Ah okay! An interesting observation I made was that in 2 of my chicks (the cream legbar and the chipmunk striped one) the wing feathers (just coming in at 5 days old) seem different to the other 2 chicks, the wing looks onger and narrower when held on the body, whereas the other 2 chicks have...
For the full legbar chick on top it actually looks female. It has a smallish headspot (if you can call it that) which is contained within the V head stripe. It has distinct striping and eye liner it just happens to be a more gold colored chick (look back in the thread you can get female chicks...
4/5 of the my eggs hatched under my broody, 3 of them are cream legbar roo over a non-cl hen, and 1 is pure cream legbar. I know they aren't sex linked, but I it still possible to try to predict the sexes?
Chick 1: black chick
Chick 2: chick with black dot on head
Chick 3: chick with defined...
If you want to break the broodiness, my fail safe method is to stick them in an upside down hamster cage (essentially any cage that has a wire bottom) with food and water on a brick in each corner (so it's off the ground) in the run - this ensures she can't brood and when she sits down her tummy...
My broody's eggs are on day 16, and are due to hatch on Monday (day 21), they are cream legbar rooster over small LF hens, will these take all 21 days to hatch, or hatch earlier?
I've got some eggs set under a broody, some of these are pure cream legbars, but 2 are cream legbar roo x hen shown below, and 1 is cream legbar roo x a similar hen that is all black and also has a crest! I can't wait to see what hatches out :D
Thank you! I thought 4 weeks should be okay :) I think I will go for 5 eggs (this may change to 6 lol), she is fairly small, not as big as my silver laced wyandotte bantam, but currently very much happily and easily covering 2 bantam and 4 LF fake eggs :)
I've just had a silver pencilled wyandotte bantam go broody, she's a horrible chicken that screeches when you go near her when she's broody, but that's just get protective nature I guess. Anyway, we're away on holiday for a month so I have arranged for the person caring for our chooks to swap...
She may leave the nest, but after they have been broody for a couple of days they seem to be determined to hatch, i always make sure a broody has been broody for a few days solid before providing her with eggs! I have never hatched within the flock, but if you block off her nest box I'm sure it...
This is very interesting! Are there any types in which you have experienced eggs/chicks being accidentally buried? My first ever broody (a hybrid) had a straw/hay nest, and when I emptied the nest out I found a dead chick buried under straw/hay, I'm not sure what the reason for this was, but she...
Thanks for the input guys! I imagine shellgrit or cat litter clay to be hard and not particularly comfortable? good point by PD-Riverman, people have said that hay gets mouldy, but if it stays dry (broodies should be in dry places) that shouldn't be a problem?
I wonder what wild chickens would...
I'm thinking of letting one of our hens (we constantly have broody bantams its a nightmare!!) hatch out some more chicks in august, and was wondering what bedding everyone uses, and what the pros and cons are? I've used straw in the past but I'm not really sure why!
sjturner79 is right, the chicks that will have the lice as soon as they hatch anyway, so the question is when do you treat for lice. I've read about people in your exact situation replacing the nest with new nesting material and dusting the broody with DE, but I personally wouldn't want to take...
I think it completely depends on the rooster, They can provide protection, fertile eggs, are great to look at, and you might like the crowing (depending our her often he crows!), some roosters will be aggressive and some won't (depending on their genetics and how they are raised). I also notice...
I had to tell someone, so our flock consists of 4 hens and 1 rooster (the rooster and 1 hen are cream legbars) and this morning I could only see 1 hen in the run so I thought I'd check the nest box to see if anyone was laying. Our nest box is a communal one which is roughly 3x2 feet, it's also...
Hmm maybe, I just cant find any pictures of anything similar online! Not really, I could take him to the vet but they don't specialize in birds/poultry so I don't know how much they would be able to help