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We have enough roosters already, thanks. By "successfully" I don't mean brutally. At this point I don't want to condition her away from broodiness, altho a response that entertains that consideration is welcome too.

Problems are, they stopped laying before winter set in here in Canada's Rocky Mtns., then a bear came, ripped open the coop sidewall & ate 5 out of 45 of our chickens, so that's gotta traumatize the rest? I heard I could check their vent/cloaca for suppleness then prep the rest for dog food...

She keeps protectively pecking at my hand. I suppose I could use a shovel handle, but I already feel like I'm disrupting a natural process, but it isn't it too hot a season for broodyness to successful conclusion? ... There, I did it. One mere egg forming the so called "pile". I guess the...

Got one sitting firm already this spring (it's been a cold spring, at night, anyway). Tomorrow when i feed them she'll likely come off to eat and then I can see how many in her pile. OFC, it's different for a Bantam, but an optimum for pile size of chickens large and small would be appreciated...

It's even organic. My partner got it. Don't know what or if she paid for it, really. But we have lots of it now. I was joking about it going off in their guts, but surely i could only be joking about that, right? Really is popping corn good food for chickens, given they get layer pellets & other...

Our broody hen is on a shelf and should be moved to a more spacious penned in space...or so I believe? My guess is sooner the better. Then too I can control from extra eggs laid on that pile. We have a 12 egg pile and maybe the broody bordering on Bantam size should reduce size to fewer eggs...

Hi, Friends want to overwinter their birds at our Winter Chicken Palace -- really just a larger lusher warmer coop than they got. They want to band their chickens to ID them at winter's end. Any ideas of what can be used that's humane (doesn't hurt, nor get them caught up in fencing or whatever...

We're arguing here whether better to leave the broodies be where they are or sequester them from rest of flock...or within the flock by putting screens over the boxes they're in. Realizing pix are needed: the 1st pic shows a pile where the broody had just got off, probably expecting i was coming...

Hi, Was just opening beds in garden near chicken run, looking at the dense Kooch grass, AKA quack or twitch grass, along the fence line. This weed is worldwide. Anyway, I thought wouldn't it be cool to have some things chickens like to eat growing along that fence line instead. Maybe something...

It's like mid May and still no broodyness? I know it may be out of my reach, like the spring weather patterns. Hmm, at least in my previous 2 years with chickens I believe they went broody by now. I kinda remember late March the 1st year. ...but i dont trust my memory...its accuracy, anyway. I...

...which requires -- in this case -- sea salt, is what we got. Maybe (I dunno at all) you've been told high sodium diet is bad for chickens. Well, in the balance, which sea salt is in, replete with many other trace minerals -- it may be just what the doctor ordered. For instance, i know that...

There are probably a few such threads I didn't see in my albeit cursory search beforehand here. We've had some outsized duckish eggs, but this one takes cake for miss-shapeness. Here's a few pics for a rounded sense of its unroundedness. Plus a pick comparing to a medium-large-ish size egg from...

Do we segregate the broody ma-to-be or let nature take its course? I'd think the former, considering the other birds in what's supposed to be the same flock will steal food meant for chicks. Then if segregated certainly there oughta be a time limit on that, but i dunno what? Then i feel...

Yes, I'd like someone to write on this topic. My neighbour's dog killed 15 of our chickens. We received 6 pullets in exchange -- no biggie. That's all they had or could offer. Before this incident the weather had turned colder and egg laying had already dipped, became sporadic. After the...

Hey All, Just got our chicken tractor built and now today operating. Now day's ending I'm thinking it best to leave the chickens in there, provide a roosting bar or two, tarp it over. This cuz I want them to take down that grass, but mostly I've got a broody in the coop and this chills (calms)...

It may be the weather turning back cold often enuf to keep the hens off their eggs, but i do think there's been 'nuf warmth, signs of spring etc, so i'm confused/surprised as to why not yet? Yes they are grouping their eggs and sitting on them longer than usual, but when i go in they come off...

Hi, It's kinda the other way around. i originally put the mobile coop in the raspberry patch so to fertilize and keep constricting grasses down. Now canes are springing back with spring weather, I wanted the chickens out of there in case they'd eat up our raspberry sprouts. So far looks like...

Hi, I let the chickens into the garden to clean up aphid larvae etc and basically just to cut 'em loose as spring sprung with a nice sunny day. They had plenty of fun so wasn't so dampening by the time my partner cried out, "what about the garlic we planted last fall!" You could see they were...

Hi folks, Been a while since I posted. We went away for 3 weeks and came home to wet stinky deep litter in our coop. We, like most around northern North America, have had a tremendous winter, that still persists into spring. So maybe from the snow melt and surely partly from a leaky watering...

Hi, was getting 2 eggs then 4 eggs. Got about 35 hens, usually get a dozen or more per day. Not sure all have come into laying age as yet. turned on lights daily since the birds stopped laying. Haven't been altogether consistent in timing the lights unfortunately since dont have a working timer...