Red Pile Chickens

MY EGGS HATCHED!!! I have 14 little chicks running around now!

Awwww, congrats!!!

I don't have any chickens sitting yet, but have a mama turkey sitting on 24 eggs. I did have another one sitting on a nest, but unlike the smart one who laid in the barn, where the yard dog keeps watch over her, she went waaayyyy out into the grove and made her nest, and a critter got to the eggs. She looks rather forlorn wandering around the yard now, hopefully she will decide to share the nest with the one already sitting.

Aw I'm sorry about her nest. Good luck with the other though. What do you do with all those baby turkeys? Cattle sale?

Originally Posted by Chris Steele

MY EGGS HATCHED!!! I have 14 little chicks running around now!

Congratulations

Originally Posted by Cat_72

I did have another one sitting on a nest, but unlike the smart one who laid in the barn, where the yard dog keeps watch over her, she went waaayyyy out into the grove and made her nest, and a critter got to the eggs.

We used to have a rottweiler (spelling?) that would go into our duck pen and gently carry the ducklings out, one at a time, in her mouth into the yard. When she decided they had, had enough she would carry them back into the pen.

I miss having critters ( I had some moscoveys that thought they were dogs) I cant wait to get a little land and a few ducks/ hens again.

Originally Posted by Chris Steele

Aw I'm sorry about her nest. Good luck with the other though. What do you do with all those baby turkeys? Cattle sale?

Thanks....my son set a live trap out near there last night, bu it was still empty this morning. He baited it with cat food, which normally works well...but I think we'll try eggs tonight, since this critter obviously has a taste for them. Silly thing is, as much as it ticks me off that the coon or whatever did that......I'll end up driving it 15-20 miles from here and turning it loose again, it's only doing what it's naturally supposed to do. (but not to MY eggs!) Unless it's a skunk....

We usually have all of the babies sold to people we know by the fall..and if not, they have an exotic animal sale not too far from here in the fall as well as the spring.

Originally Posted by texasnewbie

We used to have a rottweiler (spelling?) that would go into our duck pen and gently carry the ducklings out, one at a time, in her mouth into the yard. When she decided they had, had enough she would carry them back into the pen.

Awww, how cute! We had a big ol Golden Retriever named Charlie that used to retrieve our Call Ducks when they would get too far from the barn....those little suckers can really fly, I never did see how he caught them, but saw him carry them back a couple times, lol. A slobbery mess they were, but completely unharmed, other than their pride.

Well....Josh caught the critter. It was the biggest dang raccoon I have ever seen!

Probably fat from eating all of my eggs.

Good job catching it. My two older hens are laying again now, but my new ones haven't. It looks like I have four roosters and ten hens, I lucked up.

Unfortunately, that one raccoon seems to have been just one of a whole "gang". I lost all of my baby turkeys, a batch of Cochin chicks, as well as a couple of my best hen chickens this season. Josh has caught 3 or 4 raccoons, and 2 possums. The killing of my birds seems to finally have stopped, but it just wasn't a good season.

Glad to hear you're getting eggs, at least....and you came out pretty decent on the sex ratio.

Turns out I have one less hen, one more rooster.. massive one, but he just now got his comb and started crowing. He's the biggest chicken I have.

I had some questions that I mgiht have asked before. Is it ok to inbreed for eggs to eat? Will a hen mate with its sibling or kid? A rooster with its sybling or kid? Will they mate better raised together or introduced as adults. With 12 hens, what would be the best amount of roosters in a roughly 12x14' cage? With that many hens do I need a certain number of egg nests, will 3 do?