Ask your chick related questions HERE! (Newbies welcome!)

[Miniflock]

Yeah, I was really excited. :yiipchick But with 11 of them, I'd like to see more. On the upside, it was a perfect little egg!

 

[dmfmfl]

At 22 weeks old I sure wish mine would start laying. Maybe they aren't because of the heat. I live in Florida and it is ungodly hot and humid. Constantly raining, too. Yuk. I also have Columbian Rock's...actually mine are called Columbian Rock Cross's. They are more aggressive than my others. Do you have a rooster? If so, at about what age do they definitely look like a rooser? Mine (2) are 17 weeks old. Hope you get an egg tomorrow.

 

[Miniflock]

These are my first ever chickens, so am learning as I go. I have 5 Columbian Rock X and 6 Red Sex Link. I am also finding the Col. Rocks more aggressive now that they are older - one in particular. We don't know yet if any Roos. I honestly don't know how to tell, but we were suspecting one.
Hopefully yours will start soon. I can't even imagine living in Florida in summer!
It's only about 78 F here today (Ontario, Canada).

 

[trinityhens]

I've got a 7 month old hen who started laying eggs at 5 months. About 3 weeks ago she stopped laying. She's also the only one who goes high to lay in the coop. She's always in "brooding behavior". I never see her interact with the others. Anytime I go check on her she's always on "the nest" which is empty. I have physically taken her down and closed the coop door to force her to mingle with the others. She's a bit aggressive towards them. But, while out I observed she's eating, scratching, drinking & pooing normally. But I don't know if she ever gets off the nest otherwise. Please help. I'm not sure what to do!! Thanks!

 

[azygous]

Here's what I recommend you do to get lots of people responding to your question. Go to this forum https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/18/chicken-behaviors-and-egglaying and click on the tab at the top that says, "start a new thread", and you will get your very own discussion thread that way, instead of this old one that's likely to be mainly ignored.

You have a very good question that deserves a lot of response. And welcome to BYC!

 

[likkatron]

I have 8 chicks that I got from a local breeder, she has a lot and doesn't really keep track of age(of course) and I'm curious, and it'll help me decide when they should be nearing the age when they can move outside.

This one is a blue splash barnevelder. Only feathers are on the tip of the wings. Has really light brown chipmunk stripes like all barnevelder babies have.

This one is a Buff Brahma. I don't know if it's just the breed, but compared to the other babies this one has a really tall walk/stance, and the legs appear bigger. I heard that roosters have longer legs generally? Also only has feathers on the tips of wings.

This one is an Ameraucana, and almost the whole wings are feathered, otherwise all fluff.

This one is also a Barnevelder. With feathering only on the wings.

This one is an Amerecauna as well. Black in color, and bigger than his lighter color sister. (Color is probably because one is blue other is black) Almost same feathering as the other Amerecauna, maybe a little on the back.

This one is a salmon faverolles. Feathering on wings completely, and tail feathers have sprouted.

Also a salmon faverolles. This one I know for sure is a girl. Has complete feathering on wings, (she's molting), and her comb is showing. She is the 2nd biggest in the bunch.

By far the biggest, also a for sure girl. She had feathering on the back and wings. It's hard to tell where all the feathering is completely because of molting. She has a noticeable comb. She's a blue splash maran.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
Regardless of how old they are now ( they look quite young to me) they can go outside when the breast is fully feathered. Chicks get their feathers body region by body region in a definite pattern. The last to grow feathers is the center of the breast . Some people call this, " when the breast zippers up" because the feathers in the breast come in from both sides and meet in the center. When this happens, generally, your chicks should no longer need heat and they can go outside.
Best,
Karen

 

[manikhawaja]

 

[manikhawaja]

My buff cochin hen of 5-6 months is i dont know sneezing or coughing. Rooster also do it sometimes. It sounds like "huff" or "cuff". They are active otherwise. Above is a pic at night time. Help please. Thankyou.

 

[RareAseels]

I have made my own incubator and put 6 rare Aseel eggs in it they are from Thailand I personally picked them out of a champion aseel cock and hen (hen from India) for looks and height and they cost me loads!!

I put the eggs in an incubator and my temperature couldn't possibly be better I also have a fan inside the incubator too but my problem is, my incubator has no water in it and the humidity reads 70%... I read a few forums and found out there is a calibration test where you get salt and a ziplock bag blah, blah, blah.. And it turns out my hygrometer landed exactly on 75% SHARP! For 12 hours staraight. I am going to put the hygrometer back in the incubator when it's time to turn the eggs.

What shall I do? My humidity reads 70 - 75% when there is not a drop of water in there?!?!