Texas

[magpiesing]

Thank you for asking. I've been posting here with my updates/questions.

Sorry to hear you might have to put her down. I will hope for the best that she shows signs of improvement today and tomorrow. Since she is young maybe she will be strong enough, along with your TLC, to beat it on her own.

 

[tiedyemommy]

Sorry to hear you might have to put her down. I will hope for the best that she shows signs of improvement today and tomorrow. Since she is young maybe she will be strong enough, along with your TLC, to beat it on her own.

Thank you. She was doing better, or was at least perkier and more interested in drinking water...but when I went out there a moment ago she appeared to be trying to lay an egg, and then she just stood up and looked sick (low head and tail). So I brought her indoors and she's set up in the bathroom again.

 

[magpiesing]

We put our little redneck AC bucket in the chicken house and it didn't take long for the gang to come in and get in the cool air. It won't do alot of good overall but at least they can stand in front of it and get some cool air. We also put some ice in their water jugs. We put a tray of ice in the yard and they were so disappointed LOL..they thought it was a treat and when they realized it wasn't to eat we got the funniest looks from them! I'll gets some pics of them later when we go out to do their cool down.

 

[magpiesing]

Thank you. She was doing better, or was at least perkier and more interested in drinking water...but when I went out there a moment ago she appeared to be trying to lay an egg, and then she just stood up and looked sick (low head and tail). So I brought her indoors and she's set up in the bathroom again.

Been doing some research (too hot to do much else). You can flush a hens cloaca with warm water. A chicken douche if you will. It can help clean out debris. There is a thread on BYC that talks about using it. Also using epsom salt solution orally as a laxative to help clean any debris out. You may have already read those posts. I don't know how to link to a post.
Might be worth a try.

 

[henless]

Has anyone had a problem with their hen laying from the roost? I'm pretty sure it is my smallest hen. Couple of weeks ago, I found some very small eggs in the nesting boxes and felt like they were hers, all of a sudden, the small eggs stopped and last week I started finding a very thin shelled egg in the poop hammock. While cleaning coop last weekend, had roost and hammock out, she kept coming in getting on top of nesting boxes, getting into and out of boxes and seemed kind of stressed. No eggs in hammock Monday but last nite, sure enough, another thin shelled egg in hammock. Just wondering if I should take roost and hammock out of the coop each am. Any advise is appreciated.

My chickens have been laying for about 6 weeks now, at least some of them have. I still get 2 or 3 "misfires" on the poop board in the mornings. Sometimes it just takes them a while to get everything "working right".

Howdy all!

Some of my little ladies (born 3/15) finally started laying! I have no idea how many are laying, but at least a few are.

My dog discovered a few eggs in a nest in the brush on Sunday. Woot! On Monday morning, I found one egg on the floor of the coop. On Tuesday, I found one in the grove of trees that they hang out. Now my challenge is to get them to lay where I want them to, since they are free-range and move from shaded spot to shaded spot throughout the day.

Questions:

• At their young age and our high heat, should I be expecting low production?
• Or should I be expecting 8-10 eggs per day out of my 14 hens?
• Meaning, should I assume that the girls are hiding their eggs in a spot I haven't discovered yet?

Thank you in advance - and happy Wednesday, all!

My chickens started laying about 6 weeks ago. Yesterday is the first day that I got 14 eggs out of 15 hens. I usually get around 8-10 per day, sometimes 12. I have one chicken that may be a very late starter, if she even lays at all. She's one of my BOs. She's either part bantam or just a runt. She's about half the size of my other 2 BOs. The heat has a lot to do with it, but they are also new layers and it will take a while for their bodies to work out all the details to steady laying.

Showing a little progress on my open air hoop coop.... also have to rig up a temporary coop to house two 7 month old Americaunas and two year old Silver Laced Wyandottes that I'll be picking up this evening.

[/URL]

VERY nice!!!!

Have you started a separate thread showing all the stages? If not, you should.

Oh my. My poor girls are fending for themselves a lot these days. I am getting around slowly after the accident. I mainly have to be careful not to lift anything too heavy. The girls come up to the house for food and water so that I don't have to walk all the way out to the chicken yard. My husband and I ventured out today for a couple of hours. It felt good to get out of the house, but was tiring. Went to the local farm store in Liberty Hill, Winkley's. They had buff orpington and barred rock chicks. Too cute. Oh and guinea chicks. It was soooo hard not to bring some home, but I am in no shape to care for chicks.

