Found a chicken - I think I want to keep it!

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Her poop seems fine, I haven't seen any worms. Some poops are more solid and some very liquidy.

The water I have in a heavy ceramic bowl on a cement block. She drinks quite a bit. I am now adding the vitamin/electrolytes to her water.
 
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I agree, raccoons have fingers that can open latches and grab through the bars. There have been several several incidences of raccoons literally pulling chicks and chickens thru the chicken wire and run fencing, beheading them and basically eating them alive. Not a pretty site.

Do you have a basement? Or what about getting a chicken diaper and letting her be a house chicken?
Even putting the kennel in the house while you are not home. You wouldn't be the first person with a chicken living in your house, or 2 or 3 or ........... lol

Chicken diapers??? You've got to be kidding! That's hilarious. I had no idea!

I'm sorry, I'm just getting used to having a chicken, I can't bring it in the house. I don't have a garage or a basement - I'm in California. I do have a shed, but she would be in the dark 24/7. My property is tiered. The house is at the top, below that I have the shed. It's not someplace I can carry the kennel in and out of everyday. There is no fencing at all where my shed is. At least up on my patio she is fenced in and right by the doggy door.
But - I hope to have a coop this weekend
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I find this comment to be very unfair. And frankly, it put me off of this site for a while but I realize not everyone here is like that. And I'm sure you don't mean to mean... but it's still an unfair statement.

You don't know me, you don't know my circumstances - financial or otherwise. I am not intentionally trying to "not address the issue" I am doing the best that I can with what I have available. Maybe some people have the means to spend $400 at the snap of a finger - or even $100 - I don't. I am very careful about my finances. I have to be. I like to have food with my meals.

I did not go out and buy a chicken - if I was going to do that I would have done the research first, got the coop, then the chickens. This chicken found me. And I'm trying to keep it healthy and safe.
 
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Dunno how I missed the Belgian picture! Lucy's one pretty girl! Ya just gotta luv the black dogs ;-)
 
My chicken has survived with me for 13 days despite being in a kennel. I have read several stories about the raccoons and quite frankly it kinda freaks me out.

I have the kennel by my window, by the doggie door in the fenced in back yard, on a table. If a coon gets in and jumps on the table it will knock stuff down - i intentionally put a lot of loose things up there - which will send me and the dog outside.

I know this is not good enough. And I hope that by Sunday I will have a nice coop for her.

In the meantime - she's still not walking very well. I asked at the feed store and they thought she might be egg bound. She has not layed an egg yet. But, I don't know how old she is - maybe she's not laying age yet - or maybe she's too old. How can you tell the age of the chicken.

I have taken some pictures with a good camera - anyone have any ideas?

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And last picture - sorry it's a butt shot but I thought it might be important.

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I find this comment to be very unfair. And frankly, it put me off of this site for a while but I realize not everyone here is like that. And I'm sure you don't mean to mean... but it's still an unfair statement.

You don't know me, you don't know my circumstances - financial or otherwise. I am not intentionally trying to "not address the issue" I am doing the best that I can with what I have available. Maybe some people have the means to spend $400 at the snap of a finger - or even $100 - I don't. I am very careful about my finances. I have to be. I like to have food with my meals.

I did not go out and buy a chicken - if I was going to do that I would have done the research first, got the coop, then the chickens. This chicken found me. And I'm trying to keep it healthy and safe.

I never said anything about buying anything? In fact in my first post I wrote that the coop can be put off if you could just put the crate somewhere secure at night. I don't see how asking why you weren't addressing how you were gonna keep her safe in the meantime is off-putting?
Were just trying to share that raccoons are nasty an if they find her they will have a free meal and she will have no way to escape. She is not safe being in a cage on a patio, but that cage could easily be set in a bathtub or by the backdoor at night where you could easily put her back out in the morning.

I am the last person to criticize anyone for not spending stupid amounts of money. I never intended for my post to say "go spend money now!" more so as a caution. I don't see how that's unfair? This is a site where we love our Pets and our chickens and were just trying to give you a heads up because I feel like you really like this little guy.

