I'm in Easthampton and was told yesterday that my house is in a "grey area" zoning wise and even though I was told last year that I could have chickens, this year apparently I can't. Is anybody else out there in Easthampton or somewhere close and want to get involved in a chicken ordinance...
I live in Easthampton, MA and have had chickens for over a year. I went to the town hall before I got them and checked out the local ordinances and was told by the guy in the building and planning division that I was ok to have chickens based on my zoning, no roosters, but chickens were ok...
The brown hens were given to me by a guy who said they were bantams...they are as big as my other hens, so I'm thinking they aren't bantams, but have no idea what they are. And the little white one with the black neck feathers is a mutt of some sort, but really would like a gender guess. It is...
I went out this morning to give them their oatmeal, like every morning, and one of my girls did not come running. Since she is usually right by my feet when there's food involved, I looked for her. My dog found her 10 minutes later, under the woodpile, sitting on about 20 eggs. I thought that...
went out to the run this morning to give the chickens their oatmeal, and one of the pullets sounded like she was purring. They do that sometimes, so paid no attention to it. Went back out two hours later with the meal worms, and the same pullet now sounds like she is wheezing, non-stop. I took...
I got four new hens and a rooster on Friday when a fox killed three of my hens. The man that I got these four from told me that they had stopped laying for the winter and he hadn't gotten any eggs for a couple of weeks. I took them because I have a really BIG hen house for when my hatchlings...
I had 12 eggs in my incubator that were at 21 days last Thursday, three days ago. I blew up my thermometer so haven't had one in there for these three weeks. When nothing hatched Thursday or Friday, I figured that I had messed up because I didn't lock them down three days early, I turned them...
When I came home from the store, my son was in the front yard without my grandson, so I knew something was up. He told me as soon as I got out of the truck that a fox had jumped the fence into my back yard and killed 3 of my laying hens, my two New Hamsphire reds and one of my youngest black...
so I have a dozen eggs in the incubator that are due to hatch on Thursday. It's my third batch, and everything so far looks pretty good. Problem is that all the eggs are various shades of brown, mostly dark, and i cannot see through the shell to candle them. The one thing I can see is that...
had a snow storm here on Saturday and the power has been out for four days now. I had 8 eggs in the incubator that I have had sitting next to the fireplace since the power went out. Thermometer read between 97 and 100, depending where I moved the eggs to. Humidity is anybody's guess. Anyone...
Hi all, just got the power back on at my place after 4 days in the dark. Had my baby chicks in the living room in front of the fireplace since they aren't feathered enough to be out in the coop yet. Everybody else got their power back on or you all still out? Half of my town is lit up again...
Dh is building me a new, bigger chicken house. I'm wanting him to put light in it because I'm in Massachusetts and the days are getting really short here. He wants to put some heat source in there for when it gets below freezing for weeks at a time. His idea at this point is to run a string of...
I have five hens and one rooster that are 9 months old, and I hatched 7 chicks 3 weeks ago. Two days ago, I moved the chicks out to the porch in a dog crate/brooder, because they aren't fully feathered yet and dh is putting the finishing touches on their new coop. The babies were chirping right...
I had a batch of chicks start hatching yesterday. One pipped, but not through the membrane inside the egg. After 8 hours, I stupidly decided to help him out. I broke the membrane and the little beak was there opening and closing, but it looked shrinkwrapped, the whole membrane wrapped around...
my rooster and the hen who laid these eggs are mutts as far as I know, so have no idea what the babies will look like grown. Have been trying like a mad woman to tell if they are girls or boys, but so far, no ideas from me. Just wanted to post a couple of pics.
eat anything besides chick food? I was taking my bigger hens and my roo their regular daily vegetables, and wondered if the babies can have any? I feed the big girls kale and cabbage and tomatoes and whatever vegetables I can get my hands on, so can the babies eat any of this or are they too...
I keep reading that when introducing new members to the flock, they should be kept quarantined. Does this apply to babies as well? I had 7 babies hatch last week and my dh is building another coop for them, but I was intending to let them in the same run as my bigger birds. I'm not importing...
so today was the first time that my dh and my son and I all worked all day on the same day. Usually one of us is home for at least part of the day. My chickens had food and water before I left but I left them in the run since I would be gone all day. I just got home and they were in my...
One of my reds (have been told she is either RI, NH or production, I have no idea) started laying three days ago, and every one of her eggs is oblong rather than oval. Any ideas why her eggs would not be the normal shape? The other red is laying regular eggs, and so is my white unknown breed...
I had 8 eggs in my incubator and 7 of them have hatched. The last one looks to me like all of the others did before hatching, and wondered how long I should leave this one in the incubator. I candled it, and it has an air bubble at the top, but there's no peeping and I can't see anything moving...