You need to get rid of the duck immediately because if he mates with your hens, he can kill them. A duck's appendage is very different from a rooster's. Some drakes can live peacefully with chickens, but you have to watch them to make sure they're not trying to mate with the chickens.
You can bet if I see something like that on my place, it will be splattered all over the surrounding trees! LOL Now my BIL on the other hand will catch him and cook him. :D
Just got 8 new Australorps to add to my flock. The wing tips on one of them stick out a little bit and every once in a while she'll get a drive by pecking on her wing tip.... is it something I should worry about? I could probably swap her at the feed store, but don't know what they'd do with...
Don't worry so much. As long as they have enough room and you're good to them, they'll be fine. Go to Tractor Supply, get you a couple chicks and they'll adapt to wherever you put them. Make sure the coop is raccoon proof at night and you'll be good to go.
For me, as long as it's not a gully-washer, I'll take all the rain we can get! I have the same problem with my run, but mostly because I was dumb enough to slope the roof towards the uphill side and I haven't had time to install a gutter back there yet. :idunno I'm hoping some of these big...
I've always read to put them in a pen with an open bottom, something like a wire dog or rabbit cage. That allows their bodies to cool off and breaks them from being broody. No experience with it, just what I've read. :)
I've been curious about that as well Jack. I'm interested in turkeys and geese down the road and the only time I've seen someone slaughter a turkey is on Alaska the Last Frontier when Eivin sneaks up behind their Thanksgiving turkey with a samurai sword. LOL Those are pretty big birds to just...
Nope, we just used a rope. Not ideal, but we only had 6 birds and my wife held their wings to keep them from flapping so much. I thought about using a feed sack, but I only had the plastic/synthetic type bags from ADM that rattle like crazy. That's what I use to heard my chickens sometimes...
Overall, as a store, I like Tractor Supply and although I haven't, I would buy chickens there. But yeah..... They don't give their birds the best of care and very few of the folks know anything about them. I don't mean TSC as a company, I just mean, most of the employees. A few weeks back I...
Oh yeah, I think chickens just love the activity of scratching through stuff. They're very curious. If you've got a lawnmower with a bagger, just run over the pine straw and leaves and start you a big compost pile. Throw food scraps in there and they'll go crazy. Chickens can live in the...
I see a lot of people building sheds out of pallets and you can usually find them free on Craigslist or just by asking. Yeah, I would think it would need to be completely closed up at night, or at least surrounded by a fence with a hot wire to keep varmits from climbing over. If you don't have...
I've got a family of raccoons that live in a tree in my neighbor's yard and luckily they've never bothered my chickens. I know they've been in my yard because I got three on my game cam. They're massive because they eat my neighbor's cat food. I've got electric around my coop, but I've never...
Oh BTW Rocky Rhodes, I checked Vivosun's web site and they claim the 10x20 heat pad uses 18 watts. Coupled with the thermostat that cycles the pad on and off for your preset temperature, I'm guessing you'd save a good bit of electricity over a 250W bulb that's on all the time. Too early in the...
And oh yeah, that's a good idea with the trash can. A lot of folks seem to form wire arcs like a mini-quonset hut type structure and that seems to work well too. Like a lot of good ideas you see on the internet, this one seems to be very versatile and configurable to pretty much any setup you...
That seems to be what everyone uses. I just threw some old shop rags over the top and will change them out and wash them when they get soiled. Every time I use any type of plastic wrap, I usually end up with a wad of plastic trying to find an end to straighten it out. :) My garage/shop is...
Here's a link to the Mama Heating Pad thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update.956958/
Here's a link to the Trials and Tribulations of Meat Birds thread...