I feel really bad withholding food from her....but I get that it will just add to the mound she's got sitting there. Hopefully a break from food and then the coconut oil, stool softeners and massaging will help!
Yes - I checked her crop this morning early before I let them out of their roost (before she had access to food). And also yes they are on a balanced layer feed and have been since they were just shy of 20 weeks (about a week before the first one ended up laying). I am going to avoid any food...
Yes you're right...it definitely could be her feed that I'm feeling in there. Yes they do have access to grit that I put out on the ground around where their food is.
I went home at lunch and massaged her crop some more....again it didn't bug her but it still feels similar in size. It didn't...
(Yes our girls are named after professional women bowlers...tee hee).
I'm fairly sure our sweet barred rock Liz has an impacted crop...and sadly I think it's partially my fault. I've been letting them roam around the lawn and I was totally unaware of the fact that tall grasses can be harmful to...
It really is fun that I can tell a difference! When we got our first two eggs in two days we assumed they were from the same girl but obviously couldn't be certain... We were actually assuming it was our barred rock just from the one observation that she is a slightly bigger girl than our RIR...
Our RIR started laying recently and I'm surprised at how frequent her laying has been! We only have three girls: one RIR, one barred rock and an EE.
Our EE hasn't started laying yet and it's obvious to tell the difference between the RIR and barred rock eggs because the RIR lays a darker tan...
Her crouching and arching her wings is actually the exact opposite of aggressive behavior and is actually a submissive stance and a completely normal chicken behavior called "squatting." You should see that once your other girls are close to laying or start laying you will see them do the same...
Thanks everyone for your nice responses. I agree that she came to the best home she could have! Her favorite treat was frozen watermelon. :)
My husband buried her beside the coop that night and my other three seem to not notice a change. I was worried my EE would miss her a lot. When they were...
She was a few days past 19 weeks old. The weekend before I had gotten really curious about how much she weighed compared to my others...they were all born within a day or two of each other. I weighed my Rhode Island Red and she was exactly 3 pounds and Hei Hei was 14.2 pounds!
My heart is really sad today. My husband and I have had chickens since March this year and it's our first time. We wanted them for pets/layers. We didn't do good enough research at first and one of our girls ended up being a meat chicken, a cornish cross.
We never had intentions of raising meat...
Hoping for a pullet as we can’t have roosters where we live. If she does end up being a male she’d be the easier one for me to have to lose as she likes me the least of my girls...but would be sad to loose the chance of blue/green eggs!!
I tried to get a few different angles...thank you for any...
I think I may try and restrict their feedings I'm just worried about not feeding the ENOUGH. I guess I'll need to do some research to make sure I'm giving them enough to be happy/healthy chickens.
I may put my Cornish in to her coop for a few minutes when I do feed to make sure she doesn't get...
Yes it is covered with first chicken wire and then a slanted metal roofing. I am in the process of making a few “chicken gym perches” for them to climb on and I made a chicken swing for them and have a large tire filled for a dust bath that they like to sit on the eggs of.
The area we live in is unfortunately not a good area to free range. Keeping this in mind we built the structure they live in to 15x10 feet so it’s I believe quite suitable or our small group of 4 hens.
Is it ok to food restrict all of them?? I have read that you should make food available to your chickens at all times some places and then others have said you don't have to. They will all be together so would it be ok to feed them all on a restricted time schedule than to have it available all...