If I have a coop that is very secure, where I confine the chickens at night, can I have a run that is slightly less secure, as long a it's covered from aerial predators, during the daylight hours?
We have a lovely buff Serama rooster at our house in Garland, Texas, to separate him a bit from my others. He is a great guy but he likes to get in crowing contests with our other roo, and I just don't really like that. We got him from a specialty farmer, who had them free range, so he has not...
I noticed, with some degree of alarm, that my cornish crosses were making distinctly chickeny noises at about three weeks of age. Now, at four weeks, they make more clucks than peeps. But my Reds, who are a week or two older, still peep, as do my White Rocks, who are the same age. So my question...
About 18 hours ago, we got four adult Serama chickens from a farm where they were free ranging in the most literal sense of the word. After a rather difficult capture with a net, and an hour and a half car ride home, then being placed in their new surroundings, they were, understandably...
Today we found one of our cornish crosses dead in the brooder. We checked him for injuries or signs of sick and saw none. A couple of hours before we saw this guy, they were all running around, seemingly happily. He was laying on his stomach, and I couldn't see any reason why he may have died...
As some of you may have seen, we lost our parakeet a couple of weeks ago. He was living the good life in a 2ftx3ft parrot cage that is 4ft tall. Our family was chatting about replacing him, when my husband mentioned keeping a couple of indoor serama in there. Would this be big enough for them? I...
Hi there, everyone. Not a very useful post, but I just wanted to celebrate that my little peeps came up and ate out of my hand for the first time today. It was alot of fun.
Well, the title explains it all. They had been gobbling up their food, but the last 24 hours, with six of them in the brooder, none of the feed seems gone. The only thing that has changed in that time was that I laid down another layer of pine shavings. But that's not a real change, it's the...
My husband and I were thinking about adding ducks to our backyard poultry extravaganza, but, after reading the Storey's guide, and looking at various websites, we have heard so many different things about ducks and ponds that we are dizzy. Sooo....
How big does a duck pond need to be?
How doy...
So, my RIRs are doing great, They are, of course, exceptional birds, smart, well developed. I saw one doing math the other day with the bedding (jk). There's only one thing odd about them: When I toss them meal worms, every one of them turns up their noses at it. They may peck half heartedly...
I am sort of paranoid about cannibalism, so I do everything I can to prevent it, but I still get nervous when I see the chicks doing their normal chick behaviors of pecking at each other softly and such. Last night, I looked in on my RIR peeps, and saw a spot of red at the top crease of one of...
I bought granite for my chickens, so that I could feed them treats and flax seed, and a big can full of dried mealworms, but, when I opened the bag of grit, i saw these chunks that seemed a little... monstrous for a tiny chick, so I checked the bag and it said to feed grit beginning at eight...
OK, I just need to blow off some steam here. I live in Texas, and around here, we have alot of steak houses and every one of them EVERY SINGLE ONE OF EM(!!!) says some bull-honkey (trying to watch my language) about "Proud to serve USDA Grain-fed Beef"! Why on earth would you brag about the fact...
So, I am introducing my six year old to the chicks, and explaining that some will be for laying eggs and some will be for meat.
"So, are you going to be OK with eating these chickens when they grow up?" (just testing the waters here)
"Ummmm... I don't think so..."
"OK. Why not?"
"Well, I don't...
So, um, I am really showing my new-egginess here, but...
My husband and I decided to do meat birds as well as egg birds this year, so I went off to TSC for some Cornish Rocks. They only had eight and we wanted twelve, so I decided to get six Cornish Rock and six white Plymouth Rocks. I took...
I know that, just like gardening, hybrid chickens don't breed true to type, but... what happens if hybrids do breed? Does it come out like one of the other breeds? Is it a frankenmonster? Something in between?
Wow! You got me edible, self-propelled sqeakey toys! You do love me! Now, how do I open this box? Wait... is this one of those puzzle box thingies with the nommy treats inside?"
We have two wonderful Great Pyrenees, one who runs with our sheep, and one who guards our home, inside and out. They are older puppies right now, about 16 weeks (and already huge, of course) and very good natured, great with the sheep and cats and bunnies, but....
I have just brought home our...