Last month I had an old (3 years +), red star with very serious water-belly. She was so swollen she could hardly walk because of the weight and because her legs were so bow-legged from her swollen abdomen. Apparently there are a couple of different health reasons that can cause it, and I...
So I've seen a lot of these home-made feeders on the web where the chicken stands on a lever-arm which opens a lid to the trough of an auto-feed feeder. They all seem to work pretty well, and I'm thinking about building one as an end-alll solution to my rat problem. Seems pretty simple to...
Hey there,
Sounds like a wonky question, i'm sure, but I was wondering if anyone has attempted or seen an automatic opening and closing coop which uses strictly mechanics, i.e., no motors, timers or any electronics? I am playing around with some rough drawings of this idea and I just thought...
One of my hens, "Crouching Tiger Hiden Chicken", has lost about a third of her feathers in the last two weeks. She may be picking at them, the other birds are definitely picking at her.
Today i sat Crouching Tiger in my lap and looked her over and found multiple very tiny bugs on her body...
I got my red star, "Ranchy", two years ago as a full grown hen, so I don't know how old she is. She used to be one of my best layers and a feisty queen of the pecking order. Lately she has been much milder tempered, in seemingly good mood but less lively than she used to be. I noticed just...
So I have two girls who have been very broody in the last couple months - "Mamacita" and "Madame curie".
Mamacita sets most of the day through. Last night I put her in a coop where she can be isolated from the other chickens, on a test batch of 6 eggs, but leaving the door open so she can...
Sorry if this sounds like another "ah, what's going on" with no real focus kind of question. I am new to chickens, have had a flock of 12 hens for only 6 months now. I got 9 of them as 3 month old pullets and they all just started laying about 6 weeks ago. So for about a month i was getting a...
Hey, just wanted to post a quick note about my rooster box that i think is a real success. I live in a somewhat dense part of Oakland, CA, very much an urban environment, and there is a town ordinance against roosters.
I have a pullet that turned up a roo and wanted to keep him to breed with...
I would like to work some new areas with my flock of 13 chickens (de-weeding, fertilizing), and want to set up some nice temporary fencing with 6' nylon poultry netting. I don't want the electric fencing route - just seems excessive and complicated. I don't need bomb-proof security - if the...
So my "rather large" barred-rock "pullet" has been crowing in the morning for the last week and a half, and now he's mounting my hens. I was in denial the first couple days, but i am now 99.9% convinced i've got a cockerel on my hands. I am not allowed to keep a rooster here in oakland, and...
I've been feeding my hens table-scrap from the kitchen: plate scrapings, egg-shells, rinds and peels, spoilt veggies, you name it, they love it. I've been chopping up the bigger pieces with a knife on a cutting block,into little bite-sized slivers, and it's kind of a pain in the butt. My goal...