Recent content by Petra Pancake

Ah, I see I'm not the only one getting this request for an update. Sorry, no chicken news from me any more. I had to give my last chickens away 5 years ago. First they got badly decimated by a weasel or something similar, I never caught it. Then a few got ill. Then lack of time and life in...

My worst mistakes: - Self built far too low ramshackle coop that was impossible to get into, impossible to clean properly and even collecting eggs gave me lumbago. :old - It wasn't rain proof, either, as I found out later :oops: - Not taking into account that chickens are jail break artists -...

Unfortunately I did't take a picture before disposing of her. The wound was about 1 cm wide, 2 cm long, oval in shape and one could see muscle tissue and veins laid bare in it. There was almost no blood smeared around it, not on the feathers and not on the ground where the head had been stuck...

One of my hens died yesterday, during the day. In the morning, she was still alive and fine, in the afternoon, dead. She was 2 years old and a full size chicken, no Bantam. I found her wedged into a hard to access corner of the run. The other hens were alright. She was lying on her side in a...

I couldn't collect eggs for 2 days. One of my hens is broody and it seems she sat the whole 2 days on all the eggs that were in the nest box. They are not fertilized. Are they still edible after more than 48 hours of constant "cozy" warm temperatures under a hen? I would boil of fry them well of...

Update, just for fun: In the end, I've found a non-aggressive way to protect my fruit trees. I drip mint oil on the bark every week, in addition to a wire cage around the bottom of the tree. And I've made a "deal" with the hyraxes. I had noticed that they attacked my fruit trees especially every...

Sorry for your loss :( And thanks for the update. It's always valuable to learn from other people's experiences with chicken diseases.

All the best, keep us updated. Did you get her to the vet? What did he say?

Huh? The original post is dated from "Yesterday at 3:18 PM" which would be June 14. Maybe you got that mixed up with the OP's joining date (May 03,2018)? Anyway, OP, if warm baths, oil on the vent and gentle belly massages don't do the job, I think your only other options are a) taking her to a...

In recent weeks, I've noticed that one of my Japanese Bantam hens lays fishy smelling eggs :sick. They are practically inedible. She lives in an aviary together with the second Bantam hen. The second one lays eggs that maybe have a very faint fish smell but are still edible. I can't compare to...

My two Japanese Bantams went through a phase of egg eating - they'd basically devour their eggs the moment they laid them. It was during a time when they got feed with a low protein content. When I switched back to higher protein feed, they sort of stopped. Sort of - If I leave their eggs...

I recently kind of saved one of my chickens with half-frozen water melon chunks. We had a heat wave one or two weeks ago and I noticed that especially one Leghorn hen was beginning to look very bad. She was panting, stretching out her wings and her comb and wattles were a sickly purple color...

@DrFeathers , I haven't heard that before, but you make me think. I have suspected for a while that eggs are vanishing. For an example, I didn't collect for a few days and there were about 10 eggs in the box and then they vanished. I thought the chickens had eaten them. Maybe it wasn't them...

The fertilized eggs will slowly go down in fertility. Both the ones that have been laid already - their fertility will decrease when they are left lying around for 2-3 weeks. And also the eggs that your hens are laying - hens can store a rooster's sperm in their body for up to 4 weeks but after...

Thanks for your replies. I'll try more mechanical measures like wire cages. Anti-pigeon spikes sound great as well. Have to see where to get them. Electric fencing is a problem because of my small kids climbing around on the inside and everyone else's kids on the outside. Tiny elephants, indeed...