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  1. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    He'd be adventurous, as chickens go 🧐 Assuming the closest home, which does have chickens ... he'd be traveling about 400 yards each way. My chickens could help, they range about 100 yards that direction ... he'd have to be cunning, going around the edge hidden in the bushes and not crowing...
  2. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    The earlobes are all red - I haven't had any white ear lobed chickens in this flock ... and no true white egg layers either. The light bits visible on the white hen there I'm pretty sure are the little feather puff - the red ear lobe is below that and big enough to look like a wattle. The...
  3. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    Yes I think I know who it is - she's come out of the same nest as the dark egg a few times, and even it was still damp once. Still holding out the "we were wrong" scenario in case. Surely, objectively, a young bird is more likely. I'm still watching nests for further proof but look what they're...
  4. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    The 4yo hen is a 2nd-generation Hyline hybrid descendant ... so mother hen was a commercial Hyline brown hybrid, rooster was a Hyline rooster grabbed at hatch. The shape is her usual egg shape ... but that is the most average medium oval shape half the hens lay similar. The first one was small...
  5. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    The eggs are very impressive. Makes me want more chocolate dark egg layers!! I shouldn't be getting even more chickens though, Lol.
  6. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    The new birds are all hatched here from my own eggs - so there should be no surprises, genetically. Only Sussex and Hyline brown can be mixed in there. The 4th young one that I haven't seen the egg from individually is a light Sussex. I will continue to watch both of them and see what happens!
  7. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    Didn't see the egg come out, no ... but now 3 or 4 times it happened in the same nest at the same time as that chicken, and the latest time the egg was still damp when she got out. We've also eliminated 3 out of the 4 new hens from the suspect pool - those have been caught laying ordinary eggs...
  8. Ebarnes-21

    Hen suddenly changes to laying a dark egg

    One of our hens just started laying a super dark egg a couple of weeks ago. The colour is very unusual, like a barnevelder or maran egg for example? Whereas the hens are a mix of sussex and hyline brown descendants. I thought it must be a young hen, but after watching carefully it looks like...
  9. Ebarnes-21

    Help! My wife is mad at me for feeding the chickens pizza!

    Of course it's OK for the girls to have food scraps. Pizza they love particularly. We used to feed our chickens and ducks almost exclusively from Pizza restaurant scraps we picked up weekly. I've never SEEN them lay so well before or since! Pizza is bread you know, add in a bit of bacon cheese...
  10. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    Finally we have Egg, only a day or two ago, down on the river flats. Danny is barely visible in the background behind the goat. I think Egg still looks a bit like a youngster. But he/she has been getting a bit stroppy ... and has been the recipient of a kick recently, as evidenced by the tiny...
  11. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    This is Rhagar again ... alone in the chook paddock just the other day.
  12. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    Here is Egg in the foreground, and Rhagar in the back. (the fence is not a 'real' one, it is only dividing a raceway in the same paddock). At this time (about a month ago) they were all 5 together in the chook paddock, living happily spread out over the one hectare or so paddock, because of the...
  13. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    OK that's quite large. I haven't seen any vocal sacs yet, I'm pretty confident to say. But I'm sure I'll see some pairs shifting around the farm soon ... fences are negotiable to my Emu so I think that will facilitate the territory seeking behaviour. They sort of accept an 'indication' of...
  14. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    Yes I knew we'd see them fight when they started sorting their territories ... not really looking forward to that .... hoping they don't injure themselves too much, we have to pick up the pieces, veterinarially speaking. I think Lady owns the top paddock, it's her signature territory. Last year...
  15. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    "So in this photo, they may be 99% physically mature, but they are still sitting in a cosy clump, like chicks." Mine have only recently (in the last 12 months?) stopped sleeping as a clutch (except Lady who separated even 2 years ago) Now they sleep as pairs, generally, but they are shifting...
  16. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    Thanks so much for that! There is so little info on the net about sexing Emu. What month/ish of the year do they start courting their prospective pairs? When we bought our eggs, the first was laid on the 11/06/2017, and I remember the owner being puzzled they were late to start laying that...
  17. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    About a week after a first trimming he's walking I think totally normally now. The toe is still weird as pictured ... and the claw still has curl, particularly at the end. But it's sprung right back down to sit more like a normal claw, and is no longer twisting the toe, which is straightening...
  18. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    It doesn't appear like a break (or an old one) ... it seems soft and flexible. Sometimes he steps on it, sometimes it goes down OK. It does not appear painful, just awkward. We have now trimmed the long curled claw. I became convinced watching him walk that the length of the claw was at...
  19. Ebarnes-21

    Curled/bent/distorted toe on 3 year old emu

    One of my 3 year old Emu has developed a bent outer toe. It is curling right under his central toe and he steps on it, giving him trouble walking. It looks odd, the toenail is sideways, the tip of the toe is fat (a bit inflammed), and even the scales over the nail bed look a little wry. I hope...
  20. Ebarnes-21

    Disease outbreak: weakness, diarrhea and death: Chickens of all ages. What is it and what do I do?

    There's an update coming here, I've just had a bunch of really bad weather for solar power and can't get on the internet without power. The link Perris provided came up with one 'new' condition (I'd tried several other symptom checkers with no good match ...) and the key symptom that it...
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