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I don’t think I’ve posted my chickens yet, silly me. My long suffering chickens are still in a hoop house but tomorrow they will move to their new coop with actual nest boxes. They are supposed to start laying soon so I am cutting it close! I have buff Orpingtons, light brahmas and an ameraucana rooster.   I also have a coop similar to ToxicFrog’s but use it for rabbit quarantine or goat mountain.  
Joburg fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Apr 23, 2023 |
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Jul 17, 2019 03:29
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I gave my mom’s banty hen two eggs to hatch from my Ameraucana rooster and Buff Orpington hens. Here they are at about 12 weeks old with their proud mama in the background. 
Joburg fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2019 05:31
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I’m so impressed with Pip! Since some of you here do have old hens, what are your experiences with chicken arthritis? I have a 5 year old hen I got this fall and she seems to take a lot more time going up and down the roost poles than the other hens. It’s hard to tell if it’s a pain thing or maybe something else but I’m thinking it’s arthritis. Is a 5 year old in the age range for that?
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Jan 30, 2020 04:44
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Right now I have a ladder roost setup but I think I’d like to change to same-height roosts with a ramp. Maybe that would be easier for my old hens to get up and down. My concern is that my Light Brahmas might have trouble with a ramp. Anyone have experience with chunky gals using a long ramp?
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Feb 6, 2020 16:37
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MrUnderbridge posted:My buff orps had no trouble, even Kennedy, who was a seriously chunky gal. As long as it's not too steep and you have some cross pieces to give traction it should be fine. Thanks!
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Feb 6, 2020 21:20
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I’d love a feather. My chickens have lost theirs due to lice  I used a bottle of Poultry Protector spray but it’s out of stock now so today I bathed them. I guess I will have to bathe them repeatedly as the lice eggs hatch. Lice are so gross.
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Mar 24, 2020 00:26
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My hens (buffs, brahmas, Easter eggers, and one Wyandotte) are generally pretty quiet. The EE rooster we had crowed a lot and the Welsummers I gave to my mom talk ALL THE TIME but they aren’t very loud.
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Jun 12, 2020 15:14
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I learned a lot of lessons about broody hens too. I’ve had 3 broody buff Orpington hens so far this year. Two started on the same day and one was a week later. I gave the lagger 2 of the earlier eggs to make things easy. I moved them all to one pen with their own boxes and everything worked until hatching day... the hens didn’t know whose chick was whose so they were fighting, one chick got hurt in the melee. I separated the hens and just randomly assigned chicks to them and that seemed to work out. The hurt chick couldn’t use one leg for a couple days but it healed and is now totally mobile. (I almost culled it, so glad I didn’t!) After a week and a half of bonding with their chicks, I now have 3 hens with 2 chicks each all running around in a fenced yard. They are adorable! Last night it looked like we might have another broody hen but I got rid of our rooster last week. I will have to source some fertile eggs if she stays broody.
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Jun 17, 2020 13:45
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I can’t seem to get my pics to post. I’m on mobile and I try to insert from my library but it’s not working. The message says Imgur API error. 
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Jun 17, 2020 18:40
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My continuing broody hen saga: After having a successful brood, one hen decided to abandon her chicks after 3 weeks. After a couple weeks more, I found her on a new clutch of infertile eggs. I replaced them with fertile eggs but after a week something ate all her eggs except one. (Probably another hen  ) I tried to move her nest but she was not having that so then I tried to move the other hens and they weren’t having that either. They just paced outside the fence in 95 degree heat all day so I took pity and let them back in. To fix this ridiculous situation I decided to order some hatched chicks, she would get chicks and no one could eat the eggs, brilliant right?At darkest midnight I took away her one egg put the chicks under her... At sunrise she rejected all of them. Now I have 7 motherless chicks in the brooder and a broody hen on no eggs. 
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Jul 23, 2020 16:34
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I love that coop and run. I got some help and now I can upload pics again! Here are my new chicks while they were waiting to be introduced to the broody hen. (Darn that hen!)  
Joburg fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Jul 23, 2020 21:44
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I’ve been using the spiral kind. My local feed store sells them but they are also on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NJ2DBN7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_yOchFb4RRD4SY
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Jul 25, 2020 13:50
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My March Buff Orpingtons have just started laying. My one Buff rooster is really lovely and I plan to keep him. My two Ameraucana (Easter egger) roosters are really pretty but are absolutely infested with poultry lice... I don’t know what it is about them but my previous Am. rooster also had a bad infestation. Maybe they don’t bathe. We will be culling them tomorrow. The hens and remaining rooster are getting a weekly spray down with Poultry Protector. 
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Aug 1, 2020 04:37
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Errant Gin Monks posted:This is a million percent right. The chickens I raised are fattier, more tender and more delicious then anything I have bought at the store. Speaking of surprise roosters in particular, I think it’s better for the bird to just be raised in one home and meet a dignified end at 18-20 weeks, rather than have the stress of going to a brand new place (or multiple places) to end up meeting the same fate. Unless he is a rare breed, most roosters don’t get a long life. And if you have to slaughter any extra roosters yourself, YOU get to determine the how and when. I give them extra treats on the last day and then wait until dark to avoid any sort of stress from having to catch them.
