Recent content by Beverrlly

Update: I treated the hen with .30ccs of oxytetracycline for 4 days straight. She's made a lot of improvement. She can stand and walk around much more and she's eating and drinking on her own without encouragement from us. The swelling between her legs seems to have gone down but isn't gone...

AT least now I feel like I have been doing OK by following my instincts up to this point and at least have a path forward now. Thank you so much for the straight forward and reasonable advice. I'll update this thread in a few days so future chicken owners know what the outcome was.

What kind and dosage would you recommend for an antibiotic? I gave her Bio-Mycin 200 because that's what I had on hand but I can get another antibiotic. I also gave it sub-cutaneously because she's very, very thin and there's not much muscle there. Should I be doing something different...

I'm sorry--I should have been more clear. I meant that in my chicken-keeper past, I've had hens die suddenly. I haven't had any suddenly die in the past 4 years (minus one raccoon attack where cause of death was clear.) I mostly said that to express that I've never nursed a bird back to...

Hello! I've had chickens for many years on and off but I've been (fortunate?) enough to never have a sick bird, just a suddenly dead bird. Here's what I'm dealing with: About the bird: Speckled Sussex, 1.5 years old. Purchased from MyPetChicken as a 6 week old to replace a racoon loss...

So how'd you do it?? Curious minds want to know!

My brother-in-law is interested in getting some chicks and we can't find anything that says if he would be allowed to keep chickens. I found the village code regarding animals and it looks like he can keep chickens but I don't know about Cook County. He lives in Mount Prospect, IL. Village...

Someone asked for a picture of the blue egg. Here's one from our blue egg layer. Everyday we get 1 blue, 1 green and 1 pink. SO pretty! I put it next to a white egg so you could see the color.

Quote: I honestly don't know why I didn't think of that!

The nests have a heat lamp above them that goes on and off again in the morning. If we didn't have this heat lamp, our eggs would freeze LONG before we could get to them. Our hens get up at 1:30am and go to bed at sunset; 4:45pm. The hens were laying at "dawn" and even if we got up at 5am...

I just had to comment that your pond looks so warm and green! I'm so sick of the foot of snow we have on the ground here!

Thanks for your advice! We do have a shed w/electric but it belongs to the goats. I'll try to order them in late April and we can keep them in our small enclosed porch for about 4 weeks tops. After that we run out of room!

We live way up in the Frozen North of North Dakota. The ground here doesn't thaw until about May. Last year I got chicks in June and was able to keep them in the brooder for a few weeks and then put them in the small coop with a heat lamp. I would really like to order chicks earlier this year...

Two days ago DH tripped over the cord for our coop light that is on a timer and it got unplugged without him realizing. Yesterday morning/early afternoon he noticed the light was off and plugged it back in. Yesterday we got 2 eggs. Today we only got 1 egg instead of 2. Is this coincidence...

We live WAAAY up north and it was -40 degrees yesterday (before windchill). Our eggs are pretty much guaranteed to be frozen unless the heat lamp is on. All of ours that froze cracked. The ones that didn't crack were fine for cooking/baking/eating so even if they were frozen, they tasted...