Have you had chickens before? I would start with just a few (3) and go from there. There are all kinds of rules of thumb about how many chickens you can cram into a certain sized space, but the honest truth is that the more space they each have, the better. When you get cramped you start getting...
They look pretty normal to me, though it's hard to tell with all the feathers mixed in there. I also can't really tell from the photo if the poo is bloody or just a cecal.
Did you open the intestines? If so, did you find anything unusual (worms, etc)?
I am raising 10 chicks for a friend. I started with 12. I have them on water oak leaves because that's what we have available for free. Bedding is changed at least twice weekly and food/water every day. They're in a plastic dog crate in a garage. I've lost 4 so far and have no idea what's going...
Hey folks,
I have taken a looooong break from BYC (having moved 5 times in the past year was hard on the girls but especially for me!), but I'm back! I got married and settled into a place I can finally relax into. It's about time!!
I would like to start looking into replacing my hatchery...
Of the two McMurray shipments I got this year, I identified one mystery immediately (silver spangled hamburg) and one I still can't figure out 2 months later.
I'm almost certain it's male, and I'm positive it's splash. It came with 25 black Minorca pullets and has not outgrown them, so I assume...
HeartMoss -
I have had the EXACT same experience. I am meticulous. I picked up the eggs myself and had everything set up before starting the incubation (with 4 day old eggs), but have had trouble keeping the bator humidity up (my room is ~35% and the bator wants to be 16% RH!!!!) and I'm down...
Did you have blood spot? Maybe make sure to sanitize your incubator. I sanitized with oxine but if they all died of bacterial contamination I did something wrong. I've heard to use bleach and then vinegar and dry in the sun for foam incubators. I'll try this before another attempt.
I'm having a super difficult first hatch, so I feel ya. Of 32 I lost all but 10 to blood spot by day 7 and am down to one lone survivor at day 14. I left the rest in after I broke open a half-developed chick and I'm praying and praying I'm wrong and some others make it, but they're so empty for...
So humidity at 16% is not a problem? Or yes?
I will sacrifice more eggs on Sunday at day 10 - I believe most are that ruptured yolk. However? I'm not at all clear on why this would happen with eggs that I picked up and transported myself less than 100 'mi? Are there super special requirements...
...of scheduling the hatch date I had to set on Feb 21 before I got the humidity issue worked out. The temperature was and is reading steady at 102*F at the level of the top of the eggs (100 in some places). I placed a pan of water on the shelf underneath the incubator (5" clearance) to catch...
Unless he's breeding for feather sexing you cannot assume that fast-feathering chicks are female. If he's working toward breed improvement, there's no way he's selecting for feather sexing. The genetics are complicated and difficult to attain, which is why just anyone cannot sex chicks...
Dang, them some fat legs you might say! 7wks with wattles like that is almost definitely cockerel.
Could be a columbian wyandotte. Hatchery quality birds sometimes have straight combs, and if Ideal has a line that throws them it's possible they'd all have it.
My TSC had chicks last year that looked like your white one with the spot. They were a leghorn/australorp cross laying machine breed - leghorn white dominant with some random black leakage. So your chick could be a leghorn cross production breed.
Speckledhen has posted several threads about losing her hatchery barred rocks (and other production breeds too I think) to egg yolk peritonitis around that age. She was able to remove something like over 100cc of fluid from one of the hens and had to continue doing so. I would recommend getting...
I have two black australorps that started to go broody. Both are missing feathers on the front of their neck (as close as they can reach) as well as lower on the breast, closer to the legs. Neither of them is actively sitting on a nest but both get a wild hair every couple days and start to set...
I got the three from Pokey, who has since gotten out of Araucana. I believe they were out of a mixed pen with a BBR roo. Reggie had a beautiful voice and he really was just an incredible bird - I tried really hard to get someone, anyone, to take him, but roosters are a dime a dozen in SC and...