Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[ruby66]

And if anyone hears of any rumpless araucana's can you please let me know, I want one, even a fertile egg

 

[GriggerMcGrigg]

My hen has been fantastic I'm just leaving her to it. She is still on her nest with the two chicks and she really appreciated the pellets and water I gave her this morning, so did the little ones. I'm trying to handle them as much as I can because my others aren't friendly.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I feed my girls 'lucky layer' it's a vegetarian pellet with a mix of vegetarian layer grain mix. I just fill up a feeder and let them go for it. Is this the right thing to do? Also is there any point get pellets for the chicks as the others would just eat it and the 'lucky layer' breaks up quite easily.

Layer pellets are too high in calcium for chicks. I prefer to feed mine chick starter. I lost a chick last year to suffocation. It choked on a larger pellet .

I know some people don't like feeding " medicated chick starter " but an ounce of prevention........... If they don't build up some resistance to cocci, chances are you'll have to dose them up with amprolium later anyway. There is no withholding period for amprolium , it is not an antibiotic. It is a thiamine inhibitor . Therefore it won't hurt your hen to eat it as well.

 

[GriggerMcGrigg]

Layer pellets are too high in calcium for chicks. I prefer to feed mine chick starter. I lost a chick last year to suffocation. It choked on a larger pellet .

I know some people don't like feeding " medicated chick starter " but an ounce of prevention........... If they don't build up some resistance to cocci, chances are you'll have to dose them up with amprolium later anyway. There is no withholding period for amprolium , it is not an antibiotic. It is a thiamine inhibitor . Therefore it won't hurt your hen to eat it as well.

I don't mind feeding them what they need I just don't like feeding them by products from a chicken production industry I don't support I also don't like them eating chicken.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Grigger, how can you already tell the sex of your chicks????

 

[GriggerMcGrigg]

Wing sexing. It's only possible in certain breeds and in the first few days. Google it. It's very easy and there are great images on google that explains it well.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

oh ok, i tried that once with some Leghorns but I couldn't tell.

I have got a Marans and an Ara cross white leghorn and I think I know which is a boy.

 

[GriggerMcGrigg]

The feathers in Roos wings will all be the same length.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Yeah, females wing feathers will be longer and shooting out all of the place while males is shorter and more tidy.

 

[Ashburnham]

Quote:
I have had them pop up occasionally but it's an infrequent mutation.