Recent content by NatJ

  1. NatJ

    About Making My Own Chicken Feed

    That is definitely interesting. How were you making the mash? When I do it with purchased chicken feed, I just put the feed in the dish and add water. By the time I carry it to the chickens, the water has soaked into the feed and it's ready for them to eat. I do that with chicken feed that is...
  2. NatJ

    pet heating pad vs heat lamp

    Exactly. The "best" heat source depends on the specific situation (including things like how many chicks, and whether the chicks are inside a human home with central heating, or in a barn that drops below freezing at night, or something in between.) For a small number of chicks, inside a human...
  3. NatJ

    Mixed Flock. Rehomed Chickens.

    If the new birds do not have any diseases or parasites, it does not matter how soon you put them with your current birds. They cannot spread problems that they do not have. But it is common for chickens to have diseases or parasites that are not making obvious symptoms yet, and will transfer to...
  4. NatJ

    pet heating pad vs heat lamp

    I have used heat lamps, and I know they can be set up to provide a warm area and a cool area. It's a matter of having the brooder big enough, and using the right size bulb to provide the heat. If the brooder is too small for the amount of heat provided, I agree the chicks cannot get away from...
  5. NatJ

    pet heating pad vs heat lamp

    Sometimes yes, in certain ways. Search the forum for threads about "mama heating pad" for a way that appears to work pretty well. Chicks do seem to need heat over top of them, not underneath their feet. So it will probably not work to put the heating pad on the floor and expect chicks to sit...
  6. NatJ

    Mixed Flock. Rehomed Chickens.

    When you have them separated, they can each keep eating the feed they have been eating. When you have to buy new feed, I would buy chick starter to feed to all of them. I would probably get unmedicated starter at that point. If chick starter is not available, any chicken feed with a similar...
  7. NatJ

    What other duck breeds beside call ducks stay small?

    Most hatcheries will list the weight of each breed. So if you browse through various hatchery pages, including looking at the weights, you can get an idea of what breeds and sizes of ducks are actually available. Two examples of hatcheries that sell ducks: https://www.metzerfarms.com/...
    • NatJ
    • Post #4
    • Forum: Ducks
  8. NatJ

    Progeny from heroic rooster

    Oh, that does make sense. I agree, inside the basement would not be a good place for them to stay for long :)
  9. NatJ

    Easter Eggers from Ideal?

    No, the genes are not linked. It's just that some breeds have been selected to have one set of traits, and other breeds have been selected to have other traits. If you are dealing with purebred chickens, it is true that most breeds with white earlobes lay white eggs, and most breeds with red...
  10. NatJ

    Sex links?

    Very interesting! At this point, I think it is likely that they are all gold (genetically speaking), which would mean the Australorp is also genetically gold not silver, and that would mean they cannot be sexed by color. But I can't be positive. I don't know why the one would have the fatter...
  11. NatJ

    Progeny from heroic rooster

    Do you mean as a sheltered place to sleep at night? Is there anything wrong with the space she is in now? I'm not sure what size Tupperware you're thinking of. I have seen some hens that will take the chicks back to the same nest each night, but I have also seen hens that will just pick a new...
  12. NatJ

    Rooster cant shoot directly inside hens cloaca

    The hen's body can store sperm, and the limit is on how long the sperm stays alive, not how many individual sperm cells were present. If a hen has been mating with a rooster, and then she is kept away from him, she will usually lay fertile eggs for at least a week, sometimes up to three weeks...
  13. NatJ

    About Making My Own Chicken Feed

    Is there a reason to grind it up and turn it into pellets? Chickens can eat whole corn just fine, which saves you a lot of bother in feeding them the corn. When you are comparing with mash, were you feeding it dry? There is often less wastage with wet mash. Some people find it easier to serve...
  14. NatJ

    Progeny from heroic rooster

    That would depend a lot on how she acts. I have seen hens that tried to keep all other chickens at least 10 feet away, in all directions. That obviously causes problems in most sizes of pens, but not if free ranging in a large area. And hens can be pretty vicious when defending their chicks...
  15. NatJ

    Thoughts on breeds?

    #1 reminds me of a Blue Sumatra (non on the list, could possibly have provided some genes in the "barnyard mix" category.) #2 is definitely a mix of some sort. At a guess, probably includes some Easter Egger ancestors, but may or may not have the blue egg gene. You'll know egg color when she...
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