Recent content by jerischicks

Hi All, Thank you for checking in with me. We're about four years into loving and living with our chicken family. We have twenty-one birds, all with names, representing several friendly breeds and different colored eggs. We've enlarged their enclosure three times to where it now takes up...

We used zip ties to attach the HC over 3 years ago. No regrets. We're adding an addition right now to enlarge the chickens 'play' area. Zip ties here as well, with the HC extending about two feet in an apron around the perimeter to prevent digging. Has worked very well so far.

Thank you Mrs. K, I'll try the cardboard. :)

T Thank you so much for your reply Mrs. K. We're in Northern CA. The coop these chickens are in is big. Big enough for 8 + chickens and only about 5 use this particular coop right now, but obviously the roof is higher than any interior roosts, so maybe they either like the fresh air...

Hi Everyone, Out of our newest batch of chickens, we have 1 and sometimes 3 chickens who seem to prefer to spend the night on top of one of the coops instead of inside. All winter we have physically put them inside every night, where they stayed until morning. Now that the weather has...

after baby chicks are accepted by a broody hen, can I add more in a couple of days?

Thanks. I think I'm going to try letting her sit on fake eggs for a few days, then make the switch. She really seems to want to be a mom. :)

She has been broody for weeks. She's a super nice cochin that prefers to sit on any eggs she can corral.

I have a very broody cochin hen. Do you think she'll accept 2 day old chicks (mixed breeds) from a breeder? Thanks

I've given her calcium and inserted my finger 2 inches with Vaseline. I did not feel an egg. She's very listless.

She does get Oystershell calcium, her feed is layer feed crumbles (right now, usually pellets). I'll take a photo of her vent. Thank you

Our 2-year-old Americana hen appears to be egg-bound. This started yesterday morning. All the other hens are fine. Yesterday, we gave her an Epson salts sitz-bath, gently massaged her abdomen, put Vaseline around her vent, tried to make sure she drank some water… nothing has worked. This...

My husband and I started our flock about 3 years ago when someone left two hens on our (long) driveway. I put ads in the newspapers hoping to return them to their owners, but no one claimed them. Later, the feed store said it was common for people to dump unwanted birds that way. We...

This morning we found that our beautiful Cochin Rooster passed overnight in his coop. There have been no signs of ill health. He was fine yesterday and the rest of the flock (10 hens) all seem fine. Their run is large, fully fenced with chain-link fencing and a solid roof, so no predators...