libbysterling
In the Brooder
- Sep 25, 2023
- 1
- 20
- 19
Hi everyone, I am somewhat new to chickens and kept coming across this forum on Google searches so I figured I’d join up.
I inherited 11 chickens when moving into a long term property caretaking situation a year and a half ago and fortunately we didn’t have any chicken issues for the first year until we got settled. We lost a couple of the older reds in June (maybe just old age?) and lost one to a raven (I didn’t know ravens would attack chickens either but now we know). We also introduced a few batches of chicks to the flock so now we are at 17. A few are breeds I’m not sure about but I know we have a leghorn, three cochins, three blue americaunas, a buckeye, and a bunch of other randoms. A few that aren’t yet mature we are suspect may be roosters (two in particular). I have been dealing with a couple issues, one who had its tail bit by a bad dog last week who has been in recovery inside and another one that had impacted crop (my fault for feeding some grass I shouldn’t have, now I know better) but then it turned sour and now is pendulous, so she is a project. She is only 4 months old so I hope she can bounce back. (Photo of me and her wearing the crop bra I sewed for her.) I am in the process now of rebuilding the inside of the coop to make it easier to clean and make better use of the space than what was there before. Also have to get an electric fence up. We’re lucky we haven’t had any issues with bears yet and I don’t want to chance that (we live in southeast Alaska).
When we first moved in and got the chickens I checked out every chicken book from our local library so I could try and get an idea of what we were getting into but somehow the books didn’t cover much of health issues at all so I have been learning that from various websites and blogs, which have to be vetted. I have found both great and terrible information so it would be great to get to know some of you and learn from you. I’m very happy to share what I have learned as well. Thanks!
I inherited 11 chickens when moving into a long term property caretaking situation a year and a half ago and fortunately we didn’t have any chicken issues for the first year until we got settled. We lost a couple of the older reds in June (maybe just old age?) and lost one to a raven (I didn’t know ravens would attack chickens either but now we know). We also introduced a few batches of chicks to the flock so now we are at 17. A few are breeds I’m not sure about but I know we have a leghorn, three cochins, three blue americaunas, a buckeye, and a bunch of other randoms. A few that aren’t yet mature we are suspect may be roosters (two in particular). I have been dealing with a couple issues, one who had its tail bit by a bad dog last week who has been in recovery inside and another one that had impacted crop (my fault for feeding some grass I shouldn’t have, now I know better) but then it turned sour and now is pendulous, so she is a project. She is only 4 months old so I hope she can bounce back. (Photo of me and her wearing the crop bra I sewed for her.) I am in the process now of rebuilding the inside of the coop to make it easier to clean and make better use of the space than what was there before. Also have to get an electric fence up. We’re lucky we haven’t had any issues with bears yet and I don’t want to chance that (we live in southeast Alaska).
When we first moved in and got the chickens I checked out every chicken book from our local library so I could try and get an idea of what we were getting into but somehow the books didn’t cover much of health issues at all so I have been learning that from various websites and blogs, which have to be vetted. I have found both great and terrible information so it would be great to get to know some of you and learn from you. I’m very happy to share what I have learned as well. Thanks!
