I've tried countless times to hatch chicks in an incubator and it has never worked That's why I'm letting her do it herself. I'll try and be there when the little guys hatch to protect them. Thats really sad what happend to your chicks, thanks for the info.
I started some eggs on 8/31. I have an australorp sitting on 5 barred rock eggs. It's her first time going broody, I hope she is a good mama. I've never had a chicken hatch her own before. I hear that you can sometimes see little veins as early as day 3 when candeling. That means I might be able...
I finally have my first broody hen!
I'd noticed she'd been staying in her box for the last few days and not letting the other girls in to lay. She wasn't even perching at night. After realizing she was broody I put fertilized eggs under her this morning and she has stayed with them all day...
I usually just use plain water and no soap on my chickens and they clean up nicely, you might want to try that before you use soap too.
WisconsinGardenChick- the benefit from a dust bath is having dust in their feathers to make it a less desireable place for mites and such. So by bathing them...
Barred Rocks are great, out of all the breeds I have I would get more BR's before anything else. They are very friendly and curious, however when they are upset they do make quite a racket, but I would say it's equivalent to when my dog starts barking in the yard, so it shouldn't be a problem...
What you can do to help the chicken-I had the same thing happen to one of my girls when I was trying to add her to a different flock. I rinsed off the wound and put her in a seperate box so her flockmates didn't notice it and peck at her more. I kept the bedding clean and put asprin in her...
It's full on winter so they mostly stay in their coop which is in a barn and raised off the floor. Their food is hung and they get dumor chicken feed, oyster shell and the latest left overs. No pin feathers, that was my first thing to check. On less frigid days they are let out to roam in the...
My 3 Barred Rocks crow mostly in the morning and during daylight hours. But they get into I-can-crow-louder-than-you contests that have been know to extend well passed 3:00 AM. Luckily we have very tolerant neighbors!
I hope this is in the right place. Within the last week, in our coop the RIR's of 5 Black Austrolorps 4 RIRs and an EE have lost tons of feathers. There are bare patches on their heads and hips. There is a rooster BR in with them but he is one legged and I've NEVER seen him try anything with...
Deffinantly get ahold of him and check him out. If there's a problem catching it early is key for chickens. Especially since their environment is not exactly the most sanitary. You could save his life. The worst that could happen would be you find nothing.
I had the same problem. Oyster shell didn't work for me either. So I went to the craft store and picked up some ceramic eggs. I put them in their nest boxes and after a few pecks on those they realized it was useless and stopped. I leave the eggs in there all the time except to take them out and...
I use bag balm on my roo's and it works great. I just put it on their combs and waddles and they do just fine. It also helps if their combs have already turned purple. (Makes them nice and soft too )