Recent content by Thecowboysgirl

I have eight adult hens, and five chicks who are about five weeks old. If you've read my other thread you know the roo injured four of my hens pretty bad breeding them, he sliced them up with his spurs, one to the point that we weren't sure if she would make it. All four injured hens look...

Okay...well, all four hens in the hospital are acting okay. Actually one of my youngest hens was hurt almost as bad as her mother but it was too old to suture her. The good news is that the ones with older wounds who smelled so bad when I first found them smelled much better just on day 2...

Lead wolf I will say this- I don't care so much about his aggression towards me. My kids are teenagers and they do help care for the chickens but we have all gotten savvy about how to get around him. Also, when he finally got to whup a few hawks, he seemed to quit coming after us so much. It...

Union Town- The worst of the bunch, the one we sutured, she did act "hurt" and I do not think was getting much food in the coop but It hink it was because she did not want to come down to the floor because she knew the rooster would get her again. She was the first in the hospital, I went...

Are there roos who are as brave as he is but don't hurt the hens? He's laid me open plenty of times. It wouldn't take much for me to eat him...I just know it won't take the hawks long to figure out he's gone. And I don't want to lose my whole flock but you're right---I might lose as many...

We have had a problem for awhile, the rooster rips out the hens' feathers when he mates them. Months ago I tried seperating some hens to heal but the hawks found them. I bought a few chicken saddles and put one on the worst hen and the rooster attacked her mercilously-- it was like he thought...

Okay...so I found some chicken saddles for less than 5 bucks and it is okay with hubby. Am going to measure the two who need it tonight when I put them up for the night. I will give it a go with the aprons and see what happens. The buff I removed from him less than a month ago has sprouted...

He is quite aggressive when it comes to breeding the hens, I just assumed this is how rooster act. He will run them down, grab them by the neck, fling them down and mate them. They don't have feather problems on the necks, only the lower back where he stands on them to do the deed (and this...

Hi guys. I have one barred rock rooster. Had 3 BO hens (down to two now due to hawk attack) 3 RIRs, 1 red star, and 4 RIR pullets who are not full grown and are seperated from the flock at this point. There are also three chicks in with my adult flock that were raised by one of my BO's...

And one more: can I only give her eggs from one day-- if she's sat on a few today and I give her another few tomorrow, then they would hatch on different days. This is bad?

I am sure this has been asked a million times, but can anyone please answer these questions for me. I have my first broody chicken, a BO. She has been on the nest for 3 days now so I started putting eggs under her. We have a roo, who I have seen breeding the hens, and I have seen the white...

Well, yesterday when I carried the feed out to them in the pasture was when he pecked me. So, today when I brought in their feed, I watched him carefully and never let him get behind me. There were no problems. I did sweet talk him some, hubby has been going on and on about how I have to tell...

My barred rock rooster is just now reaching full maturity. He has always been docile till now though not really tame. I could pick him up if I had to and he didn't really mind that much, but he wouldn't stand still to be petted or anything like that. Anyway...in the last few days, he has run...

No, they are all bright eyed, bushy tailed, shiny, happy birds. The health of them could be questionable, I bought 7 of them from a local breeder and they sneezed a lot when younger but not anymore. We also took in a homeless chickie from the animal shelter who is a bit younger than the rest...

I am still waiting for my approx 26 wk old flock to lay. I noticed the hens' faces starting to get red and I thought that meant we were there. But now the ones I thought were turning red seem pale again. Could they have worms, making them pale? Would this keep them from laying? Also one of...