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    Is overall health tied to breed?

    Less to do with any particular breed and more to do with the breeding (genetics). Birds from hatcheries can be a bit iffy as they are looking for numbers and not so much health or temperament. An individual breeder will usually focus on the breed itself and aim to improve the line in the next...
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    He or she?

    Definitely a male, he's certainly got some genetic issues going on but sounds like you are making it work, try to make sure you don't breed from him. His spurs are definitely growing too. As for tail feathers, he appears to be rumpless so there can't be any rooster tail feathers if he doesn't...
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    Sick young drake

    Vitamin deficiency certainly could play a part in it but so could parasites. I'd be checking everyone's poo and see if they look normal. Check for mites, observe skin color around their eyes and inside their mouths to make sure they aren't getting sucked dry of blood from nasty critters. If...
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    A Cornish Cross (Breeding?) Journey

    Jr. at 17 weeks plus a few days. Still haven’t heard him or his brother crow. He also seems to have already relaxed a bit with his grabbing of pullets. Probably because they all chase him off. I hope that won’t be a problem when I move them all over for breeding. The male hierarchy seems to...
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    Future plans for 2025! Breeding for large meaties, barring, lacing and EE

    Today I got 11 eggs, been a little while since getting double digets. I need to keep track somewhere of who is laying and who isn't so here's a list as of Dec 20. Laying somewhat regularly -SLW (after molting) -Sapphire sky -both bantam daughters -buckeye -diamond duchess (who took an early...
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    How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

    Anyone else excited about the winter solstice being here and gone as of yesterday? Soon enough we'll be getting more daylight hours and egg production will pick up. 11 today out of 44 hens/pullets, mostly brown/cream eggs which feels weird considering I have more colored layers than non colored...
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    Molting/Moulting only down?

    Yes it’s normal and it doesn’t look like just down to me but rather a lot of body feathers and butt fluff. Down feathers are the smaller fluffs under their patterned body feathers. They’ll drop their wing and tail feathers here and there but the body feathers seem to really come out in mass...
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    Would anyone explain to me what a safety hole is? When to do/or not do it?

    How are things going? Any chicks yet?
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    Would anyone explain to me what a safety hole is? When to do/or not do it?

    I usually aim for 70% at lock down. If most of them are just starting to pip then I'd give it some time. Nothing good comes from trying to assist too early. My rule is only start assisting after the first flush of chicks have hatched. I'd only start to worry about 12hrs or so after the big hatch...
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    Would anyone explain to me what a safety hole is? When to do/or not do it?

    Safety holes are for when you have a chick that is internally pipped for a while but not externally pipped. They can work wonders for chicks struggling to break through the shell. You'd want to be checking up on the eggs and looking for peeping but no cracks in the shells yet. You can also look...
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    My free range Frizzles

    She doesn’t look all that bad. A breeding saddle if you can find one that fits may help. Is this a pullet from this year or an adult hen? Adult birds should molt this fall/winter if they haven’t already. Keeping her separate isn’t going to help her grow new feathers any faster and may end up...
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    Chickens haven’t laid an egg in three months

    Assuming all needs are met (good feed, water, stress-free environment) and they are otherwise healthy the limiting factors would be genetics, age and daylight. Not surprised the older girls quit laying earlier in the season but I feel the younger ones should still be popping out an egg or two if...
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    How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

    11 yesterday and so far 8 today from a flock with 44 hens/pullets, 5 of which have not started laying. Only one hen has kept going after the molt and the rest seem to be done for now. 2 new eggs for my blown egg collection.
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    Culling Towards the Best Flock

    Making more decisions. This guy will be going. I’ll let him grow until he creates problems or I want some fresh meat. Chunky Jr. will be staying for a long time unless he becomes jerk or I get a better meat bird cockerel from him. This guy gets to run with the laying flock and likely...
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    Chicken killing own chicks

    Sounds like she’s just a bad mom. I honestly haven’t been in the chicken game all that long, only a couple years, but I’ve not had problems with my first time broodies. The two I let hatch eggs did wonderfully though they both had one chick die after hatching due to other things (one drowned and...
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    ⚡️The Retail, Customer/Food Service Sanity Thread.⚡️

    Worked at a gas station/general store/ice cream shop for ~8yrs after high school. The amount of morons I've encountered far out numbers the handful of lovely customers that walked through those doors. Luckily my boss was rather lenient with the rules and I could tell off the customers that were...
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    A Cornish Cross (Breeding?) Journey

    15 weeks plus a couple days. I’ve seen Jr. trying to grab a few girls, luckily they are all older than him and usually chase him around. Seems to be handling the winter wonderland well enough. You can clearly see the black feather on his head now. Ignore the dirty water, a result of the ducks...
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    Ducks that don't Die Horribly?

    I haven't had ducks for very long, in fact I only have a m/f pair of khakis I raised this summer. I'm not surprised most posts are about them falling prey to wild animals. Health wise mine have been perfectly fine thus far. From what I've seen they are stupid, incredibly so. My young hen...
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    Brooder Material

    The dust is mostly from the chicks’ bodies as their feathers growing in. I’m sure some is from the feed and shavings but chicks are just dusty little things no matter what you do. More bedding, adding a new thin layer daily, even twice daily, can help trap the dust in the bedding so it doesn’t...
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    What breed is this rooster?

    Kinda looks like a brown leghorn to me. They aren’t a hefty breed, my pullet who likely isn’t going to get any bigger is quite small too, nearly bantam sized and very thin boned. Not sure how much bigger a leghorn roo would be compared to a pullet but I’m sure they are also on the small side of...
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