i somehow acquired 2 runaways and i have questions. please help

[pollipazzi]

Careful with dogs. They are predators and have to be trained or kept apart from the chickens.

I never did. I have been reading it works to some extent with lonely chicks.

BTW, You doing great and I suspect you learn fast to be a superior caretaker .

i'm not going to get a dog. there are enough neighbours with dogs that i befriend that gives me a dog fix. lol! but that's as far as it will go.

i have a little 3 year old friend who has donated a tiny teddy bear to thelma. he will arrive soon. i'm not sure where i am supposed to put it. in case she's afraid of it, i don't want to put it in the coop first. i will have to figure that out. probably louise will steal it from her just because she's louise.

and thank you so much. i really am trying. i need to have some sort of routine. routines don't stick for me, so it will be a challenge.

 

[MROO]

Our Herman The House Rooster had a stuffie. Rather than write it all out again, you can read about Herman and his Mom-pom here, if you'd like:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/is-there-a-rooster-in-the-house.74089/

 

[BDutch]

Our Herman The House Rooster had a stuffie. Rather than write it all out again, you can read about Herman and his Mom-pom here, if you'd like:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/is-there-a-rooster-in-the-house.74089/

Such a lovely story. Sorry to read he didn’t live longer.
Please update his story and share what happened next.

 

[pollipazzi]

Our Herman The House Rooster had a stuffie. Rather than write it all out again, you can read about Herman and his Mom-pom here, if you'd like:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/is-there-a-rooster-in-the-house.74089/

aww herman! i'm sorry for your loss of him.
may i ask how you introduced him to the mom pom?
did you just put it where he slept at first?

 

[pollipazzi]

@Mother of Chaos how did you get on?

 

[pollipazzi]

any idea why louise would be molting? the past couple days, feathers are just flying off her. thelma lost a bunch of feathers after the broody (would you believe that was like 6 weeks ago?) and i read somewhere on this site that it was normal to molt a bit after broodiness.

louise did act broody those couple of days recently but didn't actually get to sit and got over it after the door went on. do you think she's stressed about the door?
the cat?
can they sense the foxes in the middle of the night?

no mites that i can tell. eating drinking and pooping just fine.

 

[pollipazzi]

oh. and i should have probably mentioned that nobody has laid an egg in about a week.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Sounds like they’ve started their molt which is a yearly thing. One of mine has also randomly started early.

Apparently hens can either make eggs or new feathers but not both.

 

[pollipazzi]

Sounds like they’ve started their molt which is a yearly thing. One have mine has also randomly started early.

Apparently hens can either make eggs or new feathers but not both.

so you think it's early and not stress? i thought they might be too young yet?

 

[pollipazzi]

i don't know how old they are though. my guess was almost a year now