hello everyone, I am a new chicken owner, I have four chicks just over three weeks old, hopefully they are all pullets, looking that way at the moment. I am from The Cotswolds in England, Any advice would be great as this is my first time. We hatched our chicks at work, (pre school) from our year old chickens which we also hatched ourselves, I have adopted them.
so glad you have joined us and congrats on your new flock. Hope you do have all pullets, but just in case have "plan B" ready to rehome any unwanted roos. You can post pics under the "what breed/gender" forum to get opines on the ID - but they may need to be older to get the best guesses. There are so many members in England, if you are interested, you can try to locate folks in your area under "where am I, where are you" forum. Good luck with the new adventure.
Hello! We are currently dealing with a bully hen. This has surprised me because they all got along so well for the first year of their life and we don't have any of the normal triggers for such behavior. We have her separated now. My advice would be to have a plan in place for the need to separate before you need it. Injuries will happen and when you have a hurt chicken is not the right time to be figuring out what to do with her. Or, as in our situation, if you suddenly get a bully on your hands, best to have a place to put her so as to keep the rest of the hens safe. I have read that a large dog cage will do the trick. We were going to build a second enclosure anyway as our chickens free range and we wanted a safe place for them while we are out of town so we just went through with the build and have the bully in that space now. Hopefully we can reintegrate her in a few days. I feel bad for her all alone. Good luck and have fun. They are a joy (most of the time).
Hi and welcome to BYC. You certainly live a beautiful part of the country You have some great links from @sunflour. These links may also be of interest: http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/raising-your-baby-chicks http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/h...ks-the-first-60-days-of-raising-baby-chickens Any questions that you may have regarding your chicks will be best posted here - http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/11/raising-baby-chicks Best wishes CT
Hi and welcome to BYC - seems like you have done the right thing with your bully - good job. Best wishes CT