I have 10 1 year old chickens. I bought 9 new chickens this year. The new chickens were 9 weeks old when I moved them into a separate section of the coop where they could see the mature chickens. At 12 weeks old now, I have put them together. The first day out in the run the younger chickens...
My Rhode Island Red has lost her feathers (see picture). They have been gone for over two months with no sign of regrowing. She is one year old. She has access to a dust bath with DE for 3 weeks. She seems to be acting normal. Today I noticed my other Rhode Island Red has some thinning of her...
See attached pictures. I took one picture of my healthy chicken for comparison. The chicken in question will lay down with her feet out to the side. Other birds are pecking at the area where her feathers are rustled up and missing. She is eating and drinking. Any help would be appreciated.
I have enclosed the chicken run on all three sides (northwest, west, and southeast). The run is open on the top of each side for ventilation. However, it now smells inside the run. I have removed the plastic on the bottom of the door to help with the smell (picture #4). Any other suggestions????
My door from the coop
to the run is set automatically to open from sun up to sun down. When the weather is 20degrees or lower should I keep them inside? I was leaving the decision up to the chickens but thought the cold weather/potential draft from the open door might cause issues for the chickens.
It was a gloomy, rainy day. My chickens did not go in the coop when it got dark. They have never done this so far. I had to go into the coop and call them to come inside. Is this because there was not enough variance in lightness outside due to the weather?
I purchased my chicks in April and was expecting them to start laying in August. I recently had a friend tell me not to be surprised if they don’t start laying until this coming spring. The reason being when they finally matured to the point of laying, the amount of daylight hours had started to...