Recent content by HortonCreek

So for me personally I usually prefer not to refrigerate my eggs but also don’t like eggs changing temps too much. Once the cold season is upon us, if we collect long after laying and the eggs have sat in the cold for a while, then they go in the refrigerator. If we collect right after being...

In case it wasn’t stated yet, your grey ones are called silvers, or more specifically part of the “Schofield Silver Collection“ or SSC. If you’re into learning about your colors, it’s a really fun color with an interesting story. It is a dilution type gene with a lethal factor hence why it is a...

99% on day 18 with a few stragglers on day 19. We still run it until day 21 but rarely get any that late.

That is interesting. Our fresh hatchlings like incubator temps to start in the brooder. I would be inclined to agree with your conclusion. Where do you keep your brooder and what is the ambient air temp in the space? We’ve found that if you brood chicks in an unheated building during the cold...

Hello there! Quail are such a wonderful addition you are going to wonder why you waited so long. I’ve found with quail that it’s not as cut and dry as all the research suggests. In fact you are going to find a lot of conflicting information and beliefs held among various quailors but the fact is...

That brooder is gorgeous! :love I would love something like that but my extreme frugality would never allow it. As for your genetics question, if you bred a Rosetta to a golden, in a perfect world scenario, you should get a percentage of rosettas, a percentage of goldens, and a percentage of...

As we grow I will most certainly be implementing a stacked design. It hadn't even crossed my mind. I was struggling with where I was going to add more nesting boxes. Thanks a ton!

I’m so glad I clicked on this thread. I was also in the camp of smaller is better because it’s less space to heat and thus will be easier for our girls to keep it warm with their body heat. I had forgotten about the days in February when the girls did not even venture outside! This was never a...

voted other. I’m thinking it was “roux dilute quail genetics” that lead me to a discussion thread, which further lead me to a quail hatch along thread where, for the last few months, I learned so much as I poured through 3,500+ pages. So many enlightening and informative side tangents!

Very good read! While I may not personally experience the boredom, it is great to experience another’s perspective through an eloquently written article. Wonderful!

Is there a way to encourage her to stay in the crate? We have our first ever broody hen here too and she won’t stay in the crate we gave her or any specific nesting box for that matter. She moves to new box a couple times a day.

I think it’s been covered about checking if the crop empties overnight but if it makes you feel any better we get a random hen doing that on some nights and haven’t yet found any correlation to a health issue. It reminds me a lot of how my parakeets used to say “I love you!” Except they would...

FWIW, Our orpingtons took FOREVER to start laying. My favorite thing to tell them every morning from week 16 until about week 24 was “either give me breakfast or I’ll make you breakfast!” :p How’s your daylight hours at this point? They might be calling it for the year. (And no I would never...

NY here as well and we live in very wet area so free wood chips are our best friend. We tried hay originally and it did get extremely nasty and I thought "Eh just keep piling it on!" What a mess to clean in spring. That being said, our new girls saw snow for the first time the other day and...

I accidentally discovered an amazingly effective rat trap. We started soaking and sprouting grains in a 5 gallon bucket for the girls a few months ago. I'll fill the pail maybe 1/3 with the seed and enough water so there's about 5 - 6 inches covering the seed. I'll wake up on any given morning...