Today I noticed Fry, who I joking call "The Queen of the Hen House", mercilessly tormenting Devil, the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order, as she tried to lay her egg. She would block the door and not allow Devil in, and if Devil was already in there, she'll peck her and drive her out. I...
So, since this is my first brush with disease since getting chickens, this is kind of scary. One of my ancona hens, Scram, is very lethargic this morning. She stands with her wing drooped, closing her eyes. I knew something had to be wrong when I set down some food and everyone else ran for it...
So my anconas (+ one mottled java) are nearly six months old now, all but one have been laying for the past month or two. Benny (short for Benedict), the chicken pictured in my avatar, has not started laying. Her comb is large but pale while everyone else's is vibrantly red. She still seems very...
I wondered today, while preparing scrambled eggs alongside hardboiled eggs, if the eggshell really needs to be wasted. I know that feeding the crushed-up eggshell to hens can restore some of the calcium that they lost while laying. However, there are two small problems:
1. Will giving the...
I have 5 young ancona hens that I raised from chicks. They came from a local chicken/barn supply store. However, one of them is radically different from the rest in terms of body structure and size, despite having similar plumage. Her name is Sunny and compared to the rest, she is huge. She had...