Recent content by abkline

  1. abkline

    A hen shedding her own skin???? How strange!

    I'm rescuing this thread from three years ago because one of my chickens (silver laced wyandott named Puffin) had the same thing. The chicken with the scab (what we think it is) has not looked good for over a year. She eats, lays and is active, but her feathers are really ratty. I thought when...
  2. abkline

    "How to Bond with Chicks"

    I've been doing the same thing (cupping my hands around them) and my little chicks settle right in. I also blow on their heads and kind of chirp at them. Not sure why I'm doing it, but they just snuggle when I do. When I put them back down in the brooder, I lower them on an open palm and they...
  3. abkline

    Newbie adding chicks to flock, brooder in coop

    Just reporting in that I have nine silver laced wyandottes as cute as cute can be in the coop in a wonderful dog-crate set up. I have secured the heat lamp in a hardware cloth chimney with FOUR wires, two to keep it from falling down and two to keep the chimney from rocking side to side. Next...
  4. abkline

    Texas

    Thanks!
  5. abkline

    Texas

    Last year was my first summer with chickens (in Houston) and I was panicked over the heat. I put up shade cloth on the top and west side of the run (eastern side is solid fencing). I put a mister (cheap freestanding one from Home Depot) in the run and then added an electric fan outside the run...
  6. abkline

    Newbie adding chicks to flock, brooder in coop

    Again, much thanks. I am testing my light (with a shiny new red bulb) in the kitchen right now to check on how hot it gets at different distances. Tomorrow, I build a chimney wide enough to surround the entire fixture out of hardware cloth. I will put two metal dowels (okay, long bolts) across...
  7. abkline

    Newbie adding chicks to flock, brooder in coop

    Thanks so much for your reply. It is very reassuring. My life will be so much easier if my flock will let the new hens integrate at 6-9 weeks. I'm kind of hoping that six of them will be enough of a force that they can handle it, but the area is small. I had to find a new home for my accidental...
  8. abkline

    Newbie adding chicks to flock, brooder in coop

    I live practically in downtown Houston and have eight hens three (one bantam) EEs, three RRs and two bantam EE crosses. I am getting 18 chicks (six of which will be mine (3 Brabanters and 3 Silverlaced Wyandots) and 12 of which I will raise for a friend for 4-6 weeks). My hens spend most of...
  9. abkline

    Texas

    Again, thanks. I really don't think this is a molt. The pattern on the three that have baldness is just on the back. Everywhere else, they have tons of feathers. I am afraid it is Arthur. Not sure why the other two are fine because he does favor them with his attentions as well.
  10. abkline

    Texas

    I wondered about molt, too. But they aren't even a year old yet and the only feather loss is on their backs. Could it really be molt? I, too have considered the knitting solution.
  11. abkline

    Texas

    I should start with thank you, because I have been lurking on Backyard Chickens for the better part of a year, soaking up all the information I can get. I am in Houston, Texas (very near downtown) and have six chickens that were born in April. They came to live with me in June. I meant to have...
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