Well, sexing chicks is only about 90% accurate at best, so even if you pay the extra money for pullets, you can still end up with a few cockerels.
But, why get straight run? Well, some folks might be starting out and not know what that means. Or, maybe they only need a few chicks and getting...
We had a fox grab one of ours this summer but our dog helped find them before he killed her. My husband and I thought she was okay, but the next day I found a big gash on her back under her apron. We treated it with betadine and Neosporin daily until it closed, which took a while, but she did...
How are the other chickens dealing with her sitting on the eggs? Are they trying to lay in the same box? Forcing her off the nest? (This was happening to ours but I didn't realize it until I saw it, thought they were just getting on when she wanted to take a break) . If they're bothering her...
We just did this with our first ever broody, so here's our experience.
Our broody was sitting on six eggs, but there was bullying by others wanting to lay in the nest, so far from ideal. Last week, all but one had stopped developing :( and then on Saturday (after sitting on them about 2 1/2...
Well, I think this hatching attempt is a bust. We were trying out a homemade incubator for the first time, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Still sad, though. I may try again later this year, we'll see. I did buy a few chicks this week, so I do get to watch some babies grow up.
We more recently got a carbon monoxide detector with a tamper resisitar feature (it alarms when unplugged). I don't know if it would go off in a power outage or if it could tell somehow that it was still plugged in.
We have a very bright led flashlight that plugs into the wall to recharge. It automatically turns on when unplugged or when the power goes out. If you're sensitive to light at night, that might work. I'm not sure where to get one though, we got ours for Christmas years ago.
Because they were two genetically unique chicks. Each had its own yolk with its own subset of the hen's genes and was fertilized separately. If you have multiple roosters, they could have different father's. Or the parents have a mix of light and dark genes and each inherited a different...
Yes, I don't think we'll be vaccinating. We haven't had a necropsy done, so we're just guessing at what we're dealing with. And as tempting as it is to blame the breeder, with the timing it could have been that the stress of being moved let the first one pick it up easily when she first got...