I see no one has commented on the Nor Cal thread in many years, at least not that's showing up. I'm in Santa Rosa, an hour north of San Francisco. I am looking for someone who has breeding quality Silver laced Wyandottes, eggs or chicks, available next spring. I have been unhappy with the stock...
I've been raising SLW for over 20 years, but lost much of my stock to predators a few years back. I've attempted to replace them with chicks from various hatcheries, but the quality of the birds leaves something to be desired. Many are small, not the well bred, full bodied birds I'm used to. Is...
My 4 barn cats hang out in the poultry yard even though I've tried (and tried...) to get them to hang out and eat in the hay shed. So, I feed them in the poultry yard early in the morning before the cat food gobbling chickens are released from their coops, and again in the evening once the...
I use about 1 rounded teaspoon daily, mixed into the feed as described, for about 20 layer hens and 7 turkeys. I also add ground pepper to the mix, about a teaspoon, as this is said to help make the turmeric more available when ingested.
I had this same question last season, but my hens were left otherwise intact - just the guts were gone. I lost 6 or 7 hens this way over a period of several months. It turned out to be a cannibal hen in my flock - I caught her in the act. Since she was removed, it has not recurred.
I have a bunch of Leghorn cross hens that are really good layers...BUT they are the problem children of my poultry yard! They have a tendency to escape their yard every chance they get, raid the vegetable beds, and make nests out under bushes in the pastures that they eventually disappear to and...
Lucky you! I have 3 geriatric emus now, aged 24 (Dookie - male, hatched and raised at home), 25 (Ianna - female, acquired at age 1 year) and 33 (Earl - male, acquired at age 12 years). In his younger years Earl was a great emu dad and raised several broods. Sadly he lost his mate Princess to a...
Thanks for posting this. In 30 years of having chickens, I never had to do this, but I just amputated the left wing on one of my year and a half old blue egg layers. She was attacked by a hawk last week. I had cleaned up the injury site and put the wing in a sling, but later found the wing was...
I have a blue egg layer that is half Leghorn. At 1 1/2 years she is just developing spurs. So far they're only about a half inch long. She has a very large comb and wattles, so almost looks like a roo. It's winter and she's gone through her molt, but she still lays the occasional egg. In 25...
I just lost my 10 year old SLW too that had a double spur on one leg. He was 3rd generation. I have his 5 year old son. None of the others, including sibs that were either sold or processed had multiple spurs.
I lost one older hen earlier this week. Fine in morning, dead in afternoon. She was eviscerated through the back end, guts and organs missing, no other marks on her body. I thought she had probably suffered a prolapse followed by cannibalism. Now, I just heard a racket in my poultry yard and...
A rose comb in a pullet chick is flat early on, never getting very big. If it's cockerel, it will start flat, but develop some elevations sooner than the pullet's.
I raise Wyandottes, and that looks like a normal Wyandotte 'rose' comb.They don't start to raise up for several weeks, and some stay relatively flat. Check out some pictures of Wyandottes and Wyandotte chicks to compare yours to.