Recent content by bathsheba8542

My Welsummers have just quit laying in their second fall/winter. Last year they were pretty good, and while in the spring and summer we're getting about 8 per day (from 12 hens), and last year it fell off to about 10 per week, I haven't had an egg in two weeks! I put a light in their coop, but...

Just (with relief) found a great new home for 3 of 4 roosters...so, my hens are at peace and the barnyard is quite with Mr. Rooster, who is comfortably in charge. However, one of the only two Ameracaunas is losing all her feathers! She walks along and they just fall off! In the morning, the...

I have part of the coop shaded with a tarp, have 2 fans running full blast, change the water a few times per day, give them tons of melon, tomatoes and peaches, and put icepacks (the plastic frozen things) in their waterers. Yesterday I almost lost a hen...I think caught her in time ... first...

Awwww, thanks everyone for kind words. I swear when I went in the other chickens KNEW they were in deep trouble.

All I know for sure was that it was one of her coopmates who did it. : (

We had hens set on two nests...out of 20-something eggs, only 3 hatched. It seemed to take forever, and the last one - the cutest little chick ever - hatched and was a few weeks old today. I went to check on the flock, and she had been killed. Her wing feathers had been ripped out and she was...

We're on at least day 23. And that's not counting the few weeks leading up to when I THINK the hens started to get serious. I've found a few crushed and unbelievably smelly (awful) eggs. One had a little blood, but nothing else I could stand to get close enough to for a better look. I am...

Not sure - mine don't. They are up before dawn and curiously exploring everything most of the day.

I've learned alot from this forum already - thanks everyone for great advice! So, here's another question, and my apologies for not being a better data collector. I have two hens on nests, both about 10 eggs each. We left for a 4 day weekend on May 21st, and I was SURE I'd have chicks when we...

Great question and I wish I knew the answer to that. Yesterday I got to the barn and both hens were on their nests (I check them about 30 times a day). A bit later, one was off, and a mean hen was in between the two nesting hens. Then, one of the hens hightailed it to the far end of the line...

I have two hens on nests...both have about 12 eggs. It seems they've been on them for weeks and weeks ... probably longer than 21 days so I've been concerned either they aren't fertilized or they aren't developing correctly. This is our first time letting the hens sit on eggs. I took an egg...

AWWW! One of our hens went broody, but she's a little unclear on what she's supposed to do. At first, when she was on a nest with an egg, I stuck a few others under her. She left the nest. Then, I left her alone when she stuck herself on another clutch of eggs. Which would have been fine...

THanks everyone for the great tips...particularly the axle grease. My poor black chicken is being mauled by hens and rooster alike. It's funny...and I guess it's the pecking order...but some of them are doing great, and others get their feathers yanked out routinely. I'm looking at both...

It was funny, surprising and odd to come into the hen house and find one hen with her head on the bottom between her feet and her feathered butt stuck up at the top. It was like she was standing on the back of her head/neck. Anyhow she was just hanging out but didn't seem able to move at all...

We had 6. 4 went free range...three were consumed quickly by fox that live on the farm. last one left went back in the hen house with the other 2 roosters and 11 hens, and they beat him up fiercely. he has neurological damage and is nearly completely blind. because i'm an old softie, i had...