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X2 I feel the same way. But it must be done if we're going to breed.

I use colored zip ties till the birds are big enough for #7 bandettes which is at about 3 months or less. I pull the tie till it can't be pulled off the foot but is still plenty loose. As they grow you have to regularly change them. I check them at 2 weeks and then every 3 weeks after that...

If you had snakes it would have been a different story. I much prefer snakes to barn cats. They can get in places the cats can't (where the mice hide) and the cats prefer to kill birds.

That is true but research changes how we do things. 45 years ago, they didn't do research on lighting.

Quote: I was following up on @sharol 's response to your post about using a red heat lamp where she said red would avoid pecking. If brooding chicks, they need a dark period every night after the first 3 days or so. A white light won't hurt for that but if closely confined, a blue light is...

Red hides blood and wounds which helps in that case but blue is more calming for chickens so if they haven't yet drawn blood, use blue.

We could use more information. In my original post above, I noted that there could be other issues as well as feed. I never considered adding a new bird as a cause since the OP never mentioned that was a possibility. True, soybeans and other legumes are among the highest vegetative sources of...

16-18% should be good but it depends on how much oats and sunflower seed make up of the total intake. If the sunflower seed still has the shell on, it will be about the same protein % as the oats which will be about 12%. So just consider that if the feed is 16% and that is only half the diet...

The primary reasons for feather picking are protein intake, crowding and boredom. How old are they? What is the protein content of their feed? What other things are they fed besides chicken feed?

I put probiotics in chicks first water and haven't had any pasted vent in the last couple years. Chicks raised by a mother hen don't seem to get it either. They pick up probiotics from her feces. I use this. http://www.gro2max.com/

They aren't happy without friends. 15 days won't be too big of a gap. A lone chick accepts friends of almost any age. In the interim, put a mirror in the brooder and maybe even a feather duster or tiny stuffed animal. We're getting to the time of year when rooster fertility drops as well as...

Likely one of the Hy-Line hybrids. They are used on egg farms all over the world. http://www.hyline.com/aspx/products/productinformation.aspx http://www.hylinena.com/aspx/salesmanagers/salesmanagers.aspx# I don't think they sell a handful of chickens, more like 10s of thousands. There are other...

There are several breeders in Missouri. http://agriculture.mo.gov/animals/pdf/poultry_yearbook.pdf

One winter I successfully got all my roosters to coexist in one building I was able to put enough heat on to keep the frostbite at bay. I'm either going to build a compartmentalized building just for roosters or put a second level in the brooder house and put individual rooster pens on it. I...

With the MO poultry yearbook, you can search for a breed and then scroll through the list that comes up and look for people with your area code or zip code. Someone just posted on the MO thread that Rural King has chick days going on now with BOs.

I said the same thing last winter (which was worse). I had 7 flocks and spent the bulk of each day just feeding and watering. It was a bad year to switch to fermented feed. I pared it down to 3 flocks this year but had planned to have a circulated heated water system installed before freezing...

I'm in MO and our high was at midnight last night. It was 73 yesterday. Today is a shock.

As long as it stays frozen, you're probably ok. If the snow melts, I'd swap out the straw with dry.

Is anyone driving east on interstate 70 through St. Louis Missouri on their way to the Ohio national poultry show? It is in Columbus, OH on November 9-10. I have a Black Penedesenca rooster that needs to go there. ETA http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/Ohio_National.html