Birds are extremely dusty animals, even with constant cleaning and a good air filter, having a bird inside, especially in a sleeping area is risky. At the very least don't keep the bird in your bedroom if you do have an inside bird and wear an N95 mask when cleaning the enclosure
It's not that it's unsafe to eat, it's just that it's not appealing for most folks. Veins mean the egg has started developing a duckling in it. You won't get sick, but balut isn't popular most places hence the general recommendation to toss it
As for OP's question, any sort of soap will kill them too but it has to be applied directly. You could make a big batch of soapy water and pour it on the mound
Please don't catch and release rats, especially somewhere like the Everglades. Rats can eat chicks of ground nesting birds are generally harmful to the environment. The rats that usually trouble people also aren't native and are not in short supply. Also if that rat finds its way to someone...
You've got 2 pullets. Nothing on either bird says they're a cockerel and the one on the left in fact has a female specific color pattern, the one on the right is red but her coloration is very even (males are more splotchy in their coloration) and most notably neither have the pointy hackle and...
As long as their food is providing what they need nutritionally, feed doesn't impact egg laying rate much (obvious caveat being the feed is nutritionally sound as subpar feed will negatively impact egg laying). The age and breed of the hen, the current season (with the changes in daylight that...
Are you sure you have a pullet and a cockerel? Both look to be pullets to me (although better pictures would be good just to be sure).
In any case, easter eggers are indeed the best! :D
I would also have a plan just in case he doesn't get along with the hens you end up getting since he has a history of attacking hens. Hopefully it was just an issue of him not liking that particular hen, but I'd still be wary. I do think it has a higher chance of long term success than a...
I haven't heard of it either? I'm leaning towards it being mostly rumor perhaps with a grain of truth to it. In any case I've also haven't heard of covid being a problem in chickens either so barring extraordinary circumstances, I wouldn't get it for my flock - and if it did exist it sounds like...
My birds do this, they will stick their head under the bird next to them and I once walked out to Lavender with a bird under each wing. I don't think it's a dominance thing, Lavender is somewhere in the middle of the pecking order and I've seen higher ranked - including my head hen Basil - and...
You can leave her but I don't recommend it. As was already said, being broody is hard on a hen and there's no telling how long she will actually be broody for and while not common, some hens will even starve themselves or leave themselves so weak they fall ill to something.
Aside from that...
Even so grit is cheap and never goes bad, worst case scenario if they have it is they don't need it and ignore it. Worst case scenario if they don't have it and end up needing is a bird develops crop issues and dies. In theory they should be able to find their own but it's still cheap...