Recent content by slayden

  1. slayden

    Free range chicks growing slowly?

    So around three weeks ago one of my hens hatched out ten chicks. She spent the first two days or so with the chicks in the nest but after that point she took to free-ranging pretty much the entire day long, returning to the coop to roost at night. Along the line she seems to have picked up a...
  2. slayden

    How does this Post Office Pick up work with Murrary McMurray?

    When I ordered from McMurray they told me they ship all chicks on Saturday because most locations are two-day mail and they want them to arrive on Monday. They try to send chicks to larger 'hub' post offices if possible because it cuts down on transit time, so I agreed to drive the 30 miles...
  3. slayden

    Broodies sharing a nest

    Hi guys! I've recently had two hens decide to go broody at the same time and in the same nest box. At first I thought it was kind of cute that they took turns sitting on the eggs whenever the other got up and they both defend the nest from other curious fowl. It's gotten to the point however...
  4. slayden

    are there signs that our first egg may be soon?

    Several of my current hens started making really immaculate nests in the straw about a week before they began laying. They would remove all extra debris and dig down to the floor, neatly placing the straw in a circle around them. The first time I saw one do that I wondered if she's going to...
  5. slayden

    Do eggs from various breeds taste differently ?

    I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not, but the contents of eggs I've gotten from Americaunas (or Easter Eggers) have always had slightly different from other hens in my flock. Not only have yolks been darker but the yolk to white ratio seems to be slightly skewed to having more yolk than...
  6. slayden

    Show off your chicken names!!!

    I'm not one to name most of my chickens but when I was in highschool and actually showing chickens I would name the ones that were 'fair-worthy'. Each year had a theme and here were a couple groups: 1999's theme was Cigarette/tobacco brands: Pall Mall Lucky Strike Loredo Morley Virginia Slim...
  7. slayden

    1/2 acre wooded lot

    My house is on five acres, of which about four are wooded. The chicken coop is right on the edge of the woods and I've found that my birds spend almost all their time in the woods or under the trees in the yard. I've seen a chicken spend it's entire day at a single dead log eating spiders...
  8. slayden

    I never wanted to mow it in the first place.

    Quote: I don't think anybody here is saying that other people shouldn't be allowed to mow their own lawns. It's just that many of us would rather grow gardens, crops, or native plants instead of acres of ornamental grass. And actually, most communities that have 'weed ordinances'...
  9. slayden

    Thinking of buying house/property. OPINIONS? UPDATE!

    This might be really minor in the grand scheme of homeownership, but I would HIGHLY recommend buying a house with little or no poison ivy in the yard. My own ivy patch has been a relatively minor although constant inconvenience, but I've known people who have the stuff everywhere and can't even...
  10. slayden

    I never wanted to mow it in the first place.

    I can totally relate to the original post. I was the rare kid who actually loved mowing the lawn and even opted to use a push mower instead of the brand-spanking-new John Deere rider that my dad bought. After I graduated college and started renting a home I kept mowing an ever larger piece of...
  11. slayden

    "Racist" Chickens?

    When I was a kid we always had a fairly large mongrel flock that kept interbreeding. I'm sure at some point my dad started with some pure breeds but they were all 'mutts' by the time I was old enough to tell. There were light, dark, barred, feather-legged, you name it, but to some extent they...
  12. slayden

    Westphalian Deathlayers (Westfälische Totleger)

    Howdy folks! I was just wondering if anybody knows of a breeder that works with these chickens. Apparently they were once fairly common in northern Germany but I've never heard of anyone in America raising them. I think they are absolutely beautiful birds and I have to admit they have one of...
  13. slayden

    Chick toe issues

    Hi folks! I'm having an odd issue with a couple my eight-week-old Marans. For the first five weeks or so, all twenty-two birds (five cockerels, sixteen pullets, a really lucky straight run) have had straight toes and hadn't displayed any signs of improper growth, but a few weeks ago one cockerel...
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