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This is not true. I'm a biologist, birds are omnivores and metabolize fat and carbs just fine, and they absolutely do develop subcutaneous fat. Suet and lard are common winter bird feeds for this exact reason. Calories are calories. Protein beyond their daily needs actually won't contribute much...

What’s wrong with too much fat? Our winters are usually -10 to -20 and I don’t want them to drop too much weight.

So I have read a few other threads on this, but my hens are pretty picky eaters. They will not eat alfalfa (soaked cubes or dried), they aren't interested in leafy greens or veggie scraps. They love their feed, which is a 17% protein mash with rolled peas in it, and have not been keen on a...

Congrats! I shot my first duck the other week. A mallard hen.

I live in grizzly country. We have a safe full of hunting rifles and shotguns - but the first thing I'd reach for if there was a predator near my coop would be my bear spray. If you don't live in grizz country its not common to find though. 1. Hazing is better than killing. 2. The evidence in...

I have been able to match the eggs to who lays them since I find the hens in the nest boxes quite often. They are pretty consistent with their colour/size, its the just the two barred rocks I can't tell their eggs apart. I have never found Jolene in the nest boxes, and never had 5 eggs in one...

Ok thanks, I wondered how much the weather would effect them, since they are mostly heritage breeds. Certainly the ones that are laying have only amped up since October. We have had an exceptionally warm fall with tons of sun, and the girls have been feasting on moose bones from hunting season...

Not a massive comb but about the size of the others her age, and she was the first to grow wattles (hens in the background are 1 month younger, the brown one is laying and the BCM hasn't started yet).

I have a hen hatched April 19th of this year showing all signs of being mature enough to lay, but not laying. She is a caramel queen (Welsummer x Light sussex cross from True North) and I got her along with 3 others (2 Barred rock and 1 Production red) from the same hatchery. The 3 others all...

These gals are 1 month old now. I had thought the grey one (Barbara) was a blue copper marans, because the farm had a lot of black copper marans. But now I see a pea comb. The brown one (Karen) looks like an easter egger with 5 toes, clean shanks. Will be interesting to see egg colour. I don't...

Love this thread, super informative. I got 4/4 roos in the first batch of BCMs and looks like 2/2 in the second batch so I'm just starting to believe BCMs don't come in the pullet variety. The second batch had 1 Blue copper marans and 1 easter egger mix, both look to be females. No dark eggs for me!

Just heard back from the hatchery and they say sometimes their production reds are all white. First I'm finding of it despite much googling. I guess if you stop selecting for colour weird things happens.

Do easter eggers ever not have the puffy cheeks or any sign of bearding? She has very much the same silhouette as Jolene and the rockettes (which are just barred rocks as far as I can tell). She is a little smaller than Jolene and a little bigger than the rocks.

So I was supposed to get 1 Production red and 1 Caramel queen (welsummer x light sussex), and when I got them I assumed the brown chick (Jolene) was the red and the yellow/gingery headed chick (Pamela) was the CQ. But now they are 6 weeks old, and Jolene looks exactly like a CQ and Pam is mostly...

This is my exact situation so I hope mine works out this well. I have 4 that are 5 weeks old and 4 that are 2 weeks old, and really didn't want to wait until the little ones were 5-6 weeks to put them in the coop. How did you do the feed? I have a bag of grower ready for when the older girls...

That sucks, I got 4/4 roosters in one batch and its so frustrating. Obviously that's just how she goes sometimes, but doesn't make it any less annoying! My boys were also pretty aggressive by 4 weeks, and one we dispatched before he was big enough to eat because he was such a little jerk.

Thanks. I put the others on treatment just in case, but the little guy started gargling up brown stuff and we euthanized him. More likely a crop obstruction I'm guessing.

Me too! Mine don't really go for the dried mealworms and I haven't found anything they really go nuts for.

I have 7 chicks, 5 weeks old all living outside in a coop/run. They've been in the outdoor coop with a heat lamp since they were 3 weeks old, and only in the past week have they been spending time outside in the run as its been a cold spring here. Yesterday afternoon one of the boys looked super...

Oh I meant for the breeds.