Recent content by BarnGems

SO many hens, so many hens, so many hens, why did I keep SO MANY HENS? Oh yes they are glorious, iridescent and blue laced lovelies!

It really depends on where you live, the amount of competition you have, and how into 'non-gmo,organic, ect...' people are in your area. In CA they get 6$, here in south eastern KY you won't get more than 3$ for truly large sized eggs (regardless of what you feed them), with average medium/large...

This years Barn Gems laid their first eggs at 19-22 weeks. My Barn Gems are good layers by design of purpose and they are meeting my projections nicely. Now my pure Barnevelders are a completely different story, their purpose is to be pretty and getting the occasional egg is a perk. It is not...

I have heard of this as a way to get cheap grain to feed to animals but not as a primary/only source of feed. No one I know of recommends feeding only brewery spent grains to chickens but I have seen it used on pigs being fattened up to slaughter. It makes them pack on weight quickly.

As a matter of fact, chicks only come from fertile eggs so you do automatically get them. I am positive the OP knows incubation/brooding is required. lol

If you only have one place/coop to keep chickens in I suggest keeping two roosters that get along (don't try to kill each other, some sparing is acceptable) and are not human aggressive. Roosters who want to be your buddy when they are young, always getting in your business, are the ones you...

For most people just raising chickens for personal enjoyment (not for commercial layer or meat reasons) using a 16% commercial feed will be your easiest option. You can go organic, non-gmo and not get what the "in" crowd says you shouldn't feed your chickens. If you're deciding weather or not to...

So I got a batch of eggs to hatch but the last 3 born have this. My question is this bowels or yolk sac? Thanks!

Yeah it's so sad to see it happening :( . I hope it ends soon. I wonder if anything could have been done early on to stop the spread?

The post office at this time will not deliver any hatching eggs/poultry to CA due to the Newcastle disease there. Here is a link to the information. I have not seen a lift on the ban as of today. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is not allowing shipments of live birds (all) or...

Breeding a barred rooster should always pass on barring to all the chicks. You want the barring in the hen, not the rooster to make the barred sex link.

There are a few genetics calculators out there that might give you an idea of what a crossing can produce. They are by no means foolproof but can be useful all the same. Here is one : http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

I'm sure this is a difficult decision and I wish I had more alternatives that the other posters. It's not fun owning a human aggressive rooster. Even without large spurs they can do some serious damage, if they catch you unaware. I have not found a 100% effective way to tame them so you really...

What???!!! You hatched roosters too, not just pullets? Of course I don't want to buy any roosters.

They look similar. Such beautiful birds. Couple updated pics of my Barn Gems: