Yeah, usually they are in the bathroom for awhile (I have a huge bathroom) and the dust is crazy. This is an unfinished basement and I plan to put sheets of plastic up around this area to help contain it.
Due to an unfortunate coyote incident I lost my rooster and 12 hens. Of the 5 hens left I collected eggs for a week and had a New Years hatch. I ended up with 13 chicks in the middle of the winter and with the nursery coop being drafty uninsulated I'll need to keep them inside longer than...
It's about 16 Sq ft with different levels of roosts. He generally stays on the top rung. There are only 5 chickens right now.
They have a large run and most days I let them free range since we have 5 acres. Even when the girls are free ranging he won't come off his perch.
The chicks are 4...
I picked up a 5 month old rooster about a month ago to replace one taken by coyotes. I'm very familiar with typical rooster behavior and have eaten my fair share of agressive roosters. Now I have the opposite problem.
The new rooster was raised by a city dwelling chicken lover who allowed the...
Maybe daddy was an Easter Egger. Some have poofy cheeks.
I splurged and bought an automatic humidifier from Incubator Warehouse. I think it made things a LOT easier. It was great not worrying about the incubator going dry.
I think I'm going to end up with 13 out of 17. 2 of the unhatched eggs are extremely large and I didn't really want to incubate anyway and two I'm not sure why they aren't pipping. My husband talked me into the two big ones.
Not giving up on them yet.
8 hatched 3 pipped 2 unzipping 4 pending with tapping noises. One of the pipped ones has me concerned. It looks like there is a little blood around the pip hole like maybe he pipped too early. He seems ok for now though and is cheeping up a storm.
3 have hatched and the 4th is still working on it. 2 more have pipped .
They are mutts at this point. I was told daddy was an Easter egger but he didn't have puffy cheeks. He was a great rooster and if I didn't feel so guilty about his death I would have just ordered chicks in the spring. I...
I did the first candling and weight check. I only had one with a blood ring and the rest look fine. I did chart the weights and locations in the incubator and I found a pattern that the eggs toward the top seemed to be losing weight more quickly than the ones at the bottom. There wasn't any...
I've had an incubator for a long time but I've never used it before other than when I had a broody mama get off her nest after half her eggs had hatched.
Last weekend a couple coyotes got into the coop and took 10 of my 15 chickens including my rooster. I collected eggs for a couple days and...
No problem leaving her alone. Husband got home and kids needed wrangling from being stuck inside all day so I didn't have time to obsess. I did look in on her when she got up this morning for a drink and a few bites of feed. I can't tell how many are cheeping but at least one of them is very...
A few weeks ago I noticed my 3 year old Dark Cornish going broody. I am lucky that I have a secondary summer coop for younger chickens before they are ready for the big coop so I moved her out there and put a couple days worth of eggs under her. Once or twice a day I've been going out and...
Now that they have discovered a new food source they have been pecking at the door begging for in. I am getting annoyed by the poop on the deck but I love looking out the window and seeing the chickens free range on the lawn.
Took this picture after the kids were done eating breakfast. They tend to be messy eaters as I have three toddlers under the age of three (crazy I know but it's getting easier the older they get). I had the patio door open and the "girls" decided to take the opportunity to clean the floor for...