Recent content by seattleattic

Thanks everyone. She HAS stopped laying. She's depressed. We let her out and keep her close to use so she can scratch around in the yard for a couple hours, but she's not used to that. She's used to freedom. We are fortunate to have a HUGE yard and the girls would be let out early in the...

Thanks. My worry is that she would be the newcomer in a new flock. I don't know what's worse, having her be alone or having her be the odd girl out in a new flock. She's such a sweet girl.

Hi! I am in Northeast Seattle by Nathan Hale High School. I see you posted this back in March, but I wanted to reply anyway. We had a similar problem here. We have had chickens since 2012, neighbor started feeding raccoons two doors down three years ago. Raccoons have killed four of our...

It's been ages since I've posted a question on this website, but I am here with a question I never thought I'd need to ask. We've had chickens since 2012. We have a large backyard and the girls were able to happily free range. Then three years ago a neighbor started feeding raccoons two...

Hi, my 1-year-old Ameraucana's cloaca is red, swollen and sticking out of her bum. There is also a whitish film on one side. The feathers just above her bum are dirty and they're matted. Should we take to vet? Two days in a row her eggs have been bloody on the outside. This has to be...

Hi, we have five chickens and would like more. We can have three to four more chickens. I thought it would be a neat project to get one or two of our chickens pregnant but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. However, I have some questions: 1. Is it possible to "hire" a rooster? In...

OK all, so here is what I have done so far. I put in a plywood floor and my mom and I lifted the coop onto concrete blocks. It's really heavy, so it did not occur to me that it might slide around. I'll have to look into that. We put a block under each corner and one smack in the center...

Hi (Hola!) from Seattle, Washington! I am new to the chicken game as well and I think that a roof offers many benefits (protection from predators, protection from sun, wind, rain and keeps the chickens from flying out). I think the key word here is protection. You won't want to be worrying at...

Thanks everyone! And hi to my Pacific Northwest Neighbors! I bought pellets yesterday at the feed store and today will finish the cage. We have DE that we have used on the dog and her bedding, so I can use that as well. The young woman at the store reminded me that I will still need straw...

Wow! Thanks everyone! It's nice to hear from people across the country, but especially from my own Pacific Northwest. We have funny weather here and it's nice that there are others here who can offer words of wisdom about keeping our chickens safe from the cold, damp winters and crazy summer...

Hi, I like that the cage/coop I built is wrapped in hardware cloth. I've been so nervous since we purchased a coop kit with 1" wiring and I knew even as a newbie that 1/2" was the way to go. Now I am just working on the floor!

Hi, we have two cats. They are afraid of the chickens. The older cat chases mice and the younger one doesn't know how. Our black lab loves the chickens. We introduced them to her when they were chicks. She was curious but we trained her to be nice and now she tries to play with them. If...

We are new to the chicken thing. We got our chicks at Easter after discussing it for about two years. It used to be that in Seattle we could only have three chickens and you could have more depending on the size of your lot. Now I've been told it's eight chickens! We have five (Amber White...

Thank you! I am so happy to be here. I will go with plywood for the floor and today will go to the feed store for the horse pellets. I'm really nervous about the rats. My other question is about whether I should add posts to my existing cage or whether it would be OK to stand it up on...

Hello, new here to Backyard Chickens! We have a tiny coop, so I began to build a tractor/run thing. It's almost completed and I wonder if I should turn it into a coop/cage for the chickens. Initially this was just going to be a run attached to a coop I would later build, but since they...