The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

So, those duck eggs that I posted pics of the other day... I took them all out of the nest and out to the field across the street and broke them open. I know you said not to, but I wanted to see.

Anyway, they didn't smell at all! Not a single one was fertile I guess - no development on any of the 7. I wish I had candled earlier. My poor silkie sat on those for 30 days.

Most of the duck eggs that I eat are fertile so I think I just put those eggs in too soon and my drake wasn't covering them well a month ago.

QUESTION: My silkie has lost a bit of weight so I am thinking I shouldn't let her sit again?? She doesn't seem too distraught about the eggs disappearing. She ate a ton, took a dust bath, and ran around. She even jumped on my lap for a good scratch. However, she did go back into her nest and start lining it with feathers again... Should I let her go again or let one of my ducks try? Here's my dilemma... I only want 4-6 ducklings, not a whole bunch! Don't ducks like to fill a nest pretty full before sitting? Also, I have a drake and 2 other females - one of which is a Jumbo Pekin. The one who wants the eggs and built the nest for them is my regular Pekin. I just thought it would be easier to let my silkie hatch a few rather than deal with all the duck drama as I heard the Jumbo can step on them and the drake can be mean to them.
Thoughts anyone???

Your duck eggs were probably fertile..they were just too much for your silkie to set on. That was too many. Two duck eggs would have been more than enough.Three max. I would not let her set again. That is asking to much unless you have eggs ready to hatch.
Pekins are horrible setters.

Quote: If you have open pop doors at night you need to get them off the floor. Drafts are worse for chickens than the cold. Where are their roosts? They need to be on roosts. Baby's at 2 and 3 weeks old will roost with mom. At least make them a small ladder to roost on. I start with a step stool.

 

[armorfirelady]

So, those duck eggs that I posted pics of the other day... I took them all out of the nest and out to the field across the street and broke them open. I know you said not to, but I wanted to see.
Anyway, they didn't smell at all! Not a single one was fertile I guess - no development on any of the 7. I wish I had candled earlier. My poor silkie sat on those for 30 days.

Most of the duck eggs that I eat are fertile so I think I just put those eggs in too soon and my drake wasn't covering them well a month ago.

QUESTION: My silkie has lost a bit of weight so I am thinking I shouldn't let her sit again?? She doesn't seem too distraught about the eggs disappearing. She ate a ton, took a dust bath, and ran around. She even jumped on my lap for a good scratch. However, she did go back into her nest and start lining it with feathers again... Should I let her go again or let one of my ducks try? Here's my dilemma... I only want 4-6 ducklings, not a whole bunch! Don't ducks like to fill a nest pretty full before sitting? Also, I have a drake and 2 other females - one of which is a Jumbo Pekin. The one who wants the eggs and  built the nest for them is my regular Pekin. I just thought it would be easier to let my silkie hatch a few rather than deal with all the duck drama as I heard the Jumbo can step on them and the drake can be mean to them.
Thoughts anyone???

Your duck eggs were probably fertile..they were just too much for your silkie to set on. That was too many. Two duck eggs would have been more than enough.Three max. I would not let her set again. That is asking to much unless you have eggs ready to hatch.
Pekins are horrible setters.

Ok quick question. These babies are tiny

I put my chickens outside without electricity when they were six weeks old.  The temps were in the 20's and 30's at night the first week.  I worried about them, of course... and now they are much more hardy than they would have been if I would have baby-ed them.  40 is at least above freezing. 
This is my first year having chickens, so I don't pretend to be an expert or have a lot of experience... but it makes sense to me that in nature chickens don't have laundry baskets.

If you have open pop doors at night you need to get them off the floor. Drafts are worse for chickens than the cold. Where are their roosts? They need to be on roosts. Baby's at 2 and 3 weeks old will roost with mom. At least make them a small ladder to roost on. I start with a step stool.

No open pop doors but the enclosed run is made from lattice work. I did put a tarp on e long side to block drafts but the other end Is still open. They are at the opposite end of the run in a corner so no drafts hopefully.

I thought they were to little to roost? I have a lot of sticks so I will grab a few and put them in tomorrow in the enclosed run.
Edited to add- EE is 8 weeks, BCM 6 weeks and the BR 5 weeks old

 

[Child of Noah]

No open pop doors but the enclosed run is made from lattice work. I did put a tarp on e long side to block drafts but the other end Is still open. They are at the opposite end of the run in a corner so no drafts hopefully.

I thought they were to little to roost? I have a lot of sticks so I will grab a few and put them in tomorrow in the enclosed run.
Edited to add- EE is 8 weeks, BCM 6 weeks and the BR 5 weeks old

I had little sticks for my chicks from day one, and they roosted on the 2x4 out in the big girl coop on the first day.
I like the basket wind block idea, especially considering they had recently been under a heat lamp.

 

[delisha]

I know this is hard to see well..but these baby's roost on this branch with mom at night. They are almost two weeks old. The branch is about 6-8 inches off the ground. Mom waited until all chicks could get up before she roosted at night up there.

 

[jlynnet]

My 3 and 5 week old chicks did great outside. It did get chilly, but I closed the pop door each night. Now it's been a month and I see them out at 6am!! They love being outside!!

 

[BlueMouse]

My 12 week olds sleep in a dog pile wedged underneath the feeding trough.

