To break my broody I got 4 little newly hatched chicks and sneaked them underneath her while she was asleep. Like magic, the next morning when she woke up she wasn't broody anymore, she was mommy!
No, I haven't wormed any of them recently. I will have to do that. I haven't seen evidence of lice or mites but I will look closer.
Thanks for your suggestions.
I have a black sex link hen, Cookie, who has been my best egg layer but suddenly stopped laying eggs and is just hanging around. She doesn't have the energy to jump up onto the roost in the coop, just sits on the shavings. She will eat if it's a special treat like rice or bread, but doesn't...
I had to intubate a chicken once and my brother the vet showed me how. If you tip their head up, the tube to the lungs closes and you can only get the tube in the esophagus, not the windpipe. So it's really easy. Just keep her head tipped to the sky.
Now that they have grown back their new feathers they are probably waiting for spring so they can lay eggs. You can encourage this to come earlier by putting a light in their coop for a couple or three hours a night right after dark and also raising the protein in their food. Also I swear by...
They got the leftover spaghetti and thought they were eating delicious worms! What a commotion! They also got BOSS and scratch along with their regular food.
I don't leave water in my coop now, having learned my lesson when they kicked over the full water container in the night and then it froze in all the bedding and I had to chip it out. What a mess! So now I just let them out first thing in the morning and give them water and they have it all...
I had a broody BO who sat on the pink plastic Easter Egg that was in the nesting box faithfully despite my best efforts to stop her so after a couple of weeks and she was getting thin, I got 4 one-day old chicks and sneaked them in under her at night and removed the pink egg and she was very...
My BO has the tips of her comb that are black. Just the tips. She seems fine and is eating and everything but I am a little freaked out by the black. Should I do anything? I have a light in the coop to keep it warm but I suspect she got the frostbite (if that's what it is) during the day...
The Planning Commission directed the staff to look at a lot of local towns' laws and also ask them what problems they have had with enforcement, etc. Most of the Commissioners seemed positive so we will see what will happen in January. Wish me luck!
I put chicken wire attached to those thin electric fence poles (cheap stuff) around my garden till it was big enough to withstand a little scratching. The chickens then just ate up the bugs (and a few tomatoes which I sacrificed for the greater good) and the worms and left most of the produce...
I would think about raising the percentage of protein in their food. 16% isn't as high as you could go. Right now mine are getting 21% which has encouraged 6 of the 7 to start laying again. And I swear that if you start feeding them Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS) it will make them lay! So...
2x4 with the flat side up is a perfect roost. My chickens are about 4 inches off the ground but you can go higher. They just like to be off the ground. And they like to have a roost outside the coop just to sit and look around if you want to put one up for them outside the coop too.