Recent content by hensnchix

  1. hensnchix

    Cross-beaked cockerel can't eat at all--very weak

    Hi all, My little rooster made it through the night (I had my doubts), and I took him to a vet this AM. She gave him fluids and put food in his crop and shaped his beak slightly. Her feeling, though, is that it's not likely he can eat enough to support himself in the long run. We've been...
  2. hensnchix

    Cross-beaked cockerel can't eat at all--very weak

    He's not drinking on his own, although I'm dropping water and pedialyte into his mouth every hour or so. (It's not easy getting water into a cross-beaked mouth, I'm finding, but I'm still trying.) I've also offered him baby food, Critical Care, and layer's pellets in a mash. I'm just not sure...
  3. hensnchix

    Cross-beaked cockerel can't eat at all--very weak

    Hi all, My very dear cross-beaked cockerel (7 months old) can no longer eat. I thought he was eating all last week, although he seemed more hungry than normal, but yesterday and this morning I found him lying on the bottom of the coop, unable to get up. When I picked him up, I realized he was...
  4. hensnchix

    Destructive Chickens

    Yep--our hens got so destructive in our yard we had to put a run off the hen house. I'm sorry to do it, but they were digging up everything. The funny thing is, our two EE hens weren't destructive at all until we brought in a 3 year old RIR who is incredibly messy...she digs holes two feet into...
  5. hensnchix

    She's a He, But Not Crowing

    Of course, now that we're looking at her, I mean him, he's so obviously a rooster it's laughable. So I'll be sure to change my morning greeting, from "Hi there, pretty girl," to "Hey Handsome!" The kids are now clamoring for homemade chicks in the spring... Susan
  6. hensnchix

    She's a He, But Not Crowing

    We've just figured out that our very beloved, cross-beaked, 6-month-old dark brahma hen is actually a cockerel. (It was the combination of no eggs, rather vigorous mounting of one hen, and, finally, looking up pictures on-line...whoopsie! The cockerels look pretty different than the pullets! )...
  7. hensnchix

    DARN RATS!!!!

    Argh rats. I confess I am an expert rat trapper (my kids call me trapper mom), due to the rat problems we have on our property. We live on an island, so most people suffer from the same issue, but I actually had Vector Control come out a couple years ago and give me a two-hour tutorial on...
  8. hensnchix

    Feeding a cross beak

    Hi all, I realize I'm posting late to this thread, but I just found it today. I also have a four-month old cross beak (dark Brahma) and am struggling to figure out how to keep up with her food needs. I give her chicken food 2x a day mixed with water, to make a mash that she can scoop up. But...
  9. hensnchix

    Age questions...

    Amendment: my prodigy NH Red was FOUR weeks old, not three. Susan
  10. hensnchix

    Age questions...

    I would just like to report, for the Annals of Amazing Chicken Behavior, that my little rooster, Angus, started crowing at 3 weeks. I'm not kidding. It started like a very loud creaking floor board ("ERRR") and developed into a full-fledged cock-a-doodle doo within two weeks. Now, I advertised...
  11. hensnchix

    Getting Chicks to Sleep Outside

    It's 10:00 pm here in CA and I'm happy to report all is well with the chicks. The open air atrium is not predator proof, so I put the chicks in a predator proof rabbit cage (very large), filled with straw, when the sun went done. They hardly peeped at all. So I think the issue was that they...
  12. hensnchix

    Cross Beak, need advice and how to..

    I'm not an expert on this at all, but we have a 10 week old cross beaked chick (we call her our "cross beak special.") She is very cute, very affectionate, very needy for attention and always hungry. Can scoop up food from a deep dish, but is the first to sound the alarm when the food gets low...
  13. hensnchix

    Getting Chicks to Sleep Outside

    Thanks--I know it's insane. But right about the time they were big enough to stay outside all night, they started that pathetic cheeping sound as soon as it got dark, so we kept bringing them back inside. I swear though, both of my kids (aged 6 and 9) do sleep in their own beds now...and...
  14. hensnchix

    Getting Chicks to Sleep Outside

    Well, I think I've created a problem. My chicks are now 10 weeks old and have been playing in an open-air atrium during the day. At night, we've still been bringing them inside to sleep in their brooder box. The last few nights we've tried to leave them outside in the atrium, to get them used...
  15. hensnchix

    Low Spouse Impact Chickens

    Rwcmic, I'm entirely sympathetic with the difficulty of finding/building a coop. I put off getting chicks for more than a year while trying to figure out how to set up a coop. And I still scan the web trying to see if I can find a better deal than what I'm building at home. Let us know what...
See more
Back
Top Bottom