I am planning to add some ducklings to my upcoming chick order. Last time I had ducklings I kept them in the coop with the chicks. When it came time to relocate them to the pond they would have NOTHING to do with it! Stubborn little darlings. Lets just say they made extremely messy rommies...
Will it affect the eggs to lift up momma for a moment to look?
I usually give them a treat and they come off the eggs just for a min to get some goodies, and I can inspect the eggs. The last few days, one of my mommas isn't budging. I think it is somewhere between day 19 and 21 (I had just...
I've had a chick peeping like crazy in the egg for 2 days now without any evidence of breaking out action. I held the egg up to my ear and I can hear it piping but still no actual hole. How long do they chirp like that before breaking FREE
I've never noticed the egg chirping before. Momma...
Okay, this is a first for me.
I have 2 cochin bantums taking turns setting on one nest. Momma 1 gets off the nest to eat and go out and scratch, while Momma 2 clucks up a fit for a few mins looking at the vacated nest then hops on to keep the eggs warm.
The next time I go out, Momma 1 is back...
I'm looking for suggestions for makeshift next boxes.
I had a small backyard flock, emphasis on small, last year. Well last spring two of my bantys went broody, TWICE each and now I have about 12 hens, and 2 roos, (had to gift 7 roos out to my neighbors).
I have a small coop that has 2 nest...
I was away having surgery and recovering. Came home to find no one had collected eggs in a week!
3 nests full of eggs with one of them who may have had a broody hen on it. For how long I don't know.
To complicate matters further, ds who was on chicken detail, just came in with a basket full...
YIKES!!! I heard all kinds of sqwaking and my roo was screaming, and I ran out of house to find a squirrel INSIDE my Momma/chick Tractor. Momma is going after it like white on rice, and the squirrel of course is going nuts tearing around till it finally gets out the way it came in. It dug a...
This is really weird, but since I've just lost two chicks to "I think" Cocci, I thought I'd run this by you chicken experts.
I was out cleaning out the coop and run and I had the coop doors "cabinet" open to air out and my Awesome Roo who is usually on high alert detail when his girls are out...
Help please.
I have 2 1/2 week old chicks that were hatched by Momma,
I found one of them dead in the cage today with ants in its head....IT WAS SO AWEFUL!! Now another one seems listless with its wings drooping as if it can't hold them up. I'm in Florida and it's hot, they also may have...
Yikes....I've got 2 broodys each hatching out babies, 9 out so far and 5 eggs left. One of them starte pipping this morning and had made it's hole, when I went out a few hours later to check it had ants swarming in and out of the hole. I think the poor chick is dead. The other eggs are...
How long do you leave an egg under a hen that's not making any noise? It almost looks like my hen is pecking at the egg, but there is no sound comming from it. She just hatched 3 chicks and number 4 egg is pipping, but number 5 is quiet even though there is a small hole.
I noticed my little Bantam hen hadn't come out the coop in a few days, and low and behold she was setting on eggs!!! Of course I wasn't expecting that and did a "hurry up and learn about broody chickens" lesson from BYC!
I have only 2 nest boxes and the other chickens were laying thier eggs...
I lifted the lid to the nest box and UGH!!!! Gross roaches scurried away into the crack where the lid attaches to the nest box.
Snakes, spiders and such I can handle, but for some reason these vermin give me a serious cases of the willies.
How can I dispatch these discusting vermin without...
I have 2 RIR's a Leghorn and a Buff Minorca, and just got a Buff Orph roo.
Which one of the hens do you think might go broody and raise chicks?
Is there any way to encourage broodiness or should I look into getting a incubator to raise babies?
My hens are about 15 mths old and have never been...
Greetings! This is my first post, and may I say what a wonderful site this is!
I have 4 hens, and a friend just brought over a young roo to add to my flock. I put him in the coop with the girls for the morning and they all got along great. Then I let them out to freerange for the day.
I...