It is time for me to introduce my pullets (16 weeks old) to my older flock. So far I have been feeding the pullets the medicated chick feed. My older hens get 20% layer feed. I have heard that it is not good for young hens that are not laying yet to eat the layer feed because of the calcium in...
Went out to the coop this morning and my rooster was just sitting on the floor. I tried to help him to get up but he has no muscle tone in one leg and just a little in the other. He just sits there. He is able to eat and drink if I put it all near enough to him. None of my hens seem to be...
I have 12 hens and was getting around 9 or 10 eggs a day in the summer. But, now that the days are getting shorter and darker there are days that I do not get any eggs. My average is around 2 eggs a day. Most of my hens are Americaunas. Are there breeds that continue to lay in the winter...
I have an old booklet written by an 87 yr old woman who had chickens most of her life. In it she suggests that you can encourage a hen to be broody by not feeding her egg layer food, increasing her diet of grains, and providing her with a quiet, dark place to set up her nest. Has anyone had...
I hate to do it but I'm going to have to clip my chicken's wings. There are times that I need to keep them in their yard and out of our gardens. Their yard is too huge to cover. I hear that you can clip just one or two strategic feathers. Can anyone tell me how to do this?...........Marie
One of my hens has started staying on the nest. She gets off maybe once a day. I know this because when she gets back on she gets into a different nest each time. Since she has started staying on the nest I've been putting eggs under her. She now has around 6 eggs under her but she leaves...
I joined BYC almost a year ago but have not spent much time at the site. Recently I've been thinking how nice it would be to be more interactive with a group of people who love raising chickens as much as I do. I have tried to find others locally who have chickens but (other than the neigbors...
I'm raising my first 9 chickens (Araucana-supposedly). They are now 8 weeks old and fully feathered. One of them is a bit larger than the others and I suspect that it may be a rooster. I have noticed that s/he cannot stand for long before he sinks down on his hocks to rest. S/he is able to...