Recent content by LaurenRitz

I did the panels instead of hardware cloth because we get some vicious winds. There is ventilation, of a sort, created by the roof structure itself, and during one snowstorm my first year it was snowing in the coop. Literally, snow was being forced up under the eaves through those spaces and the...

I read somewhere a while back that for some breeds green eyes are a disqualification in competition. So it must not be too uncommon. One of my RIR's had green eyes.

Dirt from your yard.

From the East. The two doors go into the coop and run. The open door goes into the run. The overhang/garage is where they hang out if they're not out foraging. From the West. The solid side is the coop, the shaded rectangle the run. From the South, looking throught the run at the coop. South...

The original question was why a hen goes broody, irrespective of whether she sticks. Many different people, many different experiences, from people who totally free range (little or no commercial food) to people who keep their precious in a locked run. People whose birds are constantly broody...

Today is 98 degrees, "feels like" 106. The first hot day of summer, the first of many to come. At the moment my girls are all panting in the heat, not even interested in moving to the water. When I bought the property it had (has) a chicken coop. Built like a tank, metal walls, metal roof, no...

Thanks. I have all three of those in my flock, at least a few generations back. 🙃

BE? I assume the B stands for black. Clarify, please?

According to the numbers collected so far, there MAY be a feed correlation (that recommended 16% is for commercial layers that are not expected to live more than a year or two) but I messed up on the rooster question so I don't have sufficient information there. I suspect a rooster may have more...

It's fascinating. The male line (autosomal? I can't remember) changes faster so it's easier to track over time.

In another post we came up with a bunch of things that might contribute to broodiness. Everything from management styles to heredity. Trying to get some real life data.

No, but my understanding is that mitochondrial dna is passed only from a mother to her daughters. If there is a single male ancestor between you will not show up as her descendant.

So, about what percentage of your birds have gone broody, even once? Counting only birds that reached adulthood (my birds seem inordinately fond of the Darwin Awards), I'm looking at about 2/3.

The question is complicated by the fact that there are a number of genetic bottlenecks, where the human race was reduced to only a handful of survivors. The most recent is recorded in nearly every culture as a flood. It is entirely possible that at some point there was only one set of survivors...

Oh, and Mamatoo is hatching. One hatched so far, 3 more to go. I also have three for her in the house.