I've got two females who live with one male in a large predator proof pen and Sophia has her nest and "Auntie" Beatrix also has a nest right besides Sophia's. They share nesting responsibilities but Sophia seldom leaves. Beatrix helps out all the time and I would not be surprised if some of...
I know it's years since this thread was first written. But problems arise from time to time and people read up on them, even older materials if the subject fits. This is mild scissors beak. I just assist hatched out a gosling with a severe case of scissors beak. I also have a turkey born with...
I was interrupted and had to deal with family. That layer of yellow fat is loaded with vitamin A and is extremely common with laying hens. It is prized in Mediterranean cooking after the fat has been rendered from it. It is called schmaltz. Makes great chicken soup. With her vent being open like...
My favorite chicken was a momma. She was on her second hatch when a racoon climbed over the run fence and was after her babies. She confronted the racoon and while I was racing from inside of the house to the pen with my son- that stinking racoon saw we were about to have him and suddenly just...
Blood poops look black and tarry but I have seen some that looked like coffee grounds too. I almost always start with antibiotics. If it is pneumonia the longer antibiotics aren't started the sicker they get and faster they can die. Antibiotics don't work with viruses, but they can prevent a...
They look like healthy hens to me. None looked even mildly obese, and I have had two that were excessively obese in spite of a good diet. They just loved to eat all the time. The feed looks appropriate too. All laying hens do develop a fat pad and that is completely normal once they start...
If the liver was pink I'd say fatty or diseased liver but it is normal liver color and they are normally pretty vascular. That liver looked very normal in color to me with none of the signs of petechial hemorrhages (bright red round spots). A green liver is backed up with bile. That wasn't...
Chicksville drama continued. This year our younger sebs were into their first laying season, Sebs are known for totally botching their first hatching season. Which is why we only got Rachel hatched last year because I stole her from a bunch of rotting eggs. Sophia is once again dominant goose on...
Well the male looking questionable hen turkey now has an even longer snood. Flares the tail feathers - struts and now gobbles like a male. This turkey was bullied by the older lead jenny and if this bird was a female it certainly has no female traits left except it has no chest beard. The older...
My son is sending me a photo to include. We hatched turkey poults out all last summer. Come the fall and we sold off the extra males and then lost the remaining breeding stock males to a pack of nasty dogs. So we wound up traveling to another state to obtain a male turkey for this year. We could...
My Midget Whites laid eggs the same size as our broad breasted whites and blue slates did (bigger than a chicken's egg) and they looked identical in color too. So it may be what they are fed. I just know my Midget White eggs produced wonderful healthy babies.
I made a couple hoop coops for single ladies and also use a bigger green house sized coop for the male and his ladies. We're building small hoop coops for momma and baby birds nesting. We have predator problems and are very careful about leaving birds unattended in the run until we have better...
I have been working at getting my Sebastopols happy and ready to nest for this up and coming hatch season. I have watched videos all winter long on domestic goose nest building. I found one video that I am modifying to work for us. It entails having one private corner which can be closed off...
I've been breeding and raising Buff Orpinton Chickens for a few years now. Some people are really good at sexing the newborns, but others like me can't get the knack or they have something that is a roadblock. I have essential tremors pretty bad. I'd probably seriously injure any baby chick I...
Last year we allowed our first year Sebs to sit on their eggs. I tried different nesting materials for them and nothing was really suitable. This year I came across a video on building an acceptable next. 4X4s in a big square and I mean more like 3-4 feet each side. Not 2X4's but 4X4.s. I have...
whenever they give up just gather what you have and incubate yourself. I have plenty of females trying to hatch infertile eggs. If I let them all become fertile eggs we'd be over populated. You can break birds of being broody by emptying the nest and getting the undersides of their bodies...
Just having a light on does not work. I was doing my canning outside to keep the house cooler and often ran into after dark hours. It made no difference to a huge hunkin possum that I was still outside or the lights were on outside or even having a movie running on my laptop. That possum didn't...
We have had chickens that took to the main coop like it was always their home, but then we had two batches of orphans who's mothers died defending them from a raccoon and a possum. The orphans mourned the loss of their mothers. One batch the hoard of babies she was raising still gathered in the...
We raise chickens turkeys and geese. We've pretty much figured out nesting behaviors of chickens and turkeys but our geese are having a rough time of it. I know first year Sebastopol egg laying is usually a wash but we did get one super healthy adorable little girl to hatch out. I can hatch them...
I have introduced lots of birds to the older birds. I'm always growing and selling and hatching and selling babies. I had a bunch of birds, 24 females and 1 male but BIG dogs chewed through the steel wire fencing and killed off half the flock including our rooster. We've got them confined to...