I guess it's too late to catch the chicken train, but thank you for the offer! Unfortunately the two survivors from the hatch we just did have both turned out to be boys. I guess they could have caught the train back if you are handy with cooking "homehatched" chicken pot pie.
We've started using our broody for hatching. We did one hatch this Fall and we're hoping to do more this Spring. I know that we can buy fertile eggs from Thanksgiving Point, and they've told us that they'll have brown leghorns this coming year, but I was wondering if anyone on here keeps...
Well I can definitely eliminate overcrowding as an explanation--we have two hens and two chicks in a 80' x 12' run! We have more of an "undercrowding" problem.
Here's a photo.
I think the chick may be a cuckoo maran cross, or possibly a barred rock cross. I've been trying to find the house I got the eggs from so I can look at the flock, but no luck so far in finding the house again. I was so excited to hatch eggs under our broody that I didn't...
Is this a sign of a roo? Our black chick started charging at the other chick this week and pecking it a bit. The speckled chick will stand his/her ground and peck back a little, but doens't seem as aggressive.
Today I saw the black chick get kinda confrontational to the other chick and stand...
Yeah, I've been reading on this breed/gender forum for a couple of weeks, so I've picked up enough to know they're kinda young for gender predictions. But...I guess I was having some wishful thinking that maybe one of the very experienced folks might be seeing some signs. They both have tails...
Okay here are some pics of the chicks (two chicks)
The black bantam cochin in the bottom is the surrogate mama. The people we got the fertilized eggs from said they'd had (just got rid of them) three roosters. From memory...they said one was black, one was brown, and...
Are potato peelings good food? I usually use the peels but my hubby sometimes peels potatoes. I just gave them peels for their first meal. Just brought my tank, lid, and 100 starter mealies home. Planning to order some more mealies, but couldn't wait to get a few started.
@ Kilby
Perhaps the plastic bins could contribute to unpleasant odors too. Bacteria sticks to plastic. Perhaps glass would be better. Walmart online sells the 10 gallon glass aquaria for $12.97. I just got on on sale from Petsmart for the same price.
I'm just wondering how can you tell? The only difference to my (untrained) eye is that the comb on the first one looks different. I have two mixed breed 12 day old chicks right now (hatched from eggs by mama) and I'm trying to learn all I can about sexing so that we can tell if our two are...
Is your main concern the seed or the chickens? I'm assuming that your main concern is if the seed will affect the chickens. Does the seed have fertilizer mixed into it? If you bought the bags of seed yourself, perhaps read the instructions to see when it's safe for "pets" or call the company.
Do you think there's enough protein in mealworms that the chickens wouldn't need another source? If they were free pastured and had grains, would they still need layer pellets?
I could just cry.
Our mama hen has been setting on six mixed breed eggs. One hatched on Saturday night, two days ago. Two half hatched last night but died. One hatched today and is doing okay. And the mama abandoned her last two eggs, one of which had never been looking like it was...
This morning I went out to look and the back egg (large hole) had hatched, and the chick was most of the way out, but it was dead. ????? We were so sad about it. Actually I kind of freaked and panicked because I saw mama peck it twice and then I imagined that she had maybe killed it. But my...
Our broody bantam cochin is setting on six eggs that are all from the same day of laying, but from it's a mixed flock with three roosters. One hatched yesterday evening, and mama has been showing it around today. While she was off the nest, we saw that three eggs are pipped, or so we think...