Recent content by Ridgerunner

  1. Ridgerunner

    New chickens during winter time !!! Help!!!

    How big is the greenhouse (in feet) and how many chickens are you talking about? The concern is overcrowding, which applies any time of the year. You have two issues in winter. One is a cold wind hitting them with them having no way to get out of the wind. That should not be a problem in a...
  2. Ridgerunner

    how to get chickens to lay eggs in the nesters? My chickens are laying the eggs all over the hen house. I have a community nester, about 3 feet high.

    Photos can always come in handy. They can help us understand what is going on. How old are they? How long have they been laying? How many are doing this? Have you ever had chickens laying in that nest? How big, in feet, is that community nest? Are the eggs in the same spot on the floor or...
  3. Ridgerunner

    Landrace/adaptive breeding discussion

    My experience was a long time ago growing up on a farm with free ranging chickens where most slept and laid in a hen house but some slept in trees and had nests other places. Often nests were in a hay barn but some were other places like piles of wood or such. I don't recall many in bushes but...
  4. Ridgerunner

    Mottled Brahmas

    Mottling is a recessive gene. That means your rooster has two copies of that gene at that gene pair and will give one copy to all of his offspring. But since it is recessive you will not get any mottling with chicks from those hens. If you breed them back to that rooster or breed the...
  5. Ridgerunner

    White chick from black hen and orange rooster

    The genetics are there, but since the genetics are mixed you can't be sure what will get passed down to a specific chick. I'll try to explain it this way. You can get a red sex link with a rooster that is pure for the "gold" gene and a hen that has the "silver" gene. Any pullets from that mix...
  6. Ridgerunner

    White chick from black hen and orange rooster

    Exactly. People get so hung up on breeds and mixes that they think every chicken is a designer mix. I guess it is that "mine are so special they have to be special". Unless you know some specifics of their background they are just chickens.
  7. Ridgerunner

    White chick from black hen and orange rooster

    The white tail on your rooster means he probably has dominant white genetics. Dominant white is a gene that turns feathers that would normally be black to white. It has no effect on a red feather. Since dominant white is dominant, you only need one gene at that gene pair to be dominant white...
  8. Ridgerunner

    How to Prevent Broodiness?

    Hens have been going broody and hatching chicks on their own without human intervention since before they were first domesticated. They did not go extinct. We've domesticated them but many still have those instincts. I've had broody hens come off of the nest twice a day for over one hour...
  9. Ridgerunner

    Coop door open for the first time.

    When I first open the brooder door, I might have all chicks on the ground within 15 minutes or it may be well into the third day before they all come out. Same brooder but different chickens. Each chicken has its own personality, each flock has its own dynamics, and one brood can be very...
  10. Ridgerunner

    Electrified Fence Idea

    That's why you need to talk to them. I think somehow they have hot wires and ground wires up there together. I don't see how that can work but I'm not an electrical engineer. I can see how that connector is insulated but not the wires. Grounding in the earth is old technology, it works...
  11. Ridgerunner

    just got my first incubator

    There are several articles in the "Articles" section of this forum on that topic. It might be worth looking at some of them. My thoughts: Start all eggs at the same time. Avoid staggered hatches. Set only eggs that are a normal size for that hen. No really small ones or overly large ones...
  12. Ridgerunner

    How do I keep my hens from resting in the nesting box during the day in the winter?

    They are top hens so they are not being bullied. They have plenty of room inside and outside, they are not crowded. You've done everything right, it's just that each is an individual and those want to stay in the nests. Good luck with the curtains, I don't have any other suggestions.
  13. Ridgerunner

    Electrified Fence Idea

    I'm not sure how that cat fence works. I'm not willing to accept Gallagher's cookies so I can view their information. It looks like it can be installed on top of a wooden fence and has both hot and ground wires so it could be a solution. I'd call Gallagher and talk to them about your issue.
  14. Ridgerunner

    Nesting Box Question

    I'm not sure how big that actually is. My guess is somewhere around 4 feet x maybe 12 feet? Apparently you are not having aggression because of tight spaces. Other than some sleeping in the nests I don't see any other real problems. Until you can build a larger coop, blocking off the nests...
  15. Ridgerunner

    Nesting Box Question

    Photos are always good. If the coop is not built yet that might be a problem. I prefer a simpler solution, train them to sleep other places. As mentioned, most will sleep as high as they can so, as long as the roosts are noticeably higher than the nests, it is not a problem. They need to...
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