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Why Baby Chickens Get Pasty Butt and What to Do About It

Why Baby Chickens Get Pasty Butt and What to Do About It

Pasty Butt — also known as pasting, paste up, or sticky bottom — is a common condition in newly hatched chicks. It occurs when soft droppings stick to a chick’s vent, then harden and seal the vent shut. If the condition is not corrected, the affected chick may die. Although pasting may be caused by […]

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How Can Baby Chickens Survive in the Mail?

How Can Baby Chickens Survive in the Mail?

The hatching of a chick out of an egg — whether laid by a chicken, duck, goose, or other bird — is a remarkable process. Each chick enters the world with a built-in food supply that can sustain it for up to three days after the bird hatches. How does this happen? Starting on the […]

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How to Take Care of Baby Chickens

How to Take Care of Baby Chickens

When you raise baby chickens in a brooder you must gradually change the brooding facilities as the chicks grow. After about the first two weeks of brooding, start making necessary changes to the following features: Adequate space for the number of birds Initially chicks don’t need much room, because (like other babies) they spend much […]

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The Best Mating Ratios for Poultry: How Many Hens per Rooster?

The Best Mating Ratios for Poultry: How Many Hens per Rooster?

The optimal mating ratio for chickens, turkeys, and other poultry is not the same ratio in which they typically hatch. Most poultry naturally hatch approximately 50 percent females and 50 percent males. If your goal is to obtain fertile eggs for hatching, that ratio will result in males fighting excessively with each other, and when […]

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How to Provide Comfort Roosts for Your Chickens

How to Provide Comfort Roosts for Your Chickens

At dusk, chickens instinctively seek a high place to spend the night where they feel safe from predators. Lacking a comfortable place to roost inside their coop, they may seek an outdoor roost. It might be the top of a fence or gate, in a tree, or even on the coop roof. Chickens that roost […]

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What Do Baby Chicks Eat?

What Do Baby Chicks Eat?

Newly hatched poultry come equipped with yolk reserves that provide baby birds with nutrients for many hours after they hatch. It’s nature’s way of allowing the early hatchers to remain in the nest until the whole brood has hatched. Hatchery chicks shipped by mail take advantage of these yolk reserves during the day or two […]

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Have Fun Showing Poultry with Less Stress to You and Your Birds

Have Fun Showing Poultry with Less Stress to You and Your Birds

Showing poultry is fun, interesting and educational. It’s also a great way to meet people of all ages from all walks of life who share a common interest. But it can be stressful, especially for the first time exhibitor. It can also be stressful for the birds. In his book Showing Poultry, veteran poultry judge […]

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What Is a Standard Chicken Breed?

What Is a Standard Chicken Breed?

The term “standard breed” is often misused in referring to large chickens, as distinct from bantam breeds. So what, exactly, is a standard breed?   A standard poultry breed is any breed that conforms to its ideal description, as formalized (or standardized) by a central organization and compiled into a periodically updated book. The book […]

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