Recent content by Kathleen1115

Hi -- I'm looking to buy less than a dozen fertile Silkie hatching eggs. I don't want to put them in the incubator until the last week of June and I'd prefer to pick up rather than ship. Thanks!

Thanks so much!!!

One of my hens was in the coop sitting on top of the nesting boxes. When I came back out again she was out in the yard but laying down. When we picked her up and put her on her feet she would only put weight on one and clearly has an injury to the other -- I'm guessing from flying down off the...

Hi all, Thanks so much for this thread. I succeeded in getting one of my hens to go broody with some golf balls in the nesting box -- surprisingly it was one of the mixed breed, production red hens and not the Easter Egger who has gone broody several times before. I ordered fertilized eggs last...

I have a flock of 4 four-year-olds and 3 three year olds -- all different breeds. My EE, Blanche, has always been top chicken, but she is a benevolent leader. I never see her using much force but she gets first pick of roosting spots, first selection of treats and everyone is completely...

My four who are 3 1/2 years old have slowed down to 2-3 times per week and my four 2 year olds are still pretty consistently laying 4-5 times per week. When they were molting and it got dark (and I didn't give them extra light this year) we were down to an egg or two a day from 8 hens. Things...

Three of my nine hens are currently moulting. Today while I was hanging in the run I was watching my boss hen, an EE, and her second in command, a GLW. Number 2 is moulting but the Boss is not. They were hanging next to each other and the Boss was carefully pulling feathers out of Number 2's...

My EE is very quiet - but since she's a mixed breed, it's hard to know why. My Austrolorp is very chatty - she is the most interactive and follows me around talking to me constantly but doesn't make a lot of loud noise. My black sex linked, partridge rock, and GLW all have very loud egg calls...

My 18 month old EE stopped laying about a week ago and this morning I noticed a pile of feathers underneath her spot on the roost. She's acting normally as far as I can tell and doesn't appear to have any bare spots. I honestly can't remember if she molted in the fall, but the girls get a couple...

We move ours in at night and out in the morning with the girls, but mainly to cut down on rodent activity at night. Looks like there is no best way and it really depends on what you're comfortable with.

We use a lot of cypress mulch in their yard and they enjoy picking it apart. We have an outdoor roost with some lattice that they can climb and several tree stumps for them to get up on. When we've given them plants to work on, we've put them in a big wash tub so that after they finish...

Our run is covered with a roof (the clear plastic corrugated sheets) and we use cypress mulch on the ground. We give it a good raking 1-2 times per week but the girls dig a lot so it turns things over pretty well. We add a bag or two of mulch once a month as it breaks down. No smell ever, even...

My first five have been laying since January and they're all different but very regular each in their own way. One of the most enjoyable things has been to watch them settle into a pattern and to figure out who is doing what. We've kept an egg log since they started and you really can start to...

I'd do it, but don't think you have to. They'll dig themselves holes - or in our case large trenches that the humans twist their ankles in - but our girls love anything new that has dirt in it. We put a big wash tub with marigolds planted in it in their yard and after they ate all the plants...

It does, thanks. Also probably explains why the bigger girls seem more affected. The two smallest - Red Star pullets that just started laying - are like clockwork every day. I have been giving them yogurt a couple of times a week, but maybe I'll up that.