Search results for query: *

I had my first case of sour crop on my Buckeye chick who is about 12 weeks old. I check on them every day so I'm sure I noticed her enlarged crop right away. The day before we had let them in the yard and they were vigorously eating some leaves off of a small tree, so I'm guessing that was the...

The 6x8' minibarn I bought just has the thin outer wall like most. I'm about to install the roost and nesting boxes, but I keep going back and forth on whether to put another thin layer of plywood up to cover and protect the 2x4 frame and better insulate the coop. I doubt I will actually use...

I thought I'd start this thread to log the progress in my new coop... We bought a 'Victorian Playhouse' from local Amish builders and it was delivered today. The only customization we made over the base product was to use 16" vents on the sides. I still have to build the roosts, nesting boxes...

I'm having a hard time finding the history of this breed. I always thought they were just a strain of BR that had this color pattern, and therefore carried 90% of BR traits. Then I read they are a heritage breed (not sure if true), and that they were more closely related to the Wyandotte. I just...

I finally will have the space, and since I'm buying a prebuilt ("Victorian Playhouse") structure I don't have to worry about anything besides what goes in it. How should I best uttilize the 6'x8' open area? How high should I go with roosting bars and nesting boxes? Should I add a shelf? Other...

First, I should say I've been gone a long time due to a very unexpected surgery outcome. I wasn't sure I could maintain my chicken hobby at all, let alone proceed with my grandiose plans to upgrade my flock. My