My starter flock were still dog-piling at that age and at this time of year. Now they're all roosting and the babies that come along learn to roost younger. They'll get the hang of it. I did have to block off my nesting boxes for a few weeks when they transitioned from the dog pile to those...
Mine are molting so they stopped laying. They can't do both. I'm supplementing extra protein to help get through this (hopefully) faster. I miss eggs!!
I'm in MN (pretty much the same climate as WI) and we bought an old home made playhouse to use for our chicken coop. It was built by a carpenter and has vinyl siding (matched his house) but no insulation. It is 9x11' and 11 feet tall at the peak and has a wooden ceiling most of the way at about...
WOW, Cindy R! I had the same question about flock size but obviously flock size doesn't matter. If your flock of 4 can winter together at temps down to forty below zero F, then we here in MN are going to be fine even with only three or four chickens in our flock. I have forty right now, but will...
...went great with only one more casualty soon after removing the heat lamps. The rest of the winter the remaining 14 chickens did fine, even in -20* to -30*. The biggest challenge was trying to keep water from freezing. Some days that meant two or three trips out with fresh water. I used...
Excellent! Did it stay on? I like the design (looks comfortable) and that the wing tops are covered (mine doesn't do that and they are BALD). Way to go!!
I read somewhere that if you use vinegar to wipe off the rims it gets the fat off better than just water. I'm going to do that when I can chicken. Sound like a good idea?
I just put food and water in the coop for the first couple weeks until the chicks are big enough to navigate to the outside stuff....but mine isn't 3 ft up either.
Mine have been on for 2 months now and have only had to put one back on once (she got it off during a dustbathing--caught on fence) Not alot of regrowth but not getting sunburned, either.
I only wait 1-3 days for the broody to stick to put eggs under. For chicks it's probably a good idea to wait 2-3 weeks, though. I've been doing chicks this summer but now my source isn't hatching any more so i bought some fertile eggs from him yesterday because I have two more broodies (one is a...