Recent content by backyardwitches

I really hope your hens are just young and they will figure it out eventually. My Maggie, went from producing too many to none.. She will lay an excuse of an egg once a month, if that, and they are getting smaller and smaller.. no yoke, just a bit of egg white.. She also crows like a rooster...

Thank you both for the reassurance. I really hope she gives them some more time, they look way too young to be without a mother.

She had the first egg 2 days ago, the chicks were 2 weeks and 3 days old and then again she lay an egg today. She still takes care of her babies, calling them to eat and sleeping with them, but I'm worried she might leave them soon. They are all together with the rest of the flock and nobody...

Thank you for all the help! We got mom and babies outside for a bit (it started to rain so had to cut their walk short and got her back in the hen house) and she seems to be doing a bit better after she had a big smelly poop and ate some grass and walked a bit (with a lot of encouragement). I...

I tried to move her, twice! I moved the eggs! she just ran back to the empty nest and started calling the chicks to her... they ran after her and back to the nest.. so I removed the separation from between the two nests and they now have quite a spacious area of the two nests combined.. she lets...

so this morning, they are 3 healthy looking, very curious fluffy chicks and 3 eggs with no signs of hatching. I know one of the eggs will not hatch for certain, and one I took by mistake and kept away for few hours on day 2, but looked healthy when candled on day 11. The third one I never...

Thank you, Jajika Yes, it feels good to share. I wish I had answers, I really don't want to lose her, she has character, I like her. I hope you are right about the weather.

did your hen started laying again? did you figure out what was the problem?

update: Maggie has settled into laying an egg once a month.. I started noticing her feathers here and there, like she is loosing feathers. She does not look sick, but she does look like she might be molting. She is acting like a very good rooster, even sitting eggs while the mom was taking her...

chicks are still hatching, maybe I should wait for her to be ready to take them outside the nest, I will let them stay in the hen house until they are all moving around (it's closed off from the rest of the birds), it's small space a little over 3x3 ft + 2 nesting boxes. One of the others is...

I am afraid to move her but offered some water from a cup and she had a few gulps.. I changed the food (i left her some sunflower seeds and and grain a couple of days ago - it's her favorite) to baby chick feed and put a small dish with pebbles and water for the babies. One boldly peaked at me...

the first baby is out!! The mama has not moved from the nest for 2 days. Should I be worried?

Update. All the hens have been locked out, but my rooster hen(Maggie) was extremely worried, and was nervously circling the coop a couple of times so I let her in, she checked on her sister and went around with her normal day.. she usually spends an hour with the eggs every morning, so I guess...

by the way when I went to get the one extra hen out of the nest (the other one has left) there was no eggs under her, all the eggs were under their moms, like I left them in the morning. The other two were outside but kept close by.. could they just be providing support?

thank you! I got other two out of the nests and close them out, but at some point they will have to need a place to lay eggs and usually they are not happy with the one that has been separated from the group. I don't want then attacking the mother hen and the babies