Search results for query: *

Went out this morning and saw our first baby chick walked in front of it's mama! The our hen ("Nugget") raised up and it looked like more wore hatching. Unfortunately now, she won't let me see any of the others or the first one. So I'm leaving her alone for a while. So...now what? I put a...

Our broody hen has just completed her first two weeks of sitting and in entering her third. She only comes out of the nest box every other day or so. She's got food and water and occasionally I give her some scratch. The nest box is fairly clean. My question is - once the chicks hatch, what do...

One of my chicks has a crossed beak and her feathers don't look as well filled out as the others her age. She seems to weight close to the others so I assume she's getting enough to eat but her feathers is what concerns me most. Any ideas? Should I be worried about a disease or something else...

I've been keeping 23 chicks in a hover brooder since end of Feb. They seem to like the red heat lamp so I've been keeping it of for them but I don't think they really need it. Most of them sleep just outside the brooder. However, they do seem confused b/c they can't get to their old brooder and...

from what i've been able to research, it seems like my chick has a slipped tendon. The joint is swollen and the leg / foot is set at 90 degrees. This didn't exist (or at least I didn't notice it) when they arrived. She is also about half the size of the other chicks which tells me she is not...

I just built one of these brooders using Mr. Plamondon's plans from his book. In the book, it calls for 250W total to start. I've got a 250W red heat lamp and one 125W white heat lamp. It's been on for a few hours but it doesn't seem as if the temp is going to reach anywhere near 90 degrees -...

the neighbor left their dog out again and it attacked my chickens. i found one dead and four others missing. i walked all over our property this afternoon and drove up and down our road and couldn't find a trace of any of the others. Then, just before sun down, the rooster came walking back to...

I've got a buckeye hen that is just under a year old. For the past week or so I've noticed a messy vent area. It seems to clear up and then come back. Its not overly messy but enough so that it is noticeable. She doesn't feel as if she is egg bound (which I've read occurs rarely). I haven't seen...

i noticed this morning one of my hens looks like she has a "stuck" open vent. There is a little poo run-off on her bottom but i don't see any blood or insides on the outside. I searched a little on the site but didn't find anything similar. what should i do? Or, should I even worry at all?

I've lost three guineas to a neighbor's dog. When they fly out of the coop and free range during the day, the don't seem to want to fly back in when the dog comes near. All they'll do is run around the run's fence but never try to fly away. There are lots of trees nearby they could fly up into...

This morning I found blood in the coop. This was a spot about the size of a medium pancake. There wasn't a pool but there was more than I cared to see. I checked the chickens to see if maybe the pecking had started up again but I didn't see any blood on their backsides. This was the only place...

My neighbor lets their roam roam free all day and today she attacked and killed another bird - #3. This one was a guinea that flew out of the coop while we were gone. Normally they are fine out by themselves but not today. What can I do to protect my birds? I'd rather not clip their wings and I...

I hope someone can help. I bought three chickens from someone who I felt had far too many chickens in their run. The three I "rescued" had almost all of their tail feathers and backside feathers pecked out. There were many other chickens like this as well. When I got the chickens home, I...

I found a little less than half of an eaten egg in a nest box today. The first time this has happened for the four months we've had the chickens. I've been feeding them layer pellets with a daily scratch (sometimes twice daily) supplement along with grit. I also put out a "flock block" that has...

Please take a look at the below picture. I noticed today several feathers around the hen's neck are missing. I looked closer and didn't see any lice/mites nor did I see any blood. The plastic tubes are still attached and have bits of feather poking out the top. Is this just the way new feathers...

I've read several great posts on here about DIY water heaters for inside the chicken coop. The only thing I haven't seen is a hanging water heater. One option is to place one of the heated cookie tins on top of a 5 gal hanging plastic bucket but would it get hot enough to heat the water at the...

we've got the run framed in and now i could use some advice. Since I only have 4' fencing and 3' hardware cloth (in height), I was thinking to install the chain link about 1 or 2 feet off the ground and then cover the gap with the hardware cloth and then bury about a 1 foot or less to create an...

Here are pictures of my first series of eggs. The ones on the right are from a RIR. The one on the left is from the pictured chicken below. Any idea what breed she is? I was told it was a Cuckoo Marans...but the eggs are really small and the same color as the RIR. I know they are not always dark...

The plan is to start on the run this weekend. We're going to re-use old fence poles that the folks who lived here before us used for the horizontal parts of a cattle fence. They are irregular in diameter but I think would look really neat - plus they're already here and free. We're also going to...

One of my chickens just laid her first egg yesterday. Everyone was very excited! Today when I was in the coop, the "laying" chicken wouldn't let any of the other hens near the nest box where the eggs was as if she were saying "This is mine. Go find your own." Has anyone seen this behavior before?