Recent content by MamaHen56

Hmm, I hadn't thought of a team of raccoons! Crafty little buggers. I'd be interested to hear from anyone that has had personal experience with this. Actually, the Black Bear species is primarily an herbivore and would prefer the fruit and veggies to the chickens. Easier, less work, and...

I'm in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. The bear is purported in our area, but we haven't seen him personally (or his tracks in the ground, etc). Additionally, in NS, our only bear species is the Black Bear, which are nocturnal. We have a green bin (with all sorts of food scraps, including meat) and...

Hi everyone! I have 5 laying hens in a covered run (1/2 inch welded hardware cloth all around, including underneath the bottom, under the sand) and coop (Wichita Cabin Coop inspired design). The overall footprint is 6x9 feet and the raised coop provides another 3x6 feet of living space, with...

They are hybrid laying hens. Could it just be a spotted coloring in the feather itself? Their brown feathers are speckled with white, but it actually never occurred to me (until about 5 seconds ago) that their white feathers could be naturally speckled with black... Could they?

It doesn't rub off, nor is it gritty. If I didn't know better (like, if it was on something else) I would have said it was a mildew stain! There is no thickness to it at all. If you closed your eyes and ran your finger along the feather, you'd never know it was there. And, no, their skin all...

Are these mite eggs in the tail feathers? Or just dirt? Or something else? Background: They are 11 week old pullets, moved outside 5 weeks ago. They are in an enclosed coop and run (Wichita Cabin Coop style) so no contact with wild birds. We have seen no evidence of rodents or other evidence...