I am sorry to hear that I hate to lose a girl,what is mereks?
It is a widely spread poultry disease. My chicks were vaccinated but are still affected. I stupidly bought some chickens in to teach the guineas stuff. Even though i quarantined them, after i put them with the other chickens in the other half of the coop, the disease spread.
Pics so we can make some suggestions? Off the top of my head I'd go for Marian.
How long are you going to wait before you toss them outside? I kept mine inside for about 8 weeks, but it was spring and early may when they went out.That's a pretty fancy schmansy wall hanging for a chicken coop! Heck, I didn't put up even one Christmas decoration this year. I hope your water heaters work well for you. My heated dog water bowls are a savior. The regular bowls are frozen solid, so I've been taking buckets of warm water out from the kitchen so the ducks can play in it.
Love that pretty egg WVDuckchick! How about Bluebell? So far so good -- still getting 5 to 7 eggs a day. I know one of the EE girls hasn't laid in weeks and maybe one of the barred rocks as she's been molting.
It was about 15 degrees all day and had light flurries. I think it's supposed to get down to about 7 degrees. Everything is crunchy in the coop and pen, but has stayed very nice and dry with that shade cloth I put up -- glad I did it. I let the chickens out in the snow for about 10 minutes yesterday. Didn't want to leave them out of the pen too long because I'm afraid their feet will freeze. My dogs sure don't like it. I'm going to go get another bale of straw tomorrow because I feel really sorry for them -- that coop floor is so cold even though it already has a good 4 inches of straw on it.
The babies are growing fast and boy do they poop. I moved them all into the kitchen so that I can block the doorway. Everytime I bend over to clean up after them they land all over me. My wrists, arms and the back of my neck are totally scratched up. One of the girls bit my lip this morning -- not too bad but it did bleed. Boogers. Still thinking 4 girls and 6 boys
I'm getting anywhere from 3-5 eggs a day now from my 4 or 5 laying hens (Silkies, bantam Cochin, Ayam Cemani). I actually gave away 2 dozen to friends!! (including my neighbor, as payoff for my loud AC cockerel, lol)
