In the past, I've moved a setting hen; I do it after dark, fluff up her hay nest, add the eggs, and she seemed none the wiser next AM. She went on to hatch most of them, mothering them well.
I have two yards separated by a fence. When I got tired of feeding and watering two groups of chickens, I removed the chicken wire between the two groups. I did this at night....
For several days, they still stayed in their own side; I put the food near the junction of the two areas....there...
For some reason, my chickens think that the powder left at the bottom of the feeder is no good but if I add some water to it, they go crazy and finish it in a snap. I like this idea since nothing goes to waste.
This is how I handled this same problem....wet, muddy areas.....I put an ad on Craigs list explaining that I wanted just some old hay for my chicken coops and their runs. I had two persons reply. The one I was interested in has hay bales that have been sitting for months and are dusty and...
You are going to feel so accomplished when you share both the progress and finished coop with all of us. About the nesting boxes, I just bought a ten-nester for $40 and that was cheap! Look on Craigs List and you'll see that they're going for well over a $100. All you need do, is add a...
I had a great horned owl during the spring. My 3 sided coop became a four sided one very quickly! That owl flew into the 3 sided and grabbed a roosting chicken and ate what he wanted and left the carcass for me to find! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it fly out of the coop....it...
Don't fret, sweetie, you'll get over this fever soon enough. Probably when you've got so many roosters that all of your hens are bare-backed, or when your feed bill knocks your socks off.....you'll begin to search daily for any signs that these sweet little chicks are roosters. Even their...
I've had a similar experience. There's a lady who sells all sorts of fowl.....turkeys, guineas, etc. Well, I gave her my silkie mix roosters and she sold them for $30...she insisted on giving me half. She said the one named "Elvis" sold first just because the customer like its name!!! The...
My rooster did the same thing. I thought he was a goner as his head was lolling to the side and he couldn't stand. I picked him up, sure he was going to die in my arms and remembered some good advice from BYC. I wet his feet and his comb, shoved some yogurt in his mouth; I re-wetted the same...
Oh, sweetie, I feel your pain! I have four dogs; two of the dogs leave the chix alone; the GSD will be a perfect gentleman when I'm in the yard but let me leave.....it's curtains for whomever gets out -- I've clipped wings ad nauseum, but that dog still manages to have her way. She'll sit...
My BF was fileting a catfish the other day and threw the innards; those hens scarfed them up....my hens/roosters eat eveyrthing but citrus and cooked spinach!
I have a broody pen right in the coop yard with the rest of the chickens. I keep the door closed until the babies are eating on their own, about 3 weeks. Then I take mama and put her back in with her "siblings"....when the babies are about 6 weeks old, I put an old compost form around the...
Yep, that snake will be going to the big "pit" in the sky! I had one of those egg stealers eat a golf ball along with one of the baby chicks....my BF cut the reptile open and found both -- it was sad....
Already I've had two soon-to-be hatched eggs missing this year! I guess I'll start...
**chuckle**** "When kiddo comes home" -- these kids know how to do all of this computer stuff. Am excited for you up there in Boise. I've met so many nice people through my chicken ventures.....and my Craigs List ventures, too.
Profit???? none; I sell some of my eggs just for pocket money; the total maybe pays for one bag of layena a month (I buy about three)....
But, then, I don't have to pay a psychiatrist as my animals -- both two and four-legged -- are my psychiatrists!
You're right, they ARE cuties! In my experience with "home grown" chicks, I just let mom do the work. They probably can stay in there for about week (you'll be surprised how fast they grow and feather), then you may want to move them to larger brooder. If you have separate cage that you can...
Wow, I live on the -other-side-of-the-tracks when it comes to coops. I have a compound called Ciudad Pollo which includes two large coops, a "cafeteria" coop, and a very small coop. Someone gave me one of those tall playground type play houses up on 4 4x4s about 6 ft off the ground. So my...