The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mumsy]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/is-my-chicken-a-pullet-hen-or-a-cockerel-cock
Thought I'd share this front page article.

I helped by providing quite a few images

I was up super early and checked it out. Superb! Then I got busy reading and posting and forgot to say something. Sorry...I really liked this article and your images are the best!

 

[aoxa]

I was up super early and checked it out. Superb! Then I got busy reading and posting and forgot to say something. Sorry...I really liked this article and your images are the best!

Before I got so addicted to this thread, I hung out a lot in the What breed or gender is this? section. I've learned a great deal!

I have a little blue silkie I kept at 2 weeks because I thought it was a boy. I really want a blue cockerel. Looks to be so. Now they are 8 weeks old.

I need to take a new picture.. But here he is at a little over a week old.


He had the strangest eyebrow. It's gone now Boo. I loved it lol



This one is a girl, returned to me after sold and asked to hold on to until spring (with $20 to feed them)


This one also a girl - partridge. I think both of these have vaulted skulls, but not extreme vaulted.

 

[jendodd79]

Someone (our wry tailed buff orpington? I presume) has started laying and has layed 3 thin shelled smooshy eggs in the last week. Once on a rock and twice in the coop (not the nesting boxes).

Is there anything I can do to encourage her laying in the boxes, and is there anything I can do to help promote the thickness of the shell? I have oyster shells available and I FF

Would wry tail have anything to do with this?

Good morning everyone!

 

[jendodd79]

Sorry for the shaving covered eggs, they were buried in DL

 

[Mumsy]

Sorry for the shaving covered eggs, they were buried in DL

I have a pinched tail Buff Orpington pullet that started out laying great eggs, then went to doulble yolkers, now she is laying shelless eggs off the roost, in the DL, and out in the garden every four days. My flock has free choice shell and FF. I'm going to wait another month for her to settle down. Otherwise she goes into the crock pot. And...I will be keeping notes on any female chicks that hatch out of her eggs in my bator right now.

 

[jendodd79]

Keep me posted! Because eggs like this aren't going to help my daughter get to Disneyland. Lol!

 

[delisha]

Quote:
Yes..the 8 I put into lock down were moving..I have no idea if they are now. No pips from the silkies. some of.the other eggs had interior pips and I hear them peeping. but nothing from the silkies.

 

[aoxa]

Someone (our wry tailed buff orpington? I presume) has started laying and has layed 3 thin shelled smooshy eggs in the last week. Once on a rock and twice in the coop (not the nesting boxes).

Is there anything I can do to encourage her laying in the boxes, and is there anything I can do to help promote the thickness of the shell? I have oyster shells available and I FF

Would wry tail have anything to do with this?

Good morning everyone!

I have a pinched tail Buff Orpington pullet that started out laying great eggs, then went to doulble yolkers, now she is laying shelless eggs off the roost, in the DL, and out in the garden every four days. My flock has free choice shell and FF. I'm going to wait another month for her to settle down. Otherwise she goes into the crock pot. And...I will be keeping notes on any female chicks that hatch out of her eggs in my bator right now.

I had terrible luck with my orp and this same thing. She passed away from egg binding on her own, after I thought I had it under control. I should have culled.

Yes..the 8 I put into lock down were moving..I have no idea if they are now. No pips from the silkies. some of.the other eggs had interior pips and I hear them peeping. but nothing from the silkies.

Just don't touch the incubator anymore.. They are very prone to shrink wrapping. Way more than any other eggs I've hatched. I opened the incubator last July and killed 40 chicks. I hatched two.. And they had trouble getting out!

 

[delisha]

Someone (our wry tailed buff orpington? I presume) has started laying and has layed 3 thin shelled smooshy eggs in the last week. Once on a rock and twice in the coop (not the nesting boxes).

Is there anything I can do to encourage her laying in the boxes, and is there anything I can do to help promote the thickness of the shell? I have oyster shells available and I FF

Would wry tail have anything to do with this?

Good morning everyone!

Wry tail has every thing to do with egg laying..that is why it is a DQ.

 

[Bulldogma]

Hello all! I have a little one home today with a cold, so I'm posting late.

There's a new article on the Marek's disease vaccine on the thing, for those interested.

Trav - hope your hen is OK. Let us know.

All these chick pictures are awesome! Good info on herbs. I know I missed mentioning a few things of importance - sorry!