Recent content by KeliD

  1. K

    Babies hatching in the barn...need quick advice

    She ejected 4 eggs yesterday. I candles them and verified they were bad. (Aside from the foul smell coming from at least one that I couldn’t detect until I was closed in a small dark space with them) 🤢 Best I can tell she removed half the shell of the dead baby, it had no damage at all to...
  2. K

    Babies hatching in the barn...need quick advice

    Update: Looked closer at dead chick. No signs she ate any of it. Looks to be a quitter. The one hatching is breathing, mama pecks at the egg periodically to ensure it’s still trying to make progress.
  3. K

    Babies hatching in the barn...need quick advice

    I’ve had a broody hen sitting on eggs that are starting to hatch. Yesterday I found half an egg that looked like it had previously hatched with no sign of a chick. Last night I found one pipped and mama watching closely. This morning I found a dead baby curled in half an egg (didn’t look close...
  4. K

    Mean little cuss

    I’ve had 19 eggs incubating and the first chick hatched yesterday. The second earlier today, another is about to emerge any moment , a fourth had started unzipping and I think a 5th has started pipping. The first little monster keeps viciously pecking number two - sometimes pulling in t off it’s...
  5. K

    Tragic day

    Update: I’ve been walking the dog on a leash due to his hobbled gait. Long story short he threatened to bite me to get away into the woods. When he came back he had one of the missing hens with him. Alive and well. He went and found their hidden nest cuz he had an egg too.
  6. K

    Tragic day

    Hadn’t thought of eagles! Definitely a possibility. I don’t think the dog was guarding his own kill. I think he was guarding it from further attack. My husband thinks he might have retrieved her body from the woods after scaring off whatever killed her. We definitely have opossums, but I’ve...
  7. K

    Tragic day

    My dog loves his chickens. He would lay in the yard grinning while they peck on and around him. Yesterday I found he had pulled out of his harness and was laying, injured near a hen with her head and innards missing. Two more hens are completely missing. I didn’t see what happened but I’m...
  8. K

    Eye injury...what is safe to use?

    No lethargy really, but she just stood there when my son picked her up. (I attribute that to being down one eye for now.) No discharges or breathing issues either. I kind of figured to just watch it for worsening. But since she can’t see out of one eye, I isolated her to avoid any bullying...
  9. K

    Eye injury...what is safe to use?

    i found one of my hens today with an eye injury of some sort. There is nothing obvious wrong, but she will not open it. I’ve had enough eye injuries myself that I know it could be as minor as dust or debris that got into her eye. There’s no blood or damage visible, so I flushed the eye as best I...
  10. K

    Potty Training Chickens, How-to!

    My husband had a friend with a house rooster. They went everywhere together...with the rooster riding on his shoulders as he drove his Harley Davidson. He potty trained the rooster who would crow at the door when he wanted to go out....even at a stranger’s house.
  11. K

    Moving a broody and her eggs...

    So I had a total of 3 eggs that hatched successfully of the 14. I might have had a better success rate had the overnight temp not dipped down to 40 degrees Saturday night. Brrr! But unfortunately, par for the course in North Carolina. She was not sitting on the eggs all day and night like before...
  12. K

    Silly free-rangers!

    Funny story: We have a Chesapeake Bay Retriever (a bird dog) that lives outback. He is quite fascinated by birds and has been known to mimic geese by building a nest and laying on his tennis balls and his other treasures. He’s no hunter. We discovered that our free ranging chickens not only...
  13. K

    Candling???

    Not sure how to post this one: so of the 14 eggs my hen has been sitting on, one hatched. I found some broken eggs outside the nest and thought one or more of my other hens was laying eggs on the shelf above that were rolling off and breaking. I’ve found 3. The 1 chick hatched Saturday. The rest...
  14. K

    Moving a broody and her eggs...

    Woo-hoo! About the time I went out to see about moving them back, she climbed into the new nest and sat on the eggs. I think we’re good!
  15. K

    Moving a broody and her eggs...

    If you remember, I had a hen go broody after hurricane Florence. I decided to let her incubate 14 eggs and so far she has done great! However, we’re about 4-5 days from expected hatching and I need to move the eggs to a safer location for the chicks cuz they are up too high and navigating the...
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