I have three age groups. The oldest group are Black Sex Links and all lay brown eggs. I have an Easter Egger in that group, and she lays an off white egg. The 'teenagers' group consists of 2 barred rock, one columbian wyandotte, 2 New Hampshire, and the rest are Rhode Island Reds.
These two...
We built our run and now that it's almost finished, I can see where we are going to have some issues.
I realize now that I want at least a partially covered run for shade, protection, and inclement weather.
Problems:
1. I see now, that run off from the coop when it rains/snows will cause...
First time ever incubating/hatching. First time candling. Home made incubator (which was the pits, by the way) as I put it together too fast and should have tweaked it more. I learned a lot though. What works, what doesn't, and what could be better or things I hadn't thought about. I started...
I have two pips!
This is a shot of just the one. There is another, but hard to see, as it's faced away from me and pipping on the side. Will this one be able to get out?
We can hear peeping once in awhile, too!
My eggs go into lock down on Thursday. I noticed one was cracked the day before yesterday and then I go and drop one 5 minutes later and crack it! It didn't appear the membranes were broke, so I coated with finger nail polish. (I had to frantically wake up my 9yo grand daughter to get some nail...
I noticed right off the bat when I got all my chicks that this one and her sister (Columbian Wyandottes) weren't doing well. After some research, I had decided they had failure to thrive. The sister is doing fine now. The sick one was eating, drinking, pooping okay; just sleeping a lot. Now she...
I was out doing yard work today and the house being so warm caused a temp spike to 102! I'm guessing it was for maybe an hour or a little longer, as I had come in and checked before that. For such a short time, my eggs/babies will be okay won't they?
I was so very nervous! Most look great. A few looked clear, but I'll give them about 4 or 5 days per what I've read here. One may have a blood ring, but I don't trust my judgment just yet. I was was excited, but really nervous. I didn't have them out longer than 10 minutes. There are 27 eggs in...
This might seem like a dumb question, but I am new to this and just don't know! We built a really big tractor and I put nests in for the girls. There are a couple of the girls that refuse to lay in the tractor. They fuss at me non-stop until I let them out. They will then make a bee-line for the...
How many could I have if I have:
10 x 12 Coop with loft
2 tractors: One is 6' x 16' and one is 6' x 8'
Still Run that is 10' x 30'
I just got my chicks (25) and hens (6) on the 12th. We also built 2 brooder pens for each of the two age groups of chicks. One of the pens can be used like a...
Wish us luck! I've never hatched eggs before and thought the kids and I would give it a try. It's a home made incubator and my turner doesn't work the way I want it to, but the days have ticked by and I'm not waiting anymore! We'll be turning by hand! I think I made the tray a tad too wide. It...
The 6 hens I just bought were housed with a Roo. So I built an incubator and thought we would try hatching some. The Roo and 5 of the hens are Black Sex Link. The other hen is an Americana. Only four of the hens are laying and all the eggs are brown. Candling is done a 3-5 days after placing the...