Recent content by fmorlando1

I have a flock of 18 hens and 1 rooster. One of the hens, a 1 1/2 year old Buff Orpington seems to be really afraid of the rooster, also a 1 1/2 year old Buff Orpington. At first I thought she was just the bottom of the pecking order and afraid of all the other chickens. She would remain...

Thanks to all for guiding me through the successful adoption and integration into the flock. I'm happy to report that at about a week and a half in all is going great. Mamma and babies still stay pretty close to the coop and run when the others are out free ranging but seem to venture a bit...

Thank you for the advice. Mama and babies are now setup in their own mini-coop and run inside the regular run. The adults go out and free range during the day but are in and out of the run/coop all day. After initial great interest in mama and babies they quickly went back to business as...

Thank you again for your advice! Looks like a successful adoption! Mama is cooing, babies are peeping and going in and out from under her to eat and drink. So far I haven’t seen mama come out of the nesting box but she is alert and watching them. I’ll continue to keep a close eye on them but...

Thank you great advise. I wasn't thinking about how much time they would not have access to food and water if she accepts them. Do you think I should put the brooder out of earshot from her so she doesn't hear their peeping or might it be good for her to hear them?

Most of my flock are Buff Orpingtons as is my only rooster. I want to diversify my flock and have an order of 6 chicks scheduled to arrive from the hatchery tomorrow morning. My intent was to put them in a brooder but since I put in the order in I now have a broody hen. I think she has been...

I have one Whiting True Blue hen 9 1/2 months old. She started laying at around 6 months and went strong, at least 5 eggs a week, then about 6 weeks ago completley stopped laying. She seems healthy and is very active, definitely not molting or broody. I am getting plenty of eggs from my other...

Thank you! This is great, I love the photos and clever ideas. Will definitely be adding some obstacles in the run.

The chickens have a pretty good size free range area, and when the coast is clear the trio will occasionally venture out and they always stick together. So it’s nice at least they have each other.

Thanks for the ideas, I’ll give it a try. I see your Point about simple things that will keep them out of sight. When I first put them together they were small enough that I had a couple places where they could get under that the other chickens couldn’t. But now they’re as big as everyone else...

This is my second year with chickens. In the spring I had a Buff Orpington hen that hatched out a brood, 5 hens that I have kept. I also wanted to diversify my flock so I got 3 Bielifelders and 3 True Blues. They are two weeks younger than the Oprpingotn chicks. Unfortunately I lost one of the...

Update, the chickens have been free ranging again for about two weeks, with access to their normal food as before. Definitely slightly smaller eggs not significant but noticeable. And not all the eggs.

Yes I’ll be happy to report back. I feed them Argmaster 16% layer feed.