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Hi, I seem to have ants living in the walls of my coop. I contacted the manufacturer of the spray we use around the outside of our house, and they advised against using it on the chicken coop. What can I use to get rid of the ant colony without being bad for the chickens?

I was pretty sure that young birds shouldn't be eating layer feed; a guy at my LFS told me I should just feed layer crumbles so 'they would all be able to eat it'. I have hens, a roo, and 6 week pullets. I just told him, ok, then I don't need anything today. After a little surfing BYC, my...

Ok, these chicks are about 4 1/2 weeks old. You can see this guy has a little comb starting; he's also noticeably bigger and his legs thicker than the other two RIR chicks. Or the barred Rocks, for that matter. Here are the two other RIRs Here's 'Mr Red' in back of a nosy BR, and a...

I have a barred rock who was caught by a fox, but the fox spooked and left her. I've been trying to doctor her; the wounds actually look pretty good, but she just doesn't want to eat. I know she's drinking water, she'd already be dead of dehydration if she wasn't. Any suggestions as to what I...

My mini Aussie has discovered she can go in the coop and help herself to a tasty snack I mostly can prevent it but every once in a while she sees her opportunity and does it again. If my chickens are ranging, obviously I can't close them out of the coop... I'm thinking I could try some of the...

Does anyone know if using sand in the coop will help with mite control? I've always used shavings; I'm in New England so I don't think sand would be a good choice over winter, but with spring coming I've been thinking about trying it for the warm weather. It seems like it would be less...

This evening something got one of my hens... I found the body, minus head and wings, partway down the hill from the coop. I know we have foxes, coyotes, bobcats, owls, hawks... when a hawk got one last summer, it went for the organs and left the rest, plus it was dusk, so I doubt it was a hawk...

My chickens have got mites!! I'm trying to figure out what kind, as at least one of the websites I'm looking at says treatment is different for different types. But then I look at another site and it gives the same treatment options for the different mites. Confusing to say the least!!! But I...

Last night's head count revealed my black Australorp pullet is gone... of course whatever took her had to get somebody that's laying, instead of, say, the barred rock who hasn't given us an egg in months Not that I want to lose any of them, mind you. Grrr... I don't know when it happened, and...

I have a cockerel app. 20 weeks old. One of his wattles is swollen and thick, but there is no indication of pain if I touch and very gently squeeze it; it's quite firm. I'm thinking maybe he was in a scuffle with one of the girls and has a hematoma, but should I give him antibiotic anyway, just...

Hi, My Barred Rock hen looks like a worn-out feather duster. But the other hens have not been content to ruin her feathers, they have plucked a big bald spot on her belly underneath her vent. Then one evening when I went to close up the coop for the night, I saw drops of blood... she had an...

I have four 2-year-old Golden Comet sexlinks, and three 1 year old hens: two buff Orpington and one barred rock. This past week I got one dozen eggs from them. Does that sound like a reasonable amount for these birds? DH is complaining about how few they are laying, even though when we first...

I posted about a sick chicken recently- https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/662090/bathing-a-chicken. She is still around; not doing very well, but still eating/drinking/moving around... tonight I came home to find a different hen dead in the coop. My favorite, of course. She had been fine, up...

I have a sickly hen- puffy, lethargic, poopy butt; plus another one, maybe two, with slightly poopy butts but acting fine. Last fall I saw what I assume were roundworms in a dropping(from a hen who was also puffy and lethargic but who died soon after) but a fecal exam at the vet showed nothing...

I have a hen who has been sick for a few days; she seems to be perking up but she has poop caked on her. She is trying to clean it, but I think she needs help! I've looked through the archives and I'm comfortable with how to do it, what to use, etc but is there any way to easily loosen the stuck...

Yesterday I found a really weird object someone had laid in one of the nestboxes. It was the same color as the eggs but had no shell... it was about twice as big as a morning dropping, actually fairly similar shape, too. My grandson said he thought it was intestines! It was quite firm, only a...

I got my first chickens in May 2010, and although we've had predators around and neighbors have lost birds, mine seemed to be living a charmed life. But now it looks like we've had our first loss to a predator; it was getting toward dusk and I heard a hen making a racket. I went out and she was...

I posted this in 'Managing Your Flock' awhile ago, then thought maybe I should post it here too... OK, so I put my four(2 buff orpington, 2 barred rock) pullets, age app. 16 and 18 weeks, in with my hens for the first time last night. They all seemed fine, if a bit shocked, when I let everyone...

OK, so I put my four(2 buff orpington, 2 barred rock) pullets, age app. 16 and 18 weeks, in with my hens for the first time last night. They all seemed fine, if a bit shocked, when I let everyone out to range this AM. Then midafternoon I saw that one of the BOs had been bleeding from her comb. I...

I have 4 two-week-old chicks; they are supposed to be Barred Rock and Buff Orpington. The Rocks are getting their little barred feathers... however, the BO's are getting white feathers, not buff. I have been looking around online and have found a few sites that said the feathers could be very...