Recent content by marialane

I'm am so grateful to all of you! I have never thought of stone or sand. What a great idea! Your right, pine shavings just hold the moisture. As far as run off, my husband was working on that as well. So again, I knew I could get good advice from seasoned chicken owners. I feel better already!

Our small flock lives in the bottom of our barn. There are wood planks down covering dirt. Pine shavings on top. The problem is moisture along side the walls as this is a bank barn and there is run off from the adjacent hill side. My husband wants to remove the planks and put pine shavings...

I found Sadie yesterday morning. She was apparently waiting for me at the run door:( I'm so sad! I'm new at raising chickens so I am doubting myself as to what killed her. She was limping, favoring her right foot. I did examine her left foot and did not see anything that would say...

He's just doing his job! If it were a predator coming in to the coop, you'd be glad he was guarding them!

I'm new at this too. We have a flock of twelve. I told them all yesterday that if there was one thing I could change, it would be that they be nice to each other. I don't like the fact that they can be so mean; even to the little ones. Maybe I'm too sensitive. Anyway, I do know that I read...

My hen Sadie demonstrated the same symptoms. She died yesterday. I had concluded that it was Bumblefoot. But after reading your posts, I'm wondering if I am wrong. Nonetheless, it is sad. She was my favorite hen. Sweet personality. A couple days ago she started to limp. I isolated her...

I'm so glad to hear that your rooster is healing. What a horrible scene to witness! Last year a fox came into our yard and took one of my pullets. It was devastating! Now I pretty much stay outside when my flock roams. My husband said I need to relax, but I always see the neighbor's dog...

Sorry to hear of your loss. I, too, lost a hen this morning. Her name was Sadie and she was my favorite:( Last week I noticed she was favoring her right leg. So, I separated her for a day and she rested. She appeared to quickly recover, although there was still a little limp. Last night...

Lost my hen, Sadie:( Her left leg appeared to be recovering. She was fine last night, nothing unusual. I found her lying by the door. I've looked at her and perhaps because I'm novice, I could not see anything that I would think killed her. I have read that several others are losing their...

I don't know if that is the norm, but boy did I get a good laugh!

That is great advice! Thank you both for your time and recommendations. She did allow me to soak her (the foot) in a warm bath. I was able to inspect and like JJ said, I do now think is it isolated to the one toe. Sorry about your Rooster's condition, Stephanielynn. Sounds like you sure do...

My one year old hen is favoring her right foot. She can weight bear on the left for no more than say 2-3 seconds. I examined it and found no puncture marks, no abbesses, and it does not look inflamed. When she does weight bear on it, I saw that the middle toe curled under rather than...

Not that I have any answers, but I will tell you what I have been told by an experienced chicken keeper. My husband and I were faced with a similar situation. We had three hatchlings from one of our hens. It was difficult maintaining two coops. The advice was to put the chicks in the main...

Thanks for the information!

When untying my boots this morning coming out of the coop, I noted some really small bugs on my boots. There were several of them. I have religiously used Diatomous Earth on the coop floor. What do you think this bug is? It seems to hop just a bit, it is not a flea, it is smaller than that...