I’ve had them sneak into the garage and lay on a shelf, under their coop, under a picnic table and a hunting shack, in a trailer (which has straw so I was asking for that one), under some junk stored under the lean-to connected to the garage, under the deck… probably more places that I just...
My duck is finally laying pretty regularly and in a reliable place where they aren’t going to get frozen or found by the dog first. I’ll be collecting and dating eggs just in case someone wants to go broody. Eggs older than a week will be eaten. Depending on which hen goes broody I think I’ll be...
Is it warm to the touch, warmer than his other foot? Any leakage of any sort? Hard or squishy? Is the toe below the wound still warm?
Honestly look like it’s just scar tissue to me. If everything checks out (in the above) I think it would be okay to leave it alone now, maybe put some blu kote...
@mermaid_of_the_farm if you want that hatch along for speckled eggs.
Hard to see but there appears to be life in all the barred rock eggs. Can’t see through the green one very well. Embryo is but a shadow in the middle.
Moved the 7 hens over but decided to wait a week or two before adding Junior. Pen is about 12 X 9 and the shack is around 4 X 8ish. They seem pretty comfortable and were scratching around in the bedding.
They were fine until about sunset and then they were pacing the fence. Herded them into the...
Day 6ish and I’ve gone through and candled them all. Fertile eggs appear to be about half dark as the embryos grow. I removed 15 blanks and left a few other questionable ones. Both the cracked and sealed ones are still in there so we’ll see what happens. Shocking fertility rate though if about...
My birds find plenty of grit in the yard/garden/driveway while free ranging but like many others I've had to supplement during winter. I just toss a couple handfuls out every few days and they pick what they want. As I have turkeys, ducks and chickens it's nice to have a varied size, which this...
19 today, most I’ve had in a good while. Would have been 20 but someone kicked an egg out of the box in the early morning and ate it while I was moving birds to another pen. There’s only 3 eggs I’m not sure who laid but I did find out my crested girl lays these dark green speckled eggs (top left...
Moved the 7 hens for Chunky Jr. to the breeding pen. Pen is 12X9 feet with a hunting shack ( ~3x8) for the coop. Enclosed it all with chicken wire so there are no escapees. I think I’ll add Jr in a couple weeks to give the girls time to settle in.
Butchered the orange cockerel. Weighed 5lbs...
So far 10 today with another on the nest. Check out these green ones! I believe bottom left is the mom of the top two. All but bottom left should be fathered by my blue copper maran. He’s really lending his genes to create some nice daughters.
New incubator just came in the mail and I’m giving it a test run. Looks good so far but just like the other it says it can hold 36 chicken eggs but it’s definitely only a 30 egg capacity.
If I do vertical incubation I can probably fit 42-50 but I don’t need that many right?
I’ve already set...
Well I did it, just popped 3 of the barred rock eggs and the one green speckled egg. I planned on hatching some of the barred rock's eggs anyways as I want some more sex linked chicks, though I'm hoping for mostly cockerels to raise as meat birds. I was tempted to add a couple more but all the...
A barred rock laid the one with white speckles and I'm not too sure who laid the green speckled one. I have a couple guesses and both are birds I hatched last summer. Honestly contemplating adding it to my incubator but it currently has quail eggs in there on day 4, but I also have another...
Sounds to me it depends on how good the parent stock is. A fribro roo over a white leghorn hen should produce pullets that show fibro at hatch (dark comb/beak and legs) and roos that don't (yellow comb/beak and legs). I don't think it is 100% accurate though as there are always variables, like...
The thing with chickens is if you have too many, or perhaps some you just don't like keeping certain ones in your flock you can just eat them! Of course you have to double down and take a life, then do all the cleaning which can be gross to some people. Or if you know of someone in your area you...
I've got a couple speckled brown layers too but they don't seem to be laying much right now. Waiting for my dark, coppery olive eggers to lay again as they have beautiful shells that are sometimes speckled. I like to think I have a pretty good color variety but it lacks white, solid blue, and...