With my first group of 4 hens, they all had completely different personalities. Three were very friendly, but my Rhode Island Red was so shy and skittish. I had them all for 2 1/2 years, and the whole time, no matter what I tried, Red would never come to me. The other three would eat out of...
I introduced my new, young flock of chickens to my older hens in all the right ways, and yet they were still ostracized. They young-uns were not allowed up on the roost, they were chased away from the food, and the old hens literally set up an ambushing station where one would stand guard, one...
Thank you...I raised my current flock as starter chicks, and we have a wonderful little micro-coop for them inside the coop, with a heat lamp. She's taught them how to get their water and such, so I guess the main thing is to keep them warm and safe until they're big enough to be out on their...
My 7-month-old hen Sweetie hatched twelve chicks 3 weeks ago, and was a wonderful mother...until a couple of days ago. Now she leaves them to go graze for most of the day and doesn't care where they are or if they are cheeping loudly for her. Last night she decided to sleep on the roost and...
My 6-month-old bantam Cochin Sweetie just hatched 12 eggs yesterday (whew!) and this morning two chicks were laying out of her nest in the cold, twitching. I brought them in and warmed them up, and they seem fine now, so I put them all in a large plastic tub with a heat lamp so if any wander...
I'm not sure if you got your problem resolved, but the Chicken Chick has some excellent information on broody hens, and on hatching http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/05/broody-breaker-when-hens-mood-to-hatch.html
donrae from what I'm reading I think you're right. Thankfully I have a large yard where I can keep my chickens "together but separate." I'm excited to see how she does!
BuckAlorp haha sort of a dyslexic "Asil"..."Alis"! She will now be officially known as Alice! It will be interesting to see my proud little roo try his moves on her.
Oh wonderful! I looked them up and I believe she is exactly that. She is so friendly and very intelligent, and gets along extremely well with my other birds (sounds like I lucked out in getting only one!). I did get my chickens for egg-laying, but I don't care if she's not a good layer, she's...
I got these chickens as babies from our local nursery, and they are now 6 months old. This girl looks nothing like the group (one Polish, one RIR, two bantam Brahmas, two bantam Andalusians)...I wonder if she got mixed up at the store. She's tall and lanky; my kids call her Ostrich. She is...
Yes I do...he's just kind of a turd, he grabbed our Polish hen by the head feathers and drug her around the yard...but I find that unless there is bloodshed, it's usually best to stand back and let them be chickens. I have a way to separate my free-range area into two spaces so I will probably...
I have 11 chickens of assorted sizes...four are banties and the rest are larger-sized. All are 3 1/2 months old. The past few weeks my Polish rooster started being very aggressive towards my banties (3 hens and 1 rooster). Is this behavior just going to become worse the larger he gets? I...
I've got some Banties who are very small so I am hesitating to send them out right away.. I've only ever had just the four hens so I have no experience how different breeds interact. One thing, my older hens' wings are clipped so the young ones can flutter away from them if they need to...
I have a flock of four grown hens, and a new flock of eleven various-sized chickens who are now about 10 weeks old. They have been raised in a coop-within-the-coop...with the older hens, but separated by fencing. My question is, some of my chickens have gotten quite large, and at 10 weeks are...
I have a flock of four hens just for egg-laying. I have a big boss hen, her sweet sidekick, then a red one who is clearly the "low man" of the three, and a little blind one. My blind one is (of course) my favorite, and she can usually hang out with the rest (she has to be fed alone) but the...
Sounds like I need to try some other methods to stop the bullying first. They are free range chickens, so I know it's not a space problem, but I will do some reading on here to see what other people have tried. The only roosters I've been around were at the fair in a cage, but my husband said...