You do not have a mature rooster. You have a cockerel that is going through puberty. His hormones are telling him to step up and become flock master but he's not quite ready for that. He still has some maturing to do.
I'm not sure why he is going after the second-in-command. Usually when I...
Great analysis Stormcrow. You are much more patient than I am.
@Crazy chicken lady 77 one reason chicken feed comes in the forms it does is that unless the ingredients are ground up and bound together in pellets or crumble the ingredients sort themselves out by specific gravity. If the...
I think that was a private message several years back so no post to link.
I did not phrase my earlier reply well. The Blue Eggshell gene and the Pea Comb gene are two totally separate unrelate genes that happen to be close together on the chromosome. If both are present on that strand then...
The way the pea gene is linked to the blue eggshell gene is that they are pretty close together on the chromosome. A genetics guru on here years ago said that the two genes are carried together about 93% of the time. That means he has a 7% chance of having the blue eggshell gene. Not great...
The egg making and egg laying processes are pretty complicated. There are a lot of things that can go wrong. It is not unusual for a pullet just starting to lay really weird eggs in strange places at unexpected times. I'm kind of amazed at how many get it right to start with. Even...
Hi, welcome to the forum! Glad you joined!
Different things can affect when the eggs hatch. Heredity, humidity, how and how long the eggs were stored before incubation started, and just differences in the eggs. A big factor is average incubating temperature. If the average incubating...
It doesn't matter if he is a RIR or not. It doesn't matter if he is any specific breed or not. To make red sex links what matters is that he is pure for the gold gene while the hen has the silver gene.
The silver gene is dominant over the gold gene. That means if just one of the genes at...
I assume you are talking about just before you crack them, not before storage.
If you talk to a food health expert they would probably say absolutely, wash them every time. They are aware of what could possibly go wrong and their goal is absolutely zero risk. Their advice is to take no...
You might notice that this is a fairly old thread. I consider @nicalandia the guru on this topic. She hasn't been on this forum for several months.
It is my understanding that some colored broiler males have the recessive dwarf gene. Some do not. I personally do not know which broiler...
We are all faced with different situations so we don't all always do things the same. Some of us have feed out all of the time, even overnight when it is too dark for them to eat. I do, but I'm not down there at the crack of dawn to put fresh food out. Some people take food up at night so...
You can get all kinds or suggestions and recommendations on this forum but the only time I'd consider the feeding restrictions of twice daily would be for Cornish Cross. Why do you want to restrict feeding of your chickens? I feel like I'm missing something.
When my broody hens take the...
Each chicken is an individual so they are not always identical. Breed has something to do with it and so does breeding. Some breeders pay attention to longevity of laying so they can affect how long they lay well.
Studies have been performed on the commercial laying hybrids. Somebody has...
Each chicken has its own personality and each flock has its own dynamics. I cannot make any guarantees regarding chicken behaviors. Most (but not all) broody hens will protect their chicks. The more room Momma has the easier it can be for her to take care of her chicks but the individual...
I usually do not suggest locking pullets not yet laying away from the nests in case they start and they learn to lay somewhere other than the nests but in this case I'll make an exception. You have two separate issues. 1 - several pullets not laying in the coop & 2 - three pullets not yet...
I would expect nine chickens of any size and age already integrated to be OK in a 10 x 10 coop. You do not get guarantees with living animals and behaviors so it might not work, but that is a lot of room. More room per chicken than a lot of people have in a combined coop and run.
What did...
A 10 x 10 coop is plenty big enough to house 9 pullets.
Your stress or theirs? Who is the adult in this, you or them? I'd leave them locked in the new coop for several days to try to train them to lay in there. It may not be in your nests but it should be in the coop.
This is exactly what...
They are new neighbors. Have you met them yet? Sometimes discussion is all it takes. If they are planning on putting up a fence you might offer to help share expenses. How you phrase that might be important.
You see it all of the time on here. People have trouble with a neighbor's dogs...
I cannot come up with any disease that could be transmitted to humans through the eggs.
Did you give her any medicine? If so, what? Some medicines have withdrawal periods where you are not supposed to eat the eggs (or meat) for that withdrawal period. 1-1/2 months is a long time and should...
That's roughly 100' X 200 '. A lot of room for 7 chickens. They do not need all of it.
The answers to these are
1. Fencing
2. Fencing and
3. Fencing
Whether you fence them out of certain areas or keep them fenced in to an acceptable area is up to you. I suspect keeping them fenced into a...