Some eggs, hard boiled, mashed shall and all is ok, lots of folks feed them to adult fowl. Feed is nutritionally balanced by poultry feed scientists, it is designed for best performance. Chicken of yesterday had no prepared feeds and lived. Its a management kinda thing. let them run free and feed scraps and hope the critters dont get them and you will have eggs and meat! Some people are more price concious than others. I am a breeder and sell hatching eggs and fowl for show and breeding so I want the best, my production birds, I want the most production, thats why I use the science. Its not easy to make up a nutritionally balanced feed w/o some knowledge of the subject. I like to supplement with some things such as sunflower seed, whole oats and whet and a tad bit of corn, grass, meat and so on, but only in small amounts.

25 count runs are the norm for the minimums to order in chicks, but I noticed one 'chain' farm supply store orders them in on speculation...sets them up in a big galvanised water tank with lights and sells them by the each. Of course it 'just happens' to be around Easter, and I groan when I see that. What happens is they end up as holiday novelties to kids and when the roos get big (and they're always roos) people like me who raise chickens get a phone call from people who knows someone who has seen my egg sign and would I like some free chickens? I have taken in a few and have fed them for years with no return, just because I knew they'd have met an unkind fate if I hadn't. So, if you see a sales situation like this, get it in writing you are getting pullets. LOL. So if you've never had chickens before do you know if you order fertile eggs, you'll also need an incubator and brooding box and heat? And again.......if it's an egg it's just as likely to be a roo as a hen. And if you see ads for grown layers, they might be culls who don't lay or are past their laying years. Happens all the time here come fall and somebody who wants to start a laying flock bites. Your best bet is to find someone else who wants a small run of chicks and split an order with them. You might even want to enquire at the feed store or hatchery and let them know you are wanting to do this, and if it's a rural area like mine, they'll keep your number or hang a note on the bulletin boards so that other people who come in wanting only a few pullets can contact you and you can do this.

Lydia 1959...As far as it's known, from decades of research by the PMCA and other organizations, the Purple Martins in the eastern half of the U.S. nest only in man-made cavities, and near human activity. Since the times before Columbus they have "imprinted" on humans. The eastern Native Americans lured them to their villages and gardens by setting natural gourds on sticks and dead trees. They knew when the Purple Martins were near, the flying insects were kept at bay. There is a small scattering of PMs on the west coast, and they seem to be nesting in single family groups around piers. There was a lot of excitement when a colony was discovered nesting in drainage pipes under highway overpasses around the Sacramento area. Still, for the vase majority of the Purple Martins, and the entire eastern population, it's man made housing. You can see the problem since fewer and fewer people are offering, and safely managing, housing for them. The PMs, along with our native blue birds, started declining in the 1950s and were fast approaching endangered status. The main causes were lack of housing being offered to them, loss of wooden fence posts in the case of the blue birds, and the explosion of the imported, non-native English House Sparrow that will kill/destroy any cavity nester, its eggs and its chicks, that it can find...PMs, bluebirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, etc. all fall prey to these non-natives. So, loss of habitat, explosive numbers of non-native competitors, and a lack of well-managed housing not being offered is the main culprits of the decline of our native cavity nesters. I wish you could come visit. I sit under the feeder tree each morning with my tea and listen to the beautiful chatter, chortles, and songs of the PMs. They're here for such a short time, but I try to enjoy them enough to last the rest of the year. They travel to and from southern Brazil each year to raise their families. They come back to the same colony each year. They are magical!

Nicole...Purple Martins use only dry nesting materials; around here they like pine needles, wheat straw, twigs, old mulch, etc. They usually add green leaves right before egg laying begins. Mine used a lot of maple seed "helicopters" this spring. Some PMs add layers of leaves right before egg laying begins. Some add one lone leaf and call it good. They don't use anything soft. I fill the gourds with fresh cedar shavings in the spring; I pack them tightly and fill the gourds to about 1/2 inch below the entry hole. Some of the birds don't bother to add anything else. They spend nest-building time eating and resting and getting strong. When the chicks are 10-days-old, and again when they're 18-days-old, I remove them from the nest, take out all the old nesting material, add Sevin dust if I see any mites, add new cedar shavings, and replace the babies. The adults buzz around and watch the procedure, but they're very use to my nearly daily "help." It keeps the chicks clean, parasite free, reduces bacterias and molds, and helps ensure they all fledge strong and healthy. No. Most birds "in the wild" don't get this treatment, but with the martins it's all a numbers game. I try to ensure each egg laid has the optimum conditions to hatch (didn't do so good this year) and each hatchling lives to fledge. I love tending my little flock. I can do a complete nest change/clean out in about two minutes so it's really not a bother. Janie...LOL. Of course he's a guy. No lady would be caught in such an over-indulgence stupor! LOL (All their "parts" are internal, boys and girls,)