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Aug 2, 2020 13:38
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My Wyandotte has some funky claws. They grow out to the side and spiral if I don’t keep them trimmed. I don’t know if that’s common to the breed or just a weird thing about her in particular. I have some Light Brahmas and they do struggle in the heat. In winter they do ok except for the ice and snow build up on their feet. They are also the most affected by the poultry lice so I will not be getting any more of them in the future. ( Lice!!!)The sweetest chickens I’ve had are Welsummers and Buff Orpingtons. They seem to handle the heat ok, especially the lighter birds. Three of the eight Orps have gone broody though, so that may be an annoyance if you don’t want them to raise chicks.
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Aug 8, 2020 01:53
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Cute birds, snake and bake! For those of you with lousy, louse-y chickens, I cannot recommend Poultry Protector spray enough. I used this recipe to make a huge amount for my small flock (ok, 30-ish chickens) and it worked soooo well. https://www.greenwillowhomestead.com/blog/diy-recipe-poultry-protector-spray-to-protect-your-hens-from-lice-and-mites With a big sprayer it was faster than bathing the chickens, which we did last time they had lice. It has to be done once a week for 4 weeks, and now after the second treatment our chickens have hardly any lice. I also culled the two beautiful Ameraucana roosters that had lice eggs all over their beards. Here are two of my mixed chicks, hatched in June. The orange one is half Ameraucana, half buff Orpington. The other is a mystery. The Broodies were on their own eggs and eggs from my mom’s flock. She has feathery feet so I think she’s either half Ameraucana, half Brahma from my flock or 1/4 Orpington, 1/4 Ameraucana and 1/2 Sebright from my mom’s flock. She’s barely smaller than the other chicks so who knows. She sure is striking though.  
Joburg fucked around with this message at 00:37 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Aug 9, 2020 15:44
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snake and bake posted:Is there anything else I can do to help these ladies stay nice and cool in the summer heat? Am I worrying too much about it? You are probably worrying too much. It is 92F outside so most are in the shade, but a couple hens are sunbathing.  
Joburg fucked around with this message at 00:39 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Aug 9, 2020 20:30
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I didn’t get a picture but one of our hens broke a toe  We splinted it to the middle toe with vet wrap and she is now sleeping on the floor of the coop. Poor thing. I don’t know how she broke it but I know my roosts are too high for my heavy birds... I should have lowered them before now
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Aug 16, 2020 04:19
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I don’t know if a chicken could get by with only one eye. I read that they see distance with one eye and close-up with the other but I don’t know if that’s true. If a chicken has a localized illness and has been on antibiotics I would maybe feed the good parts to my dogs but not eat it myself.
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Aug 18, 2020 22:16
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Do you have some freezer burned meat or a ham bone or something? Mine also like yogurt and cottage cheese. Sometimes I give them some chick grower crumbles as a treat if I don’t have anything more exciting.
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Aug 24, 2020 17:54
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I don’t have rats but I have sparrows When I ordered chicks for my broody hen in July (who then decided she didn’t want chicks after all) I added a surprise chick, which has turned out to be a cream Legbar cockerel (pretty sure). Anyway, he looks like a clown. I will probably keep him to breed with my white egg layers so he needs a name.  
Joburg fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Apr 24, 2023 |
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Aug 30, 2020 01:09
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Great suggestions! I will try them out tomorrow and decide what fits him best.
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Aug 30, 2020 02:59
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I think I will name my rooster Clarence (Clare if he turns out to be a she). Thanks for the suggestions 
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Aug 31, 2020 03:56
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Photos! Clarence the Clown and his ladies are getting used to being near the big chickens but I can’t integrate them yet. A couple of the big ladies STILL have lice. I am almost to the point of using permethrin but I see conflicting info about if you can still eat the eggs or not. Anyone know? (I just noticed the naked butt on the right. We cut off all her louse-eggy feathers this spring so SHE doesn’t have lice. Maybe I should develop a Naked Butt breed!)  My other flock, made up of successful mama hens, their mutt chicks, and three leghorns are lice free and they are in the summer coop in the rabbit colony. But with the lice issue in the camper coop, I can’t integrate them yet. (And I am putting off culling the 2 roosters until then, it is not my favorite job...) 
Joburg fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 02:36
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That Works posted:Or you can do like I did and leave a 5g glass carboy in the garage with a little bit of fermented grain left in it then find a pile of semicannibalized and otherwise dead mice in it midway through winter Ugh! That sounds awful.
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Sep 2, 2020 02:41
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From my reading, Corid is fine to use even if it turns out not to be coccidiosis.
