I think humidity has something to do with the ability of a chick to break out of an egg. I've had some trouble with this, as well. It was very tricky, but I've had to help them out in some cases. I don't think this approach is recommended, but I've had good luck with it. The chicks are usually...
I've hatched a lot of chicks and never had a 100% luck. Stuff happens. As sad as it is, it's not always your fault. Sounds like you brought life to several chicks. That's got to feel good.
Hatched an incredible 16/17 over the past two days. Some tense moments when I had to decide whether or not to help a few. 12 are doing really well. 4 are in the "ICU". But, they're looking much better. They simply weren't strong enough to mix with the others.
The first chick hatched as I was...
I've bought 10 chicks each of the past two years. This year, I decided to try hatching my own. I gathered 17 eggs over a week and set them, this past Saturday. I thought about building my own incubator. But, in the end, I picked one up at the local farm store. They've been holding temp, really...
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I have a six week old that appears double jointed. She can barely put any weight on the leg. She eats and drinks. But, she is slightly undersized compared to her "litter mates".
The best I can come up with (after reading everything I can find) is slipped tendon. Probably happened as an...
I just put some 2" x 4" wire across the top. It's strong enough not to bend (like the hexagonal chicken wire), but small enough holes that the chickens can't get out. There might be some pics of it on my blog.
I was reading that the roosts should be higher than the nest boxes to prevent the chickens from wanting to sleep in the boxes. Does anyone have an opinion on that?
Granted, I have a 35' x 50' run...but I am thinking about fencing right down the middle of the run and only letting the chickens have access to half at a time. Similar to what some people do with horses in fields.
I placed mine in the garage. I had considered putting it in one of the spare bedrooms. When I saw the amount of dust created from the chicks, I was really glad I decided to go with the garage. As it is, I still have a ton of "dust" to clean off and wipe down. It literally got in and on...
I just banded two of my RIR's. They're 4 1/2 weeks old and I think I've picked out a couple of roos. I used small zip ties, but I kept them nice and loose. I plan on pro-actively changing them every couple days, as they are growing pretty fast. I'm not going to wait until they "look tight" to...
I was recently wondering about this as well. My cat just pounced on a bumble bee and learned his lesson (I hope). So, the thought of the chickens doing it came to mind.
The way I try to look at it is, in the wild, these chickens probably get into a lot more trouble than they are in our pens or...