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  1. NatJ

    My duck is sitting on chicken eggs

    Thank you for updating. It's good to hear from someone actually experiencing this!
    • NatJ
    • Post #10
    • Forum: Ducks
  2. NatJ

    Bantam Maturity Question

    Make friends with a snake-keeper? Talk to a zoo or someone who does wildlife rehab? Use them for pet food? (Yes, all of those are based on the idea of humanely dispatching the fluffy little male chicks, then using the bodies instead of wasting them: similar to the idea of raising the males to...
  3. NatJ

    Is this Silkie partridge coloured?

    I don't know if "gray partridge" exists or not, and I'm no good at Silkie colors. So I don't actually have an opinion on the color of that bird. I just hadn't seen the red in it, so I thought you were mixing up which bird was being discussed. (I know the partridge pattern can exist with the...
  4. NatJ

    Bantam Maturity Question

    Crele Old English Game Bantams should be pretty much autosexing. Barred or Cuckoo of any breed would be about as sexable as Barred Rocks or Dominiques (mostly sexable by color). You definitely can do sexlinks with bantams. Gold/silver or barred/not-barred would work the same as they do in...
  5. NatJ

    Is this Silkie partridge coloured?

    Your bird does have red. The bird posted by someone else, just a few post ago, looks gray. Looking at what was being quoted, I'm pretty sure that gray bird was the one being called "gray partridge." @WhoDatChick it usually works best if you start a different thread instead of adding to an...
  6. NatJ

    Communal Nest Boxes, Yay or Nay?

    With only 4, I would generally expect one nestbox to be enough for all of them, even if it's just a normal-sized nestbox. The exception would be if one or more go broody, because then they stay in the nest rather than laying their egg and leaving. For larger groups of hens, it is common to have...
  7. NatJ

    Communal Nest Boxes, Yay or Nay?

    How many chickens do you have? I would probably leave it alone for now. If it seems to be an issue later, maybe put a cardboard box in half of it (to make it be two nests) and watch what happens. If that makes things better, you can either leave it or do a more permanent division. If it makes...
  8. NatJ

    Soy Feed chick starter

    The extra protein will not hurt laying hens. Some people feel that the higher protein is actually better for them. If you provide a separate dish of oyster shell, pullets and hens will usually eat the right amount to take care of their own calcium needs (they need different amounts depending on...
  9. NatJ

    I have strong feelings about "mink farm(er)s"

    Setting it free right there, on your own property, is an option if it is an animal you were not trying to remove. But if the same animal becomes a problem later, and has now learned to avoid traps, it is a bigger problem than if you never trapped it in the first place.
  10. NatJ

    4 week old RIRxOlive Egger Cross

    ...a W to her daughters. When a hen is silver, she gives that Z chromosome to her sons. Because silver is dominant over gold, the sons show silver,* even if they inherited gold from their father. The daughters inherit W from their mother to make them female, and a Z chromosome from their...
  11. NatJ

    4 week old RIRxOlive Egger Cross

    From those hens, A and E produce color-sexable chicks (gold daughters and silver sons) when mated with your rooster. C and D do not (sons and daughters will both show gold/red colors.)
  12. NatJ

    4 week old RIRxOlive Egger Cross

    In that case, chick A is male and E is female. I don't have any guesses about the others at this point.
  13. NatJ

    Wondering what to do

    I think it is usually best to have the coop before you get the chickens. That way if the coop takes longer than you expect to build or buy, you don't have chicks getting big and smelly and crowded and unhappy inside your house. Once you have the coop, it is often possible to brood the chicks...
  14. NatJ

    4 week old RIRxOlive Egger Cross

    If the father is the red rooster pictured in the first post, then he is able to produce gold/silver sexlink chicks when mated with silver hens (such as a Delaware or apparently the gray Easter Egger).
  15. NatJ

    4 week old RIRxOlive Egger Cross

    Chick A: With that red father, chick A must be male. His mother has the Silver gene and he inherited it. A pullet would be some shade of red/gold instead. Chick E: With a Delaware mother, any chick that shows gold/red must be female, because a male will show silver (white) and will also have...
  16. NatJ

    Why are grey chickens called every other color but grey?

    Yes, lavender and self blue are the same thing.
  17. NatJ

    Coop location /space

    Yes, a heater can be a good thing to keep in mind in case it is needed. Whether it is even an issue will depend on what breeds they choose to raise. Someone who wants any of the common standard-sized chickens with normal feathers, and who does not raise chicks in the coldest few months, will...
  18. NatJ

    Coop location /space

    They can hurt themselves by running into the walls. Or they can drop straight down and hurt themselves by landing hard. When they have enough space, chickens will sort-of fly down at an angle, and that gives them a softer landing. I've had chickens in below-freezing temperatures, but with a...
  19. NatJ

    Coop location /space

    I would not put roost ladders in a coop that size, just one roost that runs straight across. Don't put it too high, because you don't want them to hit a wall coming down: maybe one foot from a wall, and two or three feet up from the floor. (Edit to clarify: a foot from one wall leaves three or...
  20. NatJ

    Need a non-beeping incubator for dry hatching.

    You might want to get one that does not claim to have automatic humidity control. Last time I looked, there were a fair number of the cheaper incubators that didn't have it, but I can't remember how long it's been since I did look. I've had the Brinseas for a while now, and I did get them on...
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