Quick update. I ended up installing a heating pad for pets today. It’s in her box under the bedding and radiates a nice gentle heat. I’ve got it on a timer so it comes on about an hour before she beds down and stays on until a little after she usually wakes up. I hope she sleeps well tonight.
You’ve all given me good info to go on, I appreciate it! I’m going to see if I can find a heat source that has a built in thermostat, or a thermostat I can plug it into and make sure to keep her well stocked with bedding. I’ll post back with what I come up with.
Thank you both for the insight! She really is a piece of work and we just love her. The Cozy Coop is one I was looking at. I hear you about needing warmth when you get older 😁 Would a thermostat set to 45 or so degrees alleviate any worry of her not moving away from it?
Hi everyone, I haven't posted in quite some time, but I have a question about a single older chicken and cold-ish temps. TLDR at the bottom. Our small city flock began with Ernie (silkie) in 2009 when she was a year old. At its height, we were up to 5 girls and most recently down to 2. Sadly, we...
Hi everybody,
I have a 2 1/2 year old austrolorp who hasn't laid an egg since August. She went through what I believe was her first molt at around that time as did a couple others in my flock. Everyone has started laying again except her. She seems very healthy in every way. She's reddened up...
So, I'm happy to report that it seems she's just broody and acting especially weird :)
She's been enjoying her food and the great outdoors (when we force her out of course :D )
Thanks everybody!
Thanks for the input, and yes, she's been broody multiple times. I guess I've just never noticed this particular behavior. The good news is that she came down and went back up on her own today. I'm still worried about her, but it helps to know others have seen this 'normal' behavior
So, today she wouldn't come down from the hen house and needed help getting back up into it tonight. Her neck is kind of droopy and she seems confused. She ate fine today and was interacting with the other chickens, but there's definitely something wrong with her. Any ideas?
It definitely seems like a behavioral (whether that be health or neurological I don't know) thing - not an external stimulus causing it. I'm hoping she's ok and will be keeping a close eye on her.
Ernie is acting very strange this afternoon and we're really worried about her. She's been in the nestbox and is just kind of spinning in place with her head in the bedding looking very unsettled. She's also had kind of odd looks recently - nothing really quantifiable, she just looked odd (kind...
Hi everybody,
It's been awhile since I've posted, but I wanted to share some winter pics with everybody. We had a nice sunny day not too long ago and the girls were enjoying some mid-winter sun bathing...
Ladybird trying to figure out the meaning of life...
Ladybird and Opal enjoying some...
Both of mine go up and down the ramp in mine no problem. It's not very steep, and is about 6' long. Their door into the house at the top of the ramp is about 4' off the ground. One of our silkies took to it no problem, the second one took about a week before she figured out how to go up it. She...