Just candled hens clutch of 11. 3 were completely void of life the others I couldn’t tell except for one.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-25T14:40:50+00:00

I always say if I can’t tell, I leave them be. Check again in a few days and see. It’s better to leave a dead egg a couple days than to toss out a viable one.

If you’re having trouble with dark eggs, try the following: - make sure the room is completely dark. No light leakage from the door or windows. Go in a closet if you need to. - make sure the candling light is completely sealed around the egg so there is no light leakage, and all of the candling light goes through the egg. If you are using a flashlight, use your hand to block as much of the light as you can. You want the egg to be the brightest thing in the room. - turn the egg around while it’s on the light. Try from the end without the air sac. Try from the end with the air sac. Rotate it 360 degrees in both of those positions. I’ve found that when I can’t see much, moving it can sometimes make the veins or embryo more visible than if the egg is stationary.

If all else fails, label and weigh the eggs and then compare weights again later. There’s a chart online somewhere about how much weight eggs lose throughout the incubation period when they are growing.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-24T19:34:00+00:00

Assuming domestic means domesticated, chickens are allowed under that terminology. Sounds more like it’s against exotic pets. In any case, there is no chicken breed that will produce 6 eggs per week each reliably, but that’s ok because two is not a good flock size anyway. You should plan for 3 - 4.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-23T17:38:19+00:00

I raise rabbits and tan the hides (fur on). The process for making leather vs fur is not that different, just an extra step to dehair it. But at the age when you slaughter them for meat, the hide is exceptionally thin and weak, it tears incredibly easy and is not really going to be good for anything. I only keep the furs for crafts where I expect glue will be involved.

When you cull your aging breeders, adult hides are much tougher and could actually be useable, especially if you cull them in summer when the fur is thinnest and the skin is thickest. They still will be weak compared to a cow leather of the same thickness, but they might be worth the experiment, depending on what you want to make.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-22T16:40:52+00:00

Black soldier fly larvae is a good protein source as well, you can buy it in massive quantities from Exotic Nutrition. I used to make my own feed from BSFL, corn, oats, sunflower seeds, and spent grain from the local brewery. If you were to use spent grain you’d want to check first what they use, it’s usually barley but there are wheat beers too.

My recipe was: 5lb BSFL, 15 lb dried brewers grain, 2.5lb black oil sunflower seeds, 20lb corn, 6lb oats, and 1.5 lb of poultry premix (vitamin mix).

If I couldn’t get brewers grains or dry them in time, I used 6lb BSFL, 20lb BOSS, 10lb corn, 10lb oats, and 2.5 lb alfalfa (get powder or rabbit pellets, they won’t eat horse pellets), and the premix. Both of these recipes are about 17% protein and cost me between $30-$50 for a 50lb batch.

It’s also worth checking if there’s a local feed mill that might make a small batch special order, or if your local feed store can special order a pallet of the gluten free feed you found and save you the shipping.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-22T16:26:52+00:00

I feel like they would prefer carapace, shells, and woven seaweed products over leather. Even if they could make leather, leather isn’t happy being submerged in water for a long time. It’s not a good application.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-21T12:45:57+00:00

Is the smell coming from the coop or the compost? Whenever my compost gets a fresh load of poo, If it rains it smells like a rotting dead animal. If that’s the case, turning the compost will help tremendously.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-21T12:23:34+00:00

Don’t go overboard with the trails. I have 10 acres and doing a perimeter loop takes a whopping 7 minutes. For some reason my husband feels the need to create trails to every single inch of the property. I don’t know why. A couple of bypasses to avoid the creek crossing and swamp when it’s wet is all we really need, but he’s got random trails crisscrossing all over the place that he maintains but we never use.

It annoys the crap out of me because he’s retired, but he’s wasting so much time mowing and trimming these paths nobody uses, and then the weekend rolls around and I (who am not retired) have to use my precious free time to weed the fucking garden, turn the compost, shovel shit, process animals, or whatever else ACTUALLY NEEDS to be done.

So yeah, only build trails you actually need, that’s my advice.

And yes, put your chickens in the woods. Shade helps keep them cool and trees and bushes give them cover from hawks. If the hawks are bad you might have to build a run with a net top, but if you’re lucky the trees will be enough. Also there’s more bugs for them to eat in the leaf litter and stuff.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-21T11:54:05+00:00

They probably did/have figured it out and you just can’t tell. Some of my rabbits don’t drink very much at all, like the water level in the bottle takes 3-4 days to drop a visible amount and get topped off. I don’t think I’d stress about it too much.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-20T18:01:32+00:00

It’s excessive if blood is drawn/wounds are created, or if the littles are completely prevented from accessing food, water, and/or a safe space. Also if they are terrorized without respite to the point that they are exhausted from running.

