Recent content by SourRoses

His feather health doesn't look great. Have you checked him for external parasites? Hopefully, some time on a good 20% feed will fix the issue after this falls molt. If he still looks all scraggly after that, I wouldn't breed him.

I can't help but be curious... what's wrong with eating your own chickens eggs? It can't be a moral issue since you surely treat them well... or am I missing something?

I'm really happy with our recent use of Elector PSP for mites. There's a guy in a local group who sells the small bottles for $25. Like you, I had trouble with my spray bottle. It didn't stop working but it was difficult and prone to getting stuck. TSC has nice ZEP spray bottles in the horse...

If there's nutrition information on the feed bag, I bet a lot of people would be interested to see a picture of the label!

I thought the question was going to be, does the stress of childcare shorten a broodys life? LOL I mean, it is hard on them. 3 weeks of barely eating enough, then barely able to take baths without chicks sitting on their heads and scooching under their wings. We recently let ours go broody...

Agreed! Here on BYC people do share that advice. But in the larger world, too many people don't know the concept should be different in different climates. In my local FB groups, there are people offering custom coop building services or pre-built and none of them have ventilation adequate for...

The member who wrote this article lives in NC. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/hot-climate-chicken-housing-and-care.77263/ In a hot climate, insulation can be helpful under the roof, depending on the design and materials of the roof, to resist the suns rays. Insulating walls...

Did you just get her or did you raise her? Does she eat the same feed as the ones you're comparing her progress to? Protein matters when it comes to feather health and speed of growth. If you did only just get her I would give her a while to catch up on a 20% protein feed. If you raised her...

Eggs from a Mareks positive flock would need to be sanitized before incubation in case of exterior contamination. Also, if you read the provided link, there are diseases with similar symptoms that can be vertically transmitted. Of course, they could have been infected on your property, or not...

I do agree with you in a way.... but, in defense of breeders, it's not like they can draw a line around the eyes and say "no feathers here". The choices are Muffs or no Muffs, and full or scraggly looking. Nature then has her say.

When we give them milk (not very often, usually if what's in the fridge is close to expiring or we end up with too much because of someone's confusing shopping lists) we just pour it straight into a separate bowl and they drink it up with joy and bickering, bickering and joy. The eldest...

I'm so happy to see we're talking about where 3KillersB's went, the forum isn't the same without her! But even before the new business, she seemed to have a lot on her plate. Honestly, I don't know how some people keep up with such demanding schedules. If I do one extra chore as the frosting...

You might seriously consider getting testing done. Other customers should as well. This is helpful: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/ If multiple customers have positive tests for Mareks or a similar contagious disease, the breeder should...

We've used broodies before for chicks we were keeping, and I've sold a bunch over the years that were hatched in an incubator and placed in a brooder, but I've never sold chicks that were with a broody. It's hard for me to sell chicks, just because I worry about them. But I'm in the midst of a...

I was coming to say this too! We had two horrible incidents a few years back with loosing chicks to ants. The second they pip a hole the ants pour in and call their friends :( The second time we thought we had addressed it by using a nestbox up off the ground, but the ants found a way. This...