If you plan on keeping them, you'd better fence an area for them. Daytime predators include dogs, some foxes, hawks, and sometimes the odd coyote. Nighttime predators such as raccoons, foxes, coyotes, skunks or minks won't be deterred by a perimeter fence, and chicken wire won't keep anything...
For what it's worth, my great grandma had leghorns and brood hens (mutts who hatched her next layers/fryers). She also fed the family with leghorn cockerels - it took a lot to make a meal, but they were good!
Like the others said, most of the dual-purpose breeds would be fine; the problem is...
I really like Kent Home Fresh Chick-Go. I have used Farm & Fleet's AgriMaster starter, and the feed mill's chick starter, both of which were serviceable and completely adequate. But Chick-Go is awesome! My chicks have feathered out faster, grow faster, and look better than they ever have. My...
Most of my chicks seem to take 18-24 hours from pip to hatch. They need the time to absorb the blood and yolk - if you help it out you could burst a blood vessel and kill the chick. Don't worry, give it time. It will hatch when its ready.
If there is a large poultry show in your area, you can go and see if there are any malays entered. The catalog usually has the exhibitor's name and sometimes contact information by the number on the cage card. Many shows also have a swapper section as well, and you might even find some birds for...
How much vinegar are you putting in the water? If it gives the water a funny taste, they won't be as likely to drink it. Also, are you using Apple Cider Vinegar or WHite Vinegar? I have heard of many people using cider vinegar (I use it to keep the water from getting algae), but white vinegar is...
Don't be afraid of feeding them any and every table scrap you have, too. Chickens are great garbage disposals. The only thing mine don't eat are potato peels and large peppers.
Our chickens have access to our hay mow, with lots of grass/alfalfa mix hay. We have never had a problem with impacted crop, or anything else related to them consuming the hay.
Instead of quick oats, why don't you feed whole oats or rolled oats? Whole oats can be soaked and softened if you're...
My bantams can swallow anything the same size or smaller than a whole kernel of corn - any pellets I've ever seen made for chickens were more than small enough to be eaten by most bantams. However, you must wait longer to switch them from a starter/grower crumble to the pellets. The only...
I show white rock bantams, and I have been told not to use any "blue" shampoo because it will stain, either blue or a yellowish tint, unless you get *all* the residues out, so you must be very careful with those.
Ivory dish soap is the one most reccommended, especially if you let the chooks...
This used to happen quite frequently at my county fair. In fact, this year I had two birds in the running for best of show and they brought the pen of roasters out for evaluation by the "fancy bird" judge while the judge who had been judging the market classes looked over the champions of the...
F1 and F2 stand for generations in a breeding line, the first filial generation and so on. Say you are crossing A Buff Orp and a Buff Rock. The offspring of the original pair are called the first filial generation (F1). The offspring of the F1 birds are called the second filial generation, or F2.
Yellow skin is absolutely normal. Yellow meat, not so much. Maybe the wierd smell is just because you are used to store chickens and not homegrown ones; chickens you raise yourself get different food and living conditions.
It may have been someting about that one bird...I can't answer your question, but I have had a similar experience: I was cutting the breast meat off a cornish x and about an inch into the meat, it was green! It was green from an inch into the muscle all the way down to the rib cage. It might...
Start off with a 23% chick starter for 4 weeks, restricting food (12 hours on and 12 hours off) starting at 2 weeks, then finish with a 20% from 4 weeks until slaughter. This is for maximum yield.
I feed Agrimaster to my layers, a mix of Layer and Broiler feed. I used to feed Flock Raiser, but it was too expensive. I add scratch mixed in with their crumbles in the winter, but in the summer they get free range and do not need the scratch. So far, they look great. Be careful of adding too...