Recent content by Eggstatic ChickyDoo

Can you please explain a little more about why not? We regularly have spells of 70-80F weather (lows in the 40-50F range) alternating with spells of highs in the 40s and lows in the 30s. I see vent lifts advertising that you can adjust them to start opening 60-85F, I thought this could allow the...

I'm adding windows to the south side of my coop to lighten it up inside/give the hens more options for winter sunbathing on blustery days. We're far enough south (northern Virginia) that the coop does heat up quickly in the summer, so I'd like to put the windows on hinges and prop them open in...

Where are you/what is your climate like? I'm in northern Virginia and I use a base of partly composted wood chips (from the coop), and add fresh chips, leaves, grass clippings, etc. as we produce it. Right next to the pool, where it's wetter, I've just installed some pallets covered in plastic...

Update: I decided to put her down. When I examined her, one leg was bent at an awkward angle and clearly very painful and she wouldn't move either foot. In addition, she had extensive bruising on her spine. Her injuries were too extensive and I felt that leaving her was just prolonging her...

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement! I offered electrolyte water, she wasn't interested, but she'll swallow if I dip her beak in it, so I've been doing that every 45 minutes or so. She's inside, in a box in a quiet dark corner, and dozing off and on. Her breathing is smooth and even...

Three days ago one of our ladies didn't return from free ranging. We have seen a few young fox down the road, figured one of them got her and decided not to free range for a bit (they have a good sized run). Today I found her up the hill, pinned under a rock. It looked like the rock was on her...

Though they sure are cute, raccoons are my least favorite predator to deal with. They're smart enough to get into things that would stop anything else and they'll pull things to eat through fencing if they can reach in but not enter.

X2 on the advice above. I also try to keep the dinner guests as calm as possible while I'm removing them and make sure that none of the flock sees any evidence of the death. When it works, the rest of the flock doesn't fear me at all. When it doesn't, it takes a few days to a week of bribery to...

I know exactly how you feel, but I'm starting to think that ducks think of clean water as "not yet flavored" water. I've given up. Mine have access to clean water where the cistern dribbles into a bowl and then into the pond and they constantly put junk in there so they can fish half of it back out.

That's what I was wondering about. I'll have to wait and see how they act in the spring... It is sweet, for now. Here's a pic of the little one when he decided I'd taken too many pictures already:

Following because that sounds like it would be a beautiful breed and now I'm intrigued!

TLDR- a pair of older ducklings have adopted a much younger duckling, is this a fluke thing or a possible indicator of future behavior? The details: A few weeks ago, I volunteered to brood a batch of Pekins for a friend in my makeshift brooder, which is inside my coop, until they were off of...

I had a girl who took longer than her hatch mates to figure out how to groom and waterproof herself, she used to breathe loudly while swimming as well. I think maybe she was working harder to swim, since she didn't float as well. Once she figured out how to waterproof, she stopped breathing so...

X2

I have a couple of silkies and they always roost with the others. My coop has a stone foundation and they hop up the rocks like a ladder, 4-6"(10-15cm) per level, to get up. I do also have one duck who insists on using the chickens' coop when I let them free range. She has a little box under...