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Hi all, I have 3 3-yr-old hens, and 3 pullets (about 8 weeks). Probably doesn't matter, but the hens are a silver-laced Wyandotte, a Polish Top Hat, and an Australorp. I can't really tell who's at the top of the pecking order, but the Wyandotte is the best layer (the Australorp is the largest...

Hi, I haven’t had chicks for about 3 years so have forgotten what I used to know. I’m picking up 3 day olds next week, and was going to pick up their food and other supplies tomorrow. TSC has both Chick Starter 24% and starter/grower 20%. What’s best for the first 4 weeks or so? I can’t...

One of our chickens just laid her first egg in a month. At 9 pm. And then she decided to announce it to the neighborhood, LOUDLY.

Hi; Last summer I got a new coop for my chickens. It's got a hardware cloth bottom, which is great for security, but it means that my girls aren't getting as much digging in the dirt time as they'd like. I want to get a run for them, so that they'll have more "outside" time during the day...

Is there anyone in the Seekonk/Swansea/Rehoboth area who had a good chicken vet? We’re in Barrington and I have a girl with bumblefoot...

Hi RI, anyone have a good chicken vet who serves the East Bay Area? We’re in Barrington and I have a girl with bumblefoot...

Hi, my daughter just discovered this growth on a hen’s foot. We were able to clean it and put blu-kote on, but I thought I’d get some input. Does it look like bumblefoot? Something else? She isn’t favoring it at this point, and I don’t know how long it’s been there. Thanks!

Black with black crown. In my experience with Polish, they usually stay the same color into adulthood.

Good to know. Production has been down for a few days anyway, which I chalked up to the heat. They all seem to be on an every-other-day schedule instead of 2 out of 3 days, which is where they were until about a week ago...

My australorps are lovely, but I wouldn’t exactly call them quiet. They tend to be the most active of my “proclaimers!”

One of my hens died the other day, abruptly and with no warning. I was a little worried about the survivors, because I only got one egg yesterday. But I already got one egg this morning, another is in the nesting box, and the 3rd is also in the box making a LOT of noise while she waits her...

Someone else just referred me to this: http://www.poultrydvm.com/views/symptoms.php Have you tried encouraging them with something really tasty like mealworms or frozen corn on the cob?

I was sort of freaked out by the whole thing so didn't look too closely or really identify the area of the bald spot. It may be that she'd been rubbing it in the roost and I hadn't noticed. They also tend to run themselves right against the wire of the run when they want out, so that probably...

Here we go, 2 more pix of our other australorp and one of our Wyandotte.

I’m trying to get a better picture of our other Australorp, Suzie, but she’s taking a dust bath and refuses to move. One thing I did notice when we picked up Betsy, after she died, is that it seemed like there was a patch on her belly or maybe under a wing with no feathers. I’m surprised I...

Yes, she was definitely the alpha! Our Polish tries to be a bully but Betsy kept her in line. The survivors seem to be okay, but they definitely were confused yesterday...

Hmm. That picture was a couple of weeks old, but it’s the most recent. I’ll go out later today and get pix of the others. They’re on Poulin layer pellets with mealworms as bribery when we need to get them back in the coop. We let them free-range when we’re outside, so they also get grass, etc...

One of our chickens died yesterday. She was fine in the morning, and when I went out in the early afternoon she was at the back of the coop, gone. She was our first layer and was only about 15 months old. She was also the loudest—in the morning she’d been loudly proclaiming herself from under...

I think she's singing it for others! She does crouch if I come up to them now, but no signs of eggs from her yet...

The Wyandotte has been squatting. Pretty sure she's not laying yet. She yells at everything though. The two australorps are both laying. One started at about Halloween and slowed down a little bit is month, but never stopped, and the other just started. I had to move the newest layer off her egg...