Recent content by rhemerick

I'm having feather problems with almost half of my girls (3 out of 8); they have suddenly (within about 2 weeks) lost most of the feathers on the back half of their bottoms, and 1 of those ones is almost completely bald on her stomach as well. They are 6 months old, so I don't think it's...

She has pretty much all her feathers now though. Do they turn rust colored or do chickens lose all their feathers again to get darker colored feathers?

She seems to be growing at a slower rate than the other gold sex link chick that is her same age too.

We purchased 2 golden sex link chicks from a local feed store, and I am becoming more and more concerned that one of them is a roo. When they were younger (1 week old) the chick in question was only a little lighter than her "sister", but the wing lines on her back running from her neck to her...

We have 10 chicks ranging in ages of 1 1/2 weeks to almost 5 weeks of age. A week or so ago I noticed that some of the older chicks were having a strange head tick, but it seemed to go away on its own, so I thought it may be stress or dehydration. Then today one of the 1 1/2 week old chicks...

This is a video of a chicken that is doing what our chicks are doing. Does anyone know what this twitching head thing could be? Our chick is much smaller (only about 3-4 weeks), but she is doing the same thing with her head. And now this morning it appears that at least 5 out of 10 of our...

We have a 3 week old Gold Sex Link chick that suddenly started twitching her neck this afternoon. Is this normal or something that we should be concerned about?

How smart are Raccoons at getting into the latch doors of a coop? We are planning on putting barrel bolts (like in some restroom stalls), but after seeing so many people talk about how crafty some raccoons are at getting into the coop I'm not sure how to keep them out. We will have a total of 4...

How does sand in the run hold up with wind? Where I live in Central Oregon it gets a little (10mph) to a lot (35mph) windy every afternoon around 2 and lasts through most of the evening until after dark. Would sand just become a huge mess for us and start making the chickens sneeze?

Has anyone used linoleum in the bottom of the coop and had water get under it and damage the floor? I've seen a lot of people use it, but I saw someone say that they don't suggest using linoleum because water can get under it and be trapped and cause the floor to rot. Is this a problem that...

How many chickens do you have in this?

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a poop board?

We are building our coop today and I thought it would be good to get info from all the experts on here who have done trial and error before me. What things have you learned that you just "can't live without" in your coop; Things that you wish you had made in your first coop? I would love to see...

I keep seeing people post pictures of the insides of coops that have been painted and/or have linoleum laid over the base of the inside of the coop, is there a benefit to doing these things? A downside? We are suppose to build our coop today and tomorrow for our 8 girls ranging in ages of 1 week...