Recent content by Noobchick

Do you have any roosters?

Holy crap. Gasoline?? Please don't do that again. It's toxic to the birds as well as for you. Have you seen actual mites? If they're not on her, check for them at night. Get a flashlight and inspect the perches and nesting boxes at night. If you see tiny things that look like grains of rice...

I'm so sorry for your loss. I've lost many a chicken from stray dogs. I do wish people were responsible and would at least take their unwanted pets to animal shelters instead of dumping them and letting them basically starve to death. :(

Yes, good sign. I wouldnt do anything else for her at this point. Chickens are incredibly good at healing, even from major wounds. Keep her isolated, keep her cage clean, and give her time. I'm betting she'll heal in a couple weeks, more or less.

I disagree. Any open wounds need to be left alone. Chickens heal very well if they're allowed to preen and clean their wounds. In the future, if a chicken is wounded, flush the wound and clean out any large debris. Wash with diluted Hydrogen Peroxide, and isolate the bird until the wound...

The blood on her face and legs could be from the other chickens pecking her. Was the leg blood on the surface of her legs or underneath? Yes, it's been hot here in NC but not enough to make a grown hen lethargic. It's likely something else. Have you looked her over? How's her crop? Full...

My guess is neural Marek's or coccidiosis. Any bright red bloody poops? Could be that the giants came from a place with different strains of Marek's/coccidia than what's on your land. If so, this is one of those wait and see things: the ones that recover will be fine from here on out.

My advice: cull those two birds immediately and thoroughly wash everything they came into contact with. If you put the two new infected birds in with your existing flock, they will ALL get sick. As Eggcessive said, respiratory diseases are with the birds for life. There's no cure.

Marek's disease is in the environment, everywhere in the environment. Long story short, there is no way to 100% keep your birds away from it. Vaccines also aren't 100% failsafe; some birds develop Marek's even after being vaccinated. It's just one of those things with keeping chickens. What...

Hokankai was right: they were just emptying their crops, moving food along their digestive system. It's a totally normal behavior. Since I posted this, we bought a farm and increased my flock to over a hundred chickens. They all do that motion; nothing to worry about, as long as they're acting...

All those broken feathers? Lice. The birds break their own feathers from overpreening to try to get rid of lice. Have you checked the actual birds? Look on their back, between their shoulders. You'll have to raise their feathers up to be able to see down to their skin. Do a google search for...

From the looks of their combs, they're not as old as you were told. Their combs look about like the birds I hatched out in June. My guess is you still have at least another month, maybe two, before they start laying. I wouldn't buy chickens again from whoever you got these from, if they can't...

Oh, the egg most likely is coming from the other bird. Is she just missing feathers on her back, or other places as well? If it's just her back, she's not molting and she's still laying. That feather loss is from roosters mounting her. The bird pictured is definitely an Easter Egger, not a...

I've noticed that younger roosters/cockerels sometimes do not crow if there is already a dominant rooster, especially if the dominant roo crows a lot. Could be he's just being quiet and submissive. :)

Just wanted to put my two cents in about black vultures: they absolutely can and will stalk and kill live, full grown chickens. I've lost more chickens to black vultures than anything else in the year we've now lived on our farm. I was stumped about what killed the first few chickens I lost--...