Recent content by cleoppa

Hello, I have 11 chickens in a pen with a chicken coop. Ten hens, one rooster. A mix of Ameracauna, Australorp, White Leghorn and Rhode Island Red. They are six months old and just started laying. As far as I can tell from the egg colors, all were laying. They have a nice sized pen and a coop...

Hello, We purchased 25 chicks from McMurray Hatchery. We did the "Choice Layers" mix, which is pretty much a random assortment of good-laying pullets. It also included a free "rare exotic chick." However, we had some terrible luck and ended up with 11 chickens in the end. They were hatched...

Hello, So I've had chickens about 2 years. I grew up in a place that pretty much never froze and it rarely does here. Well, it's fixing to be a cold, cold winter. I've already had their water freeze over once. I gave them a dish of liquid water and it was cool. However, I'm planning on going...

Hi, I've been raising egg-laying chickens for about a year and a half now. My fiance and I were talking about raising chickens for meat. This isn't something I'd really contemplated before, but if it's something we want to do in the future, I want to think through coop sizes and stuff. So...

So... do they actually have to be in the light to benefit from it? Like, I have a chicken pen that's mostly shaded. And I have a large backyard that's mostly sunny. But the chickens need to share that with the dog. So... will it make a difference in egg laying if, say, I left them 100% in the...

It started with my wooden egg showing up all over the yard. Now he's going after the real eggs. Thankfully, as far as I know, he hasn't cracked one yet. But that would be quite disastrous if he did. Any ideas on how to get him to not think they're chew toys? Cayenne pepper on the eggs?

I think I figured it out! Maybe. My dog just brought it into the house! This is a very weird dog who doesn't often play with toys and I've never seen drag things around the yard. But he thought this was a cool toy. So... either he's been moving it around the yard or he thought it smelled...

I have two wooden eggs--one in the nest box in the pen and one in their favorite nest in my backyard. Two times in the last couple days I've found the wooden egg out in the middle of the yard. The first time I found it was at night. But today I found it during the day and I THINK I'd checked the...

Thanks. I have their wing feathers clipped. Should I be able to tell if she's going through a moult by the feathers? Or if it's a light moult will they still be clipped? How long do moults generally last?

Can't help you. I just posted a similar question. But I bet it would help the experts to know age, breed, etc.

I have 6 chickens: 3 Ameraucanas (lay green eggs), 1 Australorp (lays brown eggs), 1 Buff Orpington (lays brown eggs) and 1 Brown Leghorn (lays white eggs). They were hatched in March. At the end of July I got my first egg. Within a few weeks they were all laying. About a month ago, I stopped...

Hello, I have 6 hens. They were hatched in March. I have a nice pen for them. It's roomy and next to a shed, so it's got somewhat of a windbreak. There are trees close and part of it is roofed. There's also a structure that a friend gave me. She'd had chickens and was moving out of the area...

Has anyone noticed a decrease in your flea population with chickens? I seem to have noticed a decrease in fleas (on my indoor dog), but it doesn't really make sense to me that the chickens would be responsible. But that's the only explanation I can come up with at the moment. The chickens...

I'm loving giving everything to the chickens. When I go out to eat with a friend, they think I'm totally wacko (wait, I think they thought that before I had chickens) because I ask for their leftover rice, lettuce garnish, pizza crusts, beans, french fries, etc., to take home to the chickies. I...

Bad chickies are laying them around the yard. So... don't know how old they are and it's been mighty hot here. I doubt they're more than a couple days old, though. I know if you don't clean the eggs, they have a protective layer. But if you find an egg in your yard, how do you know if it's...