Recent content by cposz

I suspected she might be a mix, so this is helpful. One way or another, she is such a pretty girl and we love her. Thanks for your input!

Love this young hen! Got her from some friends who thought initially that she is a Blue Andalusian. But now they think she might be a blue Americauna. She has white ear lobes but lays a pale blue egg. Beautiful hen - everyday layer. Any idea what breed she might be?

Helpful! But what is BOSS?

Bumping, hoping for a reply. Anyone?

I always introduce new girls two at a time, too, but there is always some chasing and nipping and fighting. It should settle down in a couple of weeks, but it's miserable to watch while it's going on. We quarantined the two pullets we added this fall in a small temporary tractor and run right...

Winter will be here in MN very soon and our Australorps are molting in a big way. I have a couple of questions. 1. Do we need to worry about keeping them warmer during the chilly nights (which will very soon turn into very cold nights?) 2. I've read that adding some cat or dog food to their...

I just want to mention that our RSL is the absolute sweetest hen in our little flock of 4. Our BO is stand-offish and our two Australorps are very timid. The RSL follows us around like a puppy and is the only hen who ever wants to be picked up. But she was highly socialized as a chick - the...

Our Orpington does OK - not nearly as well as the RSL, though.

We lost a hen last spring to our neighbor's over-zealous use of Round Up on a windy day :-( He never cared about his stupid old weeds for all those years we didn't have chickens ...

I suppose in the big picture of chickens she's not that old - 4 or 5 years old, I guess. But for a good solid three years she laid every day - and now she hasn't laid for a good while, six months or more. I'm guessing she's pretty much done. Since we are just suburban back yard chicken farmers...

Thanks to you both - this is helpful.

I'm not concerned that she isn't laying - she's pretty old and worked very hard for years. I just want to know if the regular crumble provides the appropriate nutrition for an old hen. And why the bag says to feed it to chickens UNTIL they stop laying ... then what?

So one of our ladies retired about six months ago. The bag of layer crumble that we've always fed our chickens days that it is to be fed from about 3 weeks before laying starts (like anyone knows exactly when that is) until the hen stops producing. Well, our hen has stopped producing, should we...

It was over two weeks before our 3 crabby older hens accepted 2 new pullets this summer - miserable couple of weeks they were, too. The alpha hen will still charge them if they get too close, but she doesn't attack them anymore. Good luck.