Recent content by Ceilismom

When I bought some chicks at TSC a few weeks ago, every waterer in the place had yellow water in it. The guy who was boxing up the chicks for me told me I needed to take home a packet of tetracycline (Tylan, I think) to put in their water to keep them healthy. I know better than to do that...

It wouldn't be wrong, but it might be premature. Even my most stand-offish chickens will come running when anybody has a treat bucket in hand, but it didn't start out that way. Someone here (I never can remember) mentioned that they had given up on trying to tame their young chickens, because...

"Child, your hair smells like chicken (#@&" because "Get the chicken off your head!" "Where's the chicken bucket?"

https://www.backyardchickens.com/g/a/6413643/lf-cochins/ These are the LF blue cochins (except the one in the juniper tree is a bantam) I got from Cackle in 2011. I don't have any breeder cochins to compare them to, but I'm very happy with them.

"working on being broody": Some of my hens will hang out in the nest box for an hour or two after laying their egg, growling and snapping at anything that comes near them. Then, they'll just leave the nest box and go about their business. They might be like this for several days, and then...

The hen who is sleeping in the nesting box may be working on going broody. If the nest box is higher than the roost bar, some chickens will choose to sleep there rather than on the roost, too. I suspect that the feather problems may be caused by your rooster (does he have some bare spots too...

My Pet Chicken has a small minimum order. Whether you could get what you need by Friday, I don't know, but it's worth a call.

This is just my preference, because we get a lot of wind here. My coop is a lean-to style building, and the tall side faces south. That's where most of the vents (which are never closed) are, because the wind comes from the north/west. I've also got windows that open and close on the east and...

I can't say what caused this, but maybe this troubleshooting page can help you figure it out? http://urbanext.illinois.edu/eggs/res24-00.html

It seems like your nest box is ideal for keeping the eggs clean, so I'm wondering if the problem lies elsewhere. Is there a lot of mud where they spend most of their time? What do you use for bedding in the coop? Do you have some hens who like to sleep in the nest boxes rather than on the...

As long as the rooster is fertile, there will be fertile eggs, though there might be the odd hen that won't submit to him. If you notice that the feathers on the backs, wings or heads of the hens are becoming damaged, you might want to consider separating the rooster, getting more hens, or...

You may not have done anything wrong, but it's possible that moving her caused her to quit being broody. Some hens can be snapped out of broodiness fairly easily, and others are very determined. It's also possible that she knew the remaining eggs were duds, so gave up on them. You can try...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-to-build-a-4-x-4-x-8-brood-pen I copied this design (made the roof sturdier, and used welded wire with chicken wire over it) and it was a pretty quick build.

Yes and no. The eggs was really green (easter egger), but I was standing at an angle that cast a shadow over the eggs, causing them all to appear more saturated than they really were.

You are correct, you cannot tell from the outside whether an egg is fertilized or not. The DNA that a rooster passes on to his offspring is the only influence he has on the egg color.