Recent content by Ariel301

17 degrees is not cold enough to kill chickens unless they don't have feathers. There are plenty of people in very cold climates keeping chickens without an artificial heat source. People were keeping chickens long before electricity was available, and they certainly didn't build a fire in the...

Chickens are never "too young to leave their family". When I have a hen hatch chicks, I take them away as soon as I find them so they don't get hurt by the other chickens or eaten by predators. He won't die of grief. Moving will be a little stressful, but that's normal. He will get over it...

I can't GIVE roosters away most of the time. (I generally don't anyway, unwanted roosters become dinner at my house) I'd say it's a great price if they're just plain old roosters and not show quality birds.

Tricking them with an egg full of horseradish or some other spicy thing won't do any good. Birds are not bothered by spicy foods. Egg eaters usually eat the shell too. Really, the best thing to do with egg eaters is the crock pot. It's pretty much impossible to "reform" them (short of doing...

There are so many roosters in the world that there is really no point in keeping a mean one. They don't tend to grow out of it, once they know they can terrorize people, they will only get more and more bold. And if you're planning on raising your own chicks, you certainly do not want his...

Neither one, really. Adequate nutrition is certainly important in egg production, if the hen is not getting enough to eat, she can't produce eggs very well, so she will lay less or stop laying. There is no ingredient in layer feed that "makes" them lay. I personally find my hens lay better...

There is no telling what you will get by crossbreeding the Easter Egger with the other hens. The Easter Egger, being a cross itself, is carrying all sorts of genes. You will get a colorful mix of birds that may or may not have inherited the colored egg genes and the beard from your rooster. If...

Quote: Yes, when well cared for, chickens are capable of living that long. The high production birds like commercial white leghorns or sexlink layers often don't live past 2-3 because their high rate of lay wears their bodies out and causes increased mortality from reproductive tract problems...

I regularly fed citrus fruits to my birds and they loved them, and my egg shells and rate of lay were both fine. I would always give the chicks oranges or grapefruit cut in half in the brooders, several times a week, usually about one fruit per 25 chicks or so and they would go nuts over it...

I've fed my birds lots of uncooked dry beans (we're talking 5-gallon bucketfuls at a time) and never had any issue.

I'm pretty sure there are not even 85,000 people in Durango. It's a little place. So getting the signatures will require going somewhere bigger. It could certainly be done in Colorado Springs, Denver, or Boulder. That said, I used to live in that area. Twelve years ago it was a major...

Don't have your heart set on him protecting the hens from predators. Not all roosters will do it. And a rooster is no match for any predator, so if he were to go up against something, he would likely end up dead.

Chick starter won't work for ducklings. However, you can feed an all-purpose high protein poultry feed like Flock Raiser. They don't need a pond, but they will make a mess of any water they can get ahold of. If you give them a swimming area in a small pen, they will turn the whole pen into a...

The problem is, all the corn and wheat are GMO and sprayed too...even "organic" grain has been contaminated either by the GMO grain cross-pollinating or throwing seed into other fields, and the chemicals being in the soil and water supply. So it's just about impossible to avoid it in countries...

The issue with fertility in Cornish games is conformation, not the comb type. The preferred show conformation can make it difficult for the male to get his job done. Some breeders use AI to overcome this. I've never heard of cockerels having a predisposition to pendulous crop. I don't have...