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This is wonderful to hear! I mean, if they're anything like humans then their size at birth could have very little to do with their adult size. But for people who want big-eggers, is this a good practice?

Hello everyone! :) I'm about to start a hatch of 2 doz. eggs. About half of them are the size eggs I enjoy selling--they're just a normal large size like you get from the grocery store. The other half are the size that I always wish were bigger. They're about medium. If I hatch the mediums I...

Almost certainly not inbreeding. Some are mixed breeds from different hatcheries, others are the same breed and hatchery as the roo. (There's only one rooster.) So the chances are really slim, and definitely not true in some cases (which have the same mortality rate). Thanks for the advice! I...

Hey everyone! I really want to resurface this one, because I just hatched 15 chicks on Wednesday, and today one died and another is about to die from this same problem I brought up in the forum. I've been doing research on chick diseases, but no one seems to be mentioning mine: 1 day - 5 months...

Yes. Do you think the food they were raised on might be the problem? Thanks!

Thanks so much for your help! Before I answer the specifics, I want to mention that my main question is why this is happening to my home-hatched chickens and not my hatchery chickens. Another odd thing is that they've died in all three of their locations. HOUSING #1 is a bunny hutch off the...

Hey everyone! Happy Thanksgiving!! This summer I hatched 9 chicks. The rest of my chickens (50+) are hatchery-bought, and are ages ranging from 7 years (still laying! :O) to 1 1/2 years. I've always had chickens die randomly, sometimes with prior sleepiness and low appetites, but sometimes out...

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for your help. I know it wasn't your purpose, but I've decided not to attempt this. I still can't find any methods for making your own, cheap recipe, and if it wouldn't be more nutritional anyway, I might as well not go to the trouble. I'm still planning on...

Oh, they are free-fed. Last summer was when I got them. I raised them with 20 meat birds, and their feeder was not big enough. I was not attentive enough, and they were constantly running out of food. Stressed for life, perhaps? D:

PS- Honestly, I didn't really want to switch to organic. However, I could not get customers for all my eggs until I made the switch.

Thank you so much for the responses! 30 sleep in a coop which is 111 square feet. It is crowded, but there are enough roosts for all of them, and enough nesting boxes as well. The run is around 600 sq. ft. The other coop has the same proportions, but 12 hens, 1 roo, and some bantams. I let...

OH! I forgot to ask, have any of you experienced success with pecking prevention tips? I've tried curtains and cleanliness, but with no success. When I collect frequently it goes down by half at best. Thanks! xoxo

I have 45+ hens, and they lay over 3 doz. a day. (SIDE NOTE: Is that a good amount?) Their egg eating is ATROCIOUS!! I have the following 3 problems: 1) GIANT, thin shelled egg. I think there is only one hen who does this. The first time she did it, I cracked the MASSIVE egg, and it had...

Dear friends, I have been buying organic Modesto Milling chicken feed. It's about $.56 per pound, but it varies. Unfortunately, my hens eggs are pretty thin and not very yellow. As for the shells, I give them oyster shells, but they do not like them. As for the eggs, they do have a run on the...

I'd be interested to hear how it went!

Also, in my experience, an infertile yolk will move as you move, whereas a chick will periodically make distinct, sharp, big movements.

Hello, What color are the eggs? Was the room always pitch black when you candles them? Did you cup your hands so that the light only showed on the eggs and not around them? Even if the eggs are dark brown, it seems to me you really should have been able to see things much more distinctly than...

Thanks for the help. The good thing about this hen is that she's the only austrolorp in my flock, so I know just what's going on with her. :) 3 years ago she sat on 8 eggs and hatched one. I couldn't diagnose the losses cause I was gone. This year when I hatched chicks both times 50% were...

Hello! First of all, I don't think it will necessarily die, because I've had ones that pipped in weird places, although not upside down. Personally, I never have qualms about opening the incubator. But 50% of my chicks do die on day 21........I hope the two aren't correlated! I've never...

Thanks for all the help! Unfortunately, they all died very sad deaths. I think the reason is that the mamma's so big, and her nesting box is so small, that she didn't have room to move around, so they never turned. :( When I candled them I could see that they were sticking to the sides.