The only adult chicken to ever hurt me is Tilly who, being the boss of the flock, thinks she can do whatever she wants...sadly this sometimes includes pecking my arms and legs! She doesn't do it in an aggressive way, more of a curious 'are there treats there?' way and, although i wouldn't say it...
I'm guessing first one is a boy, and the second possibly a girl.
This is Webster (left) who is a boy, and Luca (right) who is a girl. I think they were about 9 weeks old in this pic. It's not a very good pic, but you can see the red in Webster's comb.
My BSL girl, Penny, will pant when she is scared or stressed, and she makes little gaspy panting noises. She used to be terrified of being picked up, and panted whenever i did, but then a minute or so after being released she was perfectly fine again. I hope it was just stress and nothing worse
Thanks for the replies and support everyone, that made me tear up reading all that
I wouldn't mind but it took us aaages to find this vet, who was supposedly experienced with chickens, as others looked at her and shrugged and admitted they knew nothing. The 'experienced' vet said himself that...
My chicken Milly has been poorly for a week, now. Not eating, not drinking unless - and this is weird - i trickle some water onto the ground, and then she will drink it off the stone floor where it pools. We've tried all sorts, but so far no luck.
So tonight took her to the vets, this was a...
I hate mites so much. Several years ago we had a really bad infestation and really struggled to get rid of it, but finally managed and haven't had a problem since.
We now put mite powder in the shavings of the hut floor and nest box, and dust the perches and walls too. When the girls had mites...
I think we kept our girls confined to their run for a week before letting them out, and they've always been really good about coming back when it begins to get dark.
As for getting them to sleep on their perches, you can try lifting them up there to see if that helps, and just keep doing it...
Yay for eggs
You can put rubber 'joke' eggs in the nest box, golf balls or round stones in there to try and show them where to lay their eggs. We had to do this with one of our girls when she was younger and she picked it up real fast.
Hi, yes we worm our birds with Flubenvet (i think that is what it is called and how it is spelt). I think they were last wormed in April, some time around Easter anyway. How often should chickens be wormed?
Also, I was wondering how you can spot an older egg bound hen? Is it common in older...
Thanks. She seems a little better today i think (touch wood)
She's a lot more active and vocal, and is doing a little bit of pecking and scratching. She came out with the other girls this morning and sat on my lap and watched my dad fix a wall in their coop, then we went and bought her some...
Hi, thanks for the reply, sorry i didn't explain myself properly.
For all of their life the girls have been fed layers pellets mixed with corn, have access to grit if they want it, and then have other treats as well. We've had Milly since she was 12 weeks old and she's never had any health...
Thank you for the advice.
I will post again tomorrow (it's late at night here and the girls are in bed) after I have had a chance to re-examine her and wait for a poop.
I will remove grain now whilst she is sleeping, and will get some yoghurt tomorrow. Thank you.
Milly, my LS, isn't acting herself. She's 5 years old, has always been healthy before, lays the odd egg every now and then. The chickens are fed corn, grit, odd treats such as apples, raisins, cereal, lettuce, cabbage.
She was fine yesterday, active, alert and eating well.
Today she is just...
My girl once managed to pull her toenail off when free-ranging, i saw her walking towards me with her foot pumping blood, happy as larry, and totally panicked of course
We put flour on the wound 'till it stopped bleeding, and it healed fine on its own.
Thank you both, i wouldn't have had a clue what to do otherwise. The girls have been drinking their ACV water no problems, and Penny has been acting fine, no odd behaviour that i have seen for two days now, so i hope the problem is all cleared up!
Thanks again