OHio ~ Come on Buckeyes, let me know your out there!

[WVduckchick]

how do you set preference to notify of answered posts? Couldn't find. Thanks, still new here..

Go to your own profile, and click preferences. It's in "email notifications", I think. If you are on mobile, you probably will have to switch to desktop, which you can do by going to the bottom of any page (most any page) and toggle over to desktop. Click your ID in the upper right corner and hit preferences in the drop down. After making your choices, save them, then you can switch back to mobile.

 

[Kraftcrazychick]

As to your cock bird losing his tail feathers, it is the season. Several of my birds look like they had an unfortunate run in with a weed eater, just natural molting.

Occasionally when a broody has a batch of mixed age eggs and only a single chick hatches, the hen will stay on the nest figuring the rest should be hatching now as well. If the chick stays with the hen it should be ok, but sometimes a rambunctious chick will get away from the hen, resulting in getting chilled and dying, and or eaten by maybe rodents in coop, or the other chickens. Better results will almost always be achieved by having all eggs at the same stage of incubation. I know it seems heartless to discard eggs that are already started and replace them with fresh, but you'll likely end up with more chicks with the later.

Unfortunately both egg eating, and to a lessor extent tail picking, can be a learned behavior that can spread through a flock. Spend some time, and keep a close eye on your birds. If one of your birds shows regular sign of yoke on her, or is seen picking at other birds enough to cause problems, your flock would be healthier and happier without them.

The eggs were all close in age as I had that problem previously. My girl has given up and instead turned to taking care of her 3 month olds again. She nags them to go inside when it's dark and they sleep on top of her in the nest box.

It's like a pile of tails and legs in there.

I guess this will be the first molt for my Rooster so I didn't consider that. I did know that Nellie hasn't had a tail in months. and Bernadette is missing all the feathers around her tail so I chalked it up to a feather plucker.

I have never found any indication as to what happened to the eggs Agatha was sitting on. The only open space I can see is around the door jamb on the outside of the pen. None of the flock is acting strange or avoiding certain areas either to give me a clue. Can or will chickens eat mostly developed eggs? She did so well on her first hatch I can't believe she would do so poorly with her second.

 

[big medicine]

One of my old hens caught my eye tonight as I getting them to go in and locking up for the night. Ain't she a beaut ? Give her a few weeks to finish her molt and she'll look like a million bucks,

 

[chicknmania]

She looks like me in the morning.

 

[ToniTalley]

Decided to take a few pics of the coop.

 

[littlejohnacres]

Has anyone ever used High Tunnel Poultry Farm in Marion, Ohio? I would like to expand my flock by about 10 and I'm just debating if I should get some chicks from Rural King, mail order chicks or take a little road trip and get older pullets from this breeder??? My other concern is quarantining them?? I am a little limited on space to keep them separate.

 

[mamatink7]

Has anyone ever used High Tunnel Poultry Farm in Marion, Ohio? I would like to expand my flock by about 10 and I'm just debating if I should get some chicks from Rural King, mail order chicks or take a little road trip and get older pullets from this breeder??? My other concern is quarantining them??  I am a little limited on space to keep them separate. 

imo I would take the drive ( we go to Meyer Hatchery in Polk though). You can get them Mereks vaccinated and they are much healthier coming from hatchery.
I haven't used that hatchery but I only get hatchery chicks.
You definitely have to quarantine them, I've read and heard for 4 wks. How much age difference will be between them?

 

[Kelfeathers]

This girl came to visit yesterday. She helped herself to my squash and then went on her way.

 

[chicknmania]

Definitely quarantine them, even though it's tempting to just let them go. In addition to disease prevention, it also helps the newcomer chickens get acclimated to their new home, while still feeling like they've got some protection, safety, and privacy. Putting new chickens in to an existing flock usually does not work, well... it's very stressful for them all. Chickens as a rule in an established flock are not friendly to strange new chickens appearing out of the blue. You can relate can't you? Think how it would be to be plucked from where you're used to living, transported to a new place, and then be forced to mingle with a bunch of strangers. And likewise, how do THEY feel?

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

Ha ha ha! I know a woman who has a peacock come visit regularly.