I have a girl who is broody and has been for almost a week. Today I got the call from a friend who wants chicks so I put 6 eggs that were laid yesterday and have been stored on my counter under her marked with the date in marker. She is in a nest box that the other girls frequent. I tried...
I am newer to chickens and I have 2 BA's that have gone broody. They went sometime while I was on vacation. They have stopped laying and sit on the nest all day long and at night too so I am pretty sure they are indeed broody. I have a few questions.....
1. how long will this behavior last...
Last year I filled our run with sand. The sand has since washed away or mixed with the dirt making the run like concrete. It holds water really bad and stinks. I was thinking about filling the run with pea gravel this year hoping it would make it drain easier. What are the pro and cons of...
Today I sat and observed my flock of 7 hens and 1 roo. Everyone except one chicken has bald spots. No it is not from mites I have looked them over really good and dust them regularly with 7 dust and DE. I have witnessed the BA's pulling out feathers. I had all 8 of them in a 4x8 coop with an...
I have a BA who pulls out everyones feathers. My rooster looks like a Naked Neck, One of my Delewares has a bald butt and one of my EE's has a bald back. I caught her in the act this afternoon plcking more feathers from my roo's neck. The really weird thing is he just sat there and let her do...
I am thinking about raising quail for meat. DH says he is not going to build me another avery after he spent so much time and money making my dream chicken coop and run. We do although have dog cages. One is occupied by my bachelor rooster and the other is occupied by our 13 year old lab. We...
I have a hen that has a bald back and her legs and underwing area are going bald too. At first I thought it might be to much love from the roo and feather plucking by the other hens because she is at the bottom of the pecking order. But now after looking at several pictures of molting chickens...
I have a flock of 2 roos and 7 hens. I bought what were supposed to be sexed pullets but got stuck with 2 roos somehow. Well needless to say the 2 boys fight so Stew lives in the run and house with the girls and Brewster Roo gets to be our "yard rooster" all by himself. I lock him up in an...
Myself and my father-in-law are thinking about raising quail for meat. What are the things we need to know before we start this project? He wants to raise about 100 birds to begin with and process them a little and along. I would brood them and he would raise them in the grow out pens...
I have an EE who is a new layer. She laid 4 normal size eggs and when I say normal I mean the size of my delawares eggs who has been laying for a few months and then she laid two monster eggs that were over 3 inches long. They looked like a duck or goose egg to me! I hope she keeps giving me...
I have 7 girls four of whick are laying. For the last few weeks they The last 3 days they have laid before noon! Yeah! I am so excited because now I can truly say they make breakfast for me every morning. I guess they are like human women and it takes a while and then all of their cycles get...
She is an EE that is about 22 weeks old. At first I thought is was the rooster over mating her or the other hens picking on her but now I have noticed that her feathers are missing on her legs and under her wings? I have checked her for lice and mites and there are none. I even maade her a...
I have a hen that is getting a bald back, infront of her tail. She not only is the roosters favorite but the other hens are pulling her feathers out in this area and she is getting really bald. She is the only one out of my 7 girls that is bald anywhere. I was thinking about making a saddle...
We do not have electricity in our coop because there is no way to run it from the house plus DH dosen't want to run electricity to the coop because then the coop becomes a taxable structureon our property in the county we live in. I would like to try to add light to our coop in the winter and...
I have two roos and I need to rehome or cook one. Right now I have one (Brewster) that lives in the backyard and spends the night in the run (my run is all 1/4" by 1/4" hardwire cloth buried 1' in the ground so he is safe at night) and my other roo (Stew) lives in the run and chicken house with...
I live in Effingham County a rural area outside of Savannah and I have been invited to sell my jellies and jams at a local farmers market. I was wondering where I can find information on selling eggs. I thought it might be a good idea to sell my eggs from my backyard flock at the farmers...
I was expecting my EE's to lay last because they are a week younger than my BA's and two weeks younger than my Del who has been laying for 2 weeks. I knew someone was going to start laying because I found a softshell egg on the poop board yesterday morning. Never would have guessed it was from...