Recent content by Rivendell Chick

They grew into full-on feather dusters! She manages to keep them nice despite our monsoon-like year.

She has never forgiven me for the pasty butt cleanings back then, but she's pretty adorable. And much nicer than my Mean Marans.

Brownie requests your vote with her fuzzy, fuzzy feet!

When I built my coop, I made the door 4 inches taller because I had a cochin. STILL NOT TALL ENOUGH. I love my welsummer and wyandotte, but Brownie the partridge cochin is a BEAST.

I hope you'll post more pics as he gets older! I had three hens I thought were cuckoo marans at that age because they all grew 2 white wing feathers (outer two in all cases) and had some white feathers on their feet and legs. But those dropped off and copper hackles grew in around the same time...

Peanut, the cross I mentioned is already bigger than all the brahma hens and he is only 4 months old or so. But! If your breeder is all Brahma, what colors is he breeding? I've seen light, dark and buff. Perhaps the red could be coming in from a dark brahma but his overall look closest to a...

Yeah, the wing feathers have me puzzled. Light brahma for sure, but maybe RIR in there too? A YTber I watch had a surprise clutch of brahma eggs that he let the hen keep. She is a buff brahma, but there were light, buff and a RIR in with her. He kept one roo, which is one of the Dominant roo...

My first winter with chickens who are around 7 months old now - in Georgia. They have a compact elevated coop with plenty of ventilation options. My breeds are mostly cold hardy, like marans, cochins, and wyandottes that I was more concerned about this past summer. We've had 3 frosts so far and...

I've got a young bird that turned up at our farm after Zeta came through in quarantine. She is eating, drinking ok but is also "yawning". She has a full crop. She also seems to be straining as if to lay an egg or poop (too young to lay, just pooped). All related and normal? She is quite relaxed...

Have had some heavy blooms on my FBCM eggs, but not quite purple looking like these!

FWIW, an off grid homesteader I used to watch got some meat birds and went thru the process - amazingly short time, just a few weeks. She kept one with her layer hens that free ranged. She was happy with the others for awhile. But she just got so much larger in a short time that her heart...

After 4 months of rain and the run getting flooded (7" of rain in one go will do that), I am running into issues with the chickens stirring up the clay underneath into the wet sand, making a hard mess. Hopefully we move into some drier weather or we may have to consider relocating the setup or...

A bit of humor from a message board from my husband that seemed topical, hopefully not too political - remove if need be, but it gave me a laugh! Sarah was in the fertilized egg business. She had several hundred young pullets and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs. She kept records...

When I left SW VA 10 years ago a cougar had made it's way to my area. I supsect more have in the years since as the area was so similar to the Ozarks where I heard them a lot. I worked briefly at a large cat rescue there and their screams to the cougar residents were incredibly loud and chilling...

Thank you! Wish I knew which hen laid it. I've tried spying on them, but there is so much activity around the boxes lately I have no idea! Sometimes two girls will squeeze in together- reminds me of sorority girls off to the bathroom together at a party 🙃