NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cass]

Sorry to hear of everyone's troubles.

Happy to hear about all the hatches.

Thank you for idea of feeding ducks only at night to get them back in the coop. This, of course, assumes that they ever LEAVE the coop. LOL At 2 weeks old they can't get back into the coop without help, so they aren't leaving the coop much.

Welcome to all the new people on this thread. Glad to have ya.

Here is my question of wiser than I ones.....how come a hen that laid a normal sized egg for over a year all the sudden is laying an egg 1/2 the size of a bantam egg? And how do I get the size to increase. It is the cutest little green egg, but really really useless, as it would take about 7 of them to equal the "2 large eggs" that most recipes call for.

 

[Breella]

How do I discourage groundhogs from living under the coop? One is out there grazing around front despite the three lazy dogs and the countless cats.

 

[Lapeerian]

Checked in on the new chicks. Have 5 hatched, 3 more dead for a total of 4 dead. 2 more of the deceased look like crushed chicks again, but can't move Luna yet. The third was our EE test egg, but had lots of blood and yolk.
Final 3 eggs are the Welsummers, all pipped. One hatched already, but don't know if it was one of the dead ones.

 

[stonykill]

How do I discourage groundhogs from living under the coop? One is out there grazing around front despite the three lazy dogs and the countless cats.

lead poisoning

 

[Cass]

lead poisoning

x2 More specifically "acute lead poisoning". A .22 does a nice job without a lot of blood and guts all over the coop and surrounding area.

 

[Breella]

lead poisoning

x2 More specifically "acute lead poisoning". A .22 does a nice job without a lot of blood and guts all over the coop and surrounding area.

Sadly I don't think I am allowed to in my town. If i discharged a firearm my neighbors would call the cops.

Edit note: I live on a half acre in a town where I have neighbors on all sides, our lot is long so we have at least 10 yards that border ours. (and our yard is the biggest in the area.)

 

[featherz]

Chooks all doing well here. Haven't been chatting much since I am working on two school projects. I love WGU! I've completed 12 units in 22 days. 38 more to go.

Planning to move the chickens around in a bit, maybe in a few weeks. If I have nine big fat adult chickens, any thoughts on if I move them from my little coop into my big coop how long they'd need to be cordoned off? They are huge, probably bigger than the chickens currently in that coop, but who knows. Trying to figure out a place I can find room to 'isolate' nine big chickens! (this is not for germ isolation purposes, they are all my chickens and have been exposed to everything since birth)..

With that many chickens, could I get away with just throwing them on the roosts at night? There's 25 others in there - it's a very big coop.

 

[Pyxis]

Today was a good day. Two chicks from my favorite hen who was killed in the dog attacks hatched today. And, as a bonus, I'm fairly sure they're sex linked and both girls. At least one definitely is. Plus a little OE hatched, so she'll get sold once she's a bit older, and one of my BCMs hatched. After my last attempt to hatch some utterly failed, I'm really happy about this. I also made some duck egg brownies and spent the day munching on them, mmm!

My broody is still hanging in there. This is her second attempt this year and it looks like she really means it this time. The ramp to the coop is super steep so I'm going to have to think of a way to keep them in for at least a week until they'll coordinated enough to manage it. Any tips on that is appreciated!

Nutty, how are the duck eggs and EE/OE eggs doing? I hope the fertility held through shipping.

 

[ChickPrincess]

I'm just curious... do hens seem to recognize their own offspring after they have grown up? Do they get depressed when older chicks are sold/given away?
I know, silly question. Just curious! lol

 

[stonykill]

I'm just curious... do hens seem to recognize their own offspring after they have grown up? Do they get depressed when older chicks are sold/given away?
I know, silly question. Just curious! lol

once a hen is done with chicks they just seem to be done with them. They move on.