My chickens just started laying (that we know of) a little over a week ago. Yield has been fairly low and sporadic, but that's normal for new layers so I didn't think anything of it. This morning, though, I found one of them in a tiny hole one of the dogs had dug back into the bank near a...
I went out to tuck my girls in and one of them has decided instead to roost in the apple tree next to the coop--about 20 feet off the ground. We have a ladder that tall, but it's not really safe to try and use it on a 60 degree slope in the pitch black dark. Much as I hate to do it, I have to...
If I'm doing a double-walled coop, do both sides of each wall need to be painted? I know the sides that will be exposed to weather and chicken poop and any exposed edges need to have a couple-three coats, but what about the sides that will be inside the walls and covered by the framing?
One of my 3-week old chicks was sneezing a little this afternoon. No discharge, she's bright and perky, no coughing, no sneezes from anyone else. Is this something to just keep an eye on, or does it require immediate action?
This is quite possibly a really foolish question, but it would solve a lot of issues I'm having designing our coop and run. We had originally planned on a mobile coop/run so the birdies could have fresh grass while staying safe from neighborhood dogs and there wouldn't be any poo buildup or...
We're in the planning stages of our very first coop/tractor and trying to balance several factors--security and weather protection, a nice appearance so the neighborhood old biddies don't squawk about our biddies, and keeping the whole thing light enough to move on a regular basis. And, of...
I'm in the design phase of building our first coop/tractor, and I want to make sure I'm not creating dangerous drafts in my attempts to give adequate ventilation. My current design for the coop part is essentially a 2-ft tall box with a pitched roof on top of that and the eaves open for...
I know they're typically fully feathered by 5 or 6 weeks, but how soon do they start getting feathers? I got some little Golden Comets at TSC on Tuesday, and they've all got some fairly significant wing feathers and and a couple of them have the very beginnings of tail feathers. Is this normal...