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  1. swift4me

    Thanks for the ideas

    About a year ago I searched around here and found some designs for keeping my waterer from freezing. I could never find a cookie can the right size to put the light bulb in, so I built a wooden box about 13 X 13 X 5 inches high, and mounted a glass covered barn light fixture on the bottom and...
  2. swift4me

    RIR with bad eye

    I have a broody acting RIR hen who has one eye with a very small pupil. No wounds, just a small pupil. She is sitting in a nest box almost all the time without any eggs, and I don't think she is laying. Could the eye problem cause her to not lay? Thanks, Pete
  3. swift4me

    Is my rooster getting it done?

    I have a broody bantam hen who really did a great job for her first go around. I kept 8 eggs under her, and got three chicks. The other eggs had nothing going on inside when I opened them today, (25 days). I've got some RIR hens and a couple others who are bigger than the rooster, but that...
  4. swift4me

    Broody bantam

    I've got a little black hen that is fiercely broody. No problem, and I'm happy about it, but a couple questions. I left her with 5 or 6 eggs to sit on, but one day when I thought there were more under her, I took two eggs, (just laid by another hen), and put them in the refrigerator for about...
  5. swift4me

    diet change and egglaying

    My hens live in a sufficiently sized coop and run on weekends when I come back to town, and eat a mix of corn, wheat, oats, layer pellets and lentils. During the week, they have all that plus have an excellent free range opportunity all day long, with manure piles, huge pasture and forested...
  6. swift4me

    laying delay... I hope

    I bought a Sussex hen last Monday from a woman who sells chickens at a local market for many years. I trust her. I bought a grey hen that looked to be just about laying age, so I had no expectations for eggs right away. But the Sussex hen is definitely an adult chicken as the woman had told...
  7. swift4me

    feed question

    My birds free range here, and we have what I'd call excellent insect and worm populations on the farm. A huge manure pile, (the local bedding is a wild fern and it composts well), with lots of worms, grasshoppers, katydids, beetles and lots more. Outside of winter when the insects are not...
  8. swift4me

    Rhode Island Red color

    I'm just a chicken owner, and not a breeder, but I read somewhere that the darkness of color in these birds is desirable. Are these three what you would call well colored? Just curious, Pete
  9. swift4me

    Any guess on the sex of these two?

    I was given a rooster and four bantams, (I think), by a neighbor, and was curious about these two young ones. If anybody can give me an educated guess I 'd appreciate it. Thanks, Pete
  10. swift4me

    Water in cold weather

    I finished the coop, but we've still got two months with potential freeing weather. Not like Michigan or Alaska, but it might be a low of 24 or 25 degrees with a high of 35 for a few days. The water I keep in a bathtub for the horse and donkeys has frozen before, so my concern is for the...
  11. swift4me

    My second try

    I posted this spring with pictures of my 200 year old stone henhouse and run I built for my first try with chickens. Everything was great for two months and I had no problems with the many foxes that live around the farm, but lost all of my birds, except my rooster who survived several battles...
  12. swift4me

    closure.... for now

    I posted a week or more ago having lost 1 rooster and 5 hens in one night to a marten. I had built the run and coop thinking of foxes, and after two months of chicken happiness, a marten found the coop. After repairing holes in the interface between fencing and a 200 year old stone building...
  13. swift4me

    Last night was my turn

    Here in France we have both pine martens and beech martens. After a month of no problems with the numerous foxes around my farm, a marten got in through one of the small holes where the roof hits the stone walls. It is a 200 year old stone outbuilding, so making it predator proof has been a...
  14. swift4me

    How long for a mature rooster

    I have two mixed breed roosters. They are about 5 months old give or take. At what age are they fully sized? Thanks, Pete
  15. swift4me

    how many

    I know this is asked alot, but I am not sure of the numbers when I look at other posts. I have a stone coop that is 50 square feet, and an atached run that is 250 sq feet. When I'm around, they get to free range around the pasture (5 acres). If I am gone for the weekend or 3 days, the coop...
  16. swift4me

    French chicken update

    Thanks for any advice I've gotten. After two weeks, nothing is sick or dying, all 6 hens and two roosters are doing well. Three or four of the hens have started laying, I built the simple automatic feeder from a garbage can and a planter base, and they've had their first "great escape" outside...
  17. swift4me

    Feed question

    My 8 four month old, non-laying as of now, chickens are a little over an hour away from where I am now. I spend my weekdays at the farm, and my weekends here. I came here on Friday, and left them with enough food for Friday, Saturday and Sunday I'm sure, as I was planning to go back on Monday...
  18. swift4me

    French chickens

    Here are a few mediocre photos of my new chickens. I built the run last week and was given two young roosters and a young hen. On Monday, at a local market, I bought 5 more hens. THey are not yet laying, but they are definitely older than the original 3 birds. (The small dark hen next to...
  19. swift4me

    My new coop

    Hi: On Wednesday and Thursday I built an outside covered run next to an old stone building on our farm. It had been the coop for 200 years and I figured it was best to keep using it. It was certainly more challenging that building on flat ground, and we have lots of foxes around, so I did my...
  20. swift4me

    new here

    HI: This looks like a great site. I live in southwestern France and finally have a perfect setup to try raising some chickens. All my neighbors have between 20 and 40 birds that free range on their farms all day and come back to the barn at night. They are all pretty low key about the...
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