Recent content by KaterCheek

So glad to hear about this! The bin got rain in it, and I thought I'd have to throw that food away. P.S. Our rabbit likes to eat the chicken food too.

Most of mine lay at 4-6 months, but they don't lay at all in the summer, so if their maturity time hits the hot months, it will get delayed until it cools off.

My hen does this too. All the other hens roost inside the henhouse, she likes to be on top. She has to fly THROUGH a thick thorny tree to get there. I tried putting her inside, but finally just let her be. She's not bothering anyone there and we don't have any predators to bother her.

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5/16/14:00

I had the same problem. For a while, I was shoving them in, and that worked for a time, but the youngest hens STILL would rather sleep outside, even though there's now ample room inside the henhouse.

Sounds like raccoons to me. Would it be too expensive to borrow a night-vision camera and find out for sure? Maybe put out powder or mud and see if you can get prints? So sorry for your loss!

If you have birds, predators are always going to be a problem. It's your yard and your property as far as other humans are concerned, but those walls are going to be ignored by the feral cats, dogs, hawks, coyotes, foxes, raccoons or owls who notice you have food wandering around. If you catch...

I killed my lawn (hate lawns, they don't belong in the desert) but when I have grass growing as weeds, sometimes I pull clumps for them to eat. I hold the clump still and they pluck bits off the end. It's best to wear gloves, because sometimes they get a little too close to my hands, and those...

Oh those chicks are so cute! I love how you managed to get the picture in that brief window between a clean cage and hopelessly soiled. Now I want to get some chicks of my own (but I can't as I already have the max # of hens allowed by my city. )

My hen, Bella, has a bald spot on her belly, close to her feet. I thought she was just plucking due to stress, and thought it might be because of the heat, but it's cooled off now and her spot looks as bad as ever. She's molting a little, but this has been going on for several weeks and doesn't...

I'm trying to picture cleaning up poop out of sand...like one giant litter box. It makes me shudder. You guys must have small coops. My henhouse (where they sleep) is 4' x 4'. The coop/run area (where they spend the day) is about 10' by 15'. Raking poop out of that much sand would drive me...

It looks pretty good to me.

The poor thing. Are they crowded? Is 13 hens more than you usually have? If they're crowded, then removing her won't likely ease the situation--they'll just find someone else to pick on. Seems like the easy solution is to find someone with only one or two very gentle hens and ask them to take...

They sell compressed pine sawdust for use in horse stalls. I tried to use it as cat litter. It's no good for cat litter, but it's fairly cheap and is good at absorbing waste and smells.