***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Kassaundra]

Just look at all those wireless incubators, hatchers and brooders!!!!! I'm green w/ envy! lol

 

[artsyrobin]

i just candled some eggs from this pair.... wasn't sure if anything was happening, woohoo!!! babies!




2 to go with this little guy





am working on the old bantam pen to make a garden, is there anything i should do to the dirt before planting?

 

[Kyzmette]

am working on the old bantam pen to make a garden, is there anything i should do to the dirt before planting?

If you're worried about bacteria you could cover the area in sheets of black plastic and let it sit over the summer. It bakes the soil and kills bacteria and weed seeds.

 

[kimberlischicks]

I've been finding eggshells (one was empty, the other had some of the contents still in it). The eggshells were kind of thin or soft. I'm not sure if I have a chicken eating them or if they are just breaking when they lay them. These recent eggs had a hole knocked in them or half the shell gone. I did find one a few weeks ago that was just flattened, it just looked smashed. I put extra oyster shell in their laying pellets, but it seems they don't really eat it much. Any ideas?

 

[bardies]

Thought I would post a few pictures too.

This Delaware Bantam is sitting on eggs and would not give up her two chicks hatched and raised earlier this spring. She actually would not sit on her eggs when I moved her to a cage until her chicks were in the cage with her.... they nestle down together.

Reading about your girls is good coffee time too!

Re the hen, is there such a thing as an over developed sense of family? It will be interesting to see how she organizes her family after the new chicks are hatched - will the new babies have aunties? Extended families exist elsewhere - but I've never seen in birds. Even in cattle, the auntie system exists, but it is in a herd grouping - not individual family units.

 

[bardies]

I've been finding eggshells (one was empty, the other had some of the contents still in it). The eggshells were kind of thin or soft. I'm not sure if I have a chicken eating them or if they are just breaking when they lay them. These recent eggs had a hole knocked in them or half the shell gone. I did find one a few weeks ago that was just flattened, it just looked smashed. I put extra oyster shell in their laying pellets, but it seems they don't really eat it much. Any ideas?

Not sure about the eggs. Seems to me that if they were eating the eggs, that the shells would be gone too, (or most of them), not just the egg.
I have my oyster shell in a separate bowl. I never see them eat it, but it needs to get refilled ever week or so. I also feed a layer pellet with calcium and my girls free range at day. Every so often I will have an egg shell issue, but I believe that it is the individual and not the diet as it happens so infrequently.

 

[greenbeetle]

I have serveal chicks in a 6 x 4 brooder. I noticed a couple of the bantam chicks having labored breathing and one was sneezing, I immediately removed them and put them in a seperat cage away from others. What can you give 1-2 week old chicks to help them if it is respiratory. Also should I treat the entire brood of chicks they where in with (the others are not showing signs of stress or respiratory problems) Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[greenbeetle]

Thought I would post a few pictures too.
A d'Anver hen hatched her eggs and I added a few extras to her brood....some were a week old but she took right to them

and soon they were getting all snug under her wings....all 13 of them.


Then here are other brooding hens...
This Wyandotte has several chicks and two are Polish...a Silver and a Gold. A neighbor brought me two fresh hatched babies to add to her clutch.


The Blue laced Lemon Wy/Co has three chicks now.


One of the three Cochin hens raising these 9 babies on duty in the outside pen.



This Delaware Bantam is sitting on eggs and would not give up her two chicks hatched and raised earlier this spring. She actually would not sit on her eggs when I moved her to a cage until her chicks were in the cage with her.... they nestle down together.

This Cochin hen and the Blue Wyandotte each have three eggs that will hatch later this week along with eggs in the incubator that I will give them soon after hatching.


And can you hear one squawk or two squawks...as these girls puff up and tell you to get out of their nestbox! Delaware Bantam on 5 eggs and two Buckeye hens. sharing 3 eggs. It is so funny to see which hen has all three eggs and see the other steal an egg. Good coffee time.


And last'... I bought a portable pick-up cage for hauling goats or small calves sometime last year. The boys have cut off the bottom and rebuilt it so that it is now 6 feet tall and will be 7 x 10 feet. Then they are welding cattle panels to the sides that will have 1/2 inch by 1 inch wire attached to keep out sparrows and predators. It will get a good scraping and a new paint job before adding the nest boxes and roosts. It will be a Bantam coop.

Love the broody hens and chicks, wish some of mine would go broody. Also great idea on your new pen. Where do you get your 1/2 inch by 1 inch wire. Would like to get some myself.

 

[shelbydog]

I have serveal chicks in a 6 x 4 brooder.  I noticed a couple of the bantam chicks having labored breathing and one was sneezing, I immediately removed them and put them in a seperat cage away from others.  What can you give 1-2 week old chicks to help them if it is respiratory.  Also should I treat the entire brood of chicks they where in with (the others are not showing signs of stress or respiratory problems)  Thanks in advance for any advice.

They could be reacting to dust or ammonia build up.

 

[bardies]

I have serveal chicks in a 6 x 4 brooder. I noticed a couple of the bantam chicks having labored breathing and one was sneezing, I immediately removed them and put them in a seperat cage away from others. What can you give 1-2 week old chicks to help them if it is respiratory. Also should I treat the entire brood of chicks they where in with (the others are not showing signs of stress or respiratory problems) Thanks in advance for any advice.

I had three 2/3 week olds do the same thing. I started the whole batch on sulmet (which didn't appear to do anything for 2 days) then I coupled that with ciprofloxacin (250 mg tablet prescribed by vet) on the individuals that were sneezing. I tried my best to break the tablet into 8ths or smaller. 1/8th tablet was right size for young batam - so smaller is better. (I need to get a pill splitter!) One tiny piece twice a day. After three days, the symptoms disappeared. They were still on sulmet, but I believe that it was the cipro that worked. Two of the three were just sneezing. One was sneezing and gasping, and I was pretty sure that it would die.

I had a longhorn function over the weekend - so brought the sick three with me to treat and left the others in the brooder with sulmet treated water. Well, I think it was - dear daughter I think did not use the right water. Again, I don't think that the sulmet had anything to do with anything. I think that this is the 3rd big longhorn function in a row that I've had chicks with me, but the others were newly hatched. Anyway, they are totally fine now - got better after two days and no symptoms after three days. Doing great now on day 6.