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Recent content by kbmead

  1. kbmead

    Unbalanced and/or weak ten week old hen **SHE RECOVERED!**

    Thank you so much for your story! We have a wobbly rooster, and haven't been able to figure out what was wrong. The vet said it might be a Vitamin B deficiency, but that didn't seem to help. He's been off-balance and stumbling for a couple of weeks now, but still able to get around, eat...
  2. kbmead

    Hens laying on my broody........

    Yes, it's always good to mark the good eggs, and then take out any newcomers. Once, we did not do that, and it became very difficult at hatching time, because the hatch dates were so spread out. By the time the youngest eggs hatched, the mommas were wanting to walk around with the older...
  3. kbmead

    Refrigerated Eggs?

    Our best fridge egg story: My dad had a coop of RIRs and a separate coop of banties. A pack of dogs broke into his RIR coop and killed them all. He had some eggs in the refrigerator, and stuck them under his setting banty. One of them hatched, and is now our RIR rooster, Buzz. The last...
  4. kbmead

    We're hatchin'! Two days earlier than expected!

    Okay, our grand total is 15 out of 17 eggs hatched! Pretty good success rate, eh? Lucky the Hen has 10 chicks, and Frodo has 5. Frodo is the pecky mama, so I took some pipping eggs out from her and gave them to Lucky, which is why it's a bit uneven. All of the chicks are cute and healthy...
  5. kbmead

    Can you place a chick under a broody hen, sucessfully? suggestions?

    Yes, do it at night and monitor. Last year, we had 2 hens that hatched chicks within a few days of each other. We had everyone together in a big happy family (so we thought). Then one mother attacked one of the other hen's chicks, and pecked its eye quite badly. So we separated the mothers...
  6. kbmead

    Putting eggs under broody hen

    In my experience, it doesn't have to be done at night. A broody hen is happy to have eggs anytime! We have banties, and they have sometimes built up a clutch of 18 eggs or more to sit on, out in our yard under a bush. We have never let them keep that many under them in our henhouse nest...
  7. kbmead

    moving broody hen

    Here's our process that works well for us: We let our broody hens sit on their (marked) eggs in the henhouse nestboxes, with everyone else. Some of the other hens get in and lay their eggs with the broodies, so we check and take out the unmarked eggs every day. Then, when the chicks start to...
  8. kbmead

    My Broody Hens.........

    Hi! We're hatching too! So far we have 15 out of 17 hatched under their mommas. Very cute and distracting. Ours are banties, so they're very tiny! Here are some of them yesterday: Good Luck and Happy Peeping!
  9. kbmead

    Newly Hatched chicks....couple questions!

    Yes, I would agree to separate them. We have had bad experiences with older hens pecking at chicks. When you reintroduce in a couple weeks, do it gradually. We have had good experience with putting the chicks in the chicken yard inside their own cage--so the older gals can see them and get to...
  10. kbmead

    Introducing coop chickens to the outside

    If I had videos of me and my family trying to herd chicks back to the coop, we'd all have some laughs! (Actually, there's a good idea--I'll have to set up the video camera to record us sometime!) We have found that a butterfly net from the dollar store can be helpful. Also, sometimes we make...
  11. kbmead

    Hatching eggs that were cold for several hours on Day 5.

    It's amazing! ALL of the eggs that had gotten cold on Day 5 have hatched, and are perfectly fine! Does anyone more knowledgeable know why it worked? Was it because Day 5 is early enough in the development, or because the weather was cold that day? (I don't even remember what the weather was like)
  12. kbmead

    Hatching eggs that were cold for several hours on Day 5.

    Hello! Just a little story of mine on our current chicks hatching. We had 2 broody banty mommas, and then our FAVORITE tamest hen disappeared. After 5 days she came back, and we locked her in the coop until we had a chance to follow her and discover where she had been hiding. About 3-4 hours...
  13. kbmead

    We're hatchin'! Two days earlier than expected!

    So far we have 10 hatched. I have a picture of 7 of them together, but I'm not sure how to get it onto this post. I uploaded it to my profile I think. They are so cute and tiny! Everyone is healthy so far.
  14. kbmead

    We're hatchin'! Two days earlier than expected!

    We have I think 17 eggs under 2 banty hens. I'm glad I checked this morning, cuz one has already hatched! Cute little black guy with fuzzy feet. A few others are pipping and cheeping. I brought the mommas and their eggs inside in cat carriers so we can watch closely. One of the mommas is...
  15. kbmead

    De-Crowing a roo?

    We also live in suburbia, and we use the containment method. After everyone goes in at night, we close the door to the chicken house and don't let them out until an acceptable time of the morning. The roosters still crow early, but it is muffled enough that it doesn't bother anyone. It...
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