Great rules above! Yes, that all sounds ideal and is what we were hoping for, so it concerns us that the dominant roo hurts his ladies. :(. I think if we separate him out for a time maybe we can better see how the other roos operate.
Blessings, and thanks for the response!
Megan
It IS so hard, huh? :) Our kids are attached to the dominant one. I'm so glad y'all could keep all of them! Sounds like your fam is loving and caring and they have a great set-up. :)
We fed eggshells for over a year with no problems at all. Yep, just a separate dish and they will only eat what they need. Just be sure to crush fine. Might save an extra step with baking . . . we just dried ours really good in a cupboard. Hope that helps! :)
Megan
We don't grow fodder either for chickens but we do grow sprouts indoors for our family!
Buckwheat sprouts are really fast growing . . .
This site has the widest variety of sprouts I've seen, but I don't know if they are the most expensive.
https://sproutpeople.org.
Best wishes! You're doing...
I love that you are taking advantage of their innate abilities!
I would say option two or three. The only concern with option one would be leaf mold . . . sometimes we throw whole leaves on our garlic in the fall when we plant and it can grow some mold. Option two is nice because the mower...
Hi there!
We've had several flocks of chickens in the past but this is our first flock with roosters! :)
We bought straight run and now have 8 chickens total; 3 of them are roosters, so we are planning to sell two of them. They are lavender orpington; beautiful, docile hens, but I think there...
Hi there!
We're on our first batch of chicks. I have an almost 7 week old Buff Orpington who I believe has sour crop.
I suspect she had an impaction which led to sour crop. She's been lethargic and sleepy for about two days. She does occasionally scratch and peck and still loves being out...
Hi Nugget! :) I would separate her to a separate brooder, just her, if you have another brooder. Remove food overnight and then in the morning palpate her crop to see if it's gone down. Our chicks had huge trouble with eating pine shavings so it might help to cover them again with paper towels...
Is your feeder accessible by all chicks at the same time? Some high-protein snacks like sardines, salmon pieces, liver pieces, mealworms, worms, etc. can help bulk her up, too!
I'm so sorry! That's so hard! I'd find a way to keep her under the heat lamp and keep it at 95 for her. Apple cider vinegar with the mother (like Bragg's) in water. Can also crumble up some hard boiled egg yolks and mix with water for her to eat for some nutrition. Keep us posted!
I've been dipping her beak in water. I'm suspecting Vitamin B deficiency or Marek's now and will be treating for those. Don't see any bloody or mucous-y stool. The chicks are outside now in a run - just moved them out today. Thanks for helping me troubleshoot!
Hi there,
I have a 6-week old Buff Orpington who just started falling over in her brooder this morning. I don't know what's causing it. She seems happy and is scratching for food - she just loses balance and topples over herself. Could her wing be broken? Broken leg?? Can you get spraddle leg...
Hi all!
I need some advice on bedding.
We have one brooder with two month-old Buff Opringtons and one brooder with 3 two-week old RIRs.
We started out with paper towels over pine shavings and that seemed to work great at first, but the chicks just love to peck, peck, peck, as they should...
I think we will definitely try the EcoGlow again for the next round, but we were just learning with our first batch. All great ideas! Thanks for sharing! :) We were terrified of heat lamps, too, so we just kept our brooder inside.