Recent content by silkiechicken

Sounds like you now know about how much your dog was eating. A LOT. LOL.

If you want them and have suitable housing, give them a try. They are adorable babies. That said, it's a lot of work to eat them and their eggs because even the "Jumbos" are still pretty tiny. Their poop is high in ammonia so you'll need good ventilation and they are very flighty compared to...

You'll have to track BCS over time. Now since your dogs were in the feed... might track their BCS too. LOL

If you changed feeders due to waste previously, maybe they were wasting a lot more food than you thought. Feel the birds and see if their Body Condition Score declines with the use of these new feeders. If they start to lose weight, then you have an issue with the feed access. BCS can take some...

As long as eggs lose 10-13% of their initial weight during the course of incubation, you'll be fine.

Thanks for the welcomes. To answer @DobieLover, yes I still have chickens! And I still have the "dad's desk drawer" incubator and the chicken coop in my signature. We just dusted off the incubator and put in some eggs, which made me think to come back here and see what's hatchin'. As for...

Just thought I'd swing through and say HI! It's been about 5 years since I've logged in, and over a decade since I've contributed much to the board. It's good to see the chicken addiction at BYC continues to flourish!

I haven't actually posted much in over a decade! But happy to see people are still finding this thread useful! I actually don't remember the breeds. They were barn yard mixes.

Certainly a bird of prey. Sorry for your loss.

To reduce hawk kills and issues I've done 2 things. 1) Keep breeds that are savy and can see birds coming and 2) provide lots of low shelters such as bushes/coffee table height covers to duck under if a predator comes. I've not lost a bird in years from a bird of prey. Do not have a covered run...

Welcome! Hens do make noise, and if they are of laying age, they are likely making noise as part of the egg laying cackle. Either that or something is disturbing them. Some birds are more noisy than others though, so eliminating the worst offenders may help, but it may not.

Yes, that last picture looks like a thin shelled egg. It does not mean it has an infection inherently.

Chickens are completely domestic. You are right in how evolution is at play, however, the evolutionary force is not based on eggs crushing to weight, it's solely human intervention and selective breeding for various traits. If someone spends billions of dollars in an industry where a JG were to...

Mine figurd it out. I did the same press the brd beak at the nipple and the rest followed. I did this in the morning the first day, then again after giving them a half a day to get thristy... so when they saw the water the second time they were motivated to figure it out... and they all came...

That's one fancy coop! That said, chickens are very dusty. I'm in the mild maritime PNW with an unsulated coop of which I did not hardware cloth or soffet the area under the roof. I feel as if I put soffet with small holes... they would soon be clogged with chicken dust.