I'm being impulsive, again... Been wanting heritage type turkeys since last year and now that my brooders will be empty soon and my meat bird grow out pen is likely to be empty in another month I've decided I'd give it a try by hatching eggs. I know it would be cheaper and more certain to get...
I couldn’t resist grabbing a few chicks today. Most were bought to add to into my sex-linked and colored egg layer projects. I got a CCL, 1 barred rocks, 1 diamond something or other that should lay green but looks like a barred rock, a white leghorn just because, a gold laced Wyandotte, and a...
I stuffed my horizontal 24 egg incubator with 38 eggs by sitting them vertically in egg cartons. I’ve done this with shipped eggs before and hatched them vertical but some chicks pipped the pointy end and a couple kinda got trapped between the cartons (all were okay in the end). These eggs are...
3rd time incubating but these are eggs from my own birds. The first two times were with shipped eggs and hatch rate was not great but not zero. Now I can finally compare with eggs that are not pre-scrambled. I expect most of these eggs to hatch aside from any blanks (I suspect a few to be...
I’m planning to hatch raise some chicks soon so I’m trying to thin down my flock a bit by selling (or if it comes to it, butchering) a few birds I can live without. All these birds are from last year, they are just under 1 year old and hatchery quality. They are used to free ranging. From what I...
This is my first spring with chickens so all my birds are just under a year old. I let my birds free range during the day and they always come back to the coop at night. I get home a few hours after dark so that's when I go around locking them up and collecting eggs.
When locking up the birds...
Time to start brain storming for the arrival of some meat birds and all the little mutts I'll be hatching come the beginning of April! I am not great at DIY from scratch but I think I can handle modifying something that is already usable. That being said I know my dad can help me scrape...
Surely I'm not the only one who has plans for 2025 spring chicks already? Do I need more birds? Not really but boy do I want a few certain breeds to round out my egg and feather color palette! Plus I plan to hatch some of my own eggs, mostly for the fun of it. Currently I am wanting a darker...
Just can't help but think these eggs are too perfect to crack open and fry up! I could incubate them but I really shouldn't...
Might just be the "newness" of having chickens but I can't help but feel a little proud of my little birds every time I see their eggs.
Hatched from a batch of eggs I purchased. I more or less already know what she is but want to see what others think. All white with blue/grey legs. Nails are white too.
Needing to know for future breeding plans. How dominant is the lacing gene? I have a silver laced Wyandotte pullet who I would like to hatch from to get some more laced birds but wonder if it's a lost cause.
I also have a crested cream legbar EE mix (assumed maran mix) who has the general...
I'm definitely counting my chicks before the pullets even begin laying! This will hopefully be a long thread to help me keep track of all the specifics. I intend to hatch eggs from my very first flock of birds come spring time. Hopefully most will be laying by then but we shall see, if I intend...
I’ve poked around and read lots of “should/can I free range” but I haven’t been able to find the HOW do I start?
First time owning chickens and it’s been going pretty well, already hatched eggs, raised chicks, butchered extra roos, even sold 2 extra roos! Only thing missing is eggs but soon...
This is both a question for more experienced keepers and a little record of my journey to hopefully creating a happy flock.
I am at a dilemma. When I got home from work tonight I saw that one of my cockerels was out of the run, after observing the flock I understood why. All of the ~15 week old...
New to chickens and so far everyone is doing well. Currently have 7 juveniles (5m 2f) @ ~11 weeks in the coop. 2 roosters are now crowing but so far everyone is getting along. I've got 4 chicks I hatched May 15 so they are about 4 weeks old, plus 3 I bought who look to be the same age, then I've...
Picked up my order first thing Wednesday morning, due to unpredicted circumstances they had to sit there over night. A day and half in the box led to 8/20 DOA’s :( But here we are, with 12 little ones to care for and all but one seems to be doing splendidly. My order contained 6 black jersey...
Hatched out some eggs over the last couple days. The last two I ended up assisting after finding one chick had already died due to hatching issues. There were 3 other chicks that were all upside down in the eggs and dead, one had a bad leg deformities so it's probably for the best. Both these...
4 weeks old today! They are developong their own personalities and I’m guessing there are more roos than hens. 5-7 are BYM. And yes, I know they are still really young to get an accurate gender.
Two EE that I’m guessing both are male.
Chick 1, an absolute turd to the others.
Chick 2, chest...
Seeing as my last hatch from shipped eggs was only 8/17 of those that made it to lock down I kind of want to compare to non-shipped eggs. I've been contemplating incubating eggs from roadside stalls for a while now after noticing the fertility was pretty good in the last few dozen my dad brought...
This will be a coop build but I'm also looking for some pointers from anyone who has more experience!
When my family moved to our current home there was an old chicken coop that had perches and nest boxes but no run to speak of. We built a fence and created a lean-to on the ground at the side...