My hens stopped laying during the winter and a friend of mine who has had chickens for 20 years said that I should be feeding them corn scratch to maintain laying during the winter. He said it is a "hot" food that they need in order to maintain egg laying through the winter. His hens are the...
What do people do with their hens that have gotten so old that they are not laying at all? If you have a large flock, do you just keep them? I am hoping I will be able to find someone to take mine that like to keep chickens around even if they aren't laying anymore, since we have only room...
We have 3 hens that are between 21 months to 23 months in age. The first winter we had them they slowed down in egg production but still layer through the winter months, with no supplemental lighting. This time they stopped laying in November, and as of today (Feb 11) we have had no eggs. Two...
we have a year and a half year old Welsummer hen who has suddenly laid two eggs (about 2 weeks apart) that are about 1/4 the normal size of her regular eggs. Has anyone else had a hen do this? The eggs look like tiny little golf balls!
I have two 5 1/2 month old hens and one 8 month old hen, none of which are laying, but we have been putting straw in their nest boxes with fake eggs to entice them and all they do is kick the straw out of boxes on a daily basis. Is the some other material that would be better to use? Any...
My three month old hen was killed by a raccoon last week, and I just got a replacement hen to put with the other surviving 2 hens. We have a small chicken tractor, with coop above and run below. I tried the trick of putting her in the coop part with them after dark, but when I opened the...
My chicks are 9 weeks old, and I have been just sprinkling grit on top of their food daily. Is this the right way to give grit? Should I be measuring it out, or putting it in a separate container from their food?
We are planning to put our three 6 week old chicks out in their chicken tractor this weekend for the first time. They are completely feathered out, and our temperatures here have been in the 50's at night, with day time temps ranging from 65-72 degrees. Is this okay? They are getting way too...
We are going to be putting our chicks out in the tractor this weekend, and I am at a loss as to what kind of feed and water system to put into the tractor. We currently have the standard small waterbottle with water tray attached and circular plastic feeder with holes in the top, but both get...
We are going to be putting our chicks out in the tractor this weekend, and I am at a loss as to what kind of feed and water system to put into the tractor. We currently have the standard small waterbottle with water tray attached and circular plastic feeder with holes in the top, but both get...
Our chickens are at 75 degrees w/heat lamp in the brooder, and are mostly feathered out (except for their heads) at 4 weeks. When do you think we could put them out in the top portion of our chicken tractor, without a heat lamp? We were thinking the fully enclosed portion with the ramp in the...
We got our three chicks at one week old, and have been trying very hard to hold them to get them used to us since the day we brought them home. We would pick them up and gently stroke them on the sides of their necks and cheeks. They seemed to have gotten more used to us as the weeks went on...
I have 3 week old chicks that I have tried feeding two things that I have read in posts that they should just love! I tried blended up hard boiled egg, and then I tried plain yogurt. In both cases, the most dominant chick tried it, but then turned her nose up. Is this common? Also, is it...
My chicks will be 3 weeks old this Sunday, and I have read that you can switch to non medicated food after they have been on it for the first two weeks or so of life. I am almost out of the medicated food, and have a bag of regular food and will switch if it sounds acceptable to those of you...
We have three 2 week old chicks, and one, the Ameraucana has diarrhea. She is drinking and eating well, and seems to be okay, except for when she sometimes goes to lay down she kind of falls over on her side. She seems to be alert and happy when she is not sleeping, so I do not know if I...
our 3 pullets are already flying to the top of the brooder! I thought they were not supposed to be able to do that until they were 4 weeks or so? We added a wire lid to our plastic brooder, and now I am glad we did! When I am cleaning out the brooder, they sometimes fly to the top of the box...
We have 3 chicks and are using pine shavings in our brooder (96 quart plastic container), and after starting out with clean shavings, have been adding a couple handfuls of new shavings morning and evening. By the end of the third day, it was getting to smell, so I dumped out all the shavings...
We have our 1 week old chicks in the garage, and if the lights are off in there the only light comes from their heat lamp. I have been leaving the overhead lights on during the day, and then just giving them their heatlamp for light at night. It is pretty dark in the garage with just their...
We just got 3 one week old chicks! The girls have named them, and totally fallen in love. So, the babies seem fine, eating, drinking and running around. But, I keep worrying that it is going to be traumatic if something happens to one or more of them! Are baby chicks pretty hardy? We live...