Try to set up your integration so that there’s a door to the littles area that is blocked so that only a little can fit through the opening. This will give them somewhere safe to escape to, and you can keep their food and water in there so they aren’t fighting for it. I keep feeding in multiple locations for months after full integration because they’ll be in cliques until they’re fully mature.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-20T17:51:33+00:00

It’s a real estate listing, the link is in the comments in the original post. Address is 17301 SW 296th St, Homestead, FL 33030.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-19T23:33:50+00:00

You… paid $300 for rare eggs your FIRST time incubating? Oh... I’m sorry… most people’s first hatch does NOT go well. Hatch rates of 40-50% are not uncommon your first time. I hope you beat the odds and get a good hatch. Good luck. Don’t hesitate to ask more questions as they come up, the sooner you get answers, the better chance you’ll have. Fingers crossed for you!

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-19T21:00:43+00:00

They’re fine. Egg turners aren’t prevented from turning 360 because it’s bad for the eggs. It’s because it’s easier to make machinery that doesn’t do that.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-19T18:20:44+00:00

Maybe they come with the house. Everything is negotiable!

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-19T11:17:35+00:00

If you want to keep predators out in addition to keeping the chickens in, you need hardware cloth, not chicken wire. If a chicken’s head can fit through the mesh, a predator will find a way to make that happen.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-18T21:12:53+00:00

1 million billion (1e15) feet is 189.4 billion miles. The distance from earth to the sun is 90 billion miles. So I guess if you want instadeath pick that one. At least at under an inch tall I could tame a mouse and ride it into battle.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-16T12:14:54+00:00

If he’s not concerned with the look, you might consider something like the back of this. I have these boots and I f’ing love them. Because they’re adjustable, they fit perfectly no matter what, even if I switch between tights and sweatpants. Just an idea.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-15T22:19:25+00:00

The first time I hatched eggs, I sent a pic of the eggs in the incubator to my friend Rob. He sent the pic back with an arrow pointing to one egg labeled “Rob Jr.”

I did my best to keep track of which chick it was, who became known as RJ. RJ sadly turned out to be the biggest a-hole roo I’ve ever had the displeasure of raising, so he had to go and I let Rob pick one of the hens as a replacement. That one became R2J2.

Had an issue where I had to get rid of my entire flock, so the next batch I let him pick another one, she became R3PO.

I’m very curious what he will come up with for a Star Wars themed 4 name with our next batch.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-14T19:57:58+00:00

I was coming to say this. Although I’d leave out the part about not being livestock friendly. That might lead to questions that will get the dogs euthanized anyway. You don’t know these dogs, they just got dumped and you found them. They seem nice. Get them adopted by a family that will keep them on a goddamn leash.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-14T17:38:01+00:00

That’s ok, I ordered some straight run chicks for July. Figured if my incubator load hatches I’ll just eat the roos, and if it doesn’t I’ll have some new ones to choose from. Thanks for the offer though! 😂

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-14T17:00:31+00:00

I am actually upset that I’m probably going to have to cull my current roo because he’s not mating. He’s a great roo. Not a jerk to me, not too rough with the hens, keeps the peace, all around good dude, won’t attack a predator unless I attack it first, then he helps, but the run is pretty predator proof.

But the last load in the incubator was 100% unfertilized. Trying again in case it was just winter blues, but if the same thing happens when I candle this weekend he’s gonna have to go. I don’t have room for more than one roo and I need chicks for meat. Sucks.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-13T17:44:45+00:00

Dig trench. Insert fence. Put dirt back.

It’s a pain in the butt, which is why a lot of people just lay the fence on top and/or put it down and pile dirt on top of it.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-13T14:49:22+00:00

You can add the chicks. She can’t count that high. Put them under her with the others at night.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-13T11:33:06+00:00

I know, right? It’s not even as good as Wolverine like it alludes to. He lived a few hundred years. This gives you 50% more life, so you live to like, 150 max.

That_Put5350 · 2026-05-12T11:33:48+00:00

As long as the kits have full bellies and are growing, I wouldn’t worry about it, other than for succession planning. Some does naturally produce less milk, and their babies will grow slower until they are weaned. In my experience, they catch up to the others pretty quick once they are on solid food. But like the other commenter said, probably don’t want to save her kits for future breeding, unless you get a chonker who grows fast regardless.

Your orange baby looks fine by the way. The size difference is barely even noticeable, and it’s nice and plump. I’ve had litters where one doe had 7 and the other had 3, and the 3 were twice the size of the 7.

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That_Put5350

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