How do i stop broody behavior? Ive never had a broody chicken, she's been like that for over a month and wont eat or drink unless i remove her from the nest box/coop, and even then she barely eats or drinks (i have food and water in the coop with her but she ignores it or the other hens eat it)...
This is what i started with. My dad had been using it to store fire wood and it was being taken over by hornets.
And this is where i am at now. The two center panels on the front are going to be quadruple doors. There will be a top and bottom half that will open separately. If I'm just...
This is a metal thing my dad has behind the house that he was storing fire wood on, but now he has a pellet stove, so its just become a place for hornets to build nests. I want to make this into my next chicken coop. Obviously i would have to cover the sides with wood and all, but what else...
They are free range within my back yard, which is fenced. They don't leave the yard. The coop is not big, about 4x2 feet, but all three of the RIR roost on top of the coop, rather than inside it at night, all cuddled together, except in really bad weather. They still lay their eggs inside the...
I have 3 rhode island red hens that are a year old that were raised together and get along fine. One is a clear dominant and the other two are more subordinate and they all get along fine. This year I got 2 new pullets that are about 6-7 weeks old now. I've been keeping them in a 4x4x2 foot box...
They have a bottle with a vertical nipple to actually drink out of, but I also put a shallow dish of water in the box with them (and change it twice a day because it seems to be a pine shaving magnet!). The duck likes to just stand in the dish - it's barely 1/2 inch deep and like 4" across, so...
I did read through that post. It seems like raising a duckling is pretty much the same as raising chicks. The only thing is whether they should have other ducklings to be with, or if it will be ok with my pullets. My mom is really the one who wanted the duck, she wanted it to be a pet. The...
I went to get a couple pullets and ended up with a rouan duckling too. I have it in with the two pullets I got in a very large (4 feet x 4 feet) box and it's eating and drinking and seems to be getting along well with the chicks. What do I need to know about raising a duck? Can it be happy...
I wasn't sure what forum to post this in. I hate to admit, but I haven't gathered eggs from my hens all week. It's been getting pretty cold here and staying below freezing even during the day. The coop is in the shade, so it's still pretty cold. My hens don't lay their eggs until the middle of...
My chickens are doing this too. They have decided to sleep on top of the coop instead of inside it. Every night I go out and pick them off the roof and then set them on the roost inside.
You can wash them right before you plan to use them. I don't think simply running them under water washes away the cuticle, but in the US, they scrub the crap out of them and basically sterilize the shells.
Most of the world does not refrigerate eggs. The only reason we do here in the US is because the egg industry washes the eggs and removes the protective mucous coating called the cuticle that protects the egg from bacteria. Fresh eggs that have not been washed can be kept at room temp for weeks...
First egg from my four RIR hens. I got this one yesterday and another one today, not sure if they are both from the same hen or if two different ones are laying. One of them has a bigger, redder comb and waddles than all the rest, so I'm sure she laid the first one at least.
My RIR hens are 20 weeks now. Their combs and waddles are much brighter red and bigger than they were only a few weeks ago. I haven't seen any of the squatting behavior yet, or heard the egg song (though one was squawking really loud yesterday for no aparent reason), so would it be safe to start...
I live in spokane county literally on the street that divides city and county in the Morgan Acres neighborhood just north of Hillyard. If I lived on the other side of the street, I'd be in the city limits. I've found that so long as your neighbors don't call anyone and complain, nobody enforces...
Actually, it's purely cooincidental that I took more pictures of that one than the others, but no, I don't actually think that might be a roo. Like I said, they're now 13 weeks old, their combs and waddles are JUST starting to get bigger, none of them have bright red combs, they're all kind of...
Not really. All the skin on their faces has darkened to a red color (around their eyes and along the lower jaw where their waddles will be) and the combs are the same color as the rest of their faces or a little lighter still. One of them has a bigger comb than the others, but not by much, it's...