Basically 'sunburn' to skin and eyes. Black lights are similar to the lights in tanning beds. Normal BLs emit UV radiation but in small amounts. Children playing with them for halloween, museum exhibits, disco, etc. are limited and fleeting exposure. But just shining on somebody for extended...
I am a scientist, not a chicken. But I am very concerned about your use of a "black light". It might be harmful for them. In any case, I'm sure it doesn't do them any good. You should only use regular incadescent lights or carefully monitored "heat lamps".
Wow - thanks for the extensive reply. One conception (misconception?) I had is that rather than, say, every 25 hours, that they lay an egg every 14 hours of sunlight. Hence my extreme surprise that I'm getting an egg per day in winter. I had calculated (ha!, yes, I'm an engineer) that I would...
Now, everybody, don't ridicule me - remember these are my first chickens - so I am learning as I go. You may recall that I have been marvelling at these 4 maniac egg layers I got in Vista. They have been consistently laying 3 eggs each and every day. From my reading and discussions with other...
What do YOUR chickens like to eat? I read a lot about "kitchen scraps" that chickens go GaGa over. Mine, not so much.
Mine eat Purina Layeena Crumbles and like that a lot. But they go totally nuts over Scratch. The feel 'entitled' to that and stomp around and bawk until they get some.
I...
One of the eggs I got today was 2.5+ oz. The largest prior to that was 2.3 oz.
This is our first official 'Jumbo' egg. This dude is HUGE! 2 3/4" long. An omelette-in-one!!
5 or 6 months. They had just begun laying. FYI, several days now, all eggs are back to 'normal'. Very strange. Regardless of what caused it, I still don't understand the mechanics of how this could happen. (I'm an engineer, so things like that 'worry' me.)
Also - it is most likely that these are calcium speckles - and I'm not concerned - just curious. As you can tell, I'm a 'newbie' - but in my study of chickens, I learned that the egg is built up in stages as it moves along through the chicken. After the yoke and white is made, the white...
I posted pictures of them earlier in the thread - so you can guess for yourself. Meaning, I don't really know. They are notionally RIR, but seem to be mixed with something else. Leghorn? In any case, they are maniac layers. I religiously get 3 eggs every day from the 4 of them. For the...
Yeah, I forgot to mention. At first I thought it was little spots lacking the brown pigment. But I discovered that while rinsing doesn't help (have not tried a scrubbing pad), that I can scrape the white off and reveal the normal brown pigment. It is as if somebody "misted" it with white paint.
Whoa - check this out.
My maniac chickens from Vista County Feed (ones I have bragged about before) normally lay medium brown eggs - same color as small end below. Last two times, one of them has been mottled like this. Any idea what is going on.
Read about Brinsea here: http://www.brinsea.co.uk/index.php
I know nothing about incubators or raising chicks. After many decades of life I just got my first chickens, ever, a few weeks ago.
But I am an engineer. This one really seems to be a class unto itself. All others seem like cr-p in...
My Red Stars (discussed in previous posts) are MANIACS! They are very well behaved, but between the 4 of them I get 3 eggs each and every day. Over the few weeks that I've had them, all their eggs have progressed from Large to XL and at least one of them is now laying Jumbos. (Ooooow, that's...