You can very simply ferment their feed to make it much more bioavailable. Just get a single large, or a few plastic/stainless bins or buckets, put in the amount of grain and add enough water to cover plus an inch. 4 days is the most nutritious, just remember to stir them a couple times a day. My...
Your coop, though numerically tight, looks like it is working fine, but they each should have at least 10 square feet minimum in their run, unless you let them out to free range regularly. Also, if kept in the run, do they have lots of enrichment and visual blocks (a straw bale or able to go...
I crossed my Splash Easter Egger with my Heritage BCM roo. Their single cockerel son Bluford, compared to his full sis and 2 other half sisters - CCL & Light Brahma mommas from his brood is also GINORMOUS! I’m pretty sure he even already crowed (politely after his daddy, Nico) at just 9 weeks...
TSC's advertising image shows a barred hen very similar to a Barred Plymouth Rock, so they must have a homozygous barred father giving both daughters and sons each his Z-linked barring allele (otherwise the daughters would not have any barring since even barred mothers only give the barring...
That still wouldn't get barring on the hens. XY chromosomes with a solid sire won't have a barred X for the daughters, since the mother gives her barred X ONLY to her sons. That cross sounds like an F2 cross back to the RIR?
You're absolutely right. You can't get a barred pullet from a solid roo sire. The barring allele is only on the male X chromosome, why it is so easily used for sex linkage with a solid colored sire. But a Rustic Rock pullet is barred,
Can't be. Any barred hen must have a barred or cuckoo sire...
I've just bred some CCL hen X BCM roo chicks with excellent sex-linkage results. Very easy to tell which is which gender by very clear spots on cockerels' heads, and my pullets have some lovely faint reddish brown in their early black feathers. None have reached lay or crow yet. But this only...
If you are using a CCL hen, she will have only one/single/unpaired "male" Z chromosome that only goes to her sons, while her puny "female" W chromosome would have none: so (dominant) B/+. The BCM roo will have no barring alleles to give at all: b/b. This means that male chromosome will ONLY go...
Hybrids like Olive Eggers or Easter Eggers are not considered "autosexing" (only for pure breeds, not crosses) but rather can be "sex-linked" which is very useful for just 1 generation. Sex linkage only works in that first "F1" generation, but a pure autosexing breed, when bred to another from...
Oops! Correction: a Cream Legbar hen only guarantees a single barred allele to her sons, when bred with a solid roo. Her daughters will not get any barring allele, since the barring sex-linked allele is only on her Z male sex chromosome and her daughters will only get her W chromosome.
And, a...
You gotta look at who profits! US corporate farming has insanely invested in corn for cheap animal & people feed. (Also, due to the anti-masturbation removal of animal proteins led by Harvey Kellogg of cornflake infamy, a physician and devout Seventh-Day Adventist in Battle Creek, Michigan!)...
Thanks for the anti-fly info! I'm currently looking to add this
Marrubium vulgare, "Horehound"
both around the coop (as you recommend) and also mixed in my moderate winter/ long hot & dry summer zone 9 NorCal chicken pasture! Unlike lemongrass, this survives happily unprotected-from-frost/freeze...
If specifically bred with a Chocolate Egger and a homozygous OO dominant Blue Egger, you will be 100% guaranteed an Oo olive-laying/carrier Olive Egger F1 (first generation) hybrid. You can breed F1's back to Chocolate for 50/50 olive OR chocolate, but the F2 'olive' 50% possibility can be much...
Plant more trees!!! My two just-matured young roos are doing a bang-up job of keeping my flock safe, despite regular hawk circlings. But excellent cover counts for more than I could imagine! Of course tall mature trees are the best. Some grow faster than others.
I do worry and carefully count...
I've read the warnings on how chickens will eat styrofoam till death! Gotta get it all out of their reach! Now my biggest problem is clearing decades of disintegrating tiny plastic bits from my dad's "organic" acre! inflammatory microplastics are helping make us all fat & sickly in so many ways...