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I noticed her this morning looking like she couldn't fully extend her legs into a standing or walking position. I just found her in the coop in rough shape. It seems she can raise her tail end but not get her front end up. I tried to bring her in the house but the rooster head her making noise...

I have developed a rat problem in my coop. I usually keep a large, home-made PVC feeder in there and the girls can free feed. In an effort to eliminate the rats I've decided to remove the feeder and feed them 2 or 3 times a day outside of the coop. I have 8 laying hens all about 2 years old...

I've read I can replace the eggs with either fake eggs or mustard filled eggs and that should end the problem quickly. My problem is the rooster is in the coop and eating before I can get out the door. How do I execute this plan? I have 8 hens and the 1 rooster and am lucky to get 1 egg a day.

I just got out of the shower when I heard a chicken screaming out back. I ran out to find my dog sniffing the girl pictured. She is alive (to my horror). She is a few inches from the the pen that is open on top. There is also a mess of feathers a few inches away from the scene. I doubt my 8...

Half of my flock was hatched in April the other half hatched in July. The April girls are laying but the July girls are obviously behind. Can I start the whole flock on layer feed yet? Thanks, Dave

Here is a picture of my newest flock. They are about 9 weeks old and one of them seems to be more developed than the others. Can I assume she is a he? The chick in question is a RIR.

I locked up the girls last night and noticed one of them was sitting quietly starring at the corner. I gave her a gentle poke and she barely moved. I went out this morning and she was sitting in the same place, same position only now she was dead. She was our "broody hen," she had gone broody...

We got an accidental rooster and have decided to keep him. He is a RIR and about 22 weeks old and is still very much low man in the pecking order. The rest of our hens are about a year and half old. We decided to keep him as the neighborhood cat has taken a bigger interest in our yard. I...

So I have never had RIR's before and got 2 as chicks from my local farm supply. We found one was a rooster when we slept with the windows open and heard him crowing. We looked and one clearly has a spiked feathers on his tail. We traded him yesterday for a NH red laying hen. To our surprise...

So last week we discovered one of our 17 week old RIR hens was a rooster. Yesterday we traded him for a NH Red hen. This morning we woke to find our other RIR hen is now crowing. We bought them as sex from the farm supply store, NOT a straight run. Below is the 2 of them together, we kept...

So we discovered one of our newest RIR hens is actually a rooster. Technically, roosters are illegal in our town and we really don't have interest in raising chicks this way so we have plans to trade him this Friday. We have had no dealings with roosters before so we didn't know what to look...

I have 6 girls all in their 2nd year of laying. I am adding 3 who are about 17 weeks old. All the girls have been free ranging together and get along fine. The new girls live and eat in their own separate "coop." The new girls are now big enough that I have to leave their coop open enough so...

So this looks like a starter egg but I have 6 hens who are well over a year old and have been giving me 4 or 5 eggs a day this year (6 on Sunday!). Plus I have 3 pullets, 2 RIR and 1 Plymouth Roc, who are about 12 weeks old. On Saturday we switched the pullets from mash to grower pellets but...

I guess she is at the end of the pecking order. We have 6 hens all 15 months old and have lived together all their lives. One of the other girls "mounts" her (and others) and pecks the back of her head and neck. I am assuming this is regular dominance behavior. The one with the limp seems to...

I have 2 hens who will try to go to bed in my shed, every night. Every night I have to grab the same 2 and put them in the coop. Their coop is the back half of the shed and I leave the shed door open for ventilation. I'd let them sleep in the shed but the crap all over the cooler and my...

My girls are all a year old this week. I have 3 black sex links and 3 amber sex links. We are in New England and I got pretty good egg production all winter using lights on a timer. I don't really have a plan except I got 2 RIR and 2 Barred Rocks chicks today. I want to keep about 6-8 layers...

I have 6 hens and already got 3 eggs today. One girl has been sitting in the same nest box for hours. I would guess I noticed her in there around 9am and she is STILL in the same box. I usually get 5 or 6 eggs a day so I wonder if she is sitting on 2 or 3 thinking she is brooding? We have no...

I have 6 pullets, 3 black sex links and 3 "amber stars." They are all about 15 weeks old. I thought I read some where that the sex links would start laying around 18 weeks old but now I can't find that. Anyone know for sure? Also, I put up the nest boxes but never put in the floor on the...

I have a 2 gallon hanging waterer and someone keeps trying to roost on it. This, of course, tips the waterer and spills almost all 2 gallons into the bedding. Every time it happed I would raise the waterer an inch or 2 but it kept happening. I am thinking of lowering it but I am worried that...

I just wanted to give a heads up to those of you thinking are buying a "ready to assemble" mail order coop. Some of you, like me, have heard that they are cheap and not worth the money. But, like me, you are thinking that it is till a low budget way to get into this hobby. Well let me tell...