This year's hatch included an EE roo, 3 EE hens, and a barred rock/white leghorn cross roo ( from eggs donated by friends). I raised them all together in a separate coop and they are now 5 months old. In the main coop I have 13 hens (RIR crosses) whose rooster ( a 2 year old meat roo) went...
I have two hens sitting on eggs in adjacent nests. My thought was to simply fence off the area around the nests when the chicks are born (since they can't stay in the nest) and let the chicks/moms live in that area till the little guys are big enough to be out with the big hens. But will two...
I have a beautiful 2 week old chick who just today started holding it's head to one side (as if it can't hold it's head up). Has anyone ever seen this symptom before? I have 8 other chicks in the brood box - do I separate them? Do chickens get earaches? I'm hoping it's something simple -...
It's been very cold here. My rooster has begun shaking his head all the time. He can't seem to stop. I'm worried. This is not normal. It's below freezing outside - should I bring him inside in a box to warm up? His hens seem just fine and are laying eggs.
OK. I'm tender hearted and can't bring myself to butcher the old hens. But go they must since I have some great new hens just starting to lay. Here's my question:
Will they still lay an occasional egg? Or are they done?
I have a friend who doesn't want to pay the going rate for new layers...
Whew! Butchered, plucked, eviscerated, and processed 7 roosters today. Hard work but worth it. We stuffed and roasted one for dinner. I made lots of chicken stock and a huge pot of chicken soup. Froze packages of legs and breasts for later. Tired but happy.
How soon after laying their first eggs will hens go broody? I have a hen that's only been laying a month or so. She disappeared a couple weeks ago- at first we thought a predator got her but she reappeared when I was tossing cracked corn to the flock a week ago. Disappeared again and came...
OK - odd question. If your incubator is off temperature a bit, is it likely that more females would hatch than males? We got an unusually high number of female chicks (yay!) and I wondered if it was because my incubator was cooler than recommended (only because I didn't notice the temp had...
Two weeks ago I started eggs and then went on vacation, leaving the house sitter to look after the incubator. I got home today and it looks as if the egg turner hasn't been working. It's fixed now. Is there a possibility that I will still get chicks? Or should I just start over? If eggs...
Hey gang- I just butchered and plucked 5 roosters. My chicken book says I first need to age the meat by wrapping loosely and placing in the fridge for a day or two before cutting them up. Fine. However it doesn't mention if I should eviscerate my birds first. Surely I don't store them with...
Perhaps this has been covered before. This is my first season incubating eggs. I have a great incubator and have had lots of chicks hatch this spring (about 40 or so). My last batch just finished incubating. I had quite a few duds. I've not learned how to candle so I just put in all the...
Lost half my flock this morning to a fox (I actually saw him running across my backyard- no doubt whatsoever this guy got my chickens). Nothing but feathers remained. However- there was one bird still on the ground- nothing but the head was gone. I suspect the headless chicken was killed by a...
I went out to the coop today and there was a baby chick in with the broody hen! :-)
But she's hatching her babies in the nest box (about 3 feet off the floor). Which means the babies have no way to eat or drink unless I take them out and place them on the floor. The other five eggs have not...
One of my hens sat for about ten days on eggs. I checked on her yesterday and she had moved off the eggs. I have an incubator going and hatched out 12 chicks a couple days ago so I had some room in there. I put the dozen eggs from my once broody hen into the incubator. Do you think they will...
Does anyone have Ranger or Cornish eggs available for hatching? PM me if you have some you can part with and are able to ship. (Of course I'll pay shipping and costs) Thanks!
I optomistically kept four Ranger hens and a Ranger roo to overwinter. Wanted to incubate and raise my own meat birds. Had a great space for them out in the greenhouse. Heated it all winter and kept the water from freezing. Fed them all winter long. One hen died early on - Heart attack...
Sold three baby chicks last weekend and six just today. Still have 13- tomorrow some of them will also go to their new homes. Three weeks old today- happy and healthy and feathering out nicely. I'll keep a few for myself as well...but I've got 30 eggs in the incubator that will hatch out in...