Recent content by weezerfish

Been busy lately so I had some catching up to do. Enjoying the pics of chicks and goats and everything else. Stay dry everybody!

It sounds to me like boredom or cramped space won't be an issue going forward. If they're going to free range as much as it sounds like they may, they should have plenty area to spread out and forage. If it is feather picking causing your problem, it still may not resolve itself with the...

If you look hard for the parasites and come up empty, you may have a feather picker. I've had this issue with two batches of chickens, and it always seems to begin in the winter months when I can't free range them. I suspect my problem has been boredom combined with having a chicken or two too...

Almost forgot...I finally identified my feather pickers. Had two of them. Got them separated out and they're going to freezer camp with a friend tomorrow. Can get by with those two eggs, but it cuts into our cushion a bit.

***Public Service Announcement*** ALWAYS wear gloves when administering Blu-Kote. As much as you think you can, you cannot possibly open the bottle without getting a little on your hands! Or in my case over 40% of them. Nail polish remover saved my bacon. My fingers still look like I'm not...

That's a pretty slick little mobile coop. How many chickens will you put in it?

If the snake figures out it can readily eat eggs when hungry, then it probably won't do much to curb your rodent problem. Can you effectively limit the snake's access to the eggs? If so, it might be a nice ally to have around. I think a full-sized chicken is too big for a ratsnake to eat, but...

Glad the news wasn't worse for your husband. Hopefully some rest will help him get feeling better. Sorry about your baby goat. That's rough. Hope you have much better days ahead!

Unfortunately, $75 won't go very far in buying a pre-fabricated coop. Certainly nothing capable of housing that many birds. If you are resourceful and a little bit handy, you can probably put something together using repurposed materials that you can find for free if you search pallet and coop...

To my untrained eye you have yellow chicks, black chicks with white patches, and yellow chicks with dark patches. LOL! I don't know how you can tell the difference. I look forward to seeing what all these look like when they feather out!

Thanks. Culling is my last choice, but will do it if absolutely necessary. Won't be hard to figure it out as I have seen her do it each of the past two days. No others doing it yet that I have seen.

That was my initial thought as well. Then I saw on another thread where two people said that neither no-pick or blu-kote had any effect on the picking behavior. I've got some blu-kote left over here from a comb injury. I will give it a shot just in case along with some scrambled eggs. Think...

Lucky for me we have a surplus of eggs right now. I'll scramble some up in the morning and hope it helps. I've been searching and reading feather picking threads here on BYC. I'd really like to head this off before it escalates. Some rough situations seem to start this way.

I've got a feather eater! Watched her pick feathers off the back of several other hens tonight. I bought a bag of feather fixer feed (18% protein) thinking that maybe they're a little deficient and she's trying to play catch-up. Hoping that with the warmer weather I can give them a little more...

Sorry for the slow response. The distance between the upper and lower roost varies a bit as one end is closer than the other (slightly angled away). It's probably 10 inches away on one end and about 14 inches at the other. I could scab in a support for the close end a little further away to...