Search results for query: *

Don't waste your time and money on poultry wire like I did. Invest in hardware cloth to protect your chickens. Even groundhogs can break through the poultry wire to get to the chicken feed and this makes holes for other varmints that will kill your chickens. And don't put your total trust in...

After trying everything I'd read on how to "break" my broody hen and after failing miserably again the second time it happened, I ordered nine fertile hatching eggs from Meyer's Hatchery. I just figured if she wanted babies that bad I'd let her fulfill her mothering instincts. She hatched five...

On Saturday we had a rare October snow on the eastcoast. It was wet and heavy and clung to every surface including the poultry wire roof on my chicken yard. It was so heavy it started causing my concreted 4 X 4 posts to lean inward. It caused the pen gate to go so crooked that I had to unscrew...

You'all were right. Egg #2 arrived this morning and she laid it in the nesting box. Yeah!

Collected my first egg today. It probably did cost $500. I have been afraid to add up the receipts in the "Chicken Project Folder." It was started nine months ago and seems to be never-ending.

Thanks for the good replies. I have been afraid they would not like the nesting boxes I struggled to build them. I did not want nesting boxes taking up space inside the chicken house so I cut holes in the walls and attached the boxes to the outside. Quite a job for an old(er) woman. I am...

My ten chickens are 5 months old this week. This evening when I went out to get them ready for bed, I found my first egg on the concrete floor of the chicken house. It is small, perfect shaped, and has a hard shell. Do they usually start out laying eggs in places other than their nesting...

Thanks for the replies. They are now being served both types to get them accustomed to the new non-medicated feed.

I have read several times on this forum that people place "curtains" in front of the nesting box holes. Do the curtains completely cover over the entry? I understand that the hens like privacy but aren't they scared to go in under the curtain and don't curtains make the nesting box hotter? Do...

My ten chickens (supposed to be hens) are now 18 weeks old. This morning one of the sex-links squatted for me. I read on this forum that squatting is a sign that eggs will be coming soon. I have been feeding them medicated feed (amprolium) since they were hatched and still have 3/4 of a 50#...

Very upsetting.

Mulewagon just scared me again.

I have always known that black snakes were a form of rodent control and I allowed them to come and go. I have even found snake skins in my basement and didn't panic. In Virginia it is illegal to move wildlife from one location to another. (They are concerned about spreading disease.) So you...

Wal-Mart only had collapsible minnow traps but I found a solid rectangular shaped one for $19.99 at a sporting goods outlet store. (Gander Mountain had the same one for $29.99.) I set the trap on the same path where the snake went out the fence. I still have ten chickens this morning and the...

I was just sitting in my fenced-in chicken yard with a chicken on my lap when ten chicken heads all turned and watched a 6-foot long black rat snake slither through a hole in the fence and immediately out a hole on the other side. The chickens all went over to watch where it had gone out the...

Fortunately I have not witnessed another episode since I posted. Her eyes look normal. She was vaccinated for Marek's. I have a fenced-in chicken yard so she is always either in the chicken house or in the yard. The chickenhouse was converted from a smokehouse and has a ladder-style roost...

I would never totally trust any auto door. I think they are great if used with caution and the expectancy that something unforseen could happen. Anything can malfunction no matter how well built. I can see the Pullet Shut Auto-door from my pantry window. I look out the window before I go to...

That's awful for you. Automatic doors are wonderful as long as they work. I could not afford to replace this one if something goes bad on it. Good luck with your new one.

I posted the original question. Here is my experience with it: The $245 Pullet Shut Automatic Door including trickle battery (charged by electricity) arrived within a week of ordering. I (65 year-old woman) installed the door on July 11, 2011 with no help from anyone. Because I was installing...

Out of ten 14-week-old youngsters there is one that seems to be having trouble seeing. I didn't pay much attention to the first instance. I have an automatic door which I can see from my pantry window. One early morning I noticed that all the chickens had left the chicken house except one...