself. You may consider feeding her Flock Raiser while she is brooding, higher protein content will help her keep her body temp up. And definitely don't give access to layer feed if that is what you feed your flock, that can hurt the chicks. Please do not use a heat lamp on her, it will actually be counter productive to the chicks healthy growth. They feather in much faster when broody raised than brooder box raised.

The only thing I have to say, which is moot since it should warm up here hopefully this week, I would add a small amount of heat for her if is really cold like it has been. But only because she will be expending too much energy trying to keep herself and the eggs warm and I notice they don't come off the eggs to eat as often or for very long so the eggs don't get too cold. Which means she isn't getting much in the way of food, so she may lose too much weight. Just a thought. I got a 100 watt ceramic bulb from the pet store, works great. I also put a heat lamp out during this cold snap in the food area so the babies can come out from under mom a little more easily and get enough food. I am not trying to provide enough heat that babies are slow to feather but it's something to think about. But again, this cold snap may be over soon, so by the time you move her and get eggs under her and they hatch, you may not have to worry. My two silkie chicks that a broody hatched are doing fine and feathering quickly, but I do have a white heat lamp over the feeder and water area. At least for now. They probably won't need it by the end of the week.  I do agree with Travis, that you should feed her something with higher protien. It will keep her warmer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farmin Momma 

Quote:

Originally Posted by FirewifeJess 

Someone told me I should put my broody gal in the garage while she sits to keep her warmer, so that her outings for food and water don't chill the eggs too much. Is that true or should I forget about it and just let her do her thing and hope for the best? I'd like a good outcome but really, if it doesn't work great this winter, I have a dozen girls with high chances of broodiness sometime in 2013 and that's basically all I care about is new birds sometime this year. WDYT?

Ok, well as far as winter hatch I now have an opinion. My broody hatches have all been between 90% and 100% durring spring and summer. Now with the three broodis I so far have 3 hatch, one dissapired 2 are now in the house, and two more are trying to hatch. Yet I threw away at least 7 eggs that died. I would put her some where warm.

I do have to agree with Sara. It doesn't have to be WARM, warm, just not freezing. I have two silkies brooding two eggs together. I have a heated dag pad in the house, under the shavings for them, and a 50 watt ceramic bulb over the top. It is not warm by any stretch of the imagination at this point. I will turn off the pad as soo as the temp goes above freezing here at my house. It hasn't gotten much above that yet.