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I have a hen that is currently recovering from a very bad gut impaction. This was NOT a crop impaction, which is the main thing that there's a lot of info for online - really not easy to find info on gizzard or intestinal impactions for birds by comparison. My hen's impaction definitely started...

What is the best tool to quickly/efficiently and also safely take of small amounts from the end of the spur, such as 1/4in or a bit more? I have nail trimmers for my 80lb dog, but her nails seem softer than the spurs and I'm worried the timmers might crack the spur. Normally I trust...

I need to add curtains to at least a one of my wooden nest boxes pretty quickly since I have two pullets who are becoming increasingly fixated on wanting to get into very dark nooks rather than going into my mostly-open-front nest boxes. 7 hens and 5 other pullets are happy with my nest box...

I have a rooster that recently got northern fowl mites; I am rigorous with physical inspections including butt inspections every 1-2 days on all my birds, so I caught it probably as fast as was reasonably possible and am treating aggressively with permethrin, and it hasn't spread to other birds...

I have raised three roos so far, and I've maintained a very friendly relationship with all of them. When I let my flocks out to forage, my roos sometimes bring me stuff and tidbit with it to get my attention - but they don't bring me food like they do for the hens; it's other stuff they find...

I am going to need to get some new pullets soon to better balance out my flock. Ideally I want to minimize risk of losing birds to chronic/terminal reproductive issues but most likely will have to get feed store hatchery pullets. For folks who have gotten loads of hatchery birds, are there some...

I have a large garter snake that has taken up residence under my house's front step. I have tried to deter it via cayenne pepper around gaps, which only works until it rains, then it's back. It's getting more and more aggressive and today darted out and started attacking my boot - wouldn't leave...

For those who have LGDs or other guard dogs protecting some combination of your home, land, and other animals...what is your setup and protocol if you have guests staying with you? How do you explain how to interact with the dog to guests, and what do you do if they don't follow the protocol...

If a hen was raised by a broody mom and goes broody herself, is she more likely to mother the chicks well than if she was in a brooder? Or is much of the mothering behavior post-hatch just down to genetics again? My first round of chickens were all feed store pullets raised by me; two went...

I'm converting an old shed on my property that used to be a coop back into one. In some respects it looks pretty horrible and at times I've wondered whether it was worth it, but actually most of the wood seems in good shape still. I thought I would start a thread both to get ideas on some...

I'm getting a chipper soon and have a bunch of larger wood chunks that have been drying for months - some of them around a year. I've read that wood chips need to be dried for a bit before becoming run bedding. However, if the wood has already sat for a long time like it would to become...

I feel I should share my recent hen saddle fiasco, which is now resolved, but while it was ongoing it was just bizarre chaos. I have a modest sized flock that includes a hen called Buddy. Buddy got what looked like tree sap in her back feathers a while back (I still have no idea how) and...

This is Vanilla Bean; he's a giant cochin cross (don't know for sure what the other half is). His father was a giant cochin with a reddish color (kind of like the RIR color - is that just called "red"?). All I really know about mom is that she was a brown egg layer. I'm trying to figure out...

I have a roughly 5-month-old cockerel called Junior who is exhibiting a weird food-related behavior and I'm trying to figure out if it's just part of "that hormonal phase" and will pass, or if there could be an actual nutrition issue that I need to address. I have 10 chickens of various ages and...

I just got an outdoor outlet installed that will let me run a heated waterer on an extension cord. That solves the issue of bringing water out multiple times per day when the high is 15F, but I have another problem: my setup is in two halves, a secure area completely enclosed in 1/2in HWC and a...

I have a pair of 8-week-old chicks, a cockerel called Vanilla Bean and a pullet called Coco Bean, collectively "the beans." They are barnyard mixes of Cochin, BR, and BO. They are built like little sumo wrestlers but are not very big otherwise; maybe 2.5lbs right now. They are fully feathered...

I have a run extension that only gets used during the daytime. It has a latch like this. I only put a lock on it if no one will be home for a bit so I can otherwise go in and out easily. I know it is not the most secure without a lock, but it is honestly fiddly enough for even me that I have not...

This is Monster, one of four 12-week-old BRxBO cross chicks I hatched this summer. I feel like everyone is surely going to say Monster is a big ol' boy, but this bird has really been confusing me on a few points. Monster is over 3.5lbs. Might be closer to 4; hard to get an exact reading on a...

I have a hen called Brownie who was completely normal a week ago. One morning she started bouncing around being silly in the cool breeze; she went out of eyesight for a brief moment and then came back to me mostly dragging one leg - the change was quite sudden. At first she couldn’t put weight...

I have a broody hen called Chungus. This is what has happened so far: In her early broody days, she tried to steal another hen's chicks on multiple occasions by offering food and trying to get them to come to her. Her first batch of eggs (all her own eggs) were duds. I couldn't break her...