Recent content by duckidaho

Our rooster has been well behaved until now, but last week we had a hen with a neck slashed so badly on the back we had to put her down. We thought it was a hawk. But today we had another bloody hen, similar injuries, and saw the rooster just tearing into her. Why the new behavior? Will it...

If I don't include capital expenses, only feed and bedding, I make a little money. I am able to sell "free-range" eggs in a college town for $3.00/doz. More at the farmers market. We have 40 layers and plan to add more. We have a large chicken coop that came with our farm. We aren't getting...

Hello, is there any withdrawal period before eating eggs from chickens that have been dusted with Sevin? The label doesn't mention it that I can find. Only butuchering withdrawal. I DON'T want to debate the morality of using Sevin please. Just how long before I can eat the eggs. Thanks for...

We got a giant double yoker today. By far the biggest chicken egg I have ever seen. Pictures at my blog. Ouch! http://novitiatehomesteader.blogspot.com/2010/01/giant-egg.html

If one just happened to be selling a meat bird to an acquaintance, how much would they charge per bird? We'll be raising "label rouge" free range meat birds that take 12 weeks to reach butcher weight. Not as fast as a cornishX. I have no idea what the feed cost might be. Chicks are between...

I have 3 of 25 hens with swollen, scaly ankles. I'll take some pictures today. Any thoughts?

even with lights I am getting way less than half the eggs. What's up with that? Also, no Auracana eggs. We've had the lights on for several weeks now. Do I need a higher wattage?

We are giving the girls a few hours of extra light with a light bulb and are only getting about 1/2 the eggs as before. Also NO Auracana eggs. Is that normal?

We fenced a good sized run for our chickens, mostly to keep them out of the garden. It's 6 foot chicken wire. They are still getting out. Are they going over it? Or is there a hole somewhere where they are escaping. I don't really want to clip wings if I don't have to. So...how high can...

Thanks for all the advice. I feel better. We'll have plenty of ventilation whether the windows are open or not.

How cold should it be before I start shutting the windows at night. Actually, we just moved and haven't put the glass on the chicken coop yet. Just square holes and hardware cloth. It's getting down to about 35 at night. I could put glass on on Sunday, maybe.

We had a barred rock hen that had some kind of discharge caking up on her rear feathers under her vent. Not laying, not eating, barely drinking, not really moving around. Not even going after treats. We tried anti-biotics, electrolytes. The only thing she would eat was a couple mouthfuls of...

several of our free range chickens have had diarrhea lately. Today, ones backside was covered with a sulfur colered gunk. A few of the others had a few drips of a similar substance. Any guesses? We'll start with giving the henhouse, waterers, etc. a thourough cleaning I suppose. Thanks, Russ

Thanks for the thoughts, any more ideas would be great too. Originally we were going to do a fall batch, but we are both teachers and we didn't know if we wanted chick raising/processing during the beginning of the school year. Plus we have a good laying flock that we might need to cull a few...

I was thinking of trying some "colored rangers" for meat birds this fall and I was wondering, how long to keep them on chick feed before switching to a broiler feed of some sort? Any good/bad experiences with this breed? How do they taste? Tender? We'd let them range some. We aren't too...