My Cochin roo was attacked by a mink a few days ago. My dog saved him from eminent death and we brought him in for a few hours to warm up. He seemed uninjured and was only missing patches of feathers here and there, so I returned him to the coop immediately that night so he'd be in the company...
I don't know what is going on. I ordered 15 chicks from Meyer. One was DOA, and in the three days since i've had them 4 more have died. Two had wry neck and two more just die, nothing I can see wrong? I have them on Purina medicated starter/grower from TSC. I have plain water. Do they need...
I have a hen that lays a big brown egg with a "halo", maybe twice a week. I tossed them at first, thinking they were old, but tonight, I found this one still hot on the coop floor. What makes that halo? I think it's from my 2 year old red pullet. The other egg is freckled with calcium deposits...
Hi all. I hatched 4 ducks in my incubator last week, 2 Pekins and 2 Ancona/Pekins. They were doing great until this morning.
I have a confession. I did not buy starter for them. I ground a variety of high end breakfast grains for them and added minced organic baby greens. It is a mix of quinoa...
Post office delivered 7 giant blue Cochin eggs today; 6 blue Ameraucanas and 6 blue Orpingtons eggs tomorrow. I am soooooo addicted.......
My poor husband.
Okay, I thought I had a pretty little white "bantam" pullet; bought it at TSC. Almost 13 weeks old and look at that comb! It's a boy, isn't it?
Deep short yellow legs too. I thought the legs should be white?
I ordered a Brinsea Eco 20 and set it up in my daughter's classroom. The temp has been staying at 101 to 102 even though I adjusted it twice.. I tried to adjust it but I set the eggs already. I can't take time off from work to check on it. My daughter told me it is 102 now. Has anyone had...
I have a cochin/australorp mutt that went broody on me early this winter. I figured it was the fake eggs I left in the nest boxes for "training". I removed the fake eggs and just kept tossing her into the snow until she got over it, in about 3 weeks. Then, someone ate an egg, so I put the fake...
I read all the time about how to properly introduce new birds; quarantine, separation pens, 30 days.....
Does anyone out there just toss new birds in and hope for the best? If you did, what was the outcome?
I just did today and I'm wondering how much I'll regret doing this. The first 8...
I saw "nesting strips" for sale online. It's strips of corrugated cardboard. I made some myself and tried it out (got rid of all those shipping boxes left over from the holidays). I had my doubts since it's pretty stiff stuff, but it's working out pretty well. Anyone else out there use shredded...
My coop is way undersized for my flock (9 birds in 20 sq. ft.) When I bought them as chicks they fit.... This winter they refused to step out into the snow. They stayed in the coop all day, pooped all over in it and started pecking each other. I had to expand their space somehow. I had dog...
Okay, I have eight hens and one roo. My roo was the youngest and the runt in the flock. Everyone in the flock has unanimously voted him the "bottom" of the pecking order. My BA does all the pecking and bullying. Everyone else is just in the middle, or so I thought. I have a BA/Cochin mix that...
Okay, so I've obsessed about it for months, doodled it on every scrap paper I find, and even think about it as I fall asleep at night. I'm going to build a hoop coop out of cattle panels. I'm contemplating putting the 1/2" hardware cloth right over it then sandwiching the two layers together at...
Why is everything "good" and "green" only available in the UK? I wanted to order flubenvet- only in the UK. I wanted to order UV stabilized bubble wrap for a greenhouse/coop- yup UK only.
It was -20 F last night and my eggs were nice and hot under my broody hen. Last time it dipped down that low, no one was broody so my eggs were frozen solid and the shells were split open. Even better yet, my rooster was all snuggled into the nest box with her. They've got this winter thing...
I told my sister-in-law that people have been hatching eggs from Trader Joe's. Her husband asked me, "Why would someone sit on an egg for that long when chickens are as cheap as they are?" I refrained from responding with a long-winded explanation about responsible animal husbandry and healthier...
I've been trying to talk DH into a bigger coop this spring. He's been protesting. Well, my roo got sick and had to be brought in to stay in the basement (AKA his shop) to recover and after three days of smelling chicken poop and squeezing around the cardboard walls and bowls, and poop he finally...
My only roo is a sweetheart. He's VERY docile and gentle- to a fault. The last two days he's been pecked by the girls and is now hiding in a nest box from them. I isolated him today in a cage in the run. He wouldn't eat unless he was separated from them. When I put him back in the coop tonight...