Recent content by g&a thomas

  1. g&a thomas

    Breaking a Broody? **Update: She's cured!!!***

    Hows the broody battle going?
  2. g&a thomas

    Breaking a Broody? **Update: She's cured!!!***

    This has worked for us twice. We placed a broody in a crate and put her in the back of the truck and went for a drive around town. The first time was by accident, we were moving hens from a friends house who didn't want them anymore ... one was broody. The next time I did it on purpose to...
  3. g&a thomas

    straw bedding?

    We use straw for their nesting boxes. They like ruffling through it. When it gets dirty we throw it into the run and they scratch at it and eat the little bit of seeds. It takes longer to decompose in the compost but it is cheaper and works just the same.
  4. g&a thomas

    Eating egg shells?!?!

    Our chickens go nuts over the egg shells also. I microwave them as we use them for 30 seconds or so. It cooks up the left over whites and makes the shell pretty brittle. I then crush them in my hand over my the chicken bucket which gets all the daily kitchen scraps for the next morning. When...
  5. g&a thomas

    Who has NEVER let their chickens Free Rang?

    My wife and I have never free ranged our flock even though we live in the country. Neither of us wanted to have to worry about them going into our neighbors yard or going missing due to predators. We have been keeping chickens for two years now, and have very happy and friendly chickens. We...
  6. g&a thomas

    Gonna do it this spring

    If you incorporate a run in your design for your coop, you will have more ability to go longer periods away from home. I have my flock (10 standard, 3 seabright bantams, and 2 ducks) in a large (aprox 30' x 40') enclosed "yard" that I have poultry netting over the top of. My coop is a three...
  7. g&a thomas

    Meattie order from Central Hatchery ... great price

    BeeKissed ... no worries on the tip. I ordered from Privett last year and had a very good delivery rate even in late January. It is the same hatchery my local farm supply store orders from. I talked with several people that have done meatties in the past and they all tell me that they are all...
  8. g&a thomas

    Meattie order from Central Hatchery ... great price

    Put in my order for 100 meat chickens from Central, only $80 plus shiping for them. Hatch date will be 21 March ... Got to say that both times I have called them (once for Q&A and once to order) I have been very impressed with what I have heard. In my opinion they are a no frills hatchery...
  9. g&a thomas

    Merging young flock with old

    we are kind of new to this side of things but this is what worked for us. Last year we had four chickens and we handled them lots and lots, so of course they are all very sweet and want attention. This year we got heritage breeds some for meat and some for the flock. We introduced the 7 hens...
  10. g&a thomas

    hermaphroduck

    Quote: ddawn, thanks for the link to the study. that was really interesting. Our duck doesn't look different on either side, so unfortunately not in the same category. The only thing that we noticed on this duck is that the eggs although larger in size than the female ducks have thinner...
  11. g&a thomas

    hermaphroduck

    thanks for the input. We have been talking about the odd behavior of this duck for a while. At first we thought it was just a pecking order thing because every time we took a male away another stepped up and took on his role. So when this female started acting like the drake we just assumed...
  12. g&a thomas

    hermaphroduck

    Okay, this is going to sound a bit weird, but can a duck be a true hermaphrodite? I am new to the forum, but have been reading on here for a while, but I dont' recall reading anything like this. Anyway ... last year we got four chocolate runner ducks. the males were tearing up our hens...
  13. g&a thomas

    We processed for the first time!

    My family and I did our first batch yesterday. I agree with all here that the first cut was the hardest. We used a knife and I quickly learned about the feathers being a hinderance. I had one chicken that the vein was just in the wrong place ... so that was a bit disturbing ... having to dig...
  14. g&a thomas

    How do you bring yourself to do the deed?

    My family just did our first batch of birds for meat. I did the killing and my kids helped with the plucking and my wife did the cleaning. My youngest son had a real hard time with the killing at first, but I had a talk with him and we discussed how we had cared for them and gave them a good...
  15. g&a thomas

    1st post ... been reading on here for a while

    Hello, my name is Glen and I have been looking stuff up and reading on here on and off for about a year. That is ever since we got chickens. we got into them because of our youngest son ... he has peti-mal seizures and we are doing as much naturally as we can, so one of the obvious choices was...
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