Recent content by JRchickchick

Also, start giving your 5 week plus chicks some grit, in the form of small rocks, like rose quartz that is in the bag of chicken grit that I buy (hopefully smaller grit for the chicks). That helps them grind their food and the bugs, grass, weeds that you give to them! I'm training my girls now...

Regarding when to move to layer food... at least 16 weeks, hopefully. Sometimes, you don't have much choice! Find out when your babies will be close to laying. With my Golden Sex Links, and my White Leghorns, they begin laying anywhere from 15 weeks to 18 weeks. You can tell if they are...

I usually remove the 175 w brooder lamp at 5-6 weeks, and the night time temps stay in the 50's. They have enough big feathers to stay warm enough at night. Do remember that moving to the coop, and moving to the coop with adult chickens would be two different dates! I wouldn't recommend...

Gizmo thinks she is a chicken. She lives with them! She always "helps" me when I gather the eggs...

I am awaiting my first 1000 (from Amazon of all places). After I ordered them, I checked CraigsList and found someone locally who sells them, as well as adult beetles. Now I have a bin of beetles & a bin for the new mealworms! (wanted to get a jumpstart on having PLENTY) I sat and watched Beetle...

Oh, and next question...for the 3 drawer set-up, how deep are the drawers?

This is all very helpful. I have 1000 arriving on Monday, and just picked up 75 adult (beetles) yesterday to throw in a second generation of mealies in my start-up (for my chickens for treats). I have them in a plastic shoe bin right now with oatmeal and some egg cartons. I sat and watched...

I was looking for dried mealworms on Amazon, and found they sell live ones too. That led me to search Backyard Chickens for HOW TO because, boy, they are expensive, and I have 37 chickens to treat! Less than $13 for 1000 mealworms, many sizes to choose from (small, medium, large, mixed). My...

You can buy live mealworms on Amazon! Amazing...less than $15 and you have 1000. I wonder if they smell... I could grow them in a guest bedroom during the winter, and then move them outside during the summer.

I have found that once you see blood (and the chicks/hens) see blood, they are very curious critters, and will simply peck to see what it is. Unfortunately, it then causes an issue with others doing the same, and the poor babies soon have no tail-feathers and go into a bit of shock. When they go...

She definitely looks like my Amber White pullets. In fact, with her having such a red comb/wattles, maybe she is really a HE! I have 6 Ambers Whites this spring, and of the 6, one is sporting bigger, red wattles and comb and is a larger bird than the others...they are almost 12 weeks old now...

I love this picture! He/she is so cute! I have a similar predicament...received some free chicks with a bag of feed at the local Coastal, (they do that every spring, first Saturday in April usually) and I thought I had received some White Leghorns. All the little pale yellow chicks looked...

Talking to the chicks gently when you walk over to them gets them used to your voice, and to humans. Heck, I talk to my chickens now! Especially when I gather eggs, and a hen is still on the nest. Often with that, I'll bring them a small handful of chicken scratch to let them know that my hand...

So, I was just looking in my closet and discovered 5 dozen eggs. These eggs were only washed if necessary (poo/dirt that wouldn't remove with yellow scrubby sponge), put into cartons and then were put in a cardboard box. with no lid, but there was another cardboard box on top, effectively...