All this with three different roosting possibillities of different sizes and at different heights. I think chicks are just silly.

candled my eggs tonight! 14 days. two obvious quitters, one each cream legbar and BO, just straight up clear. I threw those out without opening them, alhthough I probably should have. Next time I'll make sure I have ziplock baggies on hand and seal them THEN open them. Three of the remaining seven cream legbars are questionable, one very much so. So much so that I almost just tossed it too, but my DH said that since we had so little experience we should leave it in. All the other eggs were so dark that I could basically see nothing. I guess I'm just oging to keep hoping for a hatch of at least four cream legbars. I snuck out to the coop and swapped four of the BO eggs for the four plastic easter eggs that Mrs. Bennet was sititng on. She managed to peck me four times. A question for you experienced incubators, should I lock down on day 18 or try to wait until I see an internal pip, if I'm waiting for internal pip does that mean one of them has an internal pip or all of them do? and how will I tell if they have an internal pip? I've had trouble seeing anything but air cells and the very slightest shadow of veining through these blue and brown eggs. And I have a really blindingly bright flashlight too.....

 

[aoxa]

Your duck eggs were probably fertile..they were just too much for your silkie to set on. That was too many. Two duck eggs would have been more than enough.Three max. I would not let her set again. That is asking to much unless you have eggs ready to hatch.
Pekins are horrible setters.
If you have open pop doors at night you need to get them off the floor. Drafts are worse for chickens than the cold. Where are their roosts? They need to be on roosts. Baby's at 2 and 3 weeks old will roost with mom. At least make them a small ladder to roost on. I start with a step stool.

Over Half of my birds are still piling up. All the silkie mixes are, as well as the silkies. 3 of the 13 are up on the roost. I've tried moving them, and they are so stubborn. I'm thinking it's because the roost is not a ladder type roost. They have to fly up there, and it's a good 5 feet in the air.

They'll have a nice ladder roost in the new barn. Hopefully they will start roosting and stop acting like idiots.

Weird thing is, they hold their poop in the pile. You'd think that the corner they snuggle in would be piled with poo - but it never is, and they don't poop on one another - yet right under the roost where the 3 sleep there is a regular poop pile.

Or maybe they don't roost because I did not provide them with adequate roosting opportunities at a young age. I had no room for it. We waited just long enough to move them outside, and when the fire happened, we had to wait another 3 weeks. They were cramped, and it was not a good living situation.

 

[countrygirl74]

Your duck eggs were probably fertile..they were just too much for your silkie to set on. That was too many. Two duck eggs would have been more than enough.Three max. I would not let her set again. That is asking to much unless you have eggs ready to hatch.
Pekins are horrible setters.

Thanks for answering Delisha - I did decide to give my silkie a break and not allow her to go broody again. My one Pekin has dug a nest into the ground of the run in a protected corner - it's about 6-8 inches deep! She covers her eggs with the deep litter shavings. Today, when I went out to collect the eggs and set them on the floor of the run next to me while I was getting their feed, she quickly ran over to the eggs, pulled them under her with her beak and then tried to hide them with more of the deep litter. I thought maybe she would like to sit... I think I'll give it a try and if nothing happens, maybe I will let my silkie girl try again in about a month. Thanks for the info on the eggs. She kept stealing everyone's out of their nesting boxes, so I thought she could handle that many. I will just give her a few next time.

My 12 week olds sleep in a dog pile wedged underneath the feeding trough.

All this with three different roosting possibillities of different sizes and at different heights. I think chicks are just silly.

Some of mine were easily 12 weeks and still all sleeping together in one big nesting box. They were so crammed in there, I don't know how they didn't push each other out. They had 3 roosting choices all at different heights and nothing too high. They just preferred to sleep together for quite a long time. With my new babies now, about half are roosting with the big girls and the other half are still bedding down in the shavings in a pile - they range in age from about 9-12 weeks. What's funny is that I noticed my RIR stopped roosting a few days ago (checked her feet to make sure there was nothing wrong there) and now prefers to sleep with some of the little ones in the shavings.

 

[aoxa]

Thanks for answering Delisha - I did decide to give my silkie a break and not allow her to go broody again. My one Pekin has dug a nest into the ground of the run in a protected corner - it's about 6-8 inches deep! She covers her eggs with the deep litter shavings. Today, when I went out to collect the eggs and set them on the floor of the run next to me while I was getting their feed, she quickly ran over to the eggs, pulled them under her with her beak and then tried to hide them with more of the deep litter. I thought maybe she would like to sit... I think I'll give it a try and if nothing happens, maybe I will let my silkie girl try again in about a month. Thanks for the info on the eggs. She kept stealing everyone's out of their nesting boxes, so I thought she could handle that many. I will just give her a few next time.

Some of mine were easily 12 weeks and still all sleeping together in one big nesting box. They were so crammed in there, I don't know how they didn't push each other out. They had 3 roosting choices all at different heights and nothing too high. They just preferred to sleep together for quite a long time. With my new babies now, about half are roosting with the big girls and the other half are still bedding down in the shavings in a pile - they range in age from about 9-12 weeks. What's funny is that I noticed my RIR stopped roosting a few days ago (checked her feet to make sure there was nothing wrong there) and now prefers to sleep with some of the little ones in the shavings.

Broody babies always roost better than brooder raised babies.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

For me it would be a matter of acclimation. If they are used to being outside without heat, they should be fine. If not, give them some heat and get them used to the cold by backing the heat off over a few days. It's not that they can't take the cold, its just a matter of having been in those condition and becoming "used" to it.

They may not have a laundry basket in the wild, but they WOULD have a mom to get under when the weather changes.

I agree.