So, in the spring, I purchased six Silkie chicks from a local lady. I have a perfect little coop that I wanted to make into a dedicated Silkie coop (separate from my larger, standard breed coop). The seller said they were all females. I knew better because I know bantams are not usually sexed...
I ordered a frost white legbar female, but I'm suspecting that she is actually a he. Thoughts? He/she is about twelve weeks old. Sorry my phone does not take great pics. These are the best I could get.
If you live in Dayton and haven't heard, they are considering changing the ordinances to allow backyard chickens. They are seeking public feedback until April 7th. The survey link is in this article: http://wdtn.com/2016/03/09/city-of-dayton-survey-on-raising-backyard-chickens/ . Even though I...
Hi all,
I am totally new to turkeys this year. I got five poults and two of them are supposed to be going to my friend in a few days. Today, I noticed a problem with one of the turkeys. She has a crusty area underneath one eye. I can't see any nasal drainage. Would this be a symptom of a...
If you have a rooster collar like this one from My Pet Chicken http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/chickens/No-Crow-Rooster-Collar-p1580.aspx , can you give me an idea how much adjustment room there is in the collar? We have a 16 week old rooster and I am going to get a collar, but he is...
Is there a nutritional or other deficiency that can cause generalized feather loss in a flock? These chickens are about 12 weeks old. When they shake, I can actually see feathers flying off of them and I am finding a lot on the ground and in the coop. It is not just one or a few, but many of...
I have an 11 week old Ameraucana pullet that has a bare spot/missing feathers on her throat.
She is the only one out of our eighteen chickens having this issue.
I just noticed this when I picked her up to check her mouth due to having her beak open a lot. She has always walked around...
I ordered two Welsummer pullets with my batch of chicks this year. I've been noticing this one is getting much bigger and has a bigger comb. Now, I am seeing that their coloring is totally different with this one being much more black in the chest and the other one being lighter brown. I'm...
We just bought a new house last year. This spring, we are finding that there is a huge mole problem here. We now have a new batch of chicks, so I'm wondering if there is any hope of getting rid of the moles in a way that is not harmful to chicks/chickens that will be ranging the yard soon.
I ordered some of the horizontal nipples to try with our new flock. I have used the vertical in the past and had leaking issues at the nipple itself. With the horizontal nipples, we can't seem to stop them from leaking (slowly) at the point where they are inserted into the container. We've...
We are considering using pallet wood on our coop, mostly for the siding/wall covering because that is where it will save us the most. I'm just curious about the longevity of the pallet wood when exposed to the elements. Most of the pallet coop/building pics I've seen don't appear to be stained...
I am in the planning stages for our future chicken coop. Our new house is in a very windy area....lots of farmland around with very little windbreak. We loved almost everything about our last coop/covered run and will repeating as many elements as possible this time around. But I'm wondering...
Trying to find the documentation that specifies you are allowed to have chickens if you have one acre that meets the unplatted subdivision definition. What is the law that restricts those with less than one acre from having chickens and/or allows the county or township to do so?
I need some help deciphering all of the legalese that I am looking at. We are considering purchasing a home that has .91 acre of property. I am trying to determine whether there is any chance of having chickens (or other small animals) on this parcel. I spoke with a zoning lady weeks ago who...
I am looking for input on these four Ameraucanas. I have ideas on what I think they are, but I've never had Ameraucanas before, so I could be totally wrong. We are getting ready to decide which will be staying and which won't. We are keeping a limited number of roosters from the various...
Our pullets are now 20 weeks. A few weeks ago, I began putting fake eggs in the nest boxes as I've read that helps them learn where to lay. They recently began rolling the eggs out of the boxes, so dh put a higher edge on the front of the boxes and I took the fake eggs out. Well, today we got...
We are getting ready to process our second batch of Freedom Rangers. We've been trying to figure out how we can improve our process from last time to make things go faster and smoother. Seemed like we never got into a good rhythm last time and it took us all day to do 26 chickens. While I...
We processed three of our Freedom Rangers on Saturday. It went much better than we anticipated and we feel ready to do the rest (23) in a few weeks. So now I need to cook them...I have never cooked pastured meat before, and I want it to be the best it can be. Each bird is about four pounds. I...
Hi Everyone!
As you may know from my previous posts, I am a newbie to meat chickens and we are on our first batch of 26 Freedom Rangers. They are seven weeks old now and yesterday I noticed what I'm assuming is the leg problems we hear about with meaties. His legs are very "bowed" out and...
My poor Freedom Rangers.... we've had nothing but cold weather, rain, thunderstorms, and tornado warnings here in NE Ohio since I got the meat birds. Last week, it finally seemed warm enough to let them out of the brooder and into the tractor (at 4+ stinky weeks old!)... Moved our layer chicks...