people with house chickens

[Lisa Wood]

So I am replying to Darlene E. I am sure you are no stranger than the next guy, and what you like to do helps yourself and chicks, so dont let anyone tell you otherwise. Do what you love.
I think I could maybe help with two problems, and not help with two problems. There are chicken nappies you can buy from a website, right on BYC. Or you csn make them, which I am sure is no problemo for you since you are maker of curtains for coops, Aye?
I know of no answer to crowing rooster. If he is not to crow, I think the fix may be surgical, but I dont know.
The answer, of course, to your lonesome Rooster, is he needs at least one new female. I am sure with your guidance he will love her. Just get auto sexed female so you know almost for sure it is female.
Maybe problem with your husband will resolve itself when he sees nappies? Good luck I pray for you.
Lisa

 

[DarleneE]

Lisa Wood,

Thanks so much for writing!! However I think you missed part of my "story" along the way... Lol
I do NOT have a rooster. She is a 2 1/2 yo Barred Rock laying hen!! We lost our Easter Egger, the only other hen we had on June 4th. I am just DEVASTATED!! Daisy apparently was and is as well because approximately 5 days after losing Livie, Daisy began to CROW LIKE A ROOSTER??!!! Crazy as it sounds... it's the honest truth and there is the video to prove it!! Lol
NOW our biggest dilemmas are TWO of them!!
Trying to be her new chicken buddy, as my husband will not allow me to get another chicken. So, thus the reason for joining the house chicken thread!! Trying to find a happy medium that will work for us. We cannot let her have run of the house. Our downstairs is all carpeted except for the kitchen and a bathroom. The carpet is quite expensive and very very light, almost white in color and is a Berber.. NOT easy to clean chicken poop off if without huge staining!! Upstairs however all is WOOD floor except ours and another bedroom that have carpet. So we're trying our best to either let her in the kitchen when we're gonna be in there awhile and also bringing her upstairs and letting her roam and walk around up there. So far not too bad so I think it'll work.
Last and most important issue.. I've foundv that she's lost a huge amount of weight and isn't eating her feed!!?? She only wants people food?? So she does have an appetite but not for what she needs to be eating. She's acting normal though?? She's active and all. Her fecal sample was just tested and normal?? All just like my Livie we ended up losing!!?? They never found a thing wrong with her either?? It's sooooooo odd!!?? I've just also wormed her just in case. I don't see any bugs or critters anywhere on her. She's still laying although her eggs are all very thin shell and usually end up broken!!?? However she's almost always had this problem. She only laid beautiful hard brown eggs the first season. After that they used to be SOFT shelled.. even worse!! Now this season they're thin shelled mostly. Every once in awhile she'll lay a good one. So I just dunno what's wrong with her?? I'm going to begin tube feeding her today. Using the Kaytee baby bird formula mixed with Pedialyte and some baby food.. veggies, also. I'm hoping this will get weight back on her.. She used to be HUGE basically obese I'd even say... and that it'll stimulate her to start eating again??

Any other ideas... anyone?? I really need some help here with her as I'm afraid I'll lose her too and I just CANNOT do that!!!!!
Thanks so much again,
D

 

[Sylvester017]

I love this page!!! lead me to the supers do you all make them or but them? love the fact I don't feel so crazy now like the only person who can't stand my babies to be outside in 90 pluse weather mine just don't have them shade.So question how to get dippers. This is Spazy and Silkie about 12 weeks old.

I custom-made my own diapers using the youtube.com video from chickenmom. There are many companies/people who make diapers here on BYC as well as online search for chicken diapers. Google "chicken diapers" and several sources should show up.

 

[Athaid]

Oh hey, I forgot about this thread.

Chicken diapers? How often do you have to change those things?

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh hey, I forgot about this thread.

Chicken diapers? How often do you have to change those things?

You change diapers as often as you think necessary - just like human baby diapers. Some chicken poops are solid, some are watery, some are disgustingly stinky. I changed diapers on our Silkie 2x/daily and baby-shampoo'd and blow-dryed the vent area before putting on a new clean diaper. Overnight we didn't use a diaper on her to allow her tush to "breathe." Watery poops cause you to go through a few diapers in one day so you should have 2 or 3 available diapers for the chicken. Plastic liners in the diaper are nice but don't guarantee that the diaper will stay entirely dry so extra diapers should be available. Once my Silkie layed an egg in her diaper as it dragged along the floor behind her!

