A few “lessons learned” from my coop…
1., I may have 28 feet of roosting bars, but all 10 hens squabble for the highest bar- to the point some get pushed off. The youngest pullets just stay on the lower bar (3 girls), leaving more than 18 feet of roost completely unused while the highest is...
Yes! 25% fatality rate with tufts right out the gate. It’s one reason why my broody hatch rate was so high. I love the tufts, but only have 3 Araucanas with them. My goal is 2 breeding flocks- one with a tufted roo and cf hens and the second flock the opposite. Because of there short backs, I’ll...
I’m new, but I’ll share what I’ve learned-
I’ve incubated two hatches of Araucanas- the first was 1 egg out of 12, the second was 5 out of 36 eggs. I waited 24 days with each and then gave up. I had an 87% hatch rate of different breeds between the two, so I didn’t think it was the incubator. I...
I am allowed but I’m pushing my flock limits 😬. I have my RIR and a beautiful Araucana (breeder sourced) as well as a BC Maran that take care of the girls. The BC is still a little guy and he will grow up with this flock.
As for the other cockerels, I post them on Craigslist for free and give...
Yeah- that’s what has me cracking up. The eggs didn’t look maran but I totally thought well summer eggs until this lil’variety pack of mixers broke out and fluffed up… and then those Mohawks 🤣
Ok- I was given some brown eggs- not chocolate, just a darkish brown, some had speckles and two were BIG compared to the rest.
Now I have mystery chicks at 5 weeks old. I would also love a guess on a gender because I swear these fellas all look like males to me 🤣
Photo white bird- lightly...
I “rescued” some silkies and one black (supposed) Astrolop. We aren’t sure what all is wrong. I have them isolated away from my main flock, with an electric fence buffer to keep a 6 ft DMZ type zone).
They aren’t as active as my normal flock but they aren’t lethargic either. Their legs have...
Is this the kind of “squatting” behavior that hens do prior to laying their first egg? This hen was sold to me as an EE and now she is about 22 weeks old…
It was packaged by the feed store, so I don’t know the brand, only what someone hand wrote on the bag. I found Purina game starter 30% I think, in crumble form and bought that to switch to.
Warning- graphic photo!!! *********
We purchased 12 guineas, supposedly 2 days old. One died in the car on the way home and we lost 9 within 20 hours. This afternoon, one more keet passed suddenly. Now we have two lonely little keets left. Where did I go weong?
We used chucks in the brood...
I’m new to guineas.
We picked up 8 keets. The ambient temp during the day is 110F and 85 at night. The lady at the feed store said not to use a lamp, since it’s so hot. (I think this was mistake #1). She said they were feeding 23% protein unmediated poultry starter in pellet form at the store...