***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[petloverd]

Remember that all threads are subject to these rules. 


 I need help with duck
[/quote]

 

[brandy00]

My LG bator is on day 20, and I hear peeping I knew I should have started on my to do list before checking the eggs. Now I will spend my day hovering around the incubator windows!

 

[artsyrobin]

Remember that all threads are subject to these rules.


I need help with duck

[/QUOTE]

 

[ashtree]

My LG bator is on day 20, and I hear peeping

I knew I should have started on my to do list before checking the eggs. Now I will spend my day hovering around the incubator windows!

so sweet! Hope you have lots of babies soon!

Remember that all threads are subject to these rules.


I need help with duck

[/QUOTE]
Did you get the help you need? Im no expert but didn't want to not respond. If you post your issue I'm sure someone here or on another thread could help you. There are lots of smart folks around here.

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.

These mama hens are so sweet! I can't wait to have a broody hen. Im curious to know how the bantam will act towards her bigger chicks when the new ones hatch. Please update! Its the cutest thing ever. And I really like the size of your coop, especially the height. And I can't wait till my 5 boys are bigger, Ill be putting them to work!

 

[ke_ben]

Good morning. Just dropped by to say hi to my fellow "okie" friends.

 

[TRUE5]

I really want to post pics of the new coop but my phone wont let me right now. Its so nice to have the inside done! I had hubby make me some poop trays and put sand in them. I can now see why others do this. It will be SO easy to clean! I have them on day 2 and already most of them are settling in very nicely. They seem to like more room. The Bantams don't know what to do with all the extra space in their coop (they got the hand me down which is much better for their size.) I just think they are all a bit confused on which boxes to lay in. Once they all get situated I might integrate them. They are huge and starting to bwak bwak instead of peep peep.
I do have a situation. I tried to put my bantam cochin and her babies in with the bantams. Everyone was free ranging and doing their thing. Even the standards. One of my LF was getting too close and mama let her have it. I thought she would be protective of the babies. But then I have a silkie who walked right in and started to get close. Inspected what was going on then started to peck the mama and babies. I took the silkie out and he/she went right back in and started it again. So now they are still in a dog crate in the garage. I let them out when I can which isn't as often as I would like. The silkie is a he she because I don't know what it is! It has a large comb and regular feathers in the tail instead of a poof. I say "it" because the rooster covers "it" all the time and I end up with more than one bantam egg most days. Anyways, should I put the hen and babies in a run all by themselves? I have a few ideas on what I can do but I wanted to check to see what you all do so I can weigh my options. I don't want this silkie to be aggressive and go after the babies for sure. Also my cochin roo has been going after my 4 yr old daughter. He might need to find a new home if he keeps it up. He tried it with me and met my flip flop. He now knows I will also overly cuddle him if I catch him so I had my daughter do it too. Don't know if that will help... my wonderful neighbor kid was the one who gave him an idea to go after humans after he was encouraging him to fight him. Now he chases my neighbor kid every time he comes over.

 

[NanaKat]

My LG bator is on day 20, and I hear peeping

I knew I should have started on my to do list before checking the eggs. Now I will spend my day hovering around the incubator windows!

I have learned to schedule visits to the incubator ...every time I take a break from projects....otherwise I could sit there all day. And sometimes a pip can take an hour up to 24 to break out of the shell.

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


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

Add agricultural lime to the suface according to the bag and about 2 - 3 inches of compost (or shredded leaves and clean grass clippings). Till this in. If the ground is red clay, you can also add a little pelleted gypsum to soften the soil and some sand. The poop cake on the surface where the pen was located must be sweetened by the lime to help cut the odor. By tilling and mixing in the amendments, you should be able to go ahead and lay out beds or rows and plant.
I usually break the cake out with a pitch fork and take it to a composting pile that has cow manure and old hay where it "cooks" until the following spring. Roger turns it several times with the tractor. I do the same thing with bedding and wood shavings when I clean out the coops.

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?

If they are young birds beginning to lay or older birds at the end of a clutch, the eggs can be soft and alllllll chickens will eat a damaged or soft shell egg. Very rarely will you have a hen that breaks and eats a nice shelled egg. Sometimes it is a juvenile cockerel in with the flock that is inquisitive. A skunk will break and suck the contents from eggs.

Quote: Yes, we call it babysitting duty when one cow has 3 - 15 calves laying around her. besides her own. Sometimes several cows will be assisting. Certain cows are more motherly about the duty. We have seen one older white faced cow that will sometimes lick a calf that is not hers. She often did duty even when she was pregnant.
It will be interesting to see how she reacts to her older chicks when the new babies hatch. Im keeping a close vigil on her. She was a barracuda protecting her babies last hatch.....maybe that is why they have clung so tight to her.

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.

Yes, I would treat all of them with Denegard or Sulmet in their water....minimum of 7 days. Amoxicillin 250 mg 2 days in a row for the sick chicks...can be mixed in water in a syringe and given orally if the chicks are too tiny to swallow the pill.

Quote:
I get the 30 inch by 10 foot rolls at Lowes for $17 a roll. I think Atwoods also carries the cage wire rolls.

