Anyone have any issues with the freezing weather? Suddenly, the coop door won't go down. It looks like the machine is working, but that the door is possibly freezing in the open position. A simple tap and it closes (with much vigor), but we are not always home to give it the required...
For the past month and a half, our Brown Leghorn, Ruth, has been broody in a nesting box along with one of our Black Australorps. She shows all the classic signs of broodiness: puffing and fluffing feathers, sitting on the eggless nest (no rooster), not wanting to be touched, and pacing around...
Dear BYC Friends,
For 5 weeks, we have kept four pullets from between 8 to 10 weeks old separate from two much older hens that are of the same or similar heavy-breeds as the young birds. Our somewhat large city backyard is divided into “Henland”, “Foodland”, and “Dogland”. Currently, pullets...
This week, our seemingly healthy White Leghorn started laying soft eggs and we don't want to lose her. She is acting otherwise healthy, but we know from experience, that this is a sign of bad things to come. We lost another bird a few weeks after she started doing this and don't want to let...
We have had a small flock of heavy-breed backyard hens for about five years. On October 11th, we lost our young Barred Rock, Millie, due to what appeared to be (after my amateur autopsy) internal laying. Since two weeks after her death, we have not gotten eggs from any of the remaining three...
Last week we lost a four-year old Silver-Laced Wyandotte during a heatwave. She was acting perfectly normal the morning of the day she died, had been laying consistently, and was eating and drinking well. The pictures here are those that I took during a quick look inside of her. I was mainly...
We have been experiencing a heat wave in Nashville since midweek. Today, our hensitter discovered one of our three four-year-old birds dead in the yard. They have two waterers (a plastic fount and a bucket nipple-waterer). I have also been spraying down the area under the waterer every...