I've got a broody buff orp and I gave her 12 fertilized eggs 23 days ago. On day 21, she kicked one egg out of the nest and another disappeared. It left behind a non-smelly mess matted with black feathers. My guess was that one of my Jersey Giants hopped in, broke an egg, and a battle ensued...
Adding the light can aggravate them and cause them to peck each others feathers. Personally, we do not use a lamp for heat and we never will. Insulating the coop and making it free of drafts is the way to go. When you make them dependent on heat, what happens during a power outage? They...
Okay, I thought of another that happened yesterday afternoon. If this disqualifies me, that's okay. It's too funny not to share. When my Barred Rock hens were outside they started getting all worked up running around the yard. I immediately started to panic thinking it was the fox. Nope...
We now have 8 chickens (so much for this screen name). I let them free range during the day in the backyard. They tuck themselves in at night and I just close up the coop door. A couple nights ago, I forgot until it was pretty late. I walked outside in the dark and checked the roosting bar to...
My 1 year old RIR, "Robot," started laying in the sand outside of her nesting box. It's right in the way of the door to the run so she boxes the other 3 in or out depending on who is where when she starts laying. At first I thought it was because there was another girl in the box, but I've...
As long as they are free from drafts, they'll be just fine. It recently got down to the -2*F here overnight and we just closed their door to their run. They were okay.
We have all RIRs because I wanted dependable egg layers and when we ordered them we had to buy in groups of 5. The next time we get chicks though I want to try to buy a variety. It's really hard to tell 3 of ours apart. The tags I put on them have faded in the sunlight. lol.
I don't think they are confused. They're pretty smart actually. Snow is freaking cold! I wouldn't want to be out there barefoot either. My chicken refuse to touch the snow. They will eat it sometimes, but only if their feet are on dirt. They fly from their ladder to their outdoor...
It's from the freezing. The same thing has happened to us when we haven't gotten out to the coop fast enough. I ended up just scrambling them up and giving them to the chickens as a treat. They scrambled up weird, but apparently they tasted alright because the girls ate them up quick!
My gals are 23 week RIRs. Only 2 of the 4 are laying right now. Rose was our first to start. She wouldn't lay in the nesting box, presumably because my husband had it up too high. She kept laying in the corner of the coop underneath the poop board. So we moved the nesting box there. She's...
My chickens are 16 weeks old. We're running low on grower feed. We buy an organic feed that we have to order through our local feed store. We still have a half bag of starter or a bag of layer feed. Which would be the better one if you had to pick one to feed them?
I gave my girls a peeled banana today that my four year old decided he didn't want to eat. They were so excited that I barely had the plate on the ground and they were chowing down.
We use a 55 gallon drum. We keep the feed in the bags in the drum though as I don't exactly know what my father-in-law kept in the drum before he gave it to us.
I have 4 chicks and they are still working on their 20# bag of organic starter and they are 8 weeks old. They've spent the majority of their time in the chicken tractor though since they were 5 weeks. That has helped cut down on their consumption of feed a bit.
My 3 year old named his RIR pullet "Robot." My 5 year old named hers "Rose." The other 2 RIRs are waiting for their names still. My other 2 kids can't think of anything they really like.
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I agree about not trusting the media or the government. I do; however, put some faith into non-profit groups that are funded 93% by individuals and charitable foundations as the EWG is. I also agree about giving people info on current situations, which is why I posted to the contrary...
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Unfortunately, that is not true. The Environmental Working Group has bumped apples up to the #1 spot on the Dirty Dozen this year because even after washing and peeling apples 98% of them still are contaminated with pesticides.