Recent content by HeidiGretchen

  1. HeidiGretchen

    Wound on neck from mating

    One of my female ducks has a wound on her neck from the male holding on while mating. The wound appears to be scabbed over, but in the morning when I open the coop, it looks as though it has been bleeding. Once she takes her morning swim, it looks better. What's the best way for me to protect...
  2. HeidiGretchen

    Bug infested hen?

    @Ingrid_Grace , @dawg53 and @Wyorp Rock , you are the best. Thank you all so much. I've only been raising chickens 3 1/2 years, and this hen we've had nearly from the start. I've never seen her or anyone have such a hard molt - the drunken staggering worried me. But you knew right away what was...
  3. HeidiGretchen

    Bug infested hen?

    @Ingrid_Grace and @dawg53 , that is a huge relief! But seriously? So how can I help her shed those old feather shafts out? Was her getting wet from the permethrin spray what helped move them to the surface? I guess I'm just wondering if I NEED to do anything. Sounds like it will resolve itself...
  4. HeidiGretchen

    Bug infested hen?

    My 3 1/2 year old Lavender Orpington started showing pretty bad feather damage in the last 2 weeks. Broken off wing feathers and her fluff falling off in chunks. Saturday morning when I let the chickens out, she was staggering some and looked off balance. I separated her into a crate in the...
  5. HeidiGretchen

    Rats? Racoon? What killed my young chicken? (Pics may be considered graphic)

    I never caught anything, so the mystery remains. There was 1 follow incident where I got home a little late - maybe an hour past dark- and all of the chickens and ducks who sleep on the ground were outside the coop. Something had apparently gone in and they scattered. None were harmed, although...
  6. HeidiGretchen

    Rats? Racoon? What killed my young chicken? (Pics may be considered graphic)

    CHICKEN and McChooky, Thank you both for all of this info. I do have another question... I saw where y'all said weasels will line up their kills, and possums carry them off... the chicks that were killed were laying exactly where they sleep. They didn't appear to have been moved at all...
  7. HeidiGretchen

    Rats? Racoon? What killed my young chicken? (Pics may be considered graphic)

    Very helpful, thank you. I'm wondering about a weasel.... What worries me - an easy meal is enticing. The remaining 4 young chickens were afraid to go back into the coop, so I've closed them back into the crate (large dog crate covered in hardware cloth) inside the coop for nighttime. The...
  8. HeidiGretchen

    Rats? Racoon? What killed my young chicken? (Pics may be considered graphic)

    In 3+ years, the only predator to get into my coop was a cottonmouth. But this morning, when I opened the coop, I found 3 young (2 1/2 months old) chickens dead. 2 were clearly killed, the 3rd may have died of a heart attack or broken it's neck in a panic. The 2 killed were laying where they...
  9. HeidiGretchen

    Sudden decline/death in hen, causes?

    @Eggcessive The necropsy came back - primary cause of death is stricture/stenosis suggestive of the ingestion of a large amount of beetles. Secondary cause is peritonitis. Would a thorough permethrin spray of the yard and all accessible areas help with the apparent abundance of beetles Peng...
  10. HeidiGretchen

    Sudden decline/death in hen, causes?

    We do have 3 roosters, but only 2 who mate with the hens, and although we have 20 hens, the roosters have a few favorites. Those girls are missing back feathers from.the attention. Peng did not seem to be a favorite, had all her feathers and was normally fine roaming the yard. The coop is...
  11. HeidiGretchen

    Sudden decline/death in hen, causes?

    My 3 year old black australorp hen - Peng - died unexpectedly. Thursday morning she seemed fine/normal. Thursday around 5 I found her (and our five 2 month old chicks) hiding between the dog crate (for the young chicks at night) and coop wall. I slid the crate out a bit just in case Peng was...
  12. HeidiGretchen

    Momma hen pulling her own chicks feathers out

    Just adding an update to my own post... the same Polish hen went broody again and was determined to hatch chicks. Her eggs kept getting eaten but she did manage to get 1 egg all the way to hatch. Baby chick is 4 days old and we had to remove it. Momma had pecked it's tiny budding wing feathers...
  13. HeidiGretchen

    How long is it okay for a hen to be broody?

    That is encouraging. At least it leaves that as an option for me. I really hate to break a broody hen if I don't have to, and I'm home enough to be able to check on her several times a day and make sure she's eating and drinking and taking breaks. (I'm maybe a little too obsessed, lol,) I'm so...
  14. HeidiGretchen

    How long is it okay for a hen to be broody?

    It was another hen eating the eggs. I've never had a hen eat eggs while they were being sat on before, but I do have at least 1 hen who eats eggs periodically. I thought about getting chicks and sneaking them under, and I still may. Naturally, I had gone to TSC and bought 6 chicks and 4...
  15. HeidiGretchen

    How long is it okay for a hen to be broody?

    @Ridgerunner, I have a broody hen whose first eggs SHOULD hatch on 7/15ish. She started with 6 eggs, had 4 eaten, 1 did not develop past week 1, so she has 1 egg left. Our "boss" hen kept taking over her nest for hours at a time, so I placed eggs for boss hen in a separate box. This morning, I...
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