Recent content by Agathe

Thank you, that helps a lot! I noticed once that one of the birds' eggs had weak shell, but I don't think this is a persistent issue, but might be the times they are eaten. The boxes are padded with hay but they do have their favourite ones. There are 6 for 7 birds but only half of them ever...

I have a couple of chickens that I know have eaten their eggs at times because I'll find them with yellow spots on their feathers. But I've never caught them in the act and whenever I intend to (like separate them for a while or keep an extra eye on them) they don't eat the eggs. So I don't know...

She’s partially on layer feed and a feed with more protein and less calcium. She has access to oyster shells. Other than that the occasional grass (when we let them out on the part of the run that isn’t all dug up) or the occasional food scrap.

Sorry I am so late to reply, I hadn’t seen the new posts and for some reason I rarely (but sometimes) get notifications. My main goal with keeping chickens is the eggs. I see it as a means to being self sufficient. However, I have a child and we also have very friendly birds, so they’ve been...

I have a single orpington hen. She was the only one that hatched and the others are a different breed. She layed well with eggs for about the first year but has since hardly layed at all. I’ve wondered if this might be because she isn’t happy in the group as she has a very different personality...

We have no rats or snakes here, only mice, but I certainly hear our rooster chime in from time to time. During egg laying hours in the early parts of the day it can be quite noisy indeed!

I had no idea they did that, thank you!

There are 7 hens now and I’d like a total of 9. So only room for 2 more unless I cull some. Our rooster is great with our hens but attack me when they free range (he doesn’t attack anyone else) and therefore they can’t free range. He allows me into the coop just fine so he’s been allowed to live...

Do you take out older birds from your flock and if so, at what age? We have very limited space in our coop plus feed costs are double of what they were, so I can’t justify keeping birds that aren’t laying well. At the same time I have a hard time justifying culling them too. Our oldest birds are...

Can a chicken egg song be a false alarm? We've suspected a couple of our chickens of eating their eggs so we've been keeping an extra eye on them, and I frequently hear them making the egg song but when I go into the coop there aren't any eggs. The suspected offenders aren't consistent in their...

I put them into a new and bigger container yesterday and didn't really notice the fras. Now there is so much new bedding that it would be futile to check for it, but I'll keep an eye on it! It has been on the cooler side in our house lately so maybe that's it. At first I thought it was their...

Yes, they are mostly c shaped but not super curved, slightly bent. I think about half of the 100 I started with have turned into pupas, but some have been inactive for a whole week before they did.

I assume some of you breed mealworms for your chickens, so I’m hoping for some advice as I recently started myself. My mealworms don’t seem to be interested in any food I give them and seem fairly inactive. I’ve had them for about a week. I’m wondering if maybe it is because they are turning...

I know my thread, I said I didn't get much response. Since yesterday I've got one response that might actually help, but when I posted my second thread I hadn't gotten any replies to my follow up posts. But thank you for your suggestions!

Thank you!