Posts by Stormy Autumn

If you're in Tampa please check out the website I put together about the city's chicken laws. There is a council meeting on April 26th when they'll decide if chickens should officially be legal. Hopefully this is not considered...

Perlite is actually a type of volcanic stone, so they should be able to eat it just like grit. Some of the cheaper potting soil has actual styrofoam balls in it (which is spongey instead of crunchy like perlite) and I'm not sure if it...

It might be a nutrition thing. Turkeys need different vitamins than chickens do, and I believe they need a lot more protein (although I've never raised them myself). The very first thing I would recommend is switching to gamebird...

Your vet can test for salmonella if you're really worried about it. They will take a sample of poo or blood and check it for the bacteria.   One thing a lot of people don't realize is that when chickens and ducks get...

Ducks think that anything new is poison. I tried to feed mine a bowl of blueberries once and they just circled around it with their necks stretched out, eyeing it sideways and wondering why I would try to poison them yet again. Your...

I've heard of this problem before, although I don't know what the solution is. All I can say is that I think it is your computer, or possibly just your web browser. It shows up when you visit this site because backyardchickens uses...

The Tampa, FL city council will be holding a workshop to determine whether or not the city ordinance for owning chickens should be rewritten. It will be held at 9am on Thursday, April 26th. Here are some links about the workshop if...

I forgot to mention something... if the duck is only a few days old, it just might not have the hang of walking yet. They can be really wobbly at first. If it's older, I would say it's probably a vitamin problem.

It sounds like either splay leg, which is caused by walking on slippery surfaces, or a vitamin deficiency. Make sure their bedding is something they can get traction on (wood shavings, corn cob, a towel, etc) and not something slick like...

My runner drake does the same exact thing, even the part about wanting his back petted. I feel bad because I've even stepped on his feet a couple of times by accident... but he doesn't care! Nothing stops him. It helps if you carry a...