I was looking to see if anyone may have had a solution before I posted anything. She was one of the best layers up till a few months ago. I noticed she wasn't laying than one night I was out checking on them and heard a plop and she had laid a shell less egg while sitting on the roost. I did...
I have a 3 yr old leghorn that lays shell less eggs at night when she is on the roost. She gets layer feed, oyster shell and forages as much as she wants. None of the other hens have a problem. Any ideas?
Last year we shot the dog that got 8 out of 12 chickens leaving us 4. I did replace with new chicks. I was going to give up but decided that I was not going to let a stray dog make me give up loving having chickens.
Hubby said 65+ on the winds and we got to looking and figure the chickens probably dug around the footings since they were allowed to get under the coop. Next coop we are going to concrete in.
We did have the coop on 3ft 4x4s buried 2 ft deep and the wind pulled them right out of the ground. We were planning to rebuild the coop in a new area of the yard next year but looks like we will be doing it sooner than later :)
So I always tell my husband when he builds something that he over engineers things - well I guess I will have to quit now. Yesterday we were hit with really high winds and our chicken coop was picked up and thrown about 40 ft. Once the rain let up enough to go out without too much danger I went...
We keep shallow tubs of water all over the yard and coop area for all the chickens and wild birds to wade in. It was 109 yesterday and we are filling up water several times a day. One of my Cochins had to be brought in because of the heat. She is fine and back with the rest of the flock.
I let one of my broody hens hatch chicks and noticed that the chicks are not as fearful of things as the ones that were not raised with a mother hen. I watched them learn new things everyday when mom showed them things. I want to let her brood another batch soon.
Most of our predator problems seems to come from stray dogs and snakes. Last year a stray dog killed 8 out of 11 of our chickens. Dog was shot a week later by hubby as he was stalking the chicken coop. Lost 2 baby chicks to a 5' rat snake - I relocated the snake since it was still in the coop.
We have 4 boxes for 11 hens and they lay in just 2 of the nest. I was given a chick with a broken neck, which I was surprised when she laid her first egg. Since she doesn't fly to the the nest boxes I made her a little area in a pet carrier to lay her eggs now most of the hens are laying in the...