A bird dog has a drive to "fetch" birds. Labs, pointers, etc: Just like a Fist has for hunting squirrels. I personally like a herding dog around my chickens. They are calmer and just more as laid back. I never said bird dogs catch and kill birds. But when a dog plays a game of fetch with a young...
For me, anytime a persons dog kills a chicken, place to blame on the owner. Dogs can be trained. The owner is responsible for that. My wife's GS killed one of my chickens when she was a pup. Now she goes in the pens with me and just watches. They do whatever they do and she just sits and...
The main thing that would stop me from getting a rooster is attitude. I got rid of 5 Wyandotte roosters from just plain ole meanness. They would attack me if I wore a different color pair of pants.
But the worst thing to me is if the rooster is spooked or doesn't like something, he'll see to...
I use the dichotomous earth on just about everything that has to do with the chickens. When I bought a bag of feed that had weevil. Sprinkled DE over the feed and out they came. It took a while but I smushed all of them. No more weevils.
I made my brooder with an old roll up garage door. It's 4X4 with 18 inch side and a top. At 6 weeks old it's much to small for anything over 8-12 chicks.
Just remember, chickens at any age have no idea what safety is. They do what they do and when one gets gone, the rest keep on doing their thing. The safety thing is for you to protect you chickens.
I ordered Coo Coo Marans, along with other chicks from Strombergs, in March. Some of them have started laying very small eggs. That is two weeks early from the 21 week gauge.
I start all my birds on Purina crumbles at 18 weeks. That's all they get other than what the wife puts out for them. Grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, or anything of that nature. The rooster gets the same thing. If he doesn't like it or gets decrepit, in the pot he'll go. So far he's been with me...
I want mine off the floor. I put them on the roost till one or two get the idea. After that they all catch on. At least they have for me the last 5 or so years.
Just about any animal can get through chicken wire. But your problem is dogs. Any other animal kills to eat. Dogs kill for sport. A lot like some humans.
I would guess probably not. Goat are not protector of anything. The dogs are what keeping your area free of predators. Get a burro and watch the dogs run. A burro will kill a larger predator like coyote in a heart beat.
I would say a hawk. I've lost 4 hens to a severed head. I caught a hawk on the carcass of two of them. A fox or a coyote will grad it and run. You won't find and feathers.
I have two hen that layed about 2 months and went broody. One is a Swedish ISBar. The other is one that I bought as a chick with some Americana's. She is not one but more like an Orpington. The blonde hen is gone but the ISBar is still broody. I put 3 Bielefelders eggs under her to see if my...
Thank you for this information. I followed the directions and you are right. I had 4 formed chicks in the egg that drowned. My humidity was much to high. After 26 days I went ahead and cracked the eggs. Fluid just poured out with dead chicks inside. I'm not giving up on hatching but next time...
I'm pretty much in the same boat. I just tried to hatch about 25 easteregger green eggs and had 2 hatch. I found 4 that had chicks that tried but couldn't get out of the shell. The rest were just much yellow. I put 10 under a broody hen and 6 under another one. None of those hatched. All just...
The longest I keep eggs on the counter for eating is 3 weeks. I don't see why it should be any different for hatching. When eggs go bad they are bad period.