Recent content by Lennie

Yeah well, I'm not too concerned about her having no feathers around her chin since she's otherwise a happy and healthy hen. It's probably a genetic freak occurrence amongst EE's. At this point, she's probably glad not having a beard, because summer temps are on the rise... LOL

I'm curious if your EEs are growing their beard/neck feathers back. I have two EEs that are 16 months old ow. Both went into a molt in late Fall. The one took about 3 months before she started laying again. The other was through in about 6 weeks. Lola, the one that took forever never grew her...

Very rarely is there poop in the nest box, but if there is one, I use a cat litter scooper that I keep together with a dust pan right next to the nest box. I clean off the poop board below the roost using these utensils also and there is a poop bucket in the coop to dump it all in. To clean the...

Eggs come naturally with a protective coating that keeps bacteria from getting inside. No need to wash eggs that don't 'look' dirty. If you wash the eggs, you're washing off its natural protection. Hence, eggs keep longer unwashed. Of course, if they're badly soiled from poop or blood, go ahead...

Carpet cleaning would be one thing (although my house is mostly tile), but imagine having that chicken hopping around in your bed!

Since my 1st EE (I have two) - she is definitely the smartest of my small flock of four chickens - has been molting for almost 3 months now, she's become even smarter. Whenever she hears or sees me coming out of the back door, she literally comes flying towards me and then follows me around on...

Yeah, I've come upon this article a while ago too, but what didn't quite match up was the statement about "poor" layers equal early molters. I don't think I can expect my chickens to lay more than 1 egg per hen every day, can I? LOL Yet, they went into a molt after laying for only 3 months at...

If these are just mini-molts, I'm not looking forward to when they're going into their hard "real" molts They'll be running naked for months and freeze their little behinds off?

Quote: It didn't look like a mini-molt for the two that went through it starting at 6 months. They lost all their tail/wing/neck and head feathers. The polish was completely naked around her neck for a couple of weeks. As soon as they started molting, I gave them lots of extra protein in form...

Cathryn - that is very reassuring to hear that there are others out there with less than year old chickens that are molting and not laying for a long time. I was beginning to think that I have very strange chickens that aren't normal...LOL Maybe it's the Bay Area climate that makes those...

I have a total of 4 hens. 2 hens (a polish and an EE) that were born March 1 and 2 hens (an australorp and an EE) that were born at the end of March. All 4 of them started laying at 20-22 weeks. At the end of September when they were then 6 months old, the first born chickens stopped laying and...

I forgot to add that the two molting hens also stopped squatting and are everything BUT submissive. Now, they're complaining all the time. Before they were so sweet and submissive.

I have two hens that started molting this week. The interesting thing to me is that they are both exactly the same age (only 7 months) and are from the same supplier (Murray McMurray), but completely different breeds. One is a golden laced polish - the other an EE. Both also quit laying last...

I just added myself to the spreadsheet. I don't have any birds to sell, but I was wondering if anybody would have use for 1/2 a bag (maybe 25 lbs.) of Purina "Start & Grow" crumbles (medicated). I'm not looking to sell that, but it would go to waste if I let it sit in my garage. My four girls...

My 7 months old golden laced Polish hen Lennie (aka 'Feather Head'). She is the boss over the small flock of 4 and lays an egg every other day.