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Ok, at the risk of being a bad chicken mommy, I do give my chicks some treats at about 3-4 days old. I always put out a little tray of washed sand/grit first, so they have something to help grind the food, and usually I start with greens chopped up into the teeniest, tiniest, pieces I can chop-...

I also have wild cherries- AKA bird cherries or sour cherries- above my run area. Between the robins and blue jays and chickens there is not much left. They are small, hard, and horrible to eat when judged by a human palette, but the feathered creatures go NUTS! Those trees sprout up...

Hi Sorry your bird is sick! I just lost one this AM (13 weeks old), and I am not positive what it was this time, but I do know I have Marek's in the flock. So Marek's TYPICALLY affects just one leg or one wing or one side and not both at once. The classic presentation is one leg stretched out...

I barely wait a week before I start the green treats! I think this spring's batch was maybe 5 or 6 days old. I always start with finely slivered cabbage- first I slice it as thin as I possibly can and then I chop it down even further into nearly microscopic pieces! Cabbage is easier for me to...

How high is your fence? Depending on the breed, some chickens can fly much higher than you would expect- especially when younger and sprightly! 6 feet is no sweat for some of them. A cat with half a brain will not go after a full size chicken (standard) but will probably stress them out a bit...

If you could keep the chickens from eating or tearing the vines apart---- it really should be something non-toxic if they possibly could reach it. They tore my pea vines apart last year, but left the cucumbers alone, so maybe get an English Cucumber started when it's warm enough, they trellis...

Hi I picked up a batch of chicks from the feed store and the smallest one concerns me a bit. It looks as if her legs are a bit farther apart than the other chicks and when she walks she sort of waddles like an older hen. They are on paper towels now, but of course I have no idea what happened...

I'm like a broken record- I see so many posts with similar symptoms- look up Mareks (Range Paralysis). The symptoms can be very broad and show up in many different forms in the same flock. It can cause, limping, paralysis in one leg or one wing, depression, weight losss (wasting), internal...

Well, with very few clues, my guess is Mareks disease, which is very common. It can cause a huge range of symptoms, but general depression in activity and appetite, and dying relatively quickly from the time you notice anything can be from internal tumors that the disease can cause. The limp can...

That is too bad, but Marek's is so mysterious on why one chicken and not another, it is impossible to predict how this will affect the others in the future. I have 15 adult hens now out of 24. I lost 3 to Mareks and 6 to predators, so in my case, the Mareks is not such a big factor. I have not...

Ugh, I have a hen that has some behavior like that- but not as extreme and I have been trying to be a Chicken Psychologist for several weeks to fix the problem! She was the Queen hen and our Rooster just hates her (or really loves her, who knows), but anyway, he picks on her and tries to stomp...

Are you familiar with Range Paralysis? It would most likely affect one leg more than the other but there are different variations of the disease (Marek's) and it does attack the nerves. They can eat and drink happily except they can't walk. Typically one leg sticks out in front, but it's...

If you have Confederate Jasmine and that is the correct common name, you have Trachleospermum jasminoides, which is not listed as toxic. Cestrum is a different genus but common names confuse everything. Is there anything else that just those three could have gotten into? Fertilizer, rotten or...

Yogurt is good if they are not really voluntarily eating. I would offer it in a spoon and get a taste on the beak- most times they will start licking it up out of the spoon. Anything with protein is good when they're sick. You should be able to get some electrolytes to mix in the water at the...

I agree, the green within the watery poo and the white urates means that the chicken is not really eating anymore. Figuring out why is so difficult, unfortunately. Good nursing care like people are suggesting is the best you can do, unless you are willing or able to go to an avian vet for...

My spoiled hens get 1 large head of raw broccoli nearly every day. They will spend the day picking off chunks of the florets first and by the end of the day, the entire stem is GONE. Never any leftovers, never cooked, easy green treat with so many WONDERFUL nutrients. Just toss into the run!

Thanks everybody for the shared stories- that solidifies it for me. I am taking 2 roosters out of the mix next weekend and keeping the best behaved one. I will have a talk with him that I will choose the hens over him so he had better watch it. I think I will then separate him for several days...

My flock gets cabbage daily- I cut up about 1/4 head per day for 18 chickens along with other greens. They suffer no ill effects and are quite healthy. Yes the red cabbage will turn the poo turquoise. It is weird, but just a natural process.

Hi I have 15 hens and 3 roosters. (One is leaving next week as he targets my 4 year old, and I am debating whether to keep one or two around.) All of the girls are OK with the boys except one. She used to be the dominant hen, and at some point in the fall, she stopped coming out of the coop...

What a great video, and she won $1000 for it! That will pay for a lot more chicks and chicken food, lucky girl.