I've got a hen that I've noticed panting for the past 3 days. No other chickens are. It's been hot, so I thought maybe she was just hot. Made sure they had fresh water and moved on.
After noticing her panting while none of the others are, I decided to check her out. She seems to be acting...
I will bore you with some background in the next post, but I have a couple of Silkie Chicks like I haven't seen before among our plain Black and White flocks.
This Silkie Chick is the offspring of a Rooster that is White, and one of four hens - 3 white and 1 black. Here it is pictured beside...
Scamper (pictured), a black non-bearded Silkie Rooster, just turned 5 years old last month. Since the day he hatched (literally) he's been hyperactive. No matter how much attention we've given to calm him down, he will usually go nuts if you try to get in his coop or pick him up. The last...
We have about 30 chickens and my daughters (10 & 13) take care of them primarily through the week. I take a look at things on the weekends and check everything out. Last week, the girls found two chickens dead in the middle of their run on two different days. Both chickens had been acting...
My girls have some hobby Silkies that they have entered in the fair this year and in the last few weeks unfortunate events have taken two of them. Since all three were roos, I thought I might luck up and find someone here looking to "thin the herd". I've got to have the chickens by Wednesday...
For at least several days it seems that Elvis has been lethargic and much less active. I had the girls put vinegar in his water a couple of days ago, but I don't know if he drank any. We were out of town over the weekend and he seemed to just be standing around before we left.
This evening...
Here's another. This is a pullet from the Tractor Supply "Ameraucana" bin. She's still young, but her beard & muffs have started filling out (you can't tell from the picture, but it was the only clear one I could get of her today) and her other characteristics are pretty good. She might have...
So I went to my local Tractor Supply this past spring and went to their "Ameraucana" bin and picked the 6 most different chicks I could see. They're all EE's, but sometimes they're the prettiest and I got some really nice ones this time. I got what looks to be a real close Brown-Red female and...
I've been incubating for some time now with mixed success. The results are all over, but I can generally point to inconsistencies along the way that were probably the reasons for poor hatches.
I am on the cusp of completing a hatch in which I think I did most everything right. I have two...
I started a thread in "What Breed or Gender is this?" because I wasn't sure where best to put it. Rather than duplicate the thread, I'll just link it here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/695735/rose-comb
I have a chick that has turned out with some type of comb reminiscent of a Strawberry...
I have a chick (Lucky) that is not quite 7 weeks old and he is developing what appears to be a Rose or Strawberry type comb. However, his mother is a Welsummer (Single Comb) and his father is a (not quite 100%) Black Silkie with a Walnut comb. Elvis (his father) is pictured in my Avatar.
He...
I've got a Welsummer sitting eggs that are due any day. I have been checking each day when she goes to eat to see if any have hatched because other chickens were laying in the box after she started setting (I was away, didn't know she'd gone broody).
Today, I found an egg that has apparently...
I've got a silkie that was setting on eggs where others were laying. When her first three hatched, she came off the remaining eggs and I put them in an incubator. When the others were a couple of days old, I had good luck introducing a just-fluffed chick to her that had hatched out of the...
the chick finally got out of the egg about noon today. I went back to work and got home late this evening. The chick still hasn't fluffed and is just laying there breathing heavy. It opens it's mouth wide every couple of seconds and I can see that it has 'foam' or thick saliva in its mouth...
Almost 3 weeks ago, I had one hen go broody in a box back in a corner of the coop I can't easily get to. A few days later, another hen went broody and sat down in the box with her. The box is plenty big enough for the both of them because I used the coop differently originally.
I was on the...
Last Tuesday, my broody silkie hen hatched out a single chick (the other eggs were duds). This Tuesday, I'm hatching about 30 in an incubator. Among them are about 5 silkies (if they all hatch).
Does anyone have an suggestions as to whether or not I might be able to get my hen to adopt the...
I sent my brother some eggs. He got his shiny new incubator, but didn't waste all his time reading the instructions and put the eggs in large end down and point side up.
I have talked to him several times, mentioned "point down" and all, but he just said "yeah, yeah" and went on. He has...