I have my EE roo and EE hen together in a separate run. I planned to integrate them once 6 of my sons 4-H birds are sold. Will the hens pick on the roo? Or will he stand up to them? The EEs are currently in a run that is right next to the main run where the birds can all see each other. He is...
Thank you both. Yes the only reason I am in a bit of a "hurry" with the egg laying is because these are my son's 4-H projects and they are suppose to be recording egg laying in their fair books. Fair starts next weekend for us.
I did do lots of reading on Intergrating new birds to the flock...
Yep that is what I'm referring to. That means she's being submissive to a rooster. So you're her rooster, in her mind :) she should be laying anytime now if she's doing that.
...browns and 4 barred rocks and 3 barnyard mixes. Out of 18 layers we get 6-9 eggs per day. 5-6 of them are from last years flock and the other 3 I *think* are coming from our 3 barnyard mixes. Did we just get really lucky last year with our excellent egg layers? This years Isa browns are 22...
We are raising a few barred rocks this year and I don't know if it's this is groups personality or typical for the breed. But they are kind of flighty and good escape artists. They run between our feet when we open the run door or they sneak out by flying up really high and getting on the roof...
If your first Silkie and your polish were fighting, that's a good indication your Silkie is a roo. You might have some trouble keeping 2 roosters together. Especially with just a couple of hens.
Ours is a stinky muddy mess too. I've been weeding and throwing all the weeds in the run along with grass clippings and straw. It helps some. And the hens love the greens.
I would like to focus on just black silkies. I understand that black to black = black. However I have 2 hens. 1 comes from a solid black to black pen. The other came from a mixed pen of both pure whites and pure blacks. (Pure meaning that the parents were a result of a black/black or white/white...
I am currently raising 3 OEGB that I hatched in January. 2 are pullets and 1 is a cockerel. I knew from pretty early on (2-3 weeks old) that my Roo is a Roo. He started developing a comb long before the other 2 did.
Do hens lay the same color of shell that they hatched out of? I ask because I hatched some barnyard mix eggs and one of the chicks is looking like an Easter egger. So I'm wondering if that chick turns out to be a hen if she will lay a brown egg (what she hatched from) or a blue/green one.
We built our incubator using an old cooler, thermostat, computer fan and light bulbs. I've done 3 hatches with it. First hatch we got 8 chicks out of 10 eggs. Next hatch we only got 3 chicks out of 14 (but I do suspect many of the eggs weren't fertile) and the last hatch we just finished we're...
I haven't gone on vacation and left my chickens for that long, but we did build this kind of a feeder this summer and we only have to fill it about once a week. We used a 3" pipe and its about 3.5 feet long for 6 hens. You could get a 4" pipe and make it longer so it holds more.
The 5 gallon...
Ours are due to hatch on the 14th and I'm hoping they wait until the 15th, as that is my birthday :) This will be our second hatch. We are hatching silkies.