 

[kimberlischicks]

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

Thank you so much bardies, I will try my oyster shell in a separate dish, I tried it before and it didn't seem like they wanted it. However, I have some new hens that might eat it. I believe it is one of them that has thin shells.
I love this site! Everyone is so helpful. Not quite sure how to do a multi-quote yet I think I just happened to get this one right by accident.

 

[kimberlischicks]

I have learned to schedule visits to the incubator ...every time I take a break from projects....otherwise I could sit there all day. And sometimes a pip can take an hour up to 24 to break out of the shell.

Add agricultural lime to the suface according to the bag and about 2 - 3 inches of compost (or shredded leaves and clean grass clippings). Till this in. If the ground is red clay, you can also add a little pelleted gypsum to soften the soil and some sand. The poop cake on the surface where the pen was located must be sweetened by the lime to help cut the odor. By tilling and mixing in the amendments, you should be able to go ahead and lay out beds or rows and plant.
I usually break the cake out with a pitch fork and take it to a composting pile that has cow manure and old hay where it "cooks" until the following spring. Roger turns it several times with the tractor. I do the same thing with bedding and wood shavings when I clean out the coops.

If they are young birds beginning to lay or older birds at the end of a clutch, the eggs can be soft and alllllll chickens will eat a damaged or soft shell egg. Very rarely will you have a hen that breaks and eats a nice shelled egg. Sometimes it is a juvenile cockerel in with the flock that is inquisitive. A skunk will break and suck the contents from eggs.

Yes, we call it babysitting duty when one cow has 3 - 15 calves laying around her. besides her own. Sometimes several cows will be assisting. Certain cows are more motherly about the duty. We have seen one older white faced cow that will sometimes lick a calf that is not hers. She often did duty even when she was pregnant.
It will be interesting to see how she reacts to her older chicks when the new babies hatch. Im keeping a close vigil on her. She was a barracuda protecting her babies last hatch.....maybe that is why they have clung so tight to her.

Yes, I would treat all of them with Denegard or Sulmet in their water....minimum of 7 days. Amoxicillin 250 mg 2 days in a row for the sick chicks...can be mixed in water in a syringe and given orally if the chicks are too tiny to swallow the pill.


I get the 30 inch by 10 foot rolls at Lowes for $17 a roll. I think Atwoods also carries the cage wire rolls.

Thanks Nanakat! We do have skunks around here a lot. The hens I bought recently might be older than I thought. One keeps laying double yolks.

 

[NanaKat]

I really want to post pics of the new coop but my phone wont let me right now. Its so nice to have the inside done! I had hubby make me some poop trays and put sand in them. I can now see why others do this. It will be SO easy to clean! I have them on day 2 and already most of them are settling in very nicely. They seem to like more room. The Bantams don't know what to do with all the extra space in their coop (they got the hand me down which is much better for their size.) I just think they are all a bit confused on which boxes to lay in. Once they all get situated I might integrate them. They are huge and starting to bwak bwak instead of peep peep.

I do have a situation. I tried to put my bantam cochin and her babies in with the bantams. Everyone was free ranging and doing their thing. Even the standards. One of my LF was getting too close and mama let her have it. I thought she would be protective of the babies. But then I have a silkie who walked right in and started to get close. Inspected what was going on then started to peck the mama and babies. I took the silkie out and he/she went right back in and started it again. So now they are still in a dog crate in the garage. I let them out when I can which isn't as often as I would like. The silkie is a he she because I don't know what it is! It has a large comb and regular feathers in the tail instead of a poof. I say "it" because the rooster covers "it" all the time and I end up with more than one bantam egg most days. Anyways, should I put the hen and babies in a run all by themselves? I have a few ideas on what I can do but I wanted to check to see what you all do so I can weigh my options. I don't want this silkie to be aggressive and go after the babies for sure. Also my cochin roo has been going after my 4 yr old daughter. He might need to find a new home if he keeps it up. He tried it with me and met my flip flop. He now knows I will also overly cuddle him if I catch him so I had my daughter do it too. Don't know if that will help... my wonderful neighbor kid was the one who gave him an idea to go after humans after he was encouraging him to fight him. Now he chases my neighbor kid every time he comes over.

Never known a LF Cochin to go after humans....mine are all big teddy bears. The two Bantam Cochin cockerels I have scurry out of the way when I walk in their pen. I think they are afraid that "that big person will step on us" if we don't move.
Never had Silkies but I thought they all were big fluff balls with forked combs and poofy tails......If the other hens have accepted Momma and babies, I'd put the Silkie in the cage in the garage and let the hen and babies stay with the flock.

I have a brooder room where I put hens with chicks down on the floor together. There is one rooster in with them and a few juveniles. The hens pick a space for their family and the others take the rest of the space. The rooster calls all to treats and is a good "Daddy" ...Beau is recovering from pendulous crop and loves the environment. Once the babies know which Momma is theirs and follow her, I will open the door from the brooder room into the hen house and let the Mommas begin to take their chicks to the hen house and outside when they choose. If I see a problem, that hen and her chicks go into a floor pen for a while longer.
Lots of feeding and water stations with some protected by smaller openings for chicks to escape are always helpful.