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My current flock of goofballs rarely ever use their nice raised laying boxes. They choose to make a pile on the ground underneath. I had to go to great measures to stop them from laying in the poop under the roost.

It works if you have crows in your area AND they are aggressive to other birds. In my case, yes, I've watched crows chase away hawks. And yes, ever since I put out crow decoys and got black chickens years ago, I haven't lost a single chicken to a hawk. Prior to this, we had multiple hawk encounters.

Possums absolutely kill chickens. I've had 2 attacks where they stripped the necks and removed a head. I saw them in action.

No matter which breed you choose, the less you try to tame them, the better. My friendliest, most tame individuals are the ones that get picked off first. If you need to catch them, you can always get them off the roost in low light.

It's not feasible for me to feed and house spent layers while adding new generations for egg production. I butcher some and may keep an odd few. If you've made pets of them and can't rehome them, I suppose you'll need to wait until they shuffle off this mortal coil before getting chicks again.

I had 2 pairs of hens to co-raise 2 separate clutches this spring. I made sure food and water were accessible to the chicks and let the free-ranging mothers do the rest. They were wild little suckers, but are getting better with time. If I wanted them more tame, I would have kept them enclosed...

Crows chase hawks in my area, so I put out 2 crow decoys. I also got some black chickens. I haven't had a hawk attack since.

I had 2 pairs of Black Australorps to co-raise 2 separate clutches at the same time. My Blk Australorps are perpetually broody, but this was the first time I let them hatch eggs. The new birds, now 15 wks old are more afraid of me than any chickens I've ever had. That's understandable, since...

Go ahead with the fruit trees. You keep fruit trees pruned for best production and ease of harvesting, so they don't get that large to offer the most attractive resting spot for hawks. The only issue would be your fungus and pest control method. You'd need to be careful about what chemicals you...

I'm not good at using the wing feather method. It takes me a little longer to start see sex differences. Tail development, leg size and how upright they hold themselves are my tells.

Every time I think about getting one, I remember the night a possum was hiding in the coop when I closed the door myself. The chickens had no way to escape when he started slicing and dicing. It taught me to make sure there are no monsters under the bed before tucking them in. I don't think I...

I can totally see how an egg can cook in the shell in a hot environment. Our ducks used to lay eggs inside a metal drum. You could hear them exploding in the heat. The whites did appear to be partially set.

It works best for me to dunk their lower bodies or run the cold water on their undersides to cool them off. But my Black Australorps are the World Champions of Broody. Nothing but a few days in a wire pen raised off the ground for air circulation will snap them out of their raging hormones. A...

I haven't read all of the responses, but my first thought is that 102 degrees isn't even as high as a chicken's body temperature, so the situation was not dire. Yes, when the summer turns up the heat, your proactive modifications will be important.

I only stress when they don't budge off the nest inside a metal coop in 100+ degree temps. I've had some that probably would have died waiting on chicks that were never going to materialize.

I need to replace my incubator, but I'd really like to let the hen do the raisin' of the next brood.

As a long-time chicken keeper, my setups and methods change as my flocks change. One big change I'm making now involves my stance on roosters and broody hens. For me, roosters have been more trouble to the hens than they're worth--until circumstances in the world took a drastic turn. With...

I am a low maintenance method gal, so cleaning multiple coops wouldn't take that much more effort. I have a chickshaw and a more stationary coop. The chickshaw is used more for separating babies until they can be integrated, but I have used it as my main coop. If I happen to leave it open when...

When you see how fast they decimate every sign of living greenery growing in the run, you'll see why bigger is better. You can set it up so that you can rotate the area where they go, allowing the other area to regrow while they're off of it.

Until I get a picture, you can search for "clear pvc roof panels" or "clear polycarbonate roof panels" sold by building material suppliers.