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Yeah, I'm sure my dog would have been happy to eat it, he's eaten some pretty nasty stuff, but I just couldn't stand the thought of it. And I *really* didn't want to have to clean it up if it didn't agree with him.
I love the idea of cracking eggs into a bowl first...I think I will...
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It's hard to say how old she is...we have 25+ hens and it could have been any of them. Our oldest, Lucille, is a cornish x that's nearly 2 years old, there are about a dozen that are 1.5 years and about another dozen who are 8 months. So, it could have been the oldest one or it might...
One of our girls laid an egg yesterday that was covered in horizontal ridges, in sort of a swirl pattern up to the top of the egg. I've seen eggs with one or two ridges before, but not entirely covered like this one. I thought, well, that will be a good egg to feed to the dog...but when I...
Wow, georgem, thank you for all the info! Now I know who to ask when I have mushroom questions.
Unfortunately, Peep's probably-poisoned sister Lucky is not doing so well - DH found her yesterday, lying on her side in the coop, looking dazed. We brought her inside and put her in a bin with food...
Nif, you are right. The mushrooms in my pic could be Amanita Parcivolvata, aka Flimsy Veil or False Caesar's, which also grows here in the southeast. However, this mushroom is listed as poisonous in some places, others say it will just cause "severe gastric distress"...and this one also may be...
Sugar Sand Farm, I am so sorry to hear about your daughter's rooster. We've had a drought here for a couple of years so I never even thought about mushrooms being a problem for chickens, but it's been so damp for the past few weeks that - as you mentioned - they are popping up all over the...
A couple of weeks ago I posted about my 3-month-old chick, Peep, who was walking on his hocks. (I say "his," but not sure on gender yet). threehorses kindly helped me out with her vast knowledge, and we fixed Peep right up with Poly-Vi-Sol baby vitamins and B-complex. After about 10 days, he was...
Thanks for clarifying...I know I asked a lot of n00b questions
DH fixed up a bin for Peep in the basement and brought her inside this morning (he works at home). We decided this would be a good way to keep an eye on her, keep her away from the other chickens, and we can be sure she's getting...
threehorses, thanks for your reply. Walking on her hocks describes it well.
This chick is not bowlegged, nor are the legs bending at the bone, it's definitely at the hocks. At first I thought they were bending the wrong way but they're not (thank goodness!).
Peep is an only chick - her mama...
It was really hard to get a picture of, but I have a chick (I call her Peep) who is doing some very distinct goose-stepping on tippytoe when she walks. Her walk is very wobbly and she falls down every few steps. When she stops and sits, she rests on one knee, but it seems to alternate (it's not...
Here's our pallet composter, with a hinged front so I can get in there with a shovel and turn the pile over. DH has since cut a hole in the cover so we can just pop it open and dump kitchen stuff in without un-bungeeing the lid. More pics and info on how it's built here .
Catalina, thanks - I hadn't thought about the fact that the chicks will outnumber the adults almost 2 to 1. Maybe it would be a better idea to find a way to add them all at once, instead of in shifts. 20 half-grown chicks in the mini coop would be crowded, but it's still bigger than the brooder...
I have an existing flock of 13 chickens; 10 hens and 3 roosters. 2 of the 13 are silkies - one hen and one roo - but the rest are standard size. They have a good-sized coop (12' x 12' x 9' high) and huge (70' x 130') outdoor fenced-in pen.
Recently I segregated the silkie hen because she was...
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They really are sweet. I have one intrepid RIR girl that hops over the chicken-pen fence to scratch in the back yard for an hour or so every afternoon. I have to be careful not to let the dogs out while she's there, but she's such a happy little soul that I don't have the heart to kick...
Here's our chick brooder V.2.0, designed and built by DH.
We used a 4×4 sheet of plywood as the floor, on a frame of 2×4s and 2×4 lumber sliced into 3/4″ strips. This years model has a 3″ lip around all four sides at the bottom to help keep the shavings in. We got a sheet of vinyl flooring...
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Can you partition off part of your chicken fortress? That way the big girls and smaller ones will be close enough to get to know each other, but with a fence in between so nobody gets hurt - and everyone stays safe.
Last March I got three Cornish Xs from my neighbors, who had them left over from a kids' chick hatching project. At first I said NO, but my DS said "please Mom" enough times that I finally gave in.
One year later, we have a total of 10 hens, 3 roos, and 20-ish chicks from the feed store. Plus...
At 3 weeks chicks are adolescents and are in an awkward stage between feathers and fluff. I just posted a bunch of pics of my 3-week-old chicks here if you want to compare them to yours:
http://cotehelefarm.com/2009/03/28/chicks-1-week-vs-3-weeks/
Unless they look significantly more feathered...