Recent content by jgarner1327

He's beautiful! I have two black australorp hens.

I have 5 chickens, four are a year and a half old and one is four. Two Buff Orpingtons, 2 Black Australorps, and the old girl is a New Hampshire Red. I was giving them an oyster shell calcium in a manufactured crumb form and I don't think they weren't eating it. They eat organic laying pellets...

Neosporin contains neomycin which is known to cause inflammation in many people and animals. Since triple antibiotic ointment contains Neomycin I would recommend Bacitracin zinc instead. My cat had a severe eye injury and a vet first gave her antibiotic drops that had neomycin and she got much...

So much great information!! Thank you!

What are biddies?

I have a grow light but didn't think to use it in the coop, so thank you for that idea!

I hang a heat lamp mainly to keep it dry in the coop. It only slightly warms the area near it. I put straw in two very large cardboard boxes (thank you Amazon) next to the roost and they snuggle down in the straw together. Their run is partially covered so they can go out of the coop into the...

I'd sleep there!

Sorry your chook had to go through that. That hawk was determined! I wish my whole yard was covered with some type of screening wire so they could forage safely. Good luck.

Your chickens look really healthy!

Rats can dig under concrete easily, so hardware cloth is better, and bury it a foot into the ground around the whole perimeter. Also rain water might come up into the dirt floor when it rains a lot and the ground gets saturated, so instead of dirt I would hang some floor joists on metal...

I put straw in wooden wine boxes with sides that are 6” high, and an old wooden milk crate, and a cardboard box. Sometimes they like to sleep in those, and sometimes on a roost. I clean them out every day and add some new straw.

Plus, that wood has glue holding the fibers together so the air in there probably has a chemical smell.

If you plant evergreen shrubs they won’t drop their leaves in the fall. There are lots of nice evergreen shrubs. I planted Ceanothus and pineapple guava and the chooks forage near them. When my older hen (3 years) sees a hawk she runs and hides under the closest bush, like a huge rhododendron...