Update:
The ring-leaders (Light Brahma and SLW hens) who were picking on my Polish have had pin-less peepers on for about 3 1/2 months now. Since applying the peepers, our flock has been injury free and very happy! We even started getting our first batch of eggs from our smallest black silkie...
TSC brand bedding doesn't explicitly say that it is pine, but it is. I've been using it since 3 days old (8 weeks now) and had no problems whatsoever. Very low dust!
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for example if you upload the picture to imageshack.us your "url to picture" would look something like this "http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/489/img0538q.jpg" (don't use the quotes)
at end state if everything works properly it should look like
<-- Again, remember that you can't...
@boogiedog and enola
Thank you both very much! I was really upset about the possibility of having to rehome my poor Polish girl. She's so sweet, but I don't want her to be hurt, so I'll do what is best for her in the end. I'm going to keep her separated from the other girls until her top hat...
I'm having a similar problem with my 8wk old White Crested Black Polish. She is the only one of nine 8wk old girls to get picked on, and is almost 50% bald now. The first time we noticed the pecked area, we applied blu-kote and the behavior seemed to stop. This time, the area was much larger...
You can start giving them treats at around 2 weeks, but be careful and don't "over do" it. They need the nutrition from their normal food, and if they are full on treats, they won't be eating enough of their normal diet.
I'm sorry for posting this here, but I thought you'd get a kick out of it:
http://www.tmz.com/2010/09/08/snooki-arrest-jersey-shore-court-hearing-disorderly-conduct-jail-drunk-plea-bargain-lindsay-lohan/
My girls also LOVED to chase the injured palmetto bugs (they are a *plague* in south GA) around the brooder. I might have intentionally injured a few of them myself just to watch them play with their food. Tons of fun watching them!
To avoid any confusion, here is a picture of my coop:
You can see the large feed/water containers underneath the hen house. Inside the hen house, I'm using the smaller chick feeder / water container from the brooder still. The coop is very well secured, and I'd be very surprised if anything...
50s might be a little cool for them at night. I keep a red heat lamp available for the girls to use if they get chilly. Otherwise they can hang out on the other side of the hen house where it is cooler.
How old are your chicks? If they are newly hatched, I would keep them on crumbles for the first week or two before introducing them to snacks. Also, you might want to have some baby chick grit available (without calcium!) for them to help digest the soft foods.
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I agree. I'd prefer to either leave both, or take both out. The heat lamp really covers less than 20% of the floor in the hen house, but I hadn't considered it might be causing them to get thirsty. That alone would be enough of a factor for me to leave their food/water inside until I...
I still keep their red heat lamp on them at night, but they have plenty of room in the hen-house to get away if they are too warm. That said, they seem to prefer the comfort of the heat lamp. It hasn't gotten below 70 degrees at night, so I know they can tolerate the temps, but it's kind of...
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Our girls love boiled eggs. I'm not sure what they'd do if they were scrambled, but I suspect they'd probably love the opportunity to chow down!