Recent content by ald

Blu-kote works great but it is not approved for chickens in the food chain up to humans. OK for pet chickens. But I had to use Blu-kote on a very nasty gash on Gertie's back. So I kept her isolated and non-laying for a couple of weeks. 2 roosters is one too many for a small backyard flock...

I will trim feathers if the hen is really sickly as a last resort but whenever you cut feathers you are just begging for feather mites to move into the open quills. found that out the hard way.

Flirtie, one of my Rhode Island Red hens seems to have gone gay, mounting another hen just like a rooster. No damage done but kind of a surprise for everyone. I am thinking that it could be hormonal, dietary or stress from molting. She was very stressed from pushing out a ton of new feathers...

Poor Gertie got her back cut open by a rooster spur. We have lived with bald backs and shoulders but this is a nasty bloody cut. The damage is under her wing but high up on her back almost 3 inches long. I guess the rooster slipped off her back or was being overly dominant. I'm afraid he needs...

Thanks for the info on lameness. I have a wonderful little Rhode Island Red layer named Gertie who was really getting hounded by her boyfriends. 2 roosters, maybe one too many but I haven't crossed over to the cull side. Maybe the other hens were jealous, because they also picked on her. Her...

The best $80 I ever spent was on a timed coop door opener/closer. Amazon.com. add-a-motor d-20. So if you are busy, sick or on vacation, the coop door still opens like clock-work at whatever time you set, and then closes after dark, or whenever you set it. I did this to keep the hens inside in...

Great thread, thanks all. I have free range egg-layers that I treat like pets. Would the proscription against using Blu-Kote apply to egg-layers as well as meat chickens? I've got one poor girl with a raw back. Partly my fault because I clipped her wing a year ago when she kept jumping a 6...