I have a hen, age unknown (I've had her for less than a month and didn't get the age from the former owner ), that is exhibiting some odd symptoms that I have no idea what could be ailing her or how to fix her.
At first I thought it was egg binding, but I soaked her and probed her vent with no...
So, I recently finalized my third attempt at hatching in a still air Little Giant incubator.
Hatched: 1
Blood ring: 1
Not viable: 1
Early Quitter: 1
Late Quitter: 7
Late Quitter with Internal Pip: 1
The one chick that hatched is doing wonderfully, if a bit lonely. I poured over all my notes...
I have chicks that are due to hatch Monday. I'm working on setting up the brooder now. I do have a heat lamp (or seven) I could use, but I'd like to find an alternative as the brooder I'm using this go-round is plastic and I'm afraid of it melting with the heat lamp.
I have a seedling mat by...
I have three chickens that I'm trying to find out the breed for. The two all black birds (on the left in the first photo) I suspect are Toramu or Long Crowers. The white girl beside them is the third one I'm trying to figure out, but have no guesses for her.
The white girl:
Close up of...
Brief history:
5/13 - Set 20 chicken eggs with aquarium style thermometer/humidity gauge
Day 7 - candled and marked some for recandling
Day 10 - recandled, removed 3 eggs
Day 14 - candled, marked some for recandling
Day 18 - recandled, removed 11 eggs, went into lock down
Day 20 - Inserted more...
OK, so here is the basic story. Before I began incubating my chicken eggs, I asked hubby to find me a good thermometer/hygrometer to maintain temp and humidity. He purchased one that appeared to be for aquariums housing reptiles and such. So I set up my 'bator, threw that in, and waited to see...
I'm in lock down for my current batch of eggs and am not having great success. If the eggs that remain hatch, I'll have a 30% hatch rate. Not bad, but not preferred. I want to attempt a dry hatch next to see if I have better results. What do I need to know before attempting a dry hatch?
Useful...
So, on May 13 I set 20 eggs in my still air incubator. I culled 3 on day 10 due to blood rings. On day 16, I culled another 11; all of which turned out to be early quitters. This leaves me 6 eggs entering into lock down in the next 12 hours. I've begun upping my humidity as I'm not quite sure...
So, I was minding my business in the kitchen when I heard a cheeping sound. I first looked at the TV, assuming it was something on my son's show. However, I watched the show for a few minutes and NOTHING appeared to be cheeping on it. Then it hit me... It couldn't be, could it? Racing downstairs...
I currently have 17 eggs in an incubator. On Friday (day 10 of incubation), I culled 3 from my original 20 and confirmed through eggtopsy those 3 had blood rings.
It is now day 14 and I just candled my remaining 17 eggs. I have 10 which appear to be measuring around day 11-12 of development...
I am currently on Day 10 of incubation for my 20 chicken eggs. On Day 7, a large number of my eggs appeared to have blood rings, but since there was no smell coming from them and they weren't "sweating" I left them in the 'bator until today. I was only able to candle some this morning before the...
I want to try my hand at incubating eggs again. I want to incubate at least ten eggs. Some of my fertile eggs have been stored on top of the microwave which has been used since the eggs were put there at least twice. Should I bother adding them to the incubator or wait for more eggs tomorrow? (I...
I recently lost a hen from what appeared to be infection due to missing toes. Now, I had noticed this chicken had been walking weird a few weeks back, but she seemed to heal fine so I didn't think a thing of it until I found her dead in the coop. I now have 3 other chickens that appear to have...
My mother and sister, in their infinite wisdom, decided to purchase a baby turkey for me. They just dropped it off at my home and I am going to have to call the feed store they bought it from to ask some questions (namely, age and breed).
Does anyone have any tips for a sudden turkey mama? Any...
Background: We have five hens that are roughly 3 years old, but still laying fine. (Average of 3 eggs per day.) My husband's uncle has a rooster (no other chickens, just the one rooster Sam). Sam has come to visit with our ladies because I want fertilized eggs from our own birds. Sam has only...
I don't now how she managed to do it as I'm certain I checked the blanket covering our brooder numerous times for any loose threads, but one of our Brahma chicks managed to find the sole loose string and get it stuck around her tongue! It must have happened some time during the night as she had...
Hello all! I'm a new chickie momma. Our babes are just about a week old. My husband, in a stroke of brilliance and realizing that we're both new to the whole chick-raising schtick, got us 60 chicks! Admittedly, some are slated for food early on. But still...
On to my question: at what age can...
So, I did a search of the forums and found an old post from 2011 that I think relates to my problem, but I wanted a second opinion(s).
We have a 3 day old chick that is bleeding from her vent. I noticed it while cleaning some dried poop off (applying a wet paper towel then gently using a Q-tip...
We have a soft/no shell issue that supplementing with various forms of calcium doesn't seem to be helping. We don't have a way of telling who is laying the eggs without isolating one hen at a time for a few days at a time.
My questions:
How do you recommend isolating a hen? Will this create...
Can constant rising and lowering temperatures cause hens to molt? I vaguely recall reading that temperatures can cause such a thing, but cannot recall where or if the weather pattern we've been experiencing in central Mass. would even be enough to cause a bird to molt.
There are two reasons...