So glad you are doing better!!! I agree. When something major like this happens to you, you will grow into a "new normal". I hope you continue to improve. You and your husband will be in my prayers.

Nacogdoches Native recently moved to Marshall. We were lucky enough to find a rent house in the city limits with a landlord who is all about raising chickens for eggs.
The previous renter had a go at it and was kind enough to leave a brooder and an enclosed pen for them to get comfortable in. We wanted a diverse flock and decided to go with 10 chickens of 5 different breeds from a local feed store that I should be picking up next Friday. We plan to get two of each: Rhode Island Red, Americuanas,Plymouth rocks, orpingtons,australorps, and new hampshires if the store can't get one of the others. I found a thread somewhere that stated they were great all around birds. I would love to hear about anyone who has any of these breeds and how they do in east Texas weather!?
Can't wait to pick the little guys up. My three daughters just might,MIGHT, be more excited than me
Asa
AKA CluckMcStuffins

Howdy neighbor!

That is what I did when I got my chickens. I wanted a variety, just to see what I liked best. I planned on getting 3 chickens from 5 different breeds. I ended up with 3 from 7 different breeds!! I'm now down to 15, after selling 6 a few weeks ago. I love my Aussies, BOs, Barred Rocks and I like my EEs. My SLWs are pretty ad lay good, but they are noisy! They yap, yap, yap all the time!!! My RIRs were ok, but being hatchery stock, they were flighty, so I sold them along with 3 Golden Comets. I needed more room in my coop since my outside yard expansion was being put on hold for a few months.

All of mine do fine in the heat. They do get hot, and pant, but they have plenty of shade and I have my barn fan out there and turn it on for them when the temp hits 93 degrees or higher. I also have cold/frozen watermelon, grapes, tomatoes and other cold stuff for them to cool off with. You can also put frozen water bottles in the waterer to help keep them cool.

Are you getting them at Horaney's? That is where I got most of mine. I got my BO and SLW at Atwoods since Horaney's wasn't going to have them soon enough to raise with my others.

We took pictures last night of Dawn doing the teeter off leash. She was tired from our team practice, so I stayed really close to her. And for those wondering, I put my hand in front of her face to slow her down and make her "wait" while the teeter comes down. As we both get more comfortable and confident I will remove my hand. The hand by her shoulder was because she kept looking at me, not where her feet were going. So if she started to come towards me instead of going straight, I could grab her. We are beginners, so our priority is safety while learning the different obstacles.

Sounds like a lot of fun!!

I did AKC obedience many years ago with my Rough Collie. She was really good at it. We had such a blast doing all the training and showing.

Thank you for asking. I've been posting here with my updates/questions.

Sorry to hear about your chicken. I hope she pulls through.

We put our little redneck AC bucket in the chicken house and it didn't take long for the gang to come in and get in the cool air. It won't do alot of good overall but at least they can stand in front of it and get some cool air. We also put some ice in their water jugs. We put a tray of ice in the yard and they were so disappointed LOL..they thought it was a treat and when they realized it wasn't to eat we got the funniest looks from them! I'll gets some pics of them later when we go out to do their cool down.

I like your AC!!!

You asked earlier about the egg color of Wyandottes. They lay brown eggs, at least mine do.

 

[tiedyemommy]

Been doing some research (too hot to do much else). You can flush a hens cloaca with warm water. A chicken douche if you will. It can help clean out debris. There is a thread on BYC that talks about using it. Also using epsom salt solution orally as a laxative to help clean any debris out. You may have already read those posts. I don't know how to link to a post.
Might be worth a try.

Thank you. I'll see if I can find the threads.

 

[LibertyXRanch]

I'm in Springtown, TX. Currently we have 17 assorted variety of laying hens and Longhorn Leghorn Rooster. Just opened up for business last month and already can't keep up with the demand. Looking for more chickens.

 

[hensfortherapy]

Speaking of combs...does anyone know what causes a hen's comb to flop over?  My Brown leghorn hen's comb is lovely red but has flopped to the left.

My brown leghorns had floppy combs. It seems to be a characteristic of a large comb.

 

[chickieluver26]

Yeah they all have HUGE FLOPPY combs.

All my pictured leghorns are hens

 

[TherryChicken]

Yeah they all have HUGE FLOPPY combs.

All my pictured leghorns are hens

I wonder why leghorns have such larhe combs.. even the hens