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  1. thistlewick

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    I'd be curious to see what happened, to be honest. Not all my birds eat much of the feed at all, some absolutely spend all day foraging and seem to exult in it and come back with fat crops at the end of the day. Then I have some lazy turds who just sit in the hen house and run all day, with...
  2. thistlewick

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    The US layer feeds are anywhere from 8-16% and the "all flock" is 20% and that is rare, because hardly anyone keeps roosters, it's tucked away off the mainline advertised feeds. The 8-16% layer feeds are produced simply because that's what industrial farming practices produce. It is "what's...
  3. thistlewick

    Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

    Royal Chick - the answer is penny pinching. The less protein a feed has, the cheaper it is. People don't want to spend $25-35 bucks on a 40lb bag of feed when they can spend half that for scrimping on the protein. Considering the consumer bags of feed are all based off practices of...
  4. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Things are just trucking along. Babies are doing well, Ginger and Tilly are exceptional mothers. The little white one isn't white, it's Ermine :) and looks like a cockerel, which will be nice - I could breed them I got 3 girls out of the other bunch. Something to consider. We have had visits...
  5. thistlewick

    Wrath's Marans

    Yes, fwiw, I'd highly recommend the Brinsea candler, with that housing it's peerless -- you can spin the egg around and view it 360 in there. It's awesome. It might be $100 bucks but it's not gonna break and it's a one-time purchase.
  6. thistlewick

    Wrath's Marans

    Trust Brinsea to make an expensive, but excellent one; https://www.brinsea.com/p-392-ovascope-high-intensity-egg-scope.aspx I bought this and am glad I did - I can take it out to the hen house and it still candles perfectly in broad daylight. The high intensity blasts through dark eggshells...
  7. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Cracker is so chill I forget he's a Cockerel - he doesn't crow when we're around, he's the first Cockerel to do that. He doesn't just 'show up' when I do chicken chores, either - he stays with the hens in the hedge. He doesn't 'mind' me being around. I got a video yesterday of him taking...
  8. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    We removed Cream to exile today - he was ambushing hens, and the real kicker was when I went to fill up the food bins today, he was pecking EVERYONE to get out of the way so HE could eat. Nope. Bye. He went in the bachelor pen. Cracker's up!
  9. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Yeah, the chick died overnight in the incubator.. Not at all surprised. I think the yolk it was supposed to absorb got eaten. This hatch has been very strange -- as the eggs that are laid are completely left alone. I don't go gather until 3pm - they're basically all done by that time. I...
  10. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Yes, but about four times that much - it was large, about a third of the shell, I'd say. more news; I went to check and it smelled and stank to high heaven, I opened the incubator to give the chick an ant's fart of nutri-drench and realized it was STICKY with yolk. So I gave it a warm toasty...
  11. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Here is the little sweet: breathing strong, peeping loud when it peeps <3 hopefully it dries and stands and walks. Will Tilly take it if I put it under her at night? Or will she suddenly see 4 and say NO!
  12. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    I ended up getting it out without much fuss - just qtips and warm water -- it was indeed fully cooked! It was just stuck in a TIGHT sac, also as I was telling Perris in the thread I made about it on the incubating and hatching forum here, there was some weird thick deposits INSIDE the egg sac...
  13. thistlewick

    Emergency - crushed chick egg in nest, unsure how to move forward... do I help?

    I ended up helping it out -- it had absorbed all its veins -- I am assuming that the yolk it was meant to absorb was possibly eaten. We will see if it will make it But YES you were right @Perris there was some strange calcium deposits inside the egg sac, it looked like extra hard meaty bits or...
  14. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Oooh drama this morning, found a half-hatched-half-attacked?? chick in the nest - still very much alive (other final egg was liquid inside, so there was about 3/8 unfertilized. 1/8 eaten/killed, 3/8 hatched and 1/8 needs help) So I plunked it in the incubator. It's a mess. pics below with...
  15. thistlewick

    Emergency - crushed chick egg in nest, unsure how to move forward... do I help?

    Pics included -- I found this chick this morning in the nest, late hatcher -- unsure if it tried to hatch and got crushed or if it was attempted to be eaten (I have an egg eater and I cannot find the culprit, the cameras only start recording AFTER movement... believe me when I tell you how...
  16. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    So Ginger has stolen the chicks love and devotion. And I let Harriet out but she's being a turd to everyone lol The chicks instantly fell in love with Ginger and now they follow both Tilly and Ginger. Ginger is beside herself with happiness it's adorable. No matter what kind of food I...
  17. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    SOMEONE is eating eggs. But only Tilly's eggs. I cannot see on camera who it is - it won't catch that activity. Very frustrating. The egg that was partially eaten was 100% undeveloped. (Just like I thought) But I don't want some crazy egg eater. I might have to do process of elimination...
  18. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    Tilly took the 3 chicks off the nest to eat and drink this morning. I made a little set up right next to the nest for now, this set up will last <5 days or so - then she will begin taking them out and around the hen house for a week or so -- she brings them OUT though, to the hedge to teach them...
  19. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    More pics just because Scarlett - my absolute favorite bc she's a cuddle bug :D And this one cracked me up - they look like they're gossiping hahaha My head is apparently the *best* place to preen, Whoopie says... She stayed up there for quite some time and Scarlett and Hunter both...
  20. thistlewick

    Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

    68 chickens at the head count tonight at roosting time. Hung out with them for quite awhile beforehand and had a lovely evening, quite a calm forage compared to how it was with Chuck and Oscar. 68 is 1 down (I think? I didnt really have a solid count. But I do now), so we did lose the One...
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