I am looking for some chicks to buy. My husband and I have retired on a farm in Aiken SC and I am looking to start my flock. Egg laying is the focus. My favorite breeds are Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers/Ameraucanas, but I have had great luck with many other laying breeds. In MA, we had...
I have 4 chicks which originally came from a classroom hatching. One just sprouted ear muffs at 6 weeks. Do you think she(?) is an EE? She has 4 toes and pale yellow legs.
This one started out all white with a few small black spots (like a California White Leghorn) then began to develop some...
I only have 3 hens. Once in a while an egg will have a tiny red dot that looks like it could be blood. I'm wondering what the cause of this is and if it is anything to worry about? Otherwise the eggs are beautiful and delicious.
I found a mouse that had fallen into a plastic bucket in my coop and couldn't get out. I felt bad for it so I took it out into the yard and let it loose a few feet from the fence, thinking it would zip through the fence and be gone. It did start trotting toward the fence, but before I knew...
My chickens love rice. I have a big bag of brown rice that has been in the cupboard too long. My husband says I should just throw it out to them like scratch, but I have always given them rice cooked. Should I cook it? It's a lot of rice.
I bought some hatching eggs to put under my broody Buff. Today is hatch day and one of them hatched. I found it right after, pecked in the head, dead. There are four other hens in my coop and the broody is the lowest in the pecking order, so I'm wondering if one of the other hens killed it. I...
My Buff Orpington hen was so unhappy trying to sit on everyone else's eggs and me collecting them every day (I don't have a roo). I bought some hatching eggs and tried to set her up in a small coop by herself and she freaked out. When I put her and the eggs back on the most popular nest in the...
I have a very broody 1 yr.old Buff Orp. and I thought it would be fun to let her hatch some eggs. I have a little 5-hen flock and am wondering where I can get some fertile eggs that she can hatch. I saw a post last year of someone on this site who sells blue eggs. I love my EE hen who lays...
My 15-16 week old BO pullet, Pearl, is acting a little under the weather. She is very lethargic, carries her head tucked close to her body and her tail down. She's still eating and drinking, but not with great enthusiasm. Today I noticed a small amount of runny greenish poo on her bottom (a...
My beautiful Gwendolyn finally produced the first egg from our newly conceived backyard flock. It was a small but perfectly formed pale green egg. Our two RIR hens can't be far behind, so fresh eggs everyday are in our immediate future!!
We had only 4 days without rain in the month of June and my garden is overrun with disgusting SLUGS. The only effective non-poisonous remedy I've found is the beer trap. Slugs love beer, crawl in and drown. I can catch 20-30/day. Yuk! Without thinking, I drained all the beer out of the trap...
I would like to buy two started pullets, as close to laying age as possible. Easter Eggers would be my first choice, I love those colored eggs, but I'm open to suggestions. It does have to be a friendly breed. I live in central MA.
We converted a 3-run kennel into a lovely chicken coop a few months ago. I thought I had an arrangement to buy two Easter Egger young laying hens but it fell through, so I ordered some 6- week old Red Star started pullets from McMurry but they won't arrive until the end of July. Frustrating! Is...