I wear a rubber half-mask with gas filter every time I'm in the coop.
I got some mystery sensitivity to gasses (and dust I suppose) several years ago, where I'll get an instant headache if I breathe in stuff like ammonia. It's also affecting my eyes, but not as bad as the breathing, so I only...
My first batch hatched just in time for Easter. 31 chicks! Only 2 dead eggs during incubation, so this was a good one. :wee
I wanted as many as possible from one Wyandotte roo, and got a few from my Brahma mix too. The hens are Wyandotte, Brahma, Orpington and mixes.
I just want to show off these WyBra's that I "made".
I crossed laced wyandotte males with partridge brahma females this year, and thought the resulting pattern was quite lovely, and genetically interesting. It's the best of both patterns, with the partridge back and laced front.
I only got...
My 5th and last batch this year just finished! 22 chicks. I called it my blue wyandotte batch, but I only got 4 wy's so not very accurate. Haha!
I did however got some from my beloved rooster Theodore Roostervelt (my profile pic), who died suddenly not long ago. Best rooster I've ever had and...
Thanks! I figured there were both pain receptors and blood vessels in there. I definitely don't want to do anything to harm her.
I looked at some older pictures of her, and it seems the beak has grown like this only in the last 2 weeks. Before that it looked fairly normal. Odd.
I'm a whimp so I won't let my ducks step in water when it's below -i dunno, 20 or 15 F? I had a drake that got badly frostbitten for stepping in water and not drying off properly so after that I've gotten very restrictive. Got heated buckets big enough for them to do their cleaning procedures...
The best thing would be to either put both roosters in with the hens, or to keep them apart with a few hens each. I have many roosters and split them up in different pens, all with 2-3 hens each. I also have 2-3 roosters together in the main coop without a problem.
Putting one rooster alone in...
I noticed one of my ducks has an overgrown beak. She's not old, in fact, she just started growing her caruncles. Born mid-summer this year. It's not in hindrance to her at the moment, but we have many months of snow and inside time ahead, where she won't be able to use her beak for digging etc...
Laying (almost) an egg a day isn't uncommon for hens. However, the number of eggs a year is affected by molting and winter. During molting the hens are likely to stop entirely for a couple of weeks. Similarly, with less light in winter the hens will be less productive or completely stop. With...
Pretty birds! :) The one to the left in the first pic is a female (small feet and full wing feathering) so I'd say 2 males and 1 female. Yeah, in Muscovies both sexes have the same color.
Think you might be right that they're all boys. One is very big, and at least 2 have "puffy" cheeks from what I can see.
Pic's without the fence would be great!
Found this article you might find interesting.
http://www.the-coop.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=28027
Inbreeding in itself isn't dangerous as long as it's not overdone. Since you start with many unrelated animals you could, with care, keep it going for quite a while without new...
It's summer but it's like 15C so she's not getting away with that excuse. :idunno:lau
The summer's been excellent so far actually. The last 2 years it was intolerably hot and dry, up to 40C (which is insane for a Scandinavian, probably normal for an Australian ;)) , so far this year it's been...
Yep, day 31 for external pipping is perfectly normal. They usually go 2 days between ext pip and zip, so hatch date for yours will be around day 33.
What day is the chicken eggs on? They're fine at the same temp as muscovy eggs so I'm sure mom has full control on their heat. 37C outside is hot...
Argh! Angry at my broody duck Lillegull today. She had a perfectly good nest, the best of all the broodies, with lots of bedding and comfort. For some reason she decided to move it 2 feet and is now sitting on bare floor with the eggs rolling away from under her. And they're due in 2 days...
You don't need a tractor and big farm equipment to make hay, it's extremely easy to do on your own. All you need is access to grass and somewhere to dry and store it. If you have poultry I'm going to assume you have a backyard of sorts, but you can even dry hay inside your own house you are so...
Welcome! :frow
Sorry to hear about your last flock dying. But congratulation on starting up again with new ones! Good luck with your chicken keeping and building a new coop!
Orpingtons! I wanted to breed them a few years back, but they're rare in my country (ironically, as they seem to be regular in the US :rolleyes: ) and the breeding stock I got was awful exterior wise. I still LOVE their temperament and shape, and breed them in my mix-flock.
...birds take a nibble, but never the older ones.
In the end it's up to you if you want to keep them away or let them figure it out on their own. There *is* of course a risk one will disregard their taste buds and get poisoned, but then again free-ranging have other risks like predator attack too.