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I have a 3 day old chick with pasty butt. She has been weak since she hatched, and the stress of constant cleaning and straining to poop is starting to take a toll. She is definitely more lethargic tonight than she was this morning. What are the best supportive care measures I can take? I am...

I watched this video about looking at wing and tail feathers at 3 weeks old to predict gender. If all the wing feathers are long, and the tail feathers are long, it's a female. If the outer wing feathers are long and the wing feathers nearer the elbow are short, and the tail is short, it's a...

I know this will be long, but I will try to be brief: I set 33 eggs 14 were shipped, they spent 2 days in transit 19 were from a local friend (thanks @WthrLady !!) BUT we were in a major car accident on the way home. Several eggs cracked, and most of the rest had some yolk on them. I washed...

I have a 4 week old bantam chick who got stuck in some wire. He tore a hole through his skin over his breast, just in front of where the wing attaches (there's a little bump of bone there that pushed against the wire and caused the skin to tear in his struggles). The hole is full-thickness, I...

Newly hatched chick was hatched under broody. He seems strong, but his skin has these strange growths. They may be some kind of abnormally formed feathers??? The strange growths are all over the body, but mostly concentrated on the neck. There were two broodies on this nest, and both have...

I am trying to figure out why a pullet died yesterday. I can't find anything obvious. She was in good health and laying eggs the day before. She had her usual sassy attitude and pecked me when I tried to take the egg while she was sitting on the nest. I also saw her on the roost that night...

Humidity has been low all incubation - not sure why as I really tried to keep it up and it's been humid here, but they lost 20% of their weight by day 18. Styrofoam incubator, filled both wells, plus added a dish with a sponge. Anyway, that's done, here we are, day 20 and hatch started early...

Put 13 eggs in the incubator, 11 made it to lockdown. All showed movement on day 18. Yesterday was day 21. Six chicks hatched in the first 24 hours. It now has been approximately 30 hours since hatch began. Of the remaining 5 eggs, 2 are internally pipped, 3 don't show an internal pip or...

This morning I noticed one of my hens was lame. I am sure its been going on at least a little while, but I have been busy the past several days and unable to sit back and observe them as I like to, so can't say exactly when it started. This hen was sitting by herself, feathers fluffed...

I always knew that guineas were social birds, but having 5 hens hatch out nests this summer has emphasized how much they are family birds. The adults take care of the keets, and not just their own. It has gotten so that if we missed catching a keet from the nest (oh catching these fast little...

i have a group of hens, got them as adults. I would like to know how old they are. Is there any way to tell age in adult birds? If I could even just identify a younger bird vs an old hen, that would be helpful. They are all Buckeyes.

You can read the story of my surprise here:https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/guess-what-showed-up-in-the-field-today.1189217/ But the short version is, mama guinea left her nest. I was curious so I went to find it, and several eggs weren't hatched yet. One is halfway hatched, has a...

You know, we had 16 guineas all winter and spring and then 3 weeks ago we lost our first one to a predator (presumed canine) and I knew we lost another one a couple nights ago so I counted them when they went to roost and there were only 10. I knew one hen was on a nest, and we could protect...

Sometime last week (I wasn't home), one of my guinea hens started to set on a nest. We have lots of nighttime predators, coon, fox, and coyotes, and nearly always our nests get attacked. (Only exception, the nest right by the front door). Sometimes the hens survive, sometimes not. We have...

I have a friend who is hatching some eggs from my hens. She just texted me this picture, two of the chicks hatched like this. Is this an unabsorbed yolk sac? Is there anything we can do to help these chicks survive? I have heard of "chick in a cup," is that the appropriate thing to do...

I had originally sorted this chick into the bachelor pen but now I am not sure. If it might be a girl, I will move her back with the others, I don't want her being bullied.

I have a broody guinea hen and decided to let her set on her nest, even though I knew the nest almost certainly would be raided. Indeed, it was, but my first clue something was raiding the nest was the fact that I was finding broken guinea egg shells 10-15 feet away from the nest. That was...

The really short version: 2 of my 12 hens stopped eating and began molting. I can't find any signs of disease. Why did they stop eating? The detailed version: I recently butchered 2 of my hens because they were no longer laying and were beginning to molt. I haven't been checking crops at...

So tonight I butchered a hen that I was sure wasn't laying, and turns out she was actually sick - probably an internal laid egg. I caught her just before roosting time (what a chase around the coop to catch her!) As I butchered, the first clue that something was wrong was that her crop was...

What a week in the coop! Two nights ago my rooster decided to commit suicide by sticking his head through the hole in a cinder block and forgetting that "reverse" was an option. He chose "upside down" instead (didn't work out too well for him). I have been monitoring my hens for signs they...