Hi. I am Carrierose. I have only had chickens for about 11 months. My husband & I really enjoyed watching our neighbor's chickens and their crazy antics and wanted some of our own. Our neighbor gave us seven of her hens and one rooster. I wanted more so I purchased a few chicks here and a few chicks there. Then I took a head count and wow! I had 22 chicks and a total of 30 chickens. Time to quit!! Our rooster is a beautiful green, tan, & brown Ameraucana. The hens are as follows: 3 Ameraucana, 2 Barred Rock. 2 Golden Sexlink, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Golden Laced Wyandottes, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 5 Silver Laced Wyandottes, 7 Black Australorps, 1 Polish mix (I think anyway. She has a topknot that has to be kept trimmed so she can see) and 3 older hens that I have no clue what they are. Two of the hens are quite special, one of the Buffs and a Rhode Island Red. Every time I go into the coop or chicken yard they are right at my feet & won't leave me alone until I pick them up and love on them. In fact, the Buff unties my shoes if I ignore her for very long.
Our chicken coop is quite unique. We were given an old truck camper that we were going to repair and use when we traveled. The deeper we got into it the more damage we found and decided it was unsafe to travel with so we gutted it and turned it into the coop. The chickens have 112 square feet of living space inside their camper-coop. I hope I have not overcrowded the coop with 30 chickens. The chicken yard is an odd triangular shape measuring approximately 45' x 50' x 46' x 6'. We hope to double this in the spring to give them more room.
My husband & I will soon celebrate 37 years of marriage. We have 2 grown children, a daughter & a son, 1 son-in-law and 2 absolutely awesome grandchildren. We have 3 dogs & 2 cats to go along with the chickens. Unfortunately, we cannot let the dogs & chickens run together. We have already had one incident where the dogs killed one of the neighbor's chickens when it came into our yard & I won't let that happen again if I can help it. My husband works in a door factory sizing the fiberglass doors and enjoys working on his cars in his spare time. I am a consultant with Arbonne International selling fantastic health & wellness products. I enjoy sewing, gardening, my critters and spending time with the family.
Our daughter also has chickens and told us about BackYardChickens.com but I didn't think to much about it at the time. Our chickens are having issues with mites and cannibalism so I googled this and low and behold there was the website for Back Yard Chickens. I went into the website & did a search for cannibalism and found someone who is having the same problem with her chickens. I decided to join so I could respond to her and hopefully get some help for my chickens. I am using diatomaceous earth in the nesting boxes and in the bedding on the floor & under the roost for the mites. I put duct tape on the backs of the hens that have no feathers and use the Rooster Booster Pick-No-More on the areas that duct tape won't go. I have also recently changed their food to the Nutrena Feather Fixer pellets in the hopes of feather regrowth. This has been going on since last fall and egg production is almost nil. I am getting a bit frustrated because this has gone on for so long and nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Our chicken coop is quite unique. We were given an old truck camper that we were going to repair and use when we traveled. The deeper we got into it the more damage we found and decided it was unsafe to travel with so we gutted it and turned it into the coop. The chickens have 112 square feet of living space inside their camper-coop. I hope I have not overcrowded the coop with 30 chickens. The chicken yard is an odd triangular shape measuring approximately 45' x 50' x 46' x 6'. We hope to double this in the spring to give them more room.
My husband & I will soon celebrate 37 years of marriage. We have 2 grown children, a daughter & a son, 1 son-in-law and 2 absolutely awesome grandchildren. We have 3 dogs & 2 cats to go along with the chickens. Unfortunately, we cannot let the dogs & chickens run together. We have already had one incident where the dogs killed one of the neighbor's chickens when it came into our yard & I won't let that happen again if I can help it. My husband works in a door factory sizing the fiberglass doors and enjoys working on his cars in his spare time. I am a consultant with Arbonne International selling fantastic health & wellness products. I enjoy sewing, gardening, my critters and spending time with the family.
Our daughter also has chickens and told us about BackYardChickens.com but I didn't think to much about it at the time. Our chickens are having issues with mites and cannibalism so I googled this and low and behold there was the website for Back Yard Chickens. I went into the website & did a search for cannibalism and found someone who is having the same problem with her chickens. I decided to join so I could respond to her and hopefully get some help for my chickens. I am using diatomaceous earth in the nesting boxes and in the bedding on the floor & under the roost for the mites. I put duct tape on the backs of the hens that have no feathers and use the Rooster Booster Pick-No-More on the areas that duct tape won't go. I have also recently changed their food to the Nutrena Feather Fixer pellets in the hopes of feather regrowth. This has been going on since last fall and egg production is almost nil. I am getting a bit frustrated because this has gone on for so long and nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any suggestions?
and Welcome To BYC! Long thread with various reasons why chickens aren't laying 
