New Jersey

[DragonfyrNJ]

how big is she....you should be able to get by with layer pellets or crumbles if she is over 4 or 5 mos old....other than that i would use medicated chick food til her first egg...then discard the egg....as a rescue she may have been exposed to coccidia and the medicated food will take care of that...you could worm her but since you only have the one not sure on the vet visit...they tend to be pricey and you may not have one that deals with birds locally


as far as housing my girls live in a converted shed and have for the past 2 years with no problem...I would definitely make a run to deter predators and keep them safe........I have a big fenced in yard (6 ft fence) so my ladies free range and I have not had an issue with predators (until night before last...sigh)

 

[NJchixs]

I'm with you! Remember ours in the temporary coop in the garage? Makes me shudder just thinking about it.

We got our chicks before we had a coop, and because of money and searching, we ended up having the chicks inside, coopless for two months :/ their box got dirty every day, and it was a horrible experience. I will never do that again!

Well I'm the dumb one that's doing it again, ugh. I've got 24 chicks in the basement, lol. Yes what a mess. But this time I used a nipple waterer in a half gallon jug, so no water mess. I also have mysteriously gone from 25 to 24. I don't know when it happened, its hard to do head counts every day. One day when my parents where babysitting the boys, my dad put the dog in the basement. The chicks where less than a week old. Small and easy for him if that's what happened. But I don't know. I didn't realize till a few days ago. It a French black copper marans that's missing.

If you can't do a coop right now, look on Craigslist for a decent dog house even, you can use straw for some warmth and even cover the opening at night for drafts. I agree though that if its just she, she will be lonely.

 

[NJchixs]

...

We lost one of our Polish too night before last at dusk as well...something stripped 80% of the feathers and skin off the poor thing but did not kill her....she lived a little over 8 hours before finally passing from her injuries....I did all I could (kept her warm, put sterile water soaked gauze over her injuries and a baby aspirin in water down her beak for pain) but it was too horribly injured......have seen several cats in the neighborhood roaming around since Sandy.....animal control has put out traps but nothing so far

 
Oh I am so sorry. That is terrible. I hope you can trap any of the stray cats to avoid that again.

 

[llandry]

Dragonfyr- so sorry about your polish. That's just the saddest thing. I'm still sad about ours last week. My husbands making the nicest run that will be done this weekend so i won't have to worry while we're at work.

Njchix- do you really think mac ate a little chickie snack?

 

[NJchixs]

Dragonfyr- so sorry about your polish. That's just the saddest thing. I'm still sad about ours last week. My husbands making the nicest run that will be done this weekend so i won't have to worry while we're at work.
Njchix- do you really think mac ate a little chickie snack?

Myself and my husband could not imagine him eating one. But, he is a dog. They eat strange things. The only other thing is if it hopped out, then couldn't get warm and is somewhere in the basemen, presumably dead. They where just starting to hop onto the edge of the brooder box this week. It is now covered in netting. It could have jumped out before I saw they were big enough to do so. I looked everywhere. I feel so bad either way.

 

[mame1616]

We lost one of our Polish too night before last at dusk as well...something stripped 80% of the feathers and skin off the poor thing but did not kill her....she lived a little over 8 hours before finally passing from her injuries....I did all I could (kept her warm, put sterile water soaked gauze over her injuries and a baby aspirin in water down her beak for pain) but it was too horribly injured......have seen several cats in the neighborhood roaming around since Sandy.....animal control has put out traps but nothing so far

 

[mame1616]

We got our chicks before we had a coop, and because of money and searching, we ended up having the chicks inside, coopless for two months

their box got dirty every day, and it was a horrible experience. I will never do that again!

I had eight bantams in my BEDROOM for eight weeks before I felt they were big enough to go out with the big girls. Since I have a tiny studio apartment in my mom's basement, that's the only place I have to put isolated birds. It's a regular aviary in here at times. There are things you can do to reduce the dust and the mess, but I haven't managed to eliminate the dust.

 

[mame1616]

Quote:
I had the same thing happen to me on the first day outside for my last batch. I though I had baby-proofed the run, but apparently they could jump higher than I thought, because I noticed one missing the next day. I felt so bad, but even if I had noticed right away, it was probably too late. We have some pretty attentive hawks in our back yard.

 

[llandry]

I posted this under the emergency thread also but thought i'd throw it out here too.

Today while finishing up our run some (or just one) of our chickens ate four 1/2" steel screws. I guess chickens really will eat anything. I know that our BO ate at least one because i saw her picking it up and dropping it as i was scrambling over to her. She knew i was coming over to take away her "silver shiny bug" because down it went. Four total are missing. I felt her crop and didn't feel anything unusual in it. Any idea if this is going to be a problem?

 

[NJchixs]

I posted this under the emergency thread also but thought i'd throw it out here too.
Today while finishing up our run some (or just one) of our chickens ate four 1/2" steel screws. I guess chickens really will eat anything. I know that our BO ate at least one because i saw her picking it up and dropping it as i was scrambling over to her. She knew i was coming over to take away her "silver shiny bug" because down it went. Four total are missing. I felt her crop and didn't feel anything unusual in it. Any idea if this is going to be a problem?

Oh man, that is crazy. I don't know what kind of problems that could cause, if any. It would be so much easier if that was one of our kids, not that we'd want that to happen, but at least we would know what to do. I hope any advice is reassuring and they are ok.