Recent content by herbsandspices

  1. herbsandspices

    No Progress: Is Chicken Raising Just Endless Poop Clean Up With NO Rewards?

    I actually had one of my dogs raise an adolescent chicken that I brought into my flock. She was too little to defend against the older chickens, and my lab/shepherd mix adopted her and let her cuddle close so the big girls couldn't pick on her. She grew up to be mama hen to the flock. My darling...
  2. herbsandspices

    No Progress: Is Chicken Raising Just Endless Poop Clean Up With NO Rewards?

    We've kept a small urban flock of 4 to six over the past 6 years. We've hatched our own and raised them with lots of touch and hand feeding, but, chickens are chickens. Some are downright mean! Ours are 100% freerange, and my favorite silkie would always be waiting for me at the back door in the...
  3. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

    Thank you! She actually started laying again last week. She's the only girl who lays white eggs so we know it's her. The chicks are venturing away from her in the yard but she's still really protective about getting them back to the coop in the evening. This has been so much fun for us to watch...
  4. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

    Update:7 weeks later we still have 6 chicks, and they free range with momma and the other hens in our yard all day. Pepper is a great mom, and the other 2 adults have accepted the chicks into the flock. She still feeds her chicks first when we give treats, and jumps to pick raspberries for them...
  5. herbsandspices

    Does anyone else Free Range?

    New question: My girls have always had 24/7 access to free range, but we decided to re-seed the lawn this spring. We locked them in their spacious pen for 3 weeks so the seed had a chance to germinate and grow without being eaten. They stopped laying! Even after we freed them again we haven't...
  6. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

    One baby yesterday and five more today. So exciting!
  7. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

    Update: We tried to move the nest but mother hen Pepper wouldn't cooperate. She is sitting in a nesting box two feet off the floor. We tried building another box on the ground floor this weekend and moved the eggs. After an hour or more of her refusal to sit them we panicked and moved them back...
  8. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

    Good thought on dividing the nest box. We currently have one big box because they liked snuggling all winter, but have a divider we can insert to give her personal space.
  9. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

  10. herbsandspices

    hatching babies

    We are urban farmers with only three adult hens in our flock currently.Over the years we have struggled with introducing young hens and hand-raised chicks to our flock. We have a broody hen right now and just bought a dozen fertilized eggs for her to sit! Looking for advice. Assuming we actually...
  11. herbsandspices

    introducing a "new" 1yr old hen to an already new flock

    Removing the dominant hen for a week will mess up the 'pecking order' and make the introduction easier. When the dominant hen returns she is the new girl, and must re-establish her place. I am always stunned by their lack of memory!
  12. herbsandspices

    Hawk Attack......Should we just put her down???

    We had a chicken attacked by a dog 4 months ago. It looked way worse than your photos. Our neighbor is a vet and she came over to inspect. We flushed her with water to clean and she gave us antibiotics to crush in liquid and feed with a syringe. There was little we could do other than wait...
  13. herbsandspices

    Does anyone else Free Range?

    We are suburban chicken farmers, living in the Portland metro area and facing less challenges than rural areas. No coyotes, but we definitely have hawks, raccoons, cats and dogs. We were careful at first, but our chickens have been fully free-range for 4 years. We even stopped locking the...
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