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  1. elmo

    Review by 'elmo' in article 'How to Handle the Ageing Process of Chickens'

    We are down to two chickens remaining from our original flock of bantams. Chicklet is 15, showing very little sign of her advanced age. She even laid an egg this spring! Ozma is 14 and is suffering from cataracts in both eyes. Because of her vision loss, she can't manage the social interactions...
  2. elmo

    Basement Coop, outdoor run?

    If you can work out the ventilation issue and the basement as it exists today doesn't have a moisture problem, I'd say go for it. But then, we have been keeping a small flock of elderly bantams in our indoor bird room...right inside out house...for several years. It does get dusty...
  3. elmo

    Official BYC Poll: How Important Is It That You Get Eggs From Your Chickens?

    Our flock is now composed of old ladies going on 13 years old. A couple of the gals are still laying an egg now and then in the spring. One in particular I wish would stop laying, since two years ago she had a bad bout of prolapse and had to go into the vet to get ..ahem..rejuvenation surgery on...
  4. elmo

    When Should We Have More Than the Minimums for Space?

    Ask if anyone ever regretted having extra space. I bet you won't find many stories. On the other hand, if you ask if anyone ever wishes they had built their coop/run larger.....
  5. elmo

    Tiny young serama hen laying bloody eggs - please help?

    We had a similar problem with Hermione, a part Serama hen, when she was young. I separated her from the flock and gave her a nest full of eggs (5-6). She immediately went broody on them, which stopped her laying for three weeks so her vent could heal up. After she came off the nest, I was...
  6. elmo

    coop vent question....how to add but not let rain in?

    What is that black material covering those bottom vents? Please tell me it's not window screen. If that's what it is, they've just built an easy opening for raccoons to bust into the coop to eat the chickens.
  7. elmo

    Hardware cloth versus welded wire.

    No, with wire gauge the higher the number the SMALLER the wire. 16 gauge wire is thicker and therefore stronger than 19 gauge. I've got 16 gauge wire covering the windows and vents in my coop, and that stuff is heavy. I can still remember how much my hand hurt from making all those cuts with...
  8. elmo

    Official BYC Poll: How Old Is / Was Your Oldest Chicken?

    Our whole remaining flock are the original gals, 12 and 11 years old now. And in the spring, they still lay the occasional egg! Over the years we've lost one to an accident and two to egg laying disorders.
  9. elmo

    Baby Chicks in the Mail...

    My Pet Chicken isn't a hatchery, it's just a middleman. They contract with different hatcheries to ship to you. Our local hardware store here in Texas was getting shipments of chicks through My Pet Chicken. I was there when they opened a box: lots of dead chicks. It was horrible. My Pet...
  10. elmo

    Hardware Cloth—what size and gauge

    Be sure you're comparing apples to apples though. Galvanized after weld wire is better than galvanized before weld wire (which is usually cheaper). When wire is welded after it's been galvanized, the welding will burn away a bit of the galvinization, and that leaves the metal open to rusting at...
  11. elmo

    supervised free-ranging - can you truly protect from hawks?

    I have to say the answer to your question is no: you can't fully protect your flock from hawks if you allow them to free range. We know of someone who was about 20 feet away from one of his chickens in their suburban back yard when it was attacked and killed by a hawk. It was horrible, because...
  12. elmo

    How do you know??

    I've heard of lipstick on a pig before, but never this!
  13. elmo

    How do you know??

    Just don't let your neighbors see you doing this. You might get some really strange reactions from them the next time you go to the neighborhood picnic.
  14. elmo

    Coop roof ventilation

    Sounds like a good idea. Fastening the welded wire to the outside without wood framing is a very time consuming and fiddly job. I've done it myself and wouldn't do it that way again.
  15. elmo

    What should a newbie start with?

    If you would like longer lived pets, consider bantams. Our flock is now 11-12 years old, and we have only lost one of our original hens to an egg laying disorder last year. Bantam eggs are smaller, of course. But each our hens in their early years produced 5-6 eggs a week year round, which was...
  16. elmo

    What breed of bird should I get for show next year?

    Wow, your Pretty Boy Floyd sounds more like a red jungle fowl like the ones imported into Georgia in the 60's. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/november-december-2014/stalking-wild-ur-chicken
  17. elmo

    Wet pox gone afowl

    Yes, of course. Sorry I didn't make that clear. The antibiotic treatment took care of a secondary bacterial infection.
  18. elmo

    my former egg-laying hen is a trans-rooster?!

    Yes, a trans rooster can't fertilize eggs of other hens.
  19. elmo

    my former egg-laying hen is a trans-rooster?!

    Yep, been there, done that. Our hen Pokey laid eggs, brooded and hatched out a clutch of eggs, then in her middle years developed an internal infection that shut down her functioning ovary. Antibiotics cleared up the infection, but it took a year or so for her ovary to resume functioning...
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