Yes, those look like buff Orpingtons. They are very nice chickens and do have a more docile temperament. Keep a close eye on them when you put them together, so they don't get seriously injured.
You can check for external parasites. It may very well just be from molting. As chickens grow...
Chard, kale, dark leaf lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, any kind of berries, clover, alfalfa and anything else you feel like growing. Amaranth, sunflower. If they don't free range in the yard, you can grow wheat or other grasses for them, too. They like lots of greens...
I feed the same balanced feed year round.
We get harsh winters here. In the winter, they get a little scratch before going to roost. I also offer things like wheat grass, sprouts and alfalfa, since they aren't getting anything green outside.
When they're molting, I give a little sunflower...
It sounds like you have a lot of great stuff there!
For your windows, I would cover the window openings with 1/2" hardware cloth, to keep out predators. I use washers and wood screws to attach it, so it can't be pulled or pushed out. Chicken wire is too weak to keep out most predators...
I'm glad you found what you needed. It could be that your chickens didn't forage at their last home and that allowed their nails to get longer.
We use our dog nail clippers on the chickens, if they need a trim. They do have a quick. Usually ours are fine without trims. They do have longer...
Mine liked to follow along with the sheep during the day. As the sheep grazed, the chickens foraged. At certain times of the day, they'd lay down and rest together.
I can't be of much help, I just don't have much experience with chicken diseases. I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am that you're dealing with this. I hope you can get this figured out and do something to prevent your other chickens from having the same problems. I hope you get some...
They do come back home to roost on their own. It's handy to train them to come back in with treats, in case you ever need to lock them up early or in the middle of the day for some reason.
We have "yard shoes" as well as boots, for working out in the yard or coop. There is a lot of mud under the trees, as well as some poop scattered out on the property. We also don't have an attached garage and the driveway is not paved. I have a pair of shoes at the door that I slip on before...
I'm sorry. When you said you were mainly feeding them fodder, I thought you were restricting their feed too much. I've read a couple of people's posts that sounded like they thought chickens could live on fodder alone. That's one of those "too much of a good thing" situations.
Are you free...
That sounds pretty darn good to me.
How well do poultry staples hold up once the wood gets older and drier, with a large male coon pulling on it? If it was mine, I'd add a few wood screws with washers scattered around. Just to be safe. That's how we usually do it and it's held up well...
The only time I would give sugar water is if you have chicks that were shipped and arrive in bad shape. If chicks are in transit for too long, they can run out of stored fuel in their bodies. If they are too weak to eat and drink on their own, then some sugar water in an eye dropper can help...
I would never feed mainly fodder to my chickens. It doesn't have all the nutrition they need. They aren't ruminants. It should be a supplement to their diet. As a supplement, it makes them healthier.
I free feed their layer feed, in addition to everything else they eat. This time of year...
What a great use for all that food! Happy chickens, too!
I've had pantry moths a couple of times in my life. I found the pantry moth traps to be a great help, getting rid of the adults that can be lurking around the house after an infestation. Now I use a lot of glass or heavy plastic...
10 square feet per chicken is the minimum amount of space recommended for a run so that the chickens don't kill each other. If you want green grass for them, then you have to go by the guidelines for pasturing them on grass, which doesn't seem to be an option for you. It's like the difference...
My husband roasts the green coffee beans we buy. I had a coffee tree that bloomed and produced fruit. It was just a handful, though, as we can only have them as houseplants during the winters we have here. I didn't keep it after it got too big for the room I had it in. They're only hardy in...