My flock's catchphrase:
"Muddy puddle! Muddy puddle!"
Their theme:
"I don't care how much clean water you provide, I want to drink from the muddy puddy after I stomp it with my poopy feet."
So many times, chickens do things we don't expect. Good broodies do exist, many hens are good broodies. You just never know what they will individually do until you try them with something.
I wouldn't let that hen have the chicks back this time either. They can live perfectly healthy happy...
I don't know what your comfort level would be with this suggestion, since you've had such a traumatic experience with this hen so far.
It might be possible that with a non-staggered hatch she would be a fine mom and not attack her chicks. Letting her sit on a non-staggered hatch is not an...
Have you wormed her recently or treated her for coccidiosis? If so, what products did you use and how did you administer them and for how long?
You can get a dog/cat vet to do a fecal float to check for worm species so you can get a targeted medication for the species found. You can also...
I agree, it took me a bit to get fast at it. I pluck in about 30 minutes.
The time it takes to get the water set up and heated up, the cleaning of the scalding pot, and the tear down time are what annoy me most. And the smell. I hate the smell of the scalding water - it gets into all my...
I agree, skin is tasty, I just don't always have the patience for it.
I cover my skinned chicken with cheese or sauce when I cook it, and cook in a covered dish to avoid drying out. Like as a curry or under BBQ sauce or something.
I save half an hour of processing time by skinning instead of plucking. Skinning takes me 1.5 hrs and plucking takes me 2 hrs from live bird to finished carcass. Setup time for the water bath is also reduced.
Sometimes I part out the bird, sometimes I leave it as a whole carcass after...
I fully enclosed mine too. Haven't regretted it once. Not one predator loss in 4 years. We don't have digging predators here, so we did everything but the ground in the run. Nice wide 3 ft apron keeps the predators out. Keep any opening into your coop or run at 1/2" or less, and you should...
I tried 6 mil plastic sheeting vapor barrier for wrapping the sides of the run - it can work for a few months. I've been really pleased about the transparent tarp.
After a while, mold grows/dirt gets stuck on the tarp and reduces tranparency (at least where I live). But it's still better...
I've done plastic sheeting myself - it's all in how you hang or attach it. I tried securing it on vertical chain link panels with plastic or metal zip ties, and over time it would pull big holes in the plastic until the sheeting tore off due to wind. If you can sandwich the plastic sheeting...
A note about rain - address keeping the water out of the coop now - it's the perfect time. I got some 6" wide coiled aluminum edging like for flower beds I think, and pounded that a couple inches into my hard clay ground around the entire coop. Most water hits that and flows around my run...
Sure. You can put wood chips over dirt. But the hens will mix it all up together. If it's plentiful, I'd put a bunch of wood chips in there, and then you can remove and compost them every year or two when they get nasty. If it rains, they'll self compost in place while the chickens stir them...
And this is why the bullseye technique for telling if an egg if fertilized or not is not always accurate. Because I see a bullseye, but you have all female chickens. Cute hens!
The only sure way to check and see if an egg is fertilized is to incubate it. After 3 days or more you can candle...
I had a chicken who got injured by a flockmate and ended up with an ~ inch diameter open gash in the skin on the back of her neck, almost up by her head. I sprayed it with Vetericyn to try and clean it, and just kept her isolated and the wound sprayed occasionally. It healed up, all her...
This would be a good post for the Meat Bird Forum or in your state thread. We are an international community, and have no idea where Deer Park is. There may be folks who can help you out - I'd start by asking in the Meat Bird Forum and give your state and area if you're in the USA, country and...
If I recall correctly, about 1/3 to 1/2 of purebred araucanas don't have tufts. It's a recessive that's hard to breed for without the eggs dying on you. As a breed they also have a very low hatchrate.
This bird may be a mix due to presence of tail, but it may just be an off-standard bird...
We use chicken legs from chickens we've processed. Some folks eat them but we haven't been, so instead of wasting we use as bait. We zip tie the leg bone to the bottom of the live catch trap so it can't be removed, and the critter has to come inside to get it. And set a paving stone on top so...
There was one commercial hatchery selling Delawares as broilers, if I recall correctly. Maybe Hoovers? I didn't try them because the few folks who processed them and posted results on here found cancer a few times (most of the time the chicken is still edible to humans, but I wanted healthier...