Articles by Pyxis

Preface If you need immediate instructions on how to assist a hatch, you may skip this section and go to the next one, where the instructions are. To start with, I want to address the fact that some people think assisting during a hatch is wrong. I respect the decision to not help during a...

This is an explanation of what is happening each day as a chicken embryo develops, complete with candling pictures. The egg I am using is a silver spangled spitzhauben. Definitions you may need: Vitteline membrane: The membrane that surrounds the yolk and separates it from the white...

Using a Broody Hen to Hatch and Raise Chicks A broody hen is a great way to hatch chicks for you and your flock. She will do all the work, she’ll have a better hatch rate than many incubators, and, best of all, no stinky brooders to clean up. It can be nerve wrecking when you let a broody...

Keeping a rooster can be fun and rewarding, and they are often great additions to the flock, and beautiful to boot. However, there is a lot of misinformation floating around about them, and several very persistent myths. So, what's true and what's just plain old misinformation? Myth One...

The Beginner's Guide to Incubation This guide is intended to help people new to incubation learn how to properly incubate and hatch eggs. It will walk you through how to incubate and hatch most common types of poultry, such as chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, etc. Choosing an Incubator...

Mallard Derived Duck Color Genetics Basics Ducks have come a long way since they were first domesticated from mallards and now come in many beautiful colors. This article will explore how the genetics behind these colors work, and how a duck comes to look the way it does. Please note that...

Feeding Ducklings Medicated Feed - The Myths and the Truth The Myth There is a rather pervasive myth about feeding ducklings and ducks floating around out there. You will see it posted on forums, maybe on signs in feed stores, and, unfortunately, perhaps even touted by some older...

Breeding for Sex-Linked Ducklings If you've ever bought chicks at a feed store or ordered them from a hatchery, you have probably come across birds labeled as Red Stars, Black Stars, Cinnamon Queens, ISA Browns, and the like. All of these are trade names for red sex link and black sex link...

So you want to hatch yourself some chicks and you’re ready to collect eggs and toss them in the incubator. Wait! There are some things you should know to maximize your success and get the most out of your hatching eggs. Fertilization First things first, if you want to hatch an egg, it has to be...

The most common reason to keep your own chickens is of course for the fresh eggs. When it comes to egg laying, however, not all breeds are created equal. So which breeds are best if you want a flock that produces tons of tasty eggs? This list will help you find out. 10. Ancona Coming in at...

The Myth of the 'Guard' Goose and Why You Should Not Get One If you browse online, you might come across an article that says you can keep a goose in with your chickens - just one, and it will probably tell you to get a male - and this goose will guard your flock, protecting them from predators...

Incubating Emu Eggs Perhaps you have been contemplating adding emus to your farm and have decided you want to hatch them yourself. Or maybe you bought some chicks a few years ago, and they're grown up and laying eggs of their own you would like to hatch. Maybe you even bought an adult...

At the beginning of this Fall, I had a problem. Chicken math had set in, and I had gone from my beginning flock of birds that fit snugly in an 8x4 coop to a flock that numbered near thirty (not to mention the ducks, goose, and guineas!). Obviously, I needed a bigger coop. Let me begin by saying...

Frostbite in chickens is a common problem that has affected my flock and many others. However, there are simple steps you can take to avoid and prevent frostbite, and, in the event that your bird does develop some frostbite, there are ways you can treat it to get it to heal or prevent it from...

When choosing a breed of chicken to keep, there are lots of considerations to make. But which qualities are most important? To find out, we ran a poll to discover the most important characteristics people look for when choosing a breed. So here are the top ten most important breed...

I know what you're thinking, roaches?! Yuck! You mean the things that infest houses and are ridiculously hard to kill? But these are not the cockroaches you are imagining. These are dubia roaches, a tropical species that generally does not reproduce unless they are kept above 90F. So don't...

Recently my 30 pound hanging feeder broke. I had the metal kind from Tractor Supply and the metal rusted and the hooks that hold the bottom to the top and keep the feeder elevated from the base broke right off, rendering it useless. I of course didn't want to buy another one and spend $20 on a...

My Flock Hello everyone, and welcome to the small corner of BYC dedicated to my flock! Info and pictures will be added as I can find time, so stay tuned! The Emus I keep a small flock of emus here. My oldest, Ciara, is a standard female. She is very sweet, and puts up with me dressing her up...

On a cold day in late March 2013, a small roman tufted gosling arrived at my farm along with an order of bantam chicks. She had a mate, but he died in transit - the fault of the post office leaving them in my mailbox instead of calling upon their arrival, even though they had been warned a week...