Recent content by PoppasGrill

We’ve posted a while back about our bantam going broody, she’s dedicated to brooding but wasn’t staying on the same eggs ( she was swapping nest boxes). Went out and found another hen pecking the older eggs and had killed the half formed chicks. Our plan was to move Crowella to a store coop , so...

Was thinking of the misting outside the coop, so as not to make a sauna, although, you are right, light rain on a hot day only makes it worse. We do use an additive to the water for electrolytes and vitamins.

We are in Central Florida and the temps have been up into the 90’s with heat index of over 100*. The girls , in the past few years, have always found shade spots on the side of coops, in coops, behind barn , or under the shed and we have lost a couple to the heat. We have industrial fans set up...

We have posted on Craigslist to rehome several Roosters, as we have too many, and I haven’t taken the time to build a bachelor coop for them. We were also concerned about them fighting and injuring each other with all the testosterone in one coop. We have 5 Cemani Roosters in a coop that we...

Thanks, She’s tough, and meaner than the rooster🤪. It’s funny , sort of, that the little Napoleon complex Bantam is the only human aggressive Roo we have, and we have 15 “real” Roosters 3 of which are Brahma. We have 2 other bantam roosters, smaller than the **shat , that are sweet and gentle.

Just Friday we were in the garden cutting veggies. My wife was holding the basket and as she reached to adjust it , the little bastard hit her from behind causing her to cut her arm. 13 stitches later, she doesn’t want to send him to the smoker. He always waits til our back is turned, and when...

Our aggressive Roo is a bantam also. I caught him under a bucket after he hit me from behind, and left him there for several minutes. When I let him out he was very calm, all feathers down, and even his “big brothers” the turkeys , didn’t know what to do as I wasn’t aggressively chasing the Roo...

We have a broody barrred rock bantam that keeps switching nests. She’s sat on 9 eggs for 2 weeks, leaving her Polish boy toy to sit on the eggs while she went and got food. Then she started sitting on 5 eggs in the nest next door, and again 10 days later on 6 eggs next door to that nest. We...

At those ages we usually have ours out in a coop with a run full time, with a high lamp for a little radiant heat at night that they can get under if they want to. Ours lose the lamp once fully feathered and if we notice that they are not using the lamp at night. That being said, we are in...

Our hens free range all day, we have the property to not use a run, per say, we open the coops in the morning and they put themselves away at night. We never had anything other than minor bullying until the pullets learned to stay away from the old ladies. I’ve been wanting to do a rooster coop...

We have 26 chicks, 8+ weeks old , that have been in “Look-don’t touch” for 2.5-3 weeks. Tried letting them get yard time last weekend with poor results. First thing was the Roosters, started pecking at several of them, and one even tried to mount a chick. We were on hand to stop this ...

Different breeds, and different clutches. About 6 months apart when we got them, so they never really peck in the same pasture, so to speak.

Found it odd when our Barred Rock bantam, Crowella, went broody on full size eggs. Cute the way she spread out to try and cover 9 eggs. We were worried about her not getting down to eat, since she is tiny anyway, but went out for afternoon feeding and she was down eating. Took advantage of her...

If they are fully feathered, different breeds feather faster/slower, but usually by 3-4 weeks we will move them out to our barn in a small coop to be seen and talked to by the older chickens but can’t be pecked on. We feed chicks a chick starter high protein feed until about 3-4 months old then...

We keep chicks in garage in brooder with heat lamp until 3-4 weeks, then move to store coop with heat at night, in the barn where big girls can see and talk to them. At 6-7 weeks we put them in their forever home coop for 1-2 weeks with only heat if temps drop below 40. Then open them up to free...