Recent content by CityGirl35

My Arecauna has been a great layer, outperforming the other 3 usually. This morning, though, her blue egg was teeny-tiny, and seemed almost empty….no bigger than a marble and weighs next to nothing. But perfectly formed. Crazy!

Seems to me that literally 10 seconds of dunking was not that cruel. To me it would be harder to separate a social animal from her flock-mates for 4 or 5 days. And that one dunking cured her and it hasn't happened since. I would never be cruel to my chickens but I do accept that what seems cruel...

I was going to set up a broody prison but before I went to that work, I decided to try another tip I read somewhere at BYC. My broody gal is a black Australorpe, sweet and friendly and a good layer. But she went broody last year for a couple of weeks and eventually it just ended. This time I was...

What wise counselors you have! Chickens are definitely a wonderful antidote for our disconnection from the natural world. Just watching my five girls scratch and peck and stretch their wings....and gathering their precious, beautiful eggs.... it truly does give me a lift! PLUS: it is my JOB to...

Dried mealyworms--yeah, ha ha--they do act CRAZY when they see and hear that canister! I also buy black sunflower seeds at Southern States. Also, there is always a bowl on the counter and every little bit of kitchen scrap that is good for them (I printed out the list I got from here) goes into...

I have five full-grown hens in my urban backyard, and there is ahawk, or more than one, that just bedevils them. We have strung fishing line back and forth from my tall wooden fences, but they will come and perch on the fence, trying to figure out how to get in, and my gals just freak out and...

Okay, here's what I'm going to do, thanks to all the suggestions. I've put together what I hope will work, since the Rat Zapper is not (so far), the snap traps are unsnapped, and I've already gotten much better about keeping food contained and put away at night. I have a chicken tractor that I...

Maybe it's where in the U.S. one lives? My friend has a large diversified farm about 60 miles from Richmond, where I live. He has 200+ chickens, cows, goats, pigs, turkeys, etc. A skunk got into the chicken house and ate 100 baby chicks...I think they just drink the blood...before my friend...

We're among the fishing-line people. We have high (9 foot) wooden privacy fences on 3 sides, a lower 6-foot fence on the 4th side. On that side my son put some strips of wood to extend the height of the fence. Then he criss-crossed our whole surburban backyard--maybe 1/5 of an acre--with fishing...

Lordy!! Now YOU'VE got predator problems! I feel kind of goofy complaining about my ONE juvenile hawk! I am impressed and happy at your fabulous Ft. Knox house and the baby monitor is very cool. Good luck! Wow, the YUKON!

I too fear that the hawk that is bedeviling my girls is also a juvenile. He could have killed one of the gals, or the squirrel that was just in his face screeching at him, but he didn't. He's hungry and smart but doesn't quite seem to know what to do. I know he couldn't carry off one of my fat...

I believe that is Livestock Guardian Dogs and Birds of Prey. One is good, one is....well, depends on your point of view!

Hawks are my big problem. I live in a suburb of a mid-size southern city, and the measure is before City Council to allow backyard chickens. In other words, I anticipated a successful passage of a pro-chicken ordinance. SO, until that happy day, NOISE is a problem, and brother, do my gals make...

She seemed to enjoy the frozen peas. I guess I'll just stick my hand under her and grab any eggs and let her be broody. She has seemed to leave the nest BRIEFLY to eat and drink, so I am thinking I can just let her pretend she's going to be a Mama.

I'm going out there right now with a bag of frozen peas. I reached right under her this morning and pulled out 3 eggs, and also the fake wooden egg I was keeping in there. Thanks for the hints.