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I had 8 hens (out of 12) unexpectedly go broody in less than 2 weeks. I was ill and the nests were hidden, so by the time I noticed it was too late to remove the eggs. The first hatched almost a week ago, and so far 15 have hatched. Only one is black, the rest are all pale yellow to buff, and...

One of my bantam hens went broody, and I didn't notice immediately because she is completely black (comb and beak too) and when I did my daily headcount at bedtime I couldn't see her in the dark nest box. I assumed she was just gone because a caracal recently wiped out my landlord's flock. The...

Almost a year after rescueing my first chickens, I my layers finally started laying! :wee I was dancing around the garden in excitement and my husband asked: 'What are you going on about, you're not the one that layed the eggs?' :lol: I have a question though. I have six hens and it seems that...

Hi, I'm looking for some advice on managing a fully free range flock. I rescued a broody hen that was abandoned by my neighbour. I built her a tractor and let her hatch and raise her chicks in the safety of the tractor until they were 4 weeks old. Before that she had been free and wild for at...

I have 2 New Hampshire cockerels and 1 Koekoek cockerel. The are 10 weeks old now and starting to fight eachother more aggressively. The one is almost permanently wondering around on his own because the other two keep chasing him off. I was hoping to wait until they were a little older to see...

I have 5 8week old New Hampshires, and 2 of them have been obvious cockerels from 4 weeks already. They are reasonably tame but don't like being handled. I have been treating them for a really bad swarm of gnats that follows them into the coop every evening. They're all very healthy otherwise...

I hope this is the right place for this post. My broody's eggs have started hatching today and the colours of the chicks are not at all what I was expecting, so I have some questions on colour genetics. Please bear with me, it's a bit of a long story of how I ended up being uncertain of who the...

Three of my chicks are acting really lethargic, not eating much, and sort of sleeping standing up. One of them dropped this this morning. ONe of the others is pooping normally, and the third one I haven't been able to confirm yet.

My hen is setting 9 eggs. Her roo died about 4 weeks before whe went broody on 11 eggs. About 1 week before she went broody there was a large rooster hanging around, but she kept running from him so I didn't think he had much success. She's a bantam by the way, but she lays medium sized eggs...

I candled my broody's eggs this evening, she's been setting them for 6 days. The little embryos were really bouncing around in there, is that normal? I tried watching a few YouTube videos of eggs at the same stage and the embryos don't seem to be moving at all in most of them, and in one it only...

I have 5 New Hampshire chicks that are almost 3 weeks old. I noticed yesterday that one has a comb that's noticibly larger and getting just a hint of pink already, so I'm pretty sure it's a cockerel. Then I noticed that his tail has feathered in quite nicely already, and only one of the others...

I got some Potchefstroom Koekoek chicks yesterday. They are about two weeks old, and I thought it was too early to sex them. I noticed some of them weren't barred as clearly as others, so I did some research and I found out that barred rocks can be sexed earlier. Wikipedia says that Koekoeks can...

Let me start by saying that I know the offspring won't be sex linked. I'm asking purely out of curiosity. I've purchase some chicks from a reputable breeder, 5 New Hampshires and 5 Potchefstroom Koekoeks. The Koekoeks are a South African barred breed, very similar to Barred Rocks, only better...

My hen had 10 chicks, which I sold at 3 weeks because I was having some trouble integrating them with the older chicks and I was going away for 10 days and had no-one to watch them. I put her back with the rooster the day I sold the chicks, but she was only with him for two days when the...

I have a bantam hen that's all alone (long story) and I'd like to get her some company. But I also really want to get laying hens and don't have space right now to keep two flocks seperately. She goes broody very often, so I thought I could keep everyone happy and avoid integration issues but...

I live in a small town and really struggle to find straw or hay (and most supplies for a backyard flock actually). I can get lucerne (alfalfa?) but it's expensive, and I've tried wood shavings but the chickens scratch through it and it all gets kicked out of the nest boxes. I was searching...

I've been scouring the internet and BYC for weeks and have found very, very little information about the boschveld breed. If there is anyone on here who has or had Boschveld chickens I'd love to know what you're experience with them has been. I will be receiving 4 Boschveld hens next week, so...

Hey everybody. I've only been on BYC for a couple of months (although I've been lurking a little longer) and I'd just like to say it's been great here. My family gets annoyed when I talk too much about my chickens and I can come here any time to read about all your chickens and ask questions...

Forgive me if this is the wrong place for this thread, I wasn't sure where to put it. Also, it's a bit of a long story, sorry. My neighbour has a hen and a rooster that free range and I recently started helping them out because they don't have time for the chickens anymore. They live completely...

Sorry, I know this question is asked a lot, but everything I've read recomends leaving the hen with her babies until she rejects them herself. I would love to do that, but she's a real meanie and when she does decide she's done with them I'm pretty sure she'll kill them if I don't separate them...