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In 8 weeks we are going to have two Boxer/American Bulldog mix puppies. When they are young, are there health risks to the fascination dogs have with chicken poop? My last dog, who died earlier this summer at the age of 15, was a yellow lab with an iron constitution so I never worried about...

I need a quick and easy way to keep the girls out of the garden (other than keeping them confined to the run ALL the time). I took my eye off of them and they ate all the leaves off the peas. Now that I have some other tender veggie starts, I would like to protect my investment! I am no...

My girls are four years old. Today the Buff Orpington is limping badly, favoring her left side. There is no sign of bumble foot. There is no obvious swelling, or appearance of anything being broken. There is no blood, nor are there scabs. Obviously, though, there is something wrong. She is...

Truth be told, I've been chicken about letting my hens free range. Thus, they had never been outside their run (which is an adequate size). Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and I just decided to let them out. The four of them had a great time, eating grass and foraging under the leaf pile for...

Hello, friends. If you wouldn't mind, please vote for my old lab, Ruby, for this online pageant. She's 14 years old and a sweetie. To vote for her, go to the following link of dogs named Ruby (there are a number of them!) and choose the yellow lab lying in the grass with a chew toy under one...

Dang! I pick my chickens up fairly often and go through their feathers and have never found anything. But today, when I took a couple eggs from the nest, there were four to five little bugs on them (the eggs, that is...). They were extremely tiny and very fast moving. I wouldn't say they...

In the past few days I have noticed several posts by "new members" promoting TV shows with a link. This is all they are posting, so they're not actual BYC forum folk. Prior to the upgrade, we could "report" the thread directly from that page, but now I cannot figure out how to do that. What...

One of my hens, a BR, is out sitting in the nest box, and while waiting to lay her egg, she is delicately picking up pieces of pine shavings and placing them, one by one, on her back. What the heck?

I was reading a thread and everyone's emoticons were replaced by those little question marks....??

We went for a walk around the local wetlands today. Mostly there are Canadian Geese, several varieties of ducks, herons, egrets...and other times of year eagles, trumpeter swans and white pelicans. There is one white domestic duck that has been there for at least a couple of years, and a...

Ok. So first off, do not judge me. I only have four hens in my backyard. It's not like I'm doing this for a flock of 40. With the birds molting and all, I've gotten into the habit of throwing out a handful of freeze dried mealworms in the morning. Lots of protein and all (they are confined...

Three out of four of my hens are in various stages of molt. The coop, of course, looks like someone had a massive pillow fight. Is there any reason to not just leave the feathers there? I haven't been trying to get them out, just turning them into the existing shavings...

And, it's that time of year again. Of my flock of four, I had two early molters, that molted last year. One of my EEs started molting just last week and there are feathers everywhere! She is a darker bird and looks as though she is a pillow that the stuffing is coming out of. Anyway, I've...

Hi. I just noticed that the feathers on my BO's lower back and tail looked raggedy and chewed off at the ends. I immediately suspected mites or lice. I picked her up and gave her a good going over, looking at the skin and the base of the feathers and see nothing. During my inspection, I...

One of my EEs has a ball of hard stuck poop attached to the down under her vent. It is not blocking her vent. She lays fine, although the eggs sometimes have little skid marks To tell you the truth, it's been there for quite some time and I've been avoiding doing anything about it as I am...

Well, my BO, Buffy (of course), went broody. I had mistakenly thought that broodiness has been basically bred out of hatchery birds. Whoops. I kicked her off the nest box this morning (she apparently slept in there last night) and gave her treats when she came down into the run. I took the...

So, Buffy has always been slow to lay the egg. It's not unusual for her to sit in the nest box for a couple of hours before she lays a perfectly ordinary egg. The last couple of days she's been in there even longer. Today, I swear, she was in there 5 hours before she dropped one. Also, the...

So, our next door neighbor has this huge, old cherry tree very close to the property line (he's a renter...I don't know the owner). The cherries are small and tart but the birds love them, as does my Lab. We've been here about three and a half years and it hasn't been an issue. She just poops...

Need to make cole slaw for a potluck on Sunday and am looking for different ideas. What's your favorite recipe? Anyone have a unique twist? Thanks

So, one of my EEs, who used to be so quiet, a stealth layer, has developed an ear piercing egg song. She lays her egg, comes out into the run, jumps on top of the external nest box and paces and sings very, very loudly, much louder than the rest, and usually while another hen is inside trying...