One of our hens has been occasionally laying incomplete or soft shelled eggs for a couple months. Today we finally confirmed that it's the hen we've been suspecting.
She's one of our Barred Rocks that were hatched in May 2023. The other hens of her age have all gone through molting.
We know...
On January 10th, our rooster Arthur gave his life protecting his flock from a hawk. He was about 9 months old and had been fantastic to all of his 15 ladies, always calling them for food, maintaining discipline, calling out danger and using himself as the shield, he never attacked people...
We had our hens on layer feed for a year, and this year's pullets on grower. We also have a rooster now.
The feeder with the layer feed is inside the big hen coop, next to the nesting boxes. I haven't had to refill it in weeks - it appears they've all decided they prefer the grower feed...
On July 3rd, I went to close the chickens and heard a commotion. When I got to the older hens' yard, I saw a raccoon climbing up a pine tree with one of our Buff Orpingtons. Somehow I caused the raccoon to panic and fall off the tree, dropping the hen, after which he fled back up the tree...
We have 8 adult hens (2 Buff Orpingtons and 6 Barred Rocks) who are 1 year and 1 month old.
7 young hens who are 13 weeks old (3 Wyandottes, a Dark Brahma, Bielefelder, Lavender Orpington and a Spessex)
They share approximately 200 sqft of fenced yard space (free range when we can watch them)...
We have two silver laced Wyandottes, one has a whiter head and the other is darker. The third Wyandotte is a blue laced red with the splash phase. They are 13 weeks old, hatch date was 3/27.
We actually want a rooster, and if none of these are one then we want to find one. Any thoughts from...
We have nine hens (7 BRs and 2 Buff Orpingtons) who have been laying eggs pretty normally for over half a year now. Today I found something strange in one of the boxes:
One egg was very soft and had a dent in it which looked like another egg had been pressed against it. It wasn't leaking...
We just got a new batch of chicks that were hatched on the 27th. One of the Wyandotte chicks was acting strange, we observed pasty butt and cleaned it. She seemed to produce some output afterwards. Tried to give her water, but she seemed to choke a little bit. She's not keeping her balance...
Chicken info:
Barred Rock hen.
Hatch date 5/3.
Started laying eggs around mid November, continues to lay unfazed after injury.
Flock consists of 7 BRs and 2 Buff Orpingtons of same age, all are hens.
Issue: On Sunday the 19th, I noticed some blood on one of the roost bars in the morning...
I figured I'll try using the whole template:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
We got our first flock of chicks in May. My family had chickens a few years when I was younger in early 90s.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
9.
(3) What breeds do you...