I have a batch of 11wk old chicks that live in a cage with a plastic-covered 1/2" mesh floor, with a waste catcher tray directly underneath and no run. A week ago I noticed one penedesenca was weak and not standing well, but didn't see anything physically wrong with her except a little swelling...
I'm in southern New Mexico, and our temps have been around 100 for the last few days. I had 6 speckled sussex chicks and 5 oegb chicks, between 8 and 13 weeks old, in a cage inside the coop. When i got home yesterday evening, i had two dead chicks and this morning 2 more ill. All are off their...
Last year I bought a silver duckwing OEGB cock and three hens from an APA judge who bought them from a show in Oklahoma - their previous owner was retiring from showing. They were all at least four years old and not really great looking anymore, but he told me the cock won as a cockerel at a big...
I've got OEGB's that I bought last fall at four years old. They are retired show birds that I bought from an APA judge, and I'm planning to hatch every egg I can from them. They finally stated laying again a couple of weeks ago after taking the winter off. So I have the first seven eggs in the...
I have a pigeon (I think) in my yard this week that I think is not wild. It came flying down when I was feeding my chickens this morning, and landed where we feed the cats. It let me get about two feet away before it flew off. There is a guy a couple miles away from me with a bunch of pigeon...
My Dellies are 18 days old, and I can't believe how fast they're growing. I ordered 25, they sent 26, and everyone is doing great. A bunch of the chicks are obviously males, based on pink combs and wattle development, but I haven't been able to make a count yet of how many cockerels I have. We...
I have one egg in an incubator. My kids picked it up off the side of the river and we are assuming it's a mallard. There doesn't seem to be much duck variety at our little bitty river here in southern New Mexico. We put it in a borrowed incubator, and today is day 29. I've read online that...
I'm waiting on Delawares from Sandhill. My first possible hatch date was April 21, which has come and gone. I understand that they are not like other hatcheries, so just wanted to ask...
On average, how long have others waited for their orders? I'm anxious for my babies! Crossing my fingers for...
I just mailed my order for Delawares from Sand Hill Preservation. I've never had the breed before, but I like the look of them and I am wanting to start a good meat and eggs flock.
Can anyone give me their experience with Sand Hill Delawares and post pictures please? I'm anxious for them...
My birds all free range, standards, bantams, everyone together. My only roosters are bantam cochins and OEGB's. I've got eggs hatching under a broody tonight, all bantam cochin eggs. I am hoping that some of the chicks will be pure cochins. The first chick out, however, is obviously not pure...
I'm going crazy here. I got this bird at the county fair in September, as a young, very ugly frizzle "pullet". Its comb was much smaller than the others there that were obviously roos, so I decided it must be a girl. Now, though, it is totally not what I'm thinking a pullet should look like...
I've got 5 chicks that hatched under a broody this week, which is always so exciting! None of them are pure anything, so it will be fun to see what they turn into.
Anyway, yesterday morning I went out to check on mama and babies, and one of the chicks had gotten out of the nest box in the...
My friend called for my help with a chick, probably 4 or 5 weeks old, who was severely pecked around his vent. He got stuck between two layers of poultry wire during the night, apparently.
ANYWAY... his backside is pecked to the bone, so the hole through his pelvic bone is exposed and the...
I'm going to pull my hair out. I have 5 big girls, 3 blue wyandottes and 2 white cochins, broody right now who aren't even a year old yet. And today my favorite bantam cochin is definitely broody. I have no good eggs for them, no money to buy good eggs for them, and I don't want to hatch any...
My babies came today, 10 blue wheaten OEGB's and 11 RIR packing peanuts. All alive and well, active and hungry! I can't believe how tiny the OEGB's are compared to the peanuts. It's really cute. I've already found a home for the peanuts too.
GAH!!!!
I don't have a bator or a broody, why do I always go to the hatching eggs auction and get all worked up over the pretty eggies I want!?! There are so many auctions I want to win, and I have no way to hatch eggs.
And then, since I can't hatch eggs right now, I start going to all the...
I found a book at the Scholastic book fair this last fall, and I was just reading it again this evening. I really love this cute little book, and so do my kids. We're all a bunch of silly chicken addicts here. Anyway, the book is called "Big Chickens Fly the Coop" by Leslie Helakoski and...
The show is February 25-27, and I am trying to decide if it's worth it for me to take my two little young birds, a pair of bantam cochins. It would be my first show. I've never been to an APA show before. Safford is 90 minutes away from me through the mountains, and I am definitely going to...
Just brought my broody inside to the cage I've got set up for her to set in. Her eggs from PearlySue should be coming in the mail this morning. Cross your fingers for us that she settles down and relaxes on the nest I made her before it's time to put the eggs under. This is our first try at...