Recent content by MetallicBlue

Thanks, that answers my questions.

I believe we've just encountered Marek's disease. A couple weeks ago one of my 3 month old chicks all of a suddenly couldn't walk. No signs of injury or attack. We took her into the house to help her but she slowly deteriorated and died a couple weeks later. Now her last surviving sister is...

No idea what size mm is. My leghorns have I think 11s and 12s. I didn't put bands on them until they were pretty well full grown. We snip them off and put new ones on (same color of course) once a year. I need to do it again. The rest of the birds I can tell apart by looking, but not them...

Thanks! Needed the info.

Rural King sells the leg bands too. They're much cheaper. They're much cheaper on feed also, so if you have one within driving distance, count your blessings. I don't see the leg bands online, but I did see them on the wall at the register when I checked out.

Great ideas here. We just got 4 new 1 week olds. I did have a toilet paper roll laying around so I put that in. They don't seem impressed. I'll have to look into some of the other ideas.

We just had our first chickhawk incident. Eartha is dead, her throat was ripped out. Does anyone know what will scare the hawks out of the area?

Well I've just taken a look and I didn't see any bugs. The more I look closely at their butts, the more it looks like they may just be molting. They are showing no signs of distress. Everyone is still laying, active and busy through the day. I was trying to get some pics, but they weren't...

I was wondering what your take is on using basil to control mites/lice. I remember reading something about it somewhere. It sounded pretty effective, I just can't remember where I read about it. I have 8 hens who are a little over a year old and 4 of them seem to have bare butts. I'm going...

Everyone has been doing much better as far as the bumblefoot goes. All swelling is down and no one is acting funny. I did notice a scab on Ruby's foot which I want to keep an eye on. I don't want to cut it out unless I have to.

I had used the spiral ones. They worked great for a while until the one on Violet's leg cut into her. We got it off and treated the wound. I had been told to use a size 9 for a leghorn hen, but obviously Violet needs a larger band. I've ordered some in size 10 and 11. Violet will be getting...

Does anyone have a good idea on how to crush oyster shells? I can get them from a local restaurant for free. When I tried to crush them with a 10lb sludge hammer I broke the stone under them. Any ideas would be helpful.

I've been dealing with bumblefoot on a few of my hens. One has it on her toe, should I lance the toe to get the gunk out ? I got the plug out on the bottom, but I couldn't seem to get anything to come out. I hate cuting on them if I don't have to. With Ruby I let it go too long. I didn't...

I wouldn't put her down unless you need to cull your flock. Mine are all quasi pets, so no one gets culled. 9 months and no eggs? Is that normal for her breed? I know when it's really hot here some of my girls don't lay for a day or two. I think they just get stressed and it messes with...

Dogs are not the bad guys. They sometimes cause heartache, but you love them anyway. I have 3 dogs. Two are fine with chickens and one is not. He didn't even so much as look at my chickens for over a week. We thought that meant he'd be fine with them. Then in the span of about 2 hours he...