My 4 to 5 month old mixed flock of Easter Eggers, Australorps, Cuckoo Marans, and Rhode Island Reds have just begun to lay. The size of eggs are pretty uniform between the girls and come in at the PeeWee size, about 1.3 ounces. My question is will the size increase to the medium to large range...
I have 3 Jersey Giants hens that are 15 months old. One is laying, two are not. Also in the flock is Dorthy my lone Easter Egger and best layer ~1 egg a day and the Jersey girl is laying probably 5 eggs a week. The Amerucana rooster in this flock is 5 months old and not yet too well accepted...
I just read that the increased calcium in layer ration can be hard on the kidneys of roosters. I feed free choice right now, which means I don't have good control over who is eating what. This may not be as good of practice as I first thought. What is a recommendation for a standard "rooster...
How do you tell if an egg is fertilized? I was trying to incubate some eggs I "assumed" were fertile as a young rooster was seeming to have covered my trusty Easter Egger hen, albeit very briefly. At the time I thought "gee is that all the longer it takes". I have been incubating eggs for 18...
I have two Jersey Giants that are over a year old and have never started to lay eggs. The third Jersey girl is laying. I sort of attributed that to stress and the housing they were in was pretty crowded. They are know in spacious new digs and everyone seems happier. What are the chances that...
I am using a Brinsea Mini Advanced incubator and I am about half way, 9 days, through the process. I candled the eggs after 7 days and had two that appeared bad which I discarded. "The instructions" say to leave the chicks in the incubator for a day after hatching to feather out. Anyone had...
I am tending toward skinning my chicken instead of scalding and plucking feathers. Seems a bit more efficient to me. This is my first attempt and I would be interested in the pros and cons.