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    No tails and some bald backs and other spots.

    You can ferment ANY feed, but organic works best. I do it with an expensive organic whole grain mash from "Scratch&Peck" so they don't pick out their favorite bits only. (I've got my elderly mom helping to buy it cuz no way could I afford it on my own.) But fermentation is so simple. Just add...
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    No tails and some bald backs and other spots.

    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...
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    No tails and some bald backs and other spots.

    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...
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    Buff Orpington and Light Brahma Cross

    I hatched just one chick from my BCM roo over a Light Brahma hen and got a pullet that is solid black. I named her Jetta.
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    Dixie Rainbows Thread

    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...
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    Rustic Rock? What is this cross?

    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...
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    Rustic Rock? What is this cross?

    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?
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    Rustic Rock? What is this cross?

    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...
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    Creating sexable chick!

    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...
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    Catalpa tree flowers edible?

    I have just read that they attract Catalpa worms that chickens totally adore! Just shake the tree and delicious protein rains down!???
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    Marsbar Chick and autosexing

    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...
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    Are my crosses autosexing?

    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...
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    Topic of the Week - Insulating the Coop

    I have a similar rodent problem from the tarp I had to throw over a leaking roof over the covered run!
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    Sex linked Olive Egger

    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...
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    PUFA-Free, Grain-free layer recipe

    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!)...
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    Horehound and chickens

    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...
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    Comment by 'FlockVillemaire' in item 'Olive Egger'

    Kinda like how a specifically crossbred "labradoodle" is seldom considered just a mutt! LOL!
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    Comment by 'FlockVillemaire' in item 'Olive Egger'

    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...
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    The day we said goodbye to free ranging! 😕

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    The day we said goodbye to free ranging! 😕

    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...
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