I just read about Bob. I am new here ... came to this part of BYC to harvest some of the wisdom he shared with this community. Please share my condolences and appreciation with his flock.
I'm not sure I'd ever have anything to report as I haven't seen any obvious signs of rodents in the chicken area so wouldn't necessarily be able to notice a change. They must be there as we do have lots of field mice in the area, enough so they've gotten into my car and house so we had to do a...
About cats as rodent patrol ... I've been wondering how to leverage recent science that suggests rodents HATE being in a space with cat hair enough so that if they ever discover cat hair in a space they try to avoid the space for ever. So cat hair is a natural rodent repellent. I have "some"...
If my current flock isn't infected with something I'd like to keep them. I've got maybe 150 birds in my laying flock? (some are wee chicks), and turkeys and ducks ...
I have no intentions of showing. Ever. But I would be breeding cooperatively with at least one other person, and would hate to...
I started out with a big "What do I need to do to convert my sizable hatchery flock of laying hens, accidental roosters, and their mutt offspring over to Delawares?" question ... and got a few ... "hmmmmmm ... Delawares? ... hmmmmm" responses and think I may have inspired a few "excitable...
Thanks! I've been reading that thread a bit. I'm wanting to properly prepare to get started with Delawares, and haven't received much "encouragement" here.
Mark, so far I'm working with hatchery birds, too. I figure there might be some surprises when I get the real birds, but I'm hoping we've set up decent, secure housing, reliable water, and have great feed sourced by then. Those are the things I've been really thinking about so far.
It seems...
Yeah, sorry. I should have started with this ... Here is a link to a thread about building it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/700786/greenhouse-coop-conversion
Check the end of that thread for a photo of how we added a separate fourth section of coop at the "top" with a shed between the...
The rooms aren't stacked, they are in a row like train cars. The steps down from one room to the next are extra tall compared to a staircase, but doable for humans. Big birds have no issue. There are ramps for chicks. Regardless, broody moms seem to keep the chicks in the first room until they...
Ahh okay. I asked because this year we've been testing a system of letting broodies hatch some of our eggs ... Had four clutches hatch on one day at one point this summer, and once the chicks are up and around (day 2?) we take away the broody enclosures and let momma deal with all the curious...
Any breeders let broodies hatch and raise their chicks ... ? Any breeders letting broodies hatch and raise chicks in with a "production" flock?
Besides it being easier on *me,* the broody hatched and raised chicks are just so marvelously active and independent from such an early age. I...