I had to include this photo of the happiest girl in the world--new chicks in the household marks one of her favorite times of year, right up there with Christmas!
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Clucks from the Coop
- happy gardening mama
- I'm a working mother, living in the Pacific Northwest with my fantastic daughter, our small urban flock of chickens, and the pomeranian early warning system (aka our dog).
13 comments:
Oh Bob! I'll be honest, I'm no expert on this--I had heard someplace that chicks have to pip out under their own steam or else they do not thrive and develop correctly. Now don't ask me *where* I've heard this!
And frankly, I think you have much more experience than I do, since Vonski mentioned you also have ducks.
We've hatched out Japanese quail using a brooder, but never chickens.
I would call the extension service--if you're in my region, ask for Pat, she is amazing. Also, the owner of the feed store in Spfd, McKenzie Feed & Saddlery (something like that) is very good with poultry questions.
If it were me...well if she seems healthy in other respects...I might try to keep her as long as she didn't get pecked by the others. If she can't walk at all it will definitely become an issue trying to keep her clean...
Keep me posted! I'll check your blog for further updates!
I asked my hubby about this, who hatched out Japanese quail several years running with his elementary school classes (he's a teacher)--he said he also had heard that if the chicks are not strong enough to pip by themselves, they won't be strong enough to live. Every year he ended up with a couple of partway opened shells that didn't progress beyond that.
That said, I'd leave to hear updates on how your chick with the curly foot is doing! Go chick, go!
Sorry I forgot to respond to this--we normally like to go "all natural" with the hens, but quite frankly we've seen such a loss among the chicks that we decided it wasn't worth it. Where did you buy your eggs/chicks from so I avoid that in the future?
Hi, there! Do you have a MySpace account? I keep blogging to mine, and forgetting about blogger.com. I post fairly often about chickens. More about my kids. :) Today I blogged about my rooster. Anwway, here are the links if you're interested:
http://www.myspace.com/thecitychicken
---Katy
www.thecitychicken.com
Hello CityChicken Diva, I forgot to reply to this--or maybe I went directly to MySpace to do it there--I sort of have a MySpace...it's not really something I use and didn't seem like a good fit for my interests. Your site looks great though!
Thanks for visiting Mypetchicken--I will certainly check your site! Yay for chicken enthusiasts!
My big plan has a glitch in it. We spend all of our tax refund to fence the yard in. Now I can let my five hens (two are bantams) roam around without fear of escape or dogs. But now they are getting into my raised beds! My raised beds are 12" high, and for a week or so the heigh has been enough to make them not notice. But this afternoon I went out and saw that they dug in a number of raised beds and really moved a lot of dirt! They also ate some emerging plants. I'm sad! Because I love my raised beds and I've been loving watching my chickens roam free because usually they've been in a chicken tractor. I guess I will have to keep them in their tractor more. At least until my seedlings are well established. Like, when the zucchini and pumpkin vines are growing large, I can't imagine the chickens would do much damage to them. But they just dug down, found emerging calla lilies below the surface, and nipped off the tops of all of them. Blah! I don't really want to put fencing around my raised beds. Then they would be so hard to get in to and weed, and puttering around and leisurely weeding them is a pleasure of mine. Okay, I guess I'll go back to the chicken tractor. They don't mind it, since I move it often. Well, I guess I'm still glad I got the yard fenced, but it's a double edged sword. Thanks for listening and for any ideas!
--Katy
I want chickens soo bad. The problem is what would I do with them in the winter (-30C)?
More posts please! Especially as the sun is peeking out and a new season has sprung.
New chicken tales?
dear happygardeningmama - my name is shelley caskey and i have a favor to ask of you. :) i was recently trying to register at blogexplosion.com under my blog username 'waldorfmama' (see my blog at waldorfmama.blogspot.com)...but i see that you are registered under that name.
http://www.blogexplosion.com/profile.php?member=waldorfmama
after i saw your blog here on 'happy chickens' (which is lovely and fascinating! we actually raised chickens in our backyard when i was growing up!)...i was wondering if you would consider changing your username on blogexplosion so i could use 'waldorfmama'? if so, i would greatly appreciate the consideration! you can email me at shelleycaskey@mac.com. thank you! and good luck with your chickens!
warmly,
shelley
Happgardeningmama,
We're a small urban nursery in Portland, Oregon, offering chickens, supplies and chicken keeping
workshops. We love your blog and have included a link to it on our newly launched web site. With
our new site, we wanted to expand the amount of resources (outside links) to better serve our
customers who are interested in chicken keeping (of which there are many).
Maybe when you have some time, you could check out our new site and let us know your thoughts.
And if you like what you see ... maybe our site could be included on your links page. If not, we
understand ... With our new site, we're really keen on building community.
Thanks Very Much,
Glenn
Hey, did you notice we (me and you; happyhens and thecitychicken) were mentioned and linked-to over at PistilsNursery.com? It's a nice looking site. ~~Katy Skinner
Hi Glenn & Katie, thanks for your comments. I'm working on getting the blog current, and will be fixing / adding links to your sites this week (week of 7/7/09)
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