I'm new to the group and joined mostly for help with our little flock. I grew up in the country and we always had a big flock of laying hens. We basically had a homestead with a milk cow, some animals for meat - cows, pigs, chickens, and rabbits; the layers, and a huge garden. Everyone pitched in under my parents sipervision. My mother tended the chickens and she obviously made it look easy because I have not been prepared for all the problems we've encountered.
My daughter lives nearby and I thought a small flock would be fun and provide us with eggs. We got polish chicks last Spring. One Chick died right away, which left us was five. One was a rooster, that we were fortunately able to find a home for. Then this summer we got two more chickens that were about 4 months old at the time. These are not Polish. One is probably a Barred Rock. I'm not sure what the other breed is but it's a black chicken, full sized.
We are now dealing with our third illness / injury. First all the chickens had some kind of eye infection, which my daughter also had. We treated with the eye drops that the optometrist gave her and they all got better. Then one of the Polish, a frizzle was lethargic and had a nasty butt, and we separated her and did soaks and stuff and she got over it. In retrospect we think that when we stopped leaving the light on in the coop that she could not see to get off of the roost and then she had been in there for a couple of days and was becoming dehydrated and weak. She has a big bufont that really obstructs her vision. Now one of the younger chickens has a foot issue. We noticed that she was not using it and it was curled up. I will post more about this in a separate forum. Hoping that someone has advice for us. The Polish chickens started laying in late fall, and then it got cold and they stopped now they're laying again. The Polish hens are divas, they're very beautiful and they know it and they're kind of mean to the two younger chickens. The younger ones Barbara and Mary are very bonded. Mary has been tending to Barbara since she's been injured. Since we live in town we are allowed a total of six chickens and no roosters and we really just want these to be good companions and egg layers. We anticipate letting them free range a bit this spring when we get the yard and garden in better shape. Hoping to have herbs and plantings that they can forage in. My daughter just moved to this home this fall, and the property needs a lot of work. There are also a lot of feral cats in the neighborhood so we are a little bit concerned about how that's going to impact free-ranging in the backyard. I wouldn't have thought that cats would be a threat to chickens, but this colony of cats treed a groundhog a couple of weeks ago. This has been an adventure so far but I'm hoping it gets a little bit easier.
My daughter lives nearby and I thought a small flock would be fun and provide us with eggs. We got polish chicks last Spring. One Chick died right away, which left us was five. One was a rooster, that we were fortunately able to find a home for. Then this summer we got two more chickens that were about 4 months old at the time. These are not Polish. One is probably a Barred Rock. I'm not sure what the other breed is but it's a black chicken, full sized.
We are now dealing with our third illness / injury. First all the chickens had some kind of eye infection, which my daughter also had. We treated with the eye drops that the optometrist gave her and they all got better. Then one of the Polish, a frizzle was lethargic and had a nasty butt, and we separated her and did soaks and stuff and she got over it. In retrospect we think that when we stopped leaving the light on in the coop that she could not see to get off of the roost and then she had been in there for a couple of days and was becoming dehydrated and weak. She has a big bufont that really obstructs her vision. Now one of the younger chickens has a foot issue. We noticed that she was not using it and it was curled up. I will post more about this in a separate forum. Hoping that someone has advice for us. The Polish chickens started laying in late fall, and then it got cold and they stopped now they're laying again. The Polish hens are divas, they're very beautiful and they know it and they're kind of mean to the two younger chickens. The younger ones Barbara and Mary are very bonded. Mary has been tending to Barbara since she's been injured. Since we live in town we are allowed a total of six chickens and no roosters and we really just want these to be good companions and egg layers. We anticipate letting them free range a bit this spring when we get the yard and garden in better shape. Hoping to have herbs and plantings that they can forage in. My daughter just moved to this home this fall, and the property needs a lot of work. There are also a lot of feral cats in the neighborhood so we are a little bit concerned about how that's going to impact free-ranging in the backyard. I wouldn't have thought that cats would be a threat to chickens, but this colony of cats treed a groundhog a couple of weeks ago. This has been an adventure so far but I'm hoping it gets a little bit easier.
and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
