Hey wings!
I brought 4 chicks to my daughter's kindergarten class last spring for "show and tell". It only lasted about 20 minutes, not 6 hours as in your case, but they all survived the little hands and loud laughs.
Here are my thoughts to your questions:
1) 6 hours may be a bit too long...
I have a white wyandotte rooster with the same issue. His name is "hinky toes" and he's a scrappy fellow.
I periodically have to trim his nails because they grow like crazy and aren't naturally worn away.
My nest boxes are about 16" x 16" x 16" and enclosed on three sides. The gals like a little privacy, so having a more open box might force them to lay somewhere other than the desired location.
Hey D bar J!
Get ready for a good time!
Believe it or not, but we took delivery of our new chicks last year on a Sunday. The good people at our local post office gave us a call at 5 AM on Sunday informing us that he chicks arrived and we needed to get them. I hope that answers your question.
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To each their own, I suppose.
I hate to say it but a true, old fashioned neighborhood is not guided by a HOA. Common sense, quality morals and courtesy to your fellow man are the basic elements of neighborliness.
I'm not sure I want everyone to know me, not because I have something...
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I agree. I've observed the exact same behavior this past summer and that is what they appeared to be doing. They would burrow into about a three inch deep hole and wallow around in the dirt for what seemed to be hours.
I would be worried if they had a hack saw or file laying near...
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Oh, yeah - I'm running a wicked Excel spreadsheet and graph that tracks a myriad of egg production details (like 25 + measurables). I just listed a handful of the main metrics in a previous post. Excel totally rocks for this kind of stuff.
I'm a mechanical engineer by day...what can I...
My chickens make me shovel around the coop if I expect them to come out to have a look around in the fresh air.
FOr the last 24 hours we've had sub zero temps. The coop is staying "warmish" at about 10 degrees, while outside it's like -5 to -10. My one problem is that the heater pan that the...
I also keep a log. I track:
- eggs laid in the AM
- eggs laid in the PM
- Daily total
- 30-day rolling average number eggs laid in AM, PM and daily total (to track trends in production)
- any tasks I do for them (add feed, change out waterer, give treats, etc.)
- any unusual/unique observations...
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I totally agree. After all, variety is the spice of life.
I just strung xmas lights around the coop roof this morning. They look very snazzy AND I didn't need HOA approval to hang the up.
HOA's are for suckers.
Ooooooh, I love freedom!
I don't disagree with your assessment, Miss Prissy. I'm sure there are very well organized HOA's and are probably not to be messed around with. The one we were a part of was not very professionally run. They tried and failed once to take a fellow neighbor to court because he trimmed his...
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Oh, I would disagree about the availability of HOA funding for legal actions in all parts of the country. We lived in a neighborhood of multi-millionaires and they loved, loved, loved the HOA, but never had the sense to budget the association fees for legal stuff...the annual budget...
Perhaps this has been asked before but is it OK to mix bantam chicks with standard size chicks? I guess I could also take it another step and ask if they can both live in harmony as adults for that matter?
Please don't wail on me if this turns out to be a lame question!