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Sep 2, 2020 19:18
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I caught some robin feathers in a rat trap once but the robin got away, thank goodness. Now I set the traps under a box with a hole cut in the side. Sometimes I put sunflower seeds there for a day or 2 to attract them before I set the trap.
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Sep 3, 2020 01:59
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I don’t know anything about deep litter but I think the greenhouse would be fine at those temps. If it gets sunny at all during the day you would still need lots of ventilation. That would gain heat like crazy. They might need some shady areas as well. I use a half open hoop coop during the summer and it works ok. The main issue I’ve run into is the wind, since it’s partly open the wind can catch it like a sail or pull off the tarp covering. In your case it would be good to have an emergency plan in case the plastic rips in the middle of a storm...
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Sep 6, 2020 02:25
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I started my very first chickens in a hoop coop and it was fine. If I didn’t get the hellacious wind here (Wyoming) I would probably stay with that model. It was super easy to build and I used the half covered one all winter for the rabbits (they use it as a starting point for their giant burrows) and all summer for the mama hens and babies.
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Sep 6, 2020 04:22
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In preparation for the first snow storm, last night we moved our teenagers (early June babies) to the new coop with the late July babies (Clarence the Clown’s posse). Did you know 7 week old chicks can still fit through the openings of a poultry fence?  They had some adventures with the big chickens and then went home, so it turned out ok. The teenagers did bother them a little bit but the babies could get away easily so I have hopes they will integrate ok. It definitely helps to have so many chicks in a group. I think it confuses any bully to have 7 of them milling around. Also this weekend, the Buff Orpington rooster (William of Orange) attacked my husband. He said William tried to spur his legs but he kept walking and William gave up. I’m wondering if it was related to the shovel he was carrying or because I had been driving the big scary skid steer around and he was feeling more territorial than usual. So far he’s never done anything to me so I haven’t had to carry him around and humiliate him in front of his ladies, but I will keep an eye on him.
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Sep 8, 2020 04:43
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stealie72 posted:Newbie here: Do you think it’s a skin infection? I can’t see what’s going on very well in the picture but if you have a chicken vet nearby maybe you can send them some photos of the chick and the poop. Considering Covid, maybe they would do a video visit. If you think it’s a skin infection, you could try blu-kote. If she is acting fine otherwise I would probably put her back with the others. They are already exposed to whatever germs or bacteria she has and keeping her alone is a huge stress on her. If she acts really sick then I think you need a vet ASAP or decide if you are going to cull her.
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Sep 8, 2020 21:18
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spookygonk posted:Sadly Daisy died this morning. It was the second anniversary of her becoming a retired garden hen. She had two years of freedom. We are heartbroken. I’m so sorry about Daisy.
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Sep 9, 2020 16:24
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 He does have 2 legs, I swear. William of Orange chest bumped my leg this morning so I carried him around to show him I’m the boss. I hope that takes care of this behavior. Has anyone else dealt with a rooster who’s showing the beginning signs of aggression? I don’t remember dealing with this with my previous roosters.
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Sep 10, 2020 15:33
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Thank you all, he is very handsome. I got him and a couple Orp hens from Tractor Supply, which I think originally come from Hoover Hatchery. Compared to the Orps I got from Murdoch’s last year (can’t remember the hatchery), they are larger bodied and may have smaller heads. Also this year’s Orps lay dark pink eggs, compared to the yellower Murdoch’s hens’ eggs. It’s pretty interesting to see the differences.
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Sep 10, 2020 22:40
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Culex posted:I work at a Murdoch's, our orps typically come from Murray McMurray, definitely last year's. I love Murray McMurray. Clarence the Clown was my surprise chick and he’s exactly what I wanted. I’ve had a few EE roosters and their beards attract lice like nobody’s business and their progeny end up laying brown eggs (which are tasty but not very egg-citing) Clarence should produce colorful egg layers, I hope, and not hide a bunch of lice on his face! fauna posted:love that handsome william That’s so cute!
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Sep 11, 2020 01:07
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Errant Gin Monks posted:
She’s very cute  Names: Maybeline Cleopatra Parrot Snuggle Puss
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Sep 11, 2020 01:44
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A week after using permethrin powder and the chickens are LICE FREE!!  We will check again next week to be super sure. I am just so thrilled! And I’m annoyed that I wasted so much time with the poultry protector spray and obviously didn’t get all the stupid little lice each time.
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Sep 13, 2020 04:15
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Leghorns are “flighty” they say. We have 3 teenaged pearl white leghorns and tonight 2 were roosting 6 feet up in a tree. Pictured, one naughty Leghorn in front and the golden child in the back. 
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Sep 15, 2020 03:38
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4 of my Orpingtons like to walk waaay down the hill, like 400 feet, to lay their eggs in the goat shelter. Silly chickens.
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Sep 16, 2020 01:06
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Enfys posted:with one foot ready to tip the food bucket to spill it everywhere I need a heavier bowl. 
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Sep 18, 2020 03:16
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