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  1. chad

    Old Rooster "Shooting Blanks?"

    Good morning, all, haven't been on her in ages. We have a salmon Faverolle rooster, "Spike," whom we love. He's eight years old. In years past our hens have produced one or two batches of chicks a year. For the last couple of years, though, nothing. Our hens are nice, healthy Barred Rocks...
  2. chad

    "Bottle Chick"

    My wife found a newly-hatched chick on the coop floor, mother not really paying attention to her. (I say "her" because I hope we don't go through all this for a cockerel!) Susanna has her in a little shoe box "brooder," with a heat lamp. Chicky is showing a littlr more strength/energy than she...
  3. chad

    Dumb Question

    Been raising chickens for a number of years but don't really know the answer to this question: When a hen sits a clutch of eggs, are they apt to be all eggs she's laid, or eggs from other hens as well?
  4. chad

    What Was This?

    Had one of my Production Red hens go down a couple of days ago. Acted eggbound. We did everything we knew to do, putting her in a warm bath, lubricating her vent. Finally my wife put a finger up and couldn't feel an egg. I massaged her abdomen and couldn't feel an egg. But her vent kept...
  5. chad

    Busted Beak

    My rooster got hit by a car yesterday. He will recover, but a small portion of the tip of his beak got broken off. It doesn't seem to prevent him from eating. Does anyone know if it will grow back? I know it doesn't if it's de-beaked, but don't they use a hot tool to cauterize it with, to...
  6. chad

    Cornish Foraging

    Don't know if anybody else has had this experience, but this summer I've been trying to get my broiler chicks (Cornish X) to graze of grass, both to cut down on the feed bill and to get some fresh greens, bugs, etc. into them. I've been turning them out on grass every morning and "sowing" the...
  7. chad

    Good Grief - A Massacre!

    Woke up today to discover that 7 or our 12 layers were missing. I got home late last night and closed up the coop without checking. We found 3 carcasses, two of which were decapitated. What do you think might do this? We have had coyotes, but not for a couple of years since our LGD has been on...
  8. chad

    Perhaps you'll appreciate this...

    In the past few days a stray cat has been coming into the yard trying to get at our free-ranged layers. No injuries or losses yet, but I've been keeping my loaded .22 handy. At the same time our young broilers are housed in a stall in our barn. Our Great Pyrenees dog, Seri, occupies the barn...
  9. chad

    Alternatives to Cornish X; and, alternatives to commercial feed?

    I'm beginning to hate Cornish X. They eat only commercial feed, at an alarming (and expensive) rate, and despite our good care, die with depressing frequency. (Our layers thrive under our care.) Might there be a regular breed that we could raise on grass as well as some feed, say, from early...
  10. chad

    Inbreeding?

    We haven't actually incubated any eggs, we've had hens to do that for us. The second generation of chicks has just been born on our farm. You may recall that the rooster who sired the first batch, Fancy, was grabbed by a coyote last year. Our new guy, Spike, is doing us proud. But here's a...
  11. chad

    Too Cold?

    I've just discovered that one of my young hens is setting a clutch of eggs in a big dog house on my place. Today is very chilly with high winds, but temps are getting in the 30s and 40s here generally. She's just begun, I think, so we probably have a couple of weeks at least before the chicks...
  12. chad

    Egg Size

    So my little Fancy hens (their dad was our late, lamented rooster "Fancy") started laying eggs last month. They're still on the small side. (My wife, who's doing Weight Watchers, calls them "1 point" eggs.) The last layers I raised from chicks were Brahmas and it doesn't seem that we waited so...
  13. chad

    "Don't Fence Me In"

    We're thinking of putting our chicken coop inside my sheep pasture fencing. (Losses from coyotes were too high last year.) I've heard that a chicken won't fly over a fence that she can seethrough. Does anybody know if this is true, i.e., can we expect our hens to fly over sheep fencing? Because...
  14. chad

    Will They Hatch?

    I've got 5 hens about 7 months old who just started laying. Today I discovered that one is setting a clutch of eggs in an old empty dog house we have. Here's the thing: She goes back to the coop at night and back to the eggs in the morning. Will the eggs hatch if she leaves them cold all night...
  15. chad

    Water

    We have a collegial disagreement going on in our house. One of us believes that the chickens will drink cold water out of our outdoor spigot during the winter; the other believes that they prefer warm water in the wintertime, and draws it from the kitchen sink. Anybody have thoughts/observations?
  16. chad

    Fancy's Babies

    Just wanted to post pics of my chicks that hatched June 29, offspring of a Cochin rooster, Fancy (hence the name) and a Golden Comet hen. We think they have a unique and interesting look. Unfortunately the roosters are headed for the freezer this weekend but at least we have the pics to remember...
  17. chad

    Well, what a riot.

    Today we assayed to attempt to caponize our cockerels. We've bought a lovely "caponizing kit" from Stromberg's, complete with scalpel, rib spreader, forceps, complete instructions. We immobilized Baby Boy #1 as per instructions. My wife Susanna, the nursing student, made the first incision...
  18. chad

    Anybody ever caponize a rooster...

    ...without killing him? We think we have about 50/50 pullets and cockerels in this batch of ten that hatched out on our place June 29. We'd like to get the use of the 5 males but expect that Spike, the head rooster, will take exception to their presence. So does anybody have an experience...
  19. chad

    My Henhouse

    So since I'm the new guy I thought I'd put up a pic of my henhouse. The roof is, of course, an 8' truck cap, maybe 5' - 6' wide? The paint is official Red Sox red, licensed by Major League Baseball and purchased at Home Depot. The door is on the left hand end as you're looking at the picture...
  20. chad

    Newbie Question

    Hi, all, first post here. My wife Susanna and I are building our little farm here in central Maine. We are raising sheep and laying hens (as well as a batch of broilers per year). Back on June 29 one of our layers, whom we'd been missing, showed up with ten chicks in tow. We put them in a...
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