Recent content by Poppy Putentake

Update: This morning the hen laid a basically normal egg, although similar to what she had been producing lately -- pale, with a slightly darker rough area at the large end. At least a step in the right direction.

Just discovered two eggs with the same size. shape, and color as the ones the Sussex had been laying before, but not in nests, on the floor of the coop. Both had very thin, almost paper-like shells -- just a thin layer of calcium over the membrane. So that's why I haven't been seeing any eggs...

The hen is almost a year old, from hatchery May of last year. Always healthy and active, no problems, although always slightly on the small side. (Weighed just 31 grams when I got her.) Laying steadilly since mid December last year until now. The hen has been sitting in a nesting box for a while...

A few days ago, I found a small abnormal egg in a nesting box. It was a bit less than an inch in diameter and soft-shelled. (The "shell" was a thin membrane.) Inside, there was some albumin (but no yolk), surounding a grayish object about the size and shape of an almond or slightly bigger. Cut...

I use 5 gallon plastic buckets. A local food store gives them away for free. (They had previously contained various food products.) They are of heavy plastic that mice can't chew through, (and I actually don't see signs of them trying). One 5 gallon bucket holds 25 pounds of feed or a little...

It is impossible for that coop to be 4.4 sq. ft.. They don't say how wide the coop part alone is, but estimating from the picture, if the overall run is 105", then the coop part would be about 42". 42" x 52" = about 15 sq.ft. (Note: 52.7" ~= 4.4 linear feet. Maybe that's where that number came...

Hi Logar, What I would do in your situation: Ask your mom whether she prefers a commercially bought coop because it would look nice and finished, while a homemade coop could possiblbly look very rough. I would say that commercial copps do tend to meet a consistent, acceptable, standard of...

An Easter Sunday topic: Fake eggs in nesting boxes help encourage the hens to lay there, but a minor problem is telling them apart from the real ones when you check for eggs. You can get wooden eggs in sort of a dark olive drab color, but they tend to be hard to see against the nesting material...

This partly depends on how dire the situation would be if they did hop the fence (i.e. how valuablethe plants are and whether the birds would ignore the them anyway or imediately tear them apart. On the other hand, since you don''t need "predator-proof", only "chicken proof", you could use...

Yould make some cardboard nesting boxes, starting with coardboard boxes about 12" cubed or maybe a little bigger -- just glue or tape the top together and cut a circular hole about 10" in diameter in the narrower end. Add some bedding and maybe a fake egg, and they are ready to go. My hens love...

What if instead of a flat-topped bucket, you used a container (like a gallon plastic jug) with a pointy top that they couldn't climb on? That's part of why I like the kind with the fitting that can be oriented vertically (pointed upwards, to go into the bottom of a hanging container, that could...

Here are several more possibilities: Cage cups, Vertical nipple waterers mounted on the bottom of small plastic bottles (or in the cap with the bottle upside down), and small hanging bottle waterers like this.

A lot of lumber yards have wood from pallets measuring nominal 2"x 3" (actually more like 1.75" x 2.5") by 4 feet long, with a groove along one of the wiider edges. They are often for free. Those might be just rigjht for roost poles. (I would use a plane and a sander to round the corners down a...

Update here:

A little update on my three pullets: My speckeld Sussex started on 15 December 2023, the buff Orpington by 6 January 2024 (could actually have been a few days before that), and the Ameraucana resumed laying today, 6 January 2023 (after laying 40 eggs from late Deptember 2023 through late...