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  1. AllynTal

    Help is this a roo or a hen

    It very well might be. We look for clues, and as they get older, the clues become more conclusive.
  2. AllynTal

    I'm so old I Remember when:

    Me, too. Where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with.
  3. AllynTal

    Help is this a roo or a hen

    It might be a bit early to say for sure. I look for saddle feathers at about 3 months, give or take, to make a reliable call on whether it's a cockerel or a pullet
  4. AllynTal

    Rooster laying eggs

    @NatJ is correct. Whether she is laying or not doesn't matter. A female chicken less than a year old is a pullet. A male chicken less than a year old is a cockerel.
  5. AllynTal

    What is Your DREAM Flock? (And What's Realistic?)

    My dream flock would be Delawares, 20 hens and 2 roosters, all perfect SoP specimens. I have the numbers going into winter after the autumn processing for the freezer, but as far as being perfect specimens....well, it's a work in progress.
  6. AllynTal

    Can ants wipe out a whole flock?

    I concur with this. We never had fire ants up north. They are, at least for now, confined to the lower 13 states. I believe (though I can't find an authoritative source atm) that they can't survive the cold winters up north.
  7. AllynTal

    Can ants wipe out a whole flock?

    When I moved from New England to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I had my first run-in with fire ants. Hateful little creatures, they are. Every year there are deaths in the South from fire-ant stings -- people and livestock -- so yes, they can kill chickens. The American Academy of Allergy and...
  8. AllynTal

    Reintroducing Hen to Flock Suggestions

    If she was part of the flock before, it won't be too hard to re-introduce her. If you can confine her in a cage and put her in the area where the flock hangs out, you can watch the reactions. I have taken a hen and put her on the roost in the coop after dark so they all wake up in the morning...
  9. AllynTal

    Fox problem

    I didn't read all the posts, so forgive me if I missed something. We had a neighbor clear-cut about 5 acres of woods on the other side of the pasture that abuts our property. He displaced a lot of wildlife, including some foxes, least one of which decided that he liked my chickens. We lost two...
  10. AllynTal

    Not laying in laying boxes

    I didn't mean 'privacy' in terms of modesty. No, chickens are not modest, but they do like to feel like they're hiding when they lay an egg. So if you think about 'privacy' in terms of 'hiding', you'll get my meaning better than simply saying they want to feel 'safe'. There really isn't anything...
  11. AllynTal

    Not laying in laying boxes

    With the reduced hours of daylight each day, it's possible that your pullets have delayed the start of laying. Have you checked their vents to determine if they are, in fact, laying now? If your chickens are laying out in their free-range area somewhere, it is quite possible that predators are...
  12. AllynTal

    are chickens less active in winter?

    Chickens don't like to walk on snow. If you spread some straw on top of the snow, they'll come out and walk on that.
  13. AllynTal

    are chickens less active in winter?

    Even if you don't cover the entire area, at least make a secure, covered run right outside the coop door. Make it big enough to allow for 10 sq ft per chicken and keep them in the run. The hawk will hang around until he eats every chicken that he can get a hold of. If you secure the birds, once...
  14. AllynTal

    are chickens less active in winter?

    How old are the chickens? Have you tried taking the food and water out of the coop to encourage them to go outside? What kind of 'outside' do they have? I'm wondering if they were threatened by a predator (even a neighborhood dog is a predator to chickens) that they're staying inside for...
  15. AllynTal

    Wooden vs Plastic coop

    If you're talking about the pre-made dollhouse coops like you get at Tractor Supply or similar, they don't have enough ventilation imo to house more than a couple of birds. Whatever the claimed capacity is of the premade coop you're looking at, cut that number in half (and round down) to get a...
  16. AllynTal

    Do 3 hens go broody they have been mated and other chick raising questions

    As has been pointed out, hens don't pass vaccinations on to her chicks. If you want the chicks to be vaccinated, they'll have to be done individually. As so what vaccinations they might need, no one on the Internet can tell you that. Contact your regional agri folks -- the state veterinarian or...
  17. AllynTal

    Do 3 hens go broody they have been mated and other chick raising questions

    I not sure what you're asking. Hens don't need to mate in order to go broody. Broodiness is a hormone thing that doesn't require a rooster to trigger it. If there is a rooster and he mated with the hens, that doesn't mean any of the hens will automatically go broody. Chances are, they won't...
  18. AllynTal

    Are chickens really noisy?

    As others have said, they're usually fairly quiet, but can get loud when doing what people call the "egg song". Some of mine get very loud and very raucous and it'll go on for several minutes. Your neighbors will hear them. I definitely second the advice to check with your local laws and...
  19. AllynTal

    Oh my goodness.. my Roo's are rapists.

    When I posted that this behavior is 'normal', I meant that this is the behavior that happens in the situation as it was presented in the original post. Those cockerels are behaving predictably in that situation. I am not a chicken collector; I am a breeder and as part of that, I routinely...
  20. AllynTal

    What went wrong?

    This is just an observation: I see gaps between the boards in the pictures in which you're holding the chicks. Make sure that brooder is free of drafts. (Plenty of ventilation, but no drafts.) I'm not suggesting that is part of the problem; it's just an observation for overall chick health...
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