I don’t know for sure, but I think it depends. I had a chicken lay until she was like 10, then she lived another 2 years. My seven year old hen also still lays regularly, but now takes winter off when she didn’t use to.
These Orpingtons are 4 weeks old, I’m wondering if there are any guesses on gender? I’ve been suspicious of two of them for awhile, but I know they’re young.
Photos 1-2 are Daisy
Photo 3 is Delilah
Photo 4-6 is Dolly. Dolly has much larger tail feathers than the other two.
I’ve mostly had sex-links. My current flock is a backyard mix and a silkie. The chicks I have now, Chocolate Orpington, Cream Legbar, Mottled Houdan, and French Blue Copper Maran are the first I’ve had of these breeds. So hard to say opinions yet.
What’s wrong with your Orpington? I will say I...
Hello, I hatched this chicken (Puff) in 2018 after purchasing eggs locally. I’m just curious what she might be? Some sort of olive egger mix? I had 11 eggs in that batch, TEN were roosters. She was the only pullet and the only one with clean feet. She’s got dark feet, with yellow on the bottom...
Hi!
The Orpington snapped out of it after a couple days, not sure what was up with that.
The legbar with pasty butt struggled for a few days, but I checked her constantly and she’s back to normal now. However, she’s very small. I compared her to my other legbar of the same age, the healthy one...
Hi everyone,
I just put up premier1 no shock hen pen, and I want to cover it with hawk netting. This is where my girls will “free range” during the day, they still have a fully secure run and coop.
I’m going to start the netting on the roof of my coop and extend it out to the fencing. Does...
PDX is Portland, OR.
I’m in Eugene, if you count that as close enough.
1. No
2. Got them as a kid and fell in love. They’re so fun to raise and are much smarter than people give them credit for.
3. 2
That's good to know. I believe this feed store was only using Hoover's, so there shouldn't be any surprise chicks. I guess it's just a game of wait-and-see now!
I just dealt with this for a week. I used sav-a-chick probiotics in their water for a day, then normal water, then back to probiotics until it went away. But I still had to check multiple times a day, and often clean the chick 2 or 3 times every day.
She does have feathered feet. At the feedstore, there was a mix of light ones like mine, and some darker ones more like yours in the same bin. They were all labeled as blue marans though.
I bought this chick at a feed store, they said she’s a French blue copper maran from Hoovers. She doesn’t look like the pictures they have of them though. Since this picture, she’s gotten a few darker feathers. Is she still a blue maran? A different color?