One of the things you will hae to learn about community forums is that you may not always hear what you want to hear but in the end we all share a common love for our birds and a general want to do what's right for them. You're absolutely doing a very good thing, no one denies that, but her life is in danger outside in a crate at night. I'm sorry if you don't like to hear that
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Glad to hear that you are going to have a coop soon.

From her/his pictures, it appears that he/she is either molting (you should see a lot of porcupine looking new feathers coming in and there would be feathers in her cage), and/or he/she has feather damage due to mites and/or lice. (My apologies if this has been addressed in earlier posts - I was on earlier, but I've forgotten). This is something that is very treatable without a lost of cost. There are a lot of posts on here about how to treat. And don't worry, poultry lice are specific to birds - you and your dogs will not get them.
 
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I find this comment to be very unfair. And frankly, it put me off of this site for a while but I realize not everyone here is like that. And I'm sure you don't mean to mean... but it's still an unfair statement.

You don't know me, you don't know my circumstances - financial or otherwise. I am not intentionally trying to "not address the issue" I am doing the best that I can with what I have available. Maybe some people have the means to spend $400 at the snap of a finger - or even $100 - I don't. I am very careful about my finances. I have to be. I like to have food with my meals.

I did not go out and buy a chicken - if I was going to do that I would have done the research first, got the coop, then the chickens. This chicken found me. And I'm trying to keep it healthy and safe.

I never said anything about buying anything? In fact in my first post I wrote that the coop can be put off if you could just put the crate somewhere secure at night. I don't see how asking why you weren't addressing how you were gonna keep her safe in the meantime is off-putting?
Were just trying to share that raccoons are nasty an if they find her they will have a free meal and she will have no way to escape. She is not safe being in a cage on a patio, but that cage could easily be set in a bathtub or by the backdoor at night where you could easily put her back out in the morning.

I am the last person to criticize anyone for not spending stupid amounts of money. I never intended for my post to say "go spend money now!" more so as a caution. I don't see how that's unfair? This is a site where we love our Pets and our chickens and were just trying to give you a heads up because I feel like you really like this little guy.

One of the things you will hae to learn about community forums is that you may not always hear what you want to hear but in the end we all share a common love for our birds and a general want to do what's right for them. You're absolutely doing a very good thing, no one denies that, but her life is in danger outside in a crate at night. I'm sorry if you don't like to hear that
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I'm sorry if I missunderstood you. I probably did. It's the same with texts and email - sometimes the person on the other end hears something different.

I'm starting to feel like I'm in over my head with this chicken. I'm really concerened that there is something very wrong with her. She has a healthy appetite but she does not like to walk or stand. I put her out in my grass and she sits there for 20 minutes. Then she gets up, takes a few steps and is down again.

As far as moving the kennel goes - it's bigger than you think. I struggled to put it up on the patio table. It's not something that can be easily moved in and out.

Every way I look at it, it's going to come down to spending money. Even if I find materials to build something - I don't have the tools. I'm trying to decide if I should spend the money on a coop. I have some savings, but this wasn't in the plan. But I like the chicken and looking at all the beautiful pictures on this site - I especially loved the fluffy butts section - I think I would like to have about 4 chickens. So, it's very probable that I will be buying a coop for her tomorrow. I'll have some help this weekend to pick it up and put it together.
 
Yay Chicks! :

Glad to hear that you are going to have a coop soon.

From her/his pictures, it appears that he/she is either molting (you should see a lot of porcupine looking new feathers coming in and there would be feathers in her cage), and/or he/she has feather damage due to mites and/or lice. (My apologies if this has been addressed in earlier posts - I was on earlier, but I've forgotten). This is something that is very treatable without a lost of cost. There are a lot of posts on here about how to treat. And don't worry, poultry lice are specific to birds - you and your dogs will not get them.

Can you see the mites or lice? I keep looking at the bare areas of her skin and haven't seen anything running around.

VERY HAPPY to hear that they are specific to birds. I did see some spray at the feed store.

My main concern with her is her lack of walking
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