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Hi. Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined! What do you consider to be a cold climate? We have some forum members in the deep south of the US that think 50 Fahrenheit (10 Celsius) is cold for grown chickens. It is not. It can help if you put your general location in your profile like...

Your Leghorn and possibly Ameraucana may naturally be fairly "skinny". The Leghorn especially is bred to spend her energy on making eggs, not growing meat. The Orp, Wyandotte, and New Hampshire should be heavier. I'm not that familiar with Turken. I know it is June and you are in California...

I like to use poultry shears to cut through the joints and ribs around the breast. That keeps your knife sharper.

Depends on your flock and how you manage them. I almost always have juveniles in the flock so I have food and water in the coop plus two food stations and three water stations widely spread outside. If you have a small flock all the same age one food and water station is probably sufficient...

This is why it needs to go on the outside, to stop the ones trying to dig in. If it is on the inside, they dig under the fence and push up, easily being able to get in. I use about 18" and bury it about 2", under the sod. This holds it down and keeps it out of the way of lawn mowers and...

The air you breathe is contaminated. The water you drink is contaminated. As scary as that is I'm not planning to stop breathing air or drinking water. To me the key is dosage. How much does it actually take to hurt you? As long as I am below those levels I'm not that concerned about it...

Then I have no idea what he is. My guess is that at least one of his parents or grandparents was a Midnight Majestic Marans but that is a guess. He may have the genetics for a dark brown egg but that is no given.

That sounds pretty normal. Until my pullets reach laying age I have two different flocks. The young ones avoid the adults until they reach laying age, then they are accepted into the pecking order. Until then my pullets avoid the adults as they are likely to get pecked or worse if they invade...

The one in your photo is not barred. Where did you get him? Which hatchery so I can look at what they say about their chickens?

The Andalusian lays white eggs and the Marans should lay a dark brown. Most likely some shade of a brown egg but I' not sure what the dominant and recessive genes will be present. The Marans male is black barred. I think the Andalusian Blue is from the B/B/S gene so I'd expect half the...

On common reason for a production drop is the molt. With those temperature changes it sounds like you are north of the equator so it is not the seasonal molt. But there are several things that could cause a partial or full molt out of season. Are you seeing a lot of feathers flying around...

A true Ameraucana is supposed to lay a blue egg according to breed standard. Most Ameraucana sold by hatcheries are not true Ameraucana, they may lay blue, green, pink, white, or brown eggs. The blue is not something that comes later, if they lay a blue egg they start out laying a blue egg...

The tests that prove that growing chicks eating excess calcium is bad used feed that had the same calcium content as Layer. Those levels did not affect all of the chicks but it did some. More died outright and when they cut them others open to look at internal organs damage was evident in some...

I'd expect a Grower or Layer to be fine. Both are probably 16% protein feeds. If they were 20% protein I'd be more concerned. Good luck!

I assume you are talking about their own poop. On a farm with farm animals it is normal for them to scratch in poop to get bits of partially digested food. Some even do a rotation where they graze cattle for a while, move the cattle to a different pasture, and then bring in the chickens to...

It has been a few years but I did an internet search on how they collect it. It probably is what it claims to be. I've never used it near chickens but like Cassie I would not worry about it. I used coyote urine once that I got at a country hardware store in my garden to try to get rid of a...

No matter what you do there are going to be risks. That is the way it is with living animals. Nothing comes with a guarantee. If you want her to raise him I'd do as you said, put him under her tonight after dark and check tomorrow morning. Do not move her until she has accepted him. She...

The youngest I've ever had lay was 16 weeks. Those never had prolapse, internal laying, or egg-binding issues. Usually when a pullet starts laying that young the eggs are pretty small. They get bigger the longer she lays. That is nature's way of protecting them when they start to give their...

With some cockerels it can begin at 10 to 12 weeks. With other cockerels it can be 18 to 20 weeks. With a lot of mine it seems to be around 15 weeks but individuals can vary a lot. When does puberty end? I've had a cockerel take over a flock of mature hens at 5 months of age. All those...

If the medicine in medicated feed is Amprolium then you can feed it to your laying hens and everyone else. With Amprolium there are no restrictions on eating the eggs or the meat. If the medicine in medicated feed is anything else then you need to do research to see if there are restrictions...