Cornish Cross chickens are meat birds, bred to grow abnormally fast and get abnormally fat and have abnormally few feathers, so they are easier to pluck. They are prone to heart and lung issues and grow so fast, their legs soon cannot support those huge breasts, they usually are dispatched at...
She was gasping for air like a fish out of water for about a week prior. We couldn't let her suffer like that any longer. Her intestines were a mass of many, many hard, vascularized, white and gray, pretty small (2-3 cm), small (5 cm) and medium sized (marble sized) balls; I don't see how any...
This weekend we fenced the pond in. It's sort of tear drop shaped, so we fenced in a hexagon (we're beekeepers, too, so that's apropos). The chickens still get a small corner, but now I have a fenced in area for bee forage, too!
Hello!
Our chickens live in a 2 acre fenced in area with our dogs (totally fine with each other), our bees, our orchard, and our garden (fenced within that 2 acres).
For years, our chickens have never been interested in the far corner where a pond forms in the rainy season.
I made the mistake...
I don't believe DE works on ants, mites or fleas because of their exoskeleton. I'm so sorry about your hen. We have a hen whose head and comb were pecked down to her skull. I think we will have to divest ourselves of Brewster the rooster this weekend.
Wyorp Rock gave me excellent advice and...
The rooster and hen together look like Wellsummers. I don't know what the spotted hen is. We have three Wellsummer hens and a Wellsummer rooster and he looks a lot like our rooster. Does the hen lay pretty very dark brown eggs?
We had to be gone the last two weeks. We just got back this afternoon.
Our neighbor was feeding our chickens. Our rooster had already bloodied one of the hens' comb and head, but it was getting better. While we were gone, he pecked her head skin down to her skull (no bone, but it was that...
I think it was a nick that just bled a lot. He pulled off her head feathers trying to mount her. He's done this to a lesser degree to our other Buff. I've checked her out and she seems fine. She avoids him, but the other hens are fine with her. I see them taking dust baths together. We...
Our rooster is a Welsummer, about a year old. Our five hens (three Welsummers and two Buff Orpingtons) are 2 years old. So it sounds like hormones, balance, and I should separate HIM from the hens. The hens run around fine together, we'll leave him in the chicken coop, and the hens can run...
Chase him around! He sees you as competition over whose boss and you need to let him know it's you. Kick him. You don't need to hurt him, just lift his body in the air and throw him. Don't take any of his nonsense! If you even see him coming toward you...chase him off! Don't be afraid of...
will he hurt more? He's just being his rooster self, and being too rough with his attentions. I've isolated the injured hen - he bloodied her head and I was afraid the 4 other hens would peck her to death. She's fine, but vulnerable.
Should we just get rid of him if he does this again...
Oh, wow, I'd better put my 5 month olds on starter then! We got a good deal on 40 lbs of organic layer crumbles, but they need starter! Thanks! One of my girls/boys (straight run) walks backwards for about 4-8 steps about every other day
. Could this be a calcium OD? Do I need to do...
You betcha!! I have coffee with mine most mornings. I still don't know what they take in it. They're very interested in mine, though, so maybe they like cream and sugar too. Seriously, they like the produce rejects from one of our local health food stores better.
We are in the process of moving back to my hometown of Eureka, CA after living in Boaz, AL for a little over two years.
I have had to find homes for my chickens, but had several months in which to do it, so I've been finding them good homes two at a time. Our beautiful Copper Maran rooster...
Hi all!! I'm here after a long absence and then lurking for a while.
My 5 hens have had foamy poops for about a week. They eat LOTS of fresh veggies, 7% calcium egg pellets, their own egg shells back, worms, slugs, and bugs and are otherwise very healthy. ???