This girl is the only one with a bit of white on the ends of her comb. No blackened dead tissue, but it's been like this for a few weeks I'd say. Frostbite or just her coloring? It's been mainly in the mid 30s during the day, 20s at night time. Coop is ventilated well.
I know this has been asked a billion times, and my research shows different opinions...
My coop is 4x4, my run is 11x4. I have two roosting bars (4' in length) inside the coop.
I have 4 speckled sussex hens, but like most backyard chicken people, I want some more fluffy butts. Would adding 2...
They've finally started the squatting thing for me. I guess I convinced myself that I saw it before, but it's really pronounced now. So hopefully eggs are coming as soon as the days get longer!
Should I be giving them a layer feed or stick with the starter feed?
They typically only free range in the afternoons or before (their) bed time since I don't let them out when I'm at work. The typically lay within the first 6 hours or so of daylight right? They finally recognize me as "dad" though. When I come out they will all run over to me.. I guess waiting...
Well, still awaiting the day I see an egg. In a funny story, my 8 year old daughter decided to play a joke on me and put one of our store bought eggs in there for me to find. She got me good..
I'm fairly confident they aren't laying in the yard. I'm out with them if they are truly free ranging and I set up a temp fence when I leave them out being unattended so things would be fairly obvious if they left them about. Just yesterday and this morning, I heard what I swear was an egg song...
They are red but not a deep red. They've explored the nesting boxes and I have some fake eggs in there. I don't think they are acting abnormal (never had chickens before). They pretty much act like birds to me:) I do notice sometimes I see runny poop rather than the solid stuff.
They were hatched May 4th and I know I'm battling shorter/colder days. 2 of them look further along than my other two, in terms of comb size and color but I'm seeing no signs of them wanting to start laying (no squatting that I can tell). They have an 11x4 run that is mulched and I do leave them...