Recent content by ABard

Hi there, sorry for the late reply. Ended up having a baby a few weeks early. Anyway, thanks for the interest but we decided to go with a local farmer. Best of luck!

One on either side directly across from each other and one in the middle of those two. (We have it up against the corner of the run in the back and so didn't put any on the back side.)

We have a purebred RIR roo, who was supposed to be a girl, but ended up being our Thor. He is really good with our 9 hens. Always watchful, chorales them if they wander from him too much (they free range over 7 acres, including our back yard/house area), protects them from the guineas, and...

We accidentally (he was supposed to be a she) have an RIR who we love, but who has gotten more and more territorial lately (he's 13 months old). An incident with my young nephew this weekend made it clear he's got to go to a more suitable place. He has been handled and well-trained all along...

After a year struggling and cleaning the dumb bell waterer, we did the cup waters and it has been FANTASTIC. So much easier.

We switched ours over and it took them some time to figure it out, but now they're doing fine. We did the cups though, not the nipples (because they can drip) and moved their gallon waterer outside where they free range and left the cup bucket inside where they are in the morning/evenings. Some...

Agreed. We gave them mashed boiled egg, strawberries, and sweet potato within a week or two. By about 5 weeks they were outside playing during the day in a small pen, pecking the grass and doing the "grab and run" whenever they found a good bug. Just make sure they have grit.

We did the same and they're great. We have 10 chickens and there are only 3 cups on their bucket and they are doing fine with it. That said, can't hurt to have one for each! Cut down on the push and shove at meal time. :)

I can't speak to the other breed, but my RIRs all feathered differently, particularly the male. He had no feathers on his butt/tail for the longest time. And the girls all kind of came in on their own schedule, too. Our EEs also feathered on a sliding scale, so I'd say it's probably normal.

We were told by our breeder to wait until 10-12 weeks, which was when they had their adult feathers. The fluff doesn't keep them warm. We started putting them out in the daytime in a small pen though, which helped with the mess.

We got 10 and that was ENOUGH. LoL When they're chicks, they have to stay inside and they POOP UP A STORM. haha. Couldn't wait for them to be feathered enough to go out!

You want starter feed as their main meal for them to grow strong. That said, we started giving them smashed boiled egg as a treat (for training) as well as bits of strawberry and other fruits and sweet potato when they were a couple of weeks old.

I live in TN and personally would wait until they're fully feathered (which for us was more like 10-12 weeks). We've had too many neighbors report dead chicks from moving them too soon and you never know when a night will get nippy. Our last frost warning date was only a few days ago. We did...

We had to wait until they were older and had some distinctions. Still, it was hard even then! Our easter eggers are all different enough that they are easy to tell apart. The Rhode Island reds...well, they didn't get named until they were almost a year old. LoL Couldn't keep them straight!

We are in Tennessee (got to -9 here over winter at one point) and have 5 Rhode Island Reds, 4 Ameraucana (which I suspect are actually just easter eggers), and one mutt. We were supposed to be getting a Barnevelder rooster, because we were told their temperament is milder, but that one ended up...