Recent content by gophert

  1. gophert

    Escape artist chicken

    BTW, my yard is pretty small--1/3 of an acre? In town. It's a nice chicken yard, though--lots of bugs and grass and veg. 100% fenced, 4 ft in the back (but really more than 4 ft when you consider all the vegetation on it), 6 ft wood all other sides.
  2. gophert

    Escape artist chicken

    A friend of mine who does not keep chickens asked us to take in a free-roaming neighborhood chciken who had adopted their family. They asked around first and no one claimed it. This chicken is very tame and sweet but has been out on its own for a while now. I know it was not ideal to bring it...
  3. gophert

    Established hens not letting new hens eat

    Yes, what I do is scatter the feed in all 4 corners of the coop so the big hens can't guard it all at once. It doesn't seem to help, because the bigs harass the littles when they come down the ramp and the littles run up the ramp again. Is there any sense in trying to somehow scold or discipline...
  4. gophert

    Established hens not letting new hens eat

    I have two elderly Barred Rocks (5+ years) and recently brought home 2 Ameracauna/Buff Orp hens who are about 4 months old. We introduced them at night by putting them up to roost together. During the day I let them out to range in my yard and don't see any problems...in fact, the new girls...
  5. gophert

    What is eating my eggs?

    Okay, I realize my hens may just have stopped laying--but. I have 3 hens that live in a chicken ark (like this: http://catawbacoops.com/) but also free range my apprx 1/3 acre fenced yard much of the day. I usually get 1-3 eggs a day with an occasional (once every two weeks?) skipped day. This...
  6. gophert

    Older hen keeps laying fart eggs

    Hmmm. She IS rather fat. Not sure how I would skinny her down, though? One of my other hens is too skinny, ironically. They all eat together...
  7. gophert

    Older hen keeps laying fart eggs

    Yeah, it could be that she is just not going to be productive anymore. That is okay; my kids want to hang onto her as a pet. However, if she has something wrong with her that I might be able to fix and get her laying again, or if this is a sign of illness/imminent problems, I'd like to know...
  8. gophert

    Older hen keeps laying fart eggs

    I have gotten 3 "fart eggs" (teeny tiny) from one of my 3yo Barred Rocks in the past month. Otherwise I think she may not be laying much. Is this something to be concerned about or just an issue of age?
  9. gophert

    Molt complete--how long before egglaying starts again?

    One of my Barred Rocks starting molting around 11/16. Her molt now appears complete and she looks great--except that she has a pale comb and is not laying. We were away for a couple of weeks so I don't know exactly how long she has looked "done"--I know she still looked a bit molty when we left...
  10. gophert

    Scratch Grain- Why it's useful in flock management and nutrition

    I am currently feeding a 1:1:1 mix of organic Countryside feed, BOSS, and millet (BOSS and millet obtained wholesale and cost less per pound that Countryside, which was my previous feed). Curious what others think of this mix.
  11. gophert

    Winter rye seed + straw + deer netting = success!!

    My chickens had torn up my raggedy old St. Augustine lawn pretty well, till a large area was mostly dirt/sand. I live in FL, where people use winter rye to overseed and make a nice pretty green lawn in winter, so we though we'd give it a try. To stop the chickens from eating all the seed, we...
  12. gophert

    Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

    Thanks, ClayMudd. I should have mentioned that I do not have room to store food inside (small house). I could only put it in an outdoor shed. I also live in a VERY humid climate. I haven't experienced this yet, but friends of mine with small flocks have had trouble with 50-lb bags of feed going...
  13. gophert

    Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

    I'm curious if anyone with a small flock (under 6) mixes their own food and if so, how they do it. I would like to do this but I think any large bulk orders of grain would stale or mold before my 3 girls got anywhere close to done with them.
  14. gophert

    What do you do with your chickens when they are done laying?

    Mine are primarily there for eggs, but we do love on 'em, too. At the same time, I am not sure I can afford to feed a lot of nonlaying chickens. We'll see. I have a lot of friends with chickens and we've discussed "trading" birds that are done laying--you eat mine and I'll eat yours (I don't...
  15. gophert

    Temporarily excluding chickens from certain areas of yard?

    Thanks for the ideas. My chickens don't seem to be very ambitious about flying (they are larger breeds and have clipped wings). I am wondering if something could work that I could (not easily, but) step over. Where does one buy untreated grass seed? I was thinking about that. Not that I even...
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