Medicated chick feed doesn't have anything to do with pasty butt.
I've raised a lot of chicks, and i have read a lot of remedies. But i have always had the most success with simply keeping a close eye on butts for about the first week. Whenever i find a pasty butt, i clean it and then...
MsRiderUp, I wouldn't worry about them filling up on soil instead of feed. One thing I've learned about chickens is that their tiny little brains are perfectly programmed to eat what they need if it is available to them. My advice is to just keep their chick feed available and provide a couple...
Here is one explanation i have heard. I'm still mulling it over in my mind, but i think it might have some value.
We all know that the chick lives on the nutrition from the yolk for the first 3 (some say 5) days of life outside the egg. So a chick may appear to be perfectly healthy, even...
i use a dark room and the flash light on my smart phone. turn on the light, point the light toward the ceiling, hold the egg directly on top of the light. tada!
a small flashlight works too.
I don't wash the eggs that i sell. I feel pretty confident that would shorten their shelf life, and i want my eggs to stay as fresh as possible for as long as possible for my customers. But lately, i've been having more problems than usual with marks of authenticity on my eggs. In the past, i...
I might be oversimplifying things, but i think that if i were in your shoes, i would be inclined to clean up all the bare butts, spray them down with some blue-kote type product, and put them back in the coop - but remove the trouble-maker, and see if you still have the pecking. With wounds...
I'm not familiar with the Vetericyn product you're using. Does it color the wound in any way?
Basically, if the only reason the other hen is pecking at your girl is because she's attracted to the red wound, then if you are able to cover it with something like blu-kote, then i see no reason...
That's a hard one. With that many eggs in there, the best thing, and maybe the only way to get a good hatch...would be to find someone to borrow another incubator from.
When i first got chickens (my husband "surprised" me with them), i had no idea how to even handle them. I was afraid to pick them up, because i didn't know how and because i was afraid they would peck me. Really basic stuff can be helpful to the super-newbies.
How is your girl doing now?
Is she swollen like that on both sides?
The only thing i can think of right off the bat, is that maybe she was stung by something ... or snake bit. I'm hoping that whatever it is will process out over night.
Do you have an update?
What exactly did you read? If you don't mind my asking.
About a hundred small children have handled chickens and eggs at my house over the years, and no one has become sick because of it. I do think it's a pretty good policy to have children and grown-ups wash their hands after handling such...
Welcome to BYC!
When i first started keeping chickens, i had about a gobillion questions, and in order to answer them, i read and read and read and read and read, every forum and every guide that i could find, here on BYC, and i learned a LOT! This is one of the very best learning...