I am showing a cockerel for the first time this Saturday. He is show trained and washed ready for the show. I am just looking at the final details right now and his top sickle feather isn't in brilliant condition. Can the feathers be pulled of cut out. Is there are blood supply to the feathers...
These 4 are 3 and a half week old gold Dutch chicks (big one is a legbar hen) and I need to cull the cockerels soon. They all seem to be very hen like in colour with some gold hackling coming in. Any guesses, thanks
Hello, I am thinking about drying marigold petals to mix in with my feed because I want my Rhode Island Red to keep their yellow legs and skin as they lay. Has anyone else done this, any help and advice would be appreciated. Thanks
This will sound like a stupid question but what is your preferred way of getting feed from the bag into your feed container/bin. Do you open the bag and just hope it will all go in? put the bag in the feed bin and cut the bag open and then try and pull out all of the bag? Spend about 15 minutes...
Will chicks drink from rabbit bottles? I have used up all of my nipple drinkers on other chicks and bantams and I don't want to leave a pan of water in their brooder because they will get it all dirty and walk in the water and drag it around the rest of the brooder. Some of the chicks are 1-2...
Could somebody please explain to me the difference in size of bantam and large fowl chicks (pictures would be great too). I have Rhode Island Red and Dutch batam eggs set together and they are due out today. I just want to know how much smaller the Dutch will be than large fowl chicks.
What is the recommended space per chick in a brooder, and what is the minimum space per chick in a brooder. I will harden them off at 4-6 weeks so they will never be anything older in it. What kind of size would be needed for 15-20 chicks (max 30)? thanks
Is it really necessary to take the dividers out of the incubator on day 18. I will be away for most of the incubation and the person looking after the hatch is not experienced and I don't want them opening the incubator.
Hi everyone, here is my latest finished project.
I have gotten an 8x8 garden shed to put cages into.
This picture shows one of the sides. It has four 4 x 2 cages and one 8 x 2 cage.
This picture shows the other side. It has four 2.5 x 2 cages and a feed store.
Here are some pictures of...
Backyard Chickens is an international forum and this topic always gets some funny replies. What words do you think British (including English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish) and American/Canadian people pronounce funny. I will start off with a couple of words that I think Americans pronounce...
I have recently put 10 cages in a shed and I am stuck for a way to have easy water in each cage. I was originally going to use nipples but I can't figure out a way to get a tank that would hold enough water up high enough to give enough enough downwards pressure to make them work. Has anyone...
Hello, I am not sure what section to put this in so I have put it in here. I have a grass arena beside my chicken breeding flock's run /house. It is roughly 35x 25 feet. On one side a laurel hedge (our boundary hedge) is planted and I have erected the fence so that the animals will be able to go...
Orpington contest. Just post a picture and give the details below. All entries will be judged to the British standard but SOP and even hatchery birds can be entered. First five places will be announced at the end. You can enter up to 10 different birds as long as you own them. there is no prize...
I have recently gotten an 8 x 8 shed. I plan on putting cages for breeding, keeping broody hens, preparing show birds and housing sick birds. On one side I plan on having four cages each 4' long, 2.5' deep and 2.5' high. These will be used for pen breeding rosecomb bantams. On the other side I...
I have recently put some grass cuttings in one of my hen houses to try as a bedding, and it turned out better than I expected. When I cut one of our smaller lawns I put in all the cuttings in a 4x4 house which gave about a three inch layer on the floor. The grass gives off A LOT of heat as it...
Does anyone else use this system for their hens. I have started using it this year. I am finding it brilliant and my small flock of young RIRs seem to like it as well. I have two runs one is roughly 10m by 4m and the other is about 8m by 8m as well as a small scratching run of about 4 m by...
Hello, I want to build a new coop for my layers. I am from Ireland so we don't get any extreme weather conditions, it rarely goes below 30 degrees F and snow never stays on the ground for more than a few hours and it only snows for a day or two every year. heat is not a problem during summer...