Hi - I am sorry you lost your young hen. I have "lost" just a few hens, over the years, and each has been found, brooding eggs. One was gone for two weeks, was really thin and stinky, and the eggs were cracked and rotten. I found her under a pallet, when I smelled her! After a bath, food...
I hate to jinx myself by saying that I have not yet had a rat problem, but I have lost 4 of my sweeties to predators this year, so I empathize with the endless task of securing coops. My neighbor used to raise dogs with pens inside her barn and access to outdoor runs. All along the interior...
I am so happy to hear that she is a fighter! Please post updates for a couple of days - I need to hear about triumphs, because I just lost 2 to a predator.
I am so sorry you lost a hen, but I'm glad you caught the culprit. I found two of my 2-month-olds just tonight - white marans and salmon faverolles - dead with heads missing. One was at the far end of the run and one was in the coop. Both were cold, so it happened before dark. I am so sad.
Try adding several Nite Guard Solar Predator Control lights. Amazon and Northern Tool have them. My coops are secure at night, but I still have several facing different directions. Coyotes are just outside my pastures, but the lights and my donkeys keep them away. I let my dogs "mark" all...
Thank you, Mrs. K -- These birds will not be with my layers and roosters, unless I let them range for a short while at bedtime. Their run area, including coop, covers about 3000 sq ft of chicken-wire-covered cattle panels with poultry netting elevated above the whole thing. It's not very...
Does anyone raise CX with a roost - even just inches off the ground? I am going to raise about 50, starting in a couple of weeks, and I want to give them the best "chicken life" I can. This thread is amazing and I am ready to combine the ideas that sound good to me. My 26 layers and 2...
Thank you for your great explanation. My girls (and 2 guys) free range all day, so I don't have a "run". I use sand inside, under their roosts and on the ground. With daily scooping -- no odor, no flies, and it does not get wet. I started with sand, after interning at a zoo, and seeing how...
Has anyone used "Black Diamond Sand" in your coop? I am having a hard time locating a river sand or natural sand that is not based with silica. The online bag says "Low Free Silica". Actually, I have used play sand with no problems whatsoever, but I have read that the silica content is not good.
I really support these ideas for Catherine. You can do the tissue removal yourself. For convenience and confidence, have someone hold her with a towel covering her, so all you are handling is her foot. After a time or two, you will be teaching others!
When one of my cockerels was recuperating from comb and wattles surgery (frostbite and necrosis), I kept him in an open-wire large dog crate sometimes . . . a large dog solid plastic kennel with front gate at night . . . and all around the house in a chicken diaper sometimes. He liked to watch...
Don't you love watching "chicken TV"? :yesss:
I am thinking that the squat is likely practice for being mounted, which is a kind of submission. I know that my older girls - if they are not interested in what a rooster has in mind - will not squat at all. A couple of my older girls will...
Moomin2 - you will learn sooooo much from the people here at BYC. To calm your girl, catch her and sit with her in your lap. Have a loosely scrambled egg (plain, or add a little olive oil or cheese or apple cider vinegar or yogurt) ready. Hold her snugly, so she can't flap around, and she...