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Planning Your Spring Chick Order

Spring Chick Order

When planning your next order of chicks from the hatchery, give careful consideration to how many roosters you want (if any), and the real possibility that some of the chicks might not survive. Below are some important points to keep in mind when making your ordering decisions. Sexed Chicks For many breeds you have the […]

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Vaccination Policy

 MAREK’S VACCINATION Cackle Hatchery® charges a flat fee of $10.00 for a Marek’s vaccination of 1-66 chicks. Anything over 66 chicks to be vaccinated we charge 15 cents a chick. Example 100 chicks to be vaccinated times .15 ea. = $15.00 fee for vaccination. These vaccinations must be given at 1 day of age. There […]

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Chicken Feed — Whole Grains, Mash, Pellets, or Crumbles?

Scratch Grains

Commercially formulated rations are developed to maximize nutritional benefit based on a flock’s age, beginning with chick starter, then moving up to grower, developer, and lay ration as chickens mature. Meat birds have their own formulas for starter/grower rations and finisher ration intended to induce rapid growth. Aside from different formulas for different age groups, […]

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Olive Egger Chickens: 6 Questions Answered

Olive Eggs

Chicken eggs in the United States were once available in two basic shell colors — unimaginative white and traditional farmstead brown. Along with the ongoing boom in backyard chicken flocks comes an interest in eggs with shells in a wider array of colors, including pink, blue and green. One of the most startling colors is […]

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How to Trim a Rooster’s Spurs — and How Not To

Rooster Spur

A chicken’s spur is an outgrowth of the leg bone, consisting of soft tissue covered with a protective sheath made of the same tough keratinous material that makes up the chicken’s claws and beak. The spur starts out as a little bony bump. As the chicken matures, the spur grows longer, curves, hardens and develops […]

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Chicken Terms/Definitions/Phrases

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z – A – Addled A rotten or otherwise inedible egg. Or an egg in which the embryo died during early incubation. Age of lay The age at which a […]

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Which Chicken Breeds Make the Best Broody Hens?

Broody Hen

Some chicken breeds make great broody hens. Others are iffy. Still others are completely unreliable. And some never go broody at all. What does broody mean and why does it matter? Broodiness, in a nutshell, is maternal instinct. After a hen has accumulated a nestful of eggs, maternal instinct tells her to keep the eggs […]

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Egg Incubation: Should You Help Chickens Hatch?

Egg Incubation: Should You Help Chickens Hatch?

When an egg is ready to hatch — whether chicken, duck, goose, or other poultry — the baby bird inside breaks a hole through the egg’s shell. The hole is called a pip and the process of creating the hole is called pipping. The little bird pips with the help of its egg tooth—a small, […]

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