Recent content by Duchess of Quah

Our Austra White is nearly two years old, and lays 5x weekly, when not molting. She only took a month off for that, during which time she also survived a hawk attack. We have had severe flooding, severe drought, temps above 110, temps below zero, ice storms, hail, snow, strong wind gusts --...

We have a mixed-breed flock; our first to lay at 23 weeks is an Austra White. I believe all the rest are laying now: Rhode Island Red, various Wyandottes, an Easter Egger, and a Cuckoo Marans. This is now Week 28 for us. All of our hens are from Cackle Hatchery, if that helps.

I chose: corn-free, soy-free, organic, unmedicated, and other. One big factor in choosing feed is the form of the feed itself. Our girls prefer Scratch and Peck's 16% layer feed, so long as it's the grain and not the pellets. The pellets are too big for most of them to eat. Another factor...

She is lovely! I'll be happy to post photos as they grow.

I ordered two Niederrheiner chicks from Murray, due to arrive the week of May 31. There are several other chicks in the order that we had planned to order; the Niederrheiners were a last-minute splurge. We cannot have roosters in town, so if one or both are boys, we should be able to find good...

Our sweet olive egger had a rough molt this year, and was on the mend in this photo.

Interesting! I guessed the RIR, and the third to last I thought might be a Welsummer. I've only had Barred Plymouth Rock chickens (plus a bonus Easter Egger), so this is all new to me!

She actually has clean legs -- my apologies. She had a wing feather sticking out a little oddly in that photo.

Our Rainbow Layers order arrived this morning from Cackle Hatchery -- exciting! But we're fairly new at this, so I am not sure what all we have. Do you know what these little girls are? I tried to get shots from different angles to show their coloring better, but they were very excited and my...

I wanted to follow up on this thread. Thanks to the helpful advice from everyone, we decided to do without any supplemental lighting, since we live in a rental and have a small backyard, making it easy to access the coop at night in case of emergency. Our first egg was laid November 12, and all...

Do you mean that you had issues with the electric lights, so you then switched to solar, or that you have had mishaps with the solar? What kinds of issues? My husband is pretty handy, but this is our first time owning chickens and dealing with coop logistics.

Hello, all! We have a lovely and lively group of Plymouth Rock Hens, plus one that's a PR/Ameraucana mix. They are now 19 weeks old, and have yet to lay an egg. I imagine the shorter days have a significant impact on egg-laying. All but one of the hens have open and moist vents, and most have...

With a little more floor space, that would be great. We might be able to swing two, with two ports each. I think their ramp is taking up more space than it needs, so we might go with a more space-conscious option for that. If we're able to get them out of the coop more during the day, would...

We are relatively new chicken owners, with a nice flock of 8-week-old Barred Rock chickens. They are really enjoying their new coop and run, and our next big project will be to make them a tractor so they can get out more. Before we do that, we need to get a feeder sorted out for them. I...