HOME-MADE SILKIE DIAPER


THE SILKIE TOODLING OUTDOORS AFTER SHE ESCAPED FROM THE HOUSE! WEARING DIAPERS NEVER HINDERED HER NORMAL ACTIVITIES. SHE ONCE DECIDED TO DUST-BATHE IN A SOAKED DIAPER AND CAME BACK IN THE HOUSE WITH THE DIAPER HEAVILY CAKED IN MUD!

 

[Athaid]

Out of curiosity, why do you keep your silkie indoors? Sorry if you already explained that in an earlier post.

 

[mg15]

You change diapers as often as you think necessary - just like human baby diapers. Some chicken poops are solid, some are watery, some are disgustingly stinky. I changed diapers on our Silkie 2x/daily and baby-shampoo'd and blow-dryed the vent area before putting on a new clean diaper. Overnight we didn't use a diaper on her to allow her tush to "breathe." Watery poops cause you to go through a few diapers in one day so you should have 2 or 3 available diapers for the chicken. Plastic liners in the diaper are nice but don't guarantee that the diaper will stay entirely dry so extra diapers should be available. Once my Silkie layed an egg in her diaper as it dragged along the floor behind her!

HOME-MADE SILKIE DIAPER


THE SILKIE TOODLING OUTDOORS AFTER SHE ESCAPED FROM THE HOUSE! WEARING DIAPERS NEVER HINDERED HER NORMAL ACTIVITIES. SHE ONCE DECIDED TO DUST-BATHE IN A SOAKED DIAPER AND CAME BACK IN THE HOUSE WITH THE DIAPER HEAVILY CAKED IN MUD!



I hear ya !

 

[mg15]

I found the gal "Spots Corner" who made
the other diapers and the two girls J. Bantams
will have their new appropriately fitting
diapers any day now.
I will post when the girls get them.

 

[Sylvester017]

Out of curiosity, why do you keep your silkie indoors? Sorry if you already explained that in an earlier post.

My Silkie is not an "indoor" Silkie. When we first brought her home she was too young and too little to add to the backyard flock so she became an indoor chicken for approx 3 months before we felt she was big enough to integrate with the outside flock. We got a lot of bonding time with her as a house chicken before slowly introducing her to the outdoor girls when she was approx 6-months old. We are zoned for only 5 hens so whenever we can acquire another chicken we quarantine her indoors for about 4 to 8 weeks during which time we bond with the new pullet and she learns to know us too. The indoor bonding with each new pullet helps whenever future illness occurs and we need to keep a hen indoors for recuperating or to administer medications until she is ready to re-integrate outdoors. When my Black Silkie was recuperating from a CRD issue we had to keep her indoors for several days and she was comfortable with it. Once she was outdoors again she preferred to come back into the house to lay her egg in the little covered Homz Kidz nestbox we keep in the indoor kennel. She weaned herself back to using the coop nestboxes after a couple weeks but I miss her indoor "visits." Little 2-lb Silkie bantams are so very cute!

 

[Agarrard]

Hi everyone! I never thought it would come to this, but I have house chickens...so here I am, lol. My chicken story starts with my cat bringing home a week old baby chick from who knows where. We looked for its appropriate home but had no luck and were even turned away by the nearest chicken properties. So, there we were with the sweetest little chick I named Nugget. I found backyard chickens and was advised to get it some buddies so we did. So now we have Nugget, BigBird, a polish bantam, and Chicken Little, a sultan bantam. Nugget turned out to be a barnyard mutt roo. Fast forward to 16 weeks and they have all been raised indoors. The small bout they got with their outdoor coop was cut short by the 115-120 degree(in the shade) summer days we've had here in Phoenix. They just can't handle it. So I ended up turning a spare bathroom into an indoor coop until it starts to cool off. We are adapting! I too have just purchased diapers from Amazon. They have waterproof lining so all you have to do is rinse them out. So far so good! My husband has gotten pretty good at getting them on Nugget. I did however buy some of those plastic bra strap converters to help hold the straps in place on his back because Nugget learned quickly how to get out of it. Here's a handful of pics of our unconventional chicken raising.