Hi there,
Two weeks ago I bought two 15 week old red sex link pullets to add to my flock of 4. They are in a separate coop for now. The farm said that they were eating chick starter just fine. I thought they seemed a bit rangy but became worried when they just don't want to eat. I have chick...
I bought two 15 week old pullets a week ago, figuring it was faster and easier than raising them from chicks as I have done with all my other birds. They are in a separate coop from the others. Their feathers are sort of dull and beat-up, but their eyes are bright. One, maybe both of them, has...
I butchered three 8 weeks old CX cockerels yesterday and when removing the windpipe and crop I found some strange nodules or lumps above the crop- but only in two of the birds. I don't recall seeing this on the other 3 birds I did last week. Does anyone have any ideas? Lymph nodes? Fatty...
So I have been raising my first batch of meat birds, and after butchering 3 of them today, thought I would share some of my experiences and "data". I started giving them fermented organic starter at one week after being totally shocked by their expulsive diarrhea. i also limited their food...
So my meaties are 4+ weeks old and I am thinking ahead about the Big Day. I am considering using a cone and a pair of big hedge shears rather than slitting their throats, as I am worried about my ability to cut in the right place. But, I am wondering if any of you out there have noticed a...
I read that they often have problems feathering out, but is this normal? All 10 of my chicks have bare bellies, now that their chick fluff has fallen out. They are out during the day when it is sunny, and I was getting ready to have them stay outside at night in a coop rather than going into...
I had to cut her open and look before I buried her today. There must have been at least a QUART of yellow clear fluid in her abdomen, poor thing. Pretty awful. She had not laid for 1 1/2 years and had been swollen for a few months, penguin stance the past month. We put her out of her misery...
Our Bonnie, a RIR, was an outstanding layer for about a year and a half. Then she stopped laying...but seemed normal otherwise. That was a year and a half ago. About 6 months ago, we noticed her starting to swell with ascites. However, for several months, she still seemed to feel OK otherwise-...
Hi, my almost-3 wk old CX chicks are really starting to scare me. They have begun to stampede me when I give them food. Not only am i worried about the smaller ones that get knocked over, but I am also thinking ahead to when these baby dinosaurs weigh 8+ lbs each. How do the rest of you get...
Help! Two out of the past four mornings, I have been awoken (through my earplugs) at 5:40 am by the strangled sound of a...ROOSTER! I live in a dense neighborhood with the nearest house next to mine probably just about the legal distance away from my coop (that's twenty-five feet). My oldest...
Hi, i am raising meat chickens for the first time. Got my new Cornish cross chicks a little more than a week ago. The chicks were a little stressed as they had been part of a demonstration before I took them home, but seemed to recover nicely...however, I was immediately disgusted by the vast...
So Dolly died, after a few days of looking bad and maybe a month or so of runny poop. She was 2.5 yrs old and had been laying well right up until a cold snap in December when she decided to do a full hard molt. She never really got back to 100% after that, although her feathers finally did come...
So my #1 least favorite hen (but best layer), Dolly, is sick. She is a 2 yr old Delaware. Yesterday I noticed that her comb was a bit droopy (she is just now feathered out from a hard molt a month+ ago) and then this morning she didn't get off the perch with the rest. When I returned in the...
Hi, I have 4 birds that are about 22 weeks old. Over the past couple of weeks, 3 of them had what I believe to have been fowl pox (yellow spots turning black and scabby on their combs, wattles, bills and inside mouth) but they finally seem to be on the mend.
The 4th, a Golden Lakenvelder...
Here is my sad November egg situation. I live in coastal Southern California. I have 6 hens- 1 Delaware, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Ameracaunas and 1 Welsummer.
The Delaware is the head angry chicken. She will peck you as soon as looking at you.
They are all the same age- chicks...
Hi,
I am considering giving my birds an extra couple of hours of light a day (their coop is behind a fence and gets dark quicker) but I need to know if the wavelength/color/wattage of light matters. Can I use a florescent bulb? Is 14 watts ok? What about LEDs? Do people use a timer, and if so...
Hi there,
a couple of weeks ago I heard a bunch of squawking and I found three of my young pullets with bloody combs and chipped bills. By the afternoon, the last one also had blood on her comb. I checked their coop but couldn't figure out what had happened. Now I realize that it was the pvc...
Hi, I need some advice. A couple of weeks ago, one of our 1 1/2 yr old hens showed the signs of an impacted crop. Her crop was totally hard with something- i thought at the time it might have been some broccoli. She was molting at the time, it was freezing outside and she was miserable. We...
Hi all, I have finally joined the forum after lurking for the past year. This site has been a great source of information for me and my birds but now I need some advice. My 6 hens are all the same age (1.5 yrs) and have grown up together. They had a definite pecking order but it seemed fairly...