4 1/2 year old hen less active, waddling, and just sitting down away from other hens. Picked her up and her abdomen is grossly swollen. She has had chronic diarrhea for a while, nasty butt feathers.
Soaked her in Epsom salts, cleaned off all the crusty poop. Her color is good. Her vent is...
We have a bad first time broody. She was not sure what to do with her new baby, and after a day of the poor thing staying hidden under her in fear of being pecked if the hen actually saw her, we gave the baby to another broody who happily accepted it into her family. Back to bad broody. She...
Had a broody hen hatch out eggs 4 days ago. Hadn’t noticed lice or mites this spring, but we just noticed the babies have tiny brown bugs crawling around on their heads. What can we do, they’re only 4 days old? We plan to do spring coop cleaning and dust all the adult areas tomorrow, but what is...
I have a year old broody. It think it’s been about 3 weeks now and she is still determined to sit, on nothing. A friend offered me some native pheasant eggs that we could then release the grown chicks to the wild. We can’t have any more full time chickens in our setup. Would it be bad for her...
This afternoon, the kids found one of our young hens hanging by herself in the fenced run, while the others were out free ranging. (She had been out with them all day.) One of her wings is drooped down much lower than the other. When I gently palpate the wing/shoulder joints, I don’t notice any...
I just brought a new chick home from the same batch of chicks as one of the ones we have. They’re probably about 4 weeks old. But it just wants to sit on the mama heating pad, or wherever we put her. She appeared active before we brought her home. She sat on my daughter’s shoulder the whole way...
i have a 4 week old serema chick who is struggling. Her body is constantly wobbling, swaying, in almost a circular pattern, and when she walks, she has a difficult time balancing. She is eating, and I have been trying to give vitamins/electrolytes/probiotics with a dropper, but she does drink in...
We have had some very cold nights. Our coop is dry and relatively draft free, accommodating ventilation needs. A few of our hens have frostbite on their wattles from dipping into the water bowl to drink. Today I noticed one of them, who seemed to have it worse than the others, has swelling...
I went outside to find our 9 month old pullet limping, almost dragging her tail. I also found a broken egg (her color) under the roost that may have been softer shell than normal, was hard to determine, as it was broken. She has been holding her tail down all day, and when standing, staying off...
I think our 5 month old pullet tried to squeeze between pallet boards that she used to be able to fit through. Under her wing and down to her shank, the skin and feathers are peeled off. No noticeable bleeding. She was still walking around fine. I brought her in, sprayed the wound with poultry...
I’m afraid one of our pullets is actually a cockerel. It hasn’t started crowing, but the pullet we got from the same batch hasn’t started laying either. They’re about 5 1/2 months old. This bird has always been the odd one out, and seems to be at the bottom of the pecking order. It is very...
I have one year old, Plymouth Rock hen that isn't well. A little history. We had lice or mites early spring, which we treated with permethrin, 3-4 times, every 7-10 days. No bugs now. She has been feather picked, then we had a rooster for a short time that was a little rough, mainly because the...
I have a welsummer chick that is 2 weeks old and half the size of the other welsummer, same age. She eats, drinks, seems normal otherwise. She tends to stay near the heat more that the others. Is it possible the hatchery made a mistake on hatch dates? The bigger one is the same size as the...
My leghorn hasn't been her usual feisty self the last few days. Inactive, tail Down, feathers ruffled. Its been hot, so I thought maybe she just wasn't tolerating the heat. She would stay back in the run while the others free ranged. Today I noticed her sneeze, hoarse voice and wheezy, so I...
So I got some pinless peepers for my feather picker. Put them on her last night. She wasn't happy about it, but today seemed to be foraging normally. However, her crop, now that the day is coming to a close, is not full at all, compared to the other girls'. She wouldn't eat meal worms from...
We lost a 10 week old barred rock pullet a few weeks back, which left the other 10 week old rock with our 11.5 week old Wyandotte. After returning from vacation, we found a pullet to fill the void. The new girl is supposed to be 11 weeks old, which would have been pretty close to the rock we...
We have 2 one-year old brown leghorns. Currently, our coop is about 33 inches by 40 inches, and i think 40 inches tall. (made from pallets, with fiberglass roofing around as natural light filtering "siding"). The birds free range during the day, and we are working on a run design for when we...
I just fell into chickens when my neighbor gave me two of his leghorn pullets because their flock was picking on each other. It's well below freezing, and we have about 2 feet of snow on the ground. He helped build a makeshift coop out of pallets for winter. I have it in my fenced garden area...