Recent content by ABchickenguy

Thanks for the pictures. I made one very similar to yours and suspended the heating pad underneath the frame with paracord. I then encased it all in a pillow case. That way it is soft on the underside for them to push up against. I also used paracord to suspend it above the ground and draped a...

Incubating and hatching a double yolk is rare. Usually one chick will be stunted or they will both die as there isnt enough air or room for both. I had one like that from one of my Australorp hens this summer. Looked the same and weighed 98 grams. It was a double yolk as well. :D

Try candling it and see if it's a double yolker.

Is the patch where that came from raw or just a bald spot now? Any chance of a picture of that area?

I went through the same thing with a hen. You did the right thing by putting her out of her misery.

Good job on the updates and great story.

You could do a diagonal ladder setup for roosting. Hinge it to the wall to make it easy to flip up for cleaning under it. Use a gate latch,hook and eye, to hold the lower end up towards the roof to hold it up. The exterior nest boxes could have a flip up roof for access if they are lower down...

I used an external laying box setup as my coop is pretty small. That way I don't have to bend down to collect eggs too. That frees up more internal space if you need it.

I would suggest a ladder style roost that has enough space for all the birds (about 12" per bird). You could make it hinged so it flips up out of the way for easier cleaning. If you need more room you could have the high side over the chicken door. Oops. After looking at you sketch I would keep...

I would ditch the inside waterers and feeders as they basically sleep and poop at night. Then you may be able to rework the interior of the coop to make it more efficient. How tall is the interior? Can you stand up comfortably now?

Can you post a rough sketch so we get a better idea what you are planning? Then perhaps you could get some more ideas from people who have tried different things out and save you some headaches. Just a thought.

I built my shed style coop and run with dimensional lumber lengths just because that is the space I had available to me. It ended up being 8 x 16 with the coop 4 x 8. If I had more space I would have made the coop 6 x 8 or even 8 x 8. The coop size works fine for my 6 hens and would work for 10...

Thanks for the links. I had found the second link you listed and that's the one that lead me to believe that it could be Salpingitis. These masses were too hard and large to pass so I did the right thing for her after all. At least I can sleep well tonight now. It's a relief that it's not...

After some extensive googling it appears as though this is Salpingitis. Also referred to as Lash eggs. Always fatal once discovered. RIP Dottie.

I puchased this Silver Laced Wyandotte in June of this year and when I got her home I discovered that she was stricken with "Fly Strike" and lice. I was able to get her fixed up and was told that she was shy. She displayed the following symptoms from the time I got her. Poor appetite...