Great, thanks for the help! I was thinking heat lamp plus dry bedding to help them dry off, since they’re all wet from walking through wet grass (thunderstorms), but good point - I’m sure they’ll dry off best with just dry bedding plus maybe a fan they can choose to dry under or not.
Looking...
Hi all!
So we just got back from vacation, and discovered to our utter surprise (and delight), that our guinea hen has hatched some keets! Looks like they hatched in the last 48hrs.
Unfortunately/fortunately, mama guinea had been AWOL from the coop under the care of our chicken sitter, so the...
Thank you!
Unfortunately my hubby hasn't seen him all day today Hoping he's just chosen a more sheltered spot to root, and he'll turn up in a couple of days...
I'll let you all know if he turns up again — at the very least I have some good tips for if it ever happens again — our guineas are...
Thank you so much! This is a great idea — we a nice lot of straw in the barn, which I can easily spread out for a landing area! I'll try that combined with the food and see if that'll reel the poor thing in before he perishes
Thanks again :)
:) it *was* one of those moments when you're standing there (snow shovel in hand), thinking "this is definitely one of the most ridiculous things I've ever done!"
I'm not sure what his favourite food is... they usually are free ranging and then come back for layer's mash. They're not big into...
Hi there!
I'm at my wits' end on how to get one of my guineas back into our barn. He escaped the barn in the dark three days ago, when my husband was doing last-rounds before bed, and flew into a small pine grove.
Well he won't come down, and it's been between -20 and -35 Celsius here for the...
Hi everyone, last year we sustained two devastating dog attacks. So this year we are looking at fencing our yard to protect our roughly 100 chicken during summer. The brand locally available is redbrand (http://www.redbrand.com) and I'm confused about which is best. Our primary purpose is to...
Thank you everyone for the great questions!
When I did deep litter, we had about 8 inches of pine shavings which we turned... as often as we could But the problem was, the top would freeze, leaving wet shavings underneath. Oh, just to be clear, the barn is NOT heated.
The ducks are gone...
Hi everyone, I need help with our coop bedding. We are beginning our third year of chicken keeping and have definitely had ups and downs including an ILT outbreak in December. As a result, we will be depopulating this year and doing all in all out. We will then be receiving 40new layers. Yes we...
Hi everyone, my flock suffered 10% mortality from an ILT outbreak in March. The outbreak was reported and the farm locked down, with no new cases since. Fast forward to March, all is good, flock is producing well, even though a rooster was dispatched because he was sick recently. With spring...
Hi all,
We have a pair of American Buffs, and the gander has been pretty aggressive with the female - I'm assuming during mating, going by our experience with chickens.
We got them in spring as goslings, and it's just those two. They spent most of the summer in a fenced yard with our flock of...
Thank you for the tip! Update from autopsy is that it could IB, ILT or MG... only sample analysis will tell for sure. Looking at all three, we definitely had Sandpaper eggs (apparently a sign of IB) but we've had them forever, so not sure what to think...
Not that well...it's pretty gutting to have to do the deed on sick birds. Even though I process my own meat birds, I always feel sad dispatching sick hens. On the plus side, this should finally allow us to turn the page on our broken start : we started with DC heritage poultry in shawville...
Update for those interested. Three birds getting an autopsy at the university's animal health lab; pending the result our vet is thinking MG and recommending the reset option: kill everything, disinfect, restart :(
Interesting point about the waterfowl, they spent their summer in a pen outside enjoying life, no contact with wild birds that I can tell. The high rate of infection, sneezing and discharge sure could fit with AI but so many other things as well... I will call the vet here who does poultry and...
Can I get that OTC or will I need to call I the vet? The local feed store carries tetracycline I believe? What is my timeline here - I reckon I'll lose all my RIRs but would hate to lose my older birds...
Feel like a twit who should have picked this up days ago :(
We are having a potentially serious issue and need urgent guidance. We have 18 grown chickens and added 15 Rhode Island reds in September. They grew fine with no losses and were healthy.They live in a barn, and have not been going outside for the last month due to predator attacks and the onset...
Thank you so much for the calming and reassuring post - pretty much what I was looking for. Our older birds include 3 buff orpingtons that are at least 2 years old, ameraucanas that are at least a year old and a speckled sussex that is a year old. Our new birds are faverolles, andalusians...
Hi everyone, over the last month my hens have been through some pretty traumatic stuff: first, there were too many roosters who were abusing them, their coop was not properly cleaned and there may have been some sick chicken, and then to cap it all off a very aggressive dog strolled onto our...
To me the secret for roos - and old laying hens for that matter - is pressure cooking. I pressure cook the entire bird, which will yield a delicious stock and very tender meat, though it will still be a tad stringy.
Old roos make the best soup.