On spying a coyote or fox trotting through the horse pasture towards my chickens, I am able to sprint towards it, slip through the three-rail fence hardly knowing how I did it, and charge the furry varmint.
I love the look on their face when the notice the crazy middle-aged woman coming at...
We free-range part of the time on our eleven acres. Due to past experiences, we do supervised free-ranging, but of course there are lapses in supervision when someone goes inside for something, and we would lose a chicken periodically. Of course it is usually everyone's favorite bird, and my...
It's definitely runny, which suggests that it's mostly urine and she isn't eating much solid food?
Any respiratory symptoms like wheezing, sneezing, or coughing?
I took two of our older hens to the vet for different undiagnosed issues today.
The vet prescribed both a one-week course of antibiotics and painkiller to see if some of the symptoms would improve. Neither bird has anything acutely wrong at this point though.
It's my first time administering...
Silkies come in standard and bantam sizes in the UK.
The U.S. generally only breeds the bantam.
I am looking for a source for standard-size silkies on the U.S. side of the pond.
Last night the temperatures dropped to -8 °F, the first real test of our horizontal nipple system. I went out this morning when the temperatures had risen a few degrees. Three out of four of the chicken nipples had iced up. The one that didn't might not have could be un-iced for two...
Ever since we established our first batch of hens about 10 years ago, I have allowed a broody to rear all the chicks. We would order chicks to arrive around the time that a broody's eggs would hatch and then have her adopt the whole batch. It has worked out well and is significantly less work...
Horizontal chicken nipples--very interesting!
I have the vertical kind on a short length of PVC off an insulated thermos. I had hoped that a water heater in the thermos would keep the nipples from freezing, but no joy.
I will have to try your design, because the heated fount we us when the...
In the winter, humidity is low in the hoophouse. Any rise in air moisture during the heat gain of the day becomes condensation on the plastic, which then "rains" back down to the earth. So the humidity ends up being essentially the same as the outdoors, since each night the hoophouse eventually...
We buy all our feed from Bomgaars, and our hens (and chicks when we were raising them) did fine.
We haven't bought chicks from them yet, since our local store didn't exist until after we already had the chickens. But we will likely purchase chicks from them this spring and will let you know how...
If I understand correctly, both eggshells and oyster shells are the same form of calcium, which is calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
So there should not be significant difference in absorption.
But since the chickens will also require calcium for their bones and other bodily functions, their calcium...
Quite the contrary.
When we first got chickens, we bought chicks from a relatively new hatchery that had quality issues (two arrived dead, one live one had wry neck, etc.). The orpington rooster we kept from that batch turned aggressive, and we ate him after he spurred me while I had our infant...
What is the size and shape characteristic of your roosts?
I've been studying roost design as we are building a new coop, and came across a very detailed article describing research results into how the size, material, and shape of the roost affects chicken feet and their sleep. There was...
There is inexpensive lightweight bird netting that is used to protect fruiting crops from birds.
The main challenge would be setting it up over the area that needs protection. Fiberglass posts and zip ties to attach maybe?
How big of an area are you protecting, and is there a fence around the...
In my experience, I have found that chickens generally decide that "home" is where their chicken coop is.
We've never had to herd the chickens back to the coop. Instead they naturally went back in to roost when it started to get dark. The only issues that we have is when one or two decide they...
I remember when my hens were young, the shells were quite thick.
As the hens age a bit and settle into laying, then the shells will most likely become thinner. Our hens are pretty old now so some of the eggs are more brittle then I would like them to be.
So yes, what you are experiencing sound...
We have a 20' x 24' hoophouse that is used year-round. This summer I plan to install electricity and perhaps a frost-proof hydrant.
Our old wooden coop needs to be retired so we need new housing. I plan to use a three-season mobile "hoop coop," and for winter only, a stationary coop. The...
I actually suggested that to her in the conversation three days ago, and she emphatically and tearfully insisted that they be processed here!
I don't know her rationale (or if she doesn't remember what "processing" entails), but I decided to let that part of the talk sit for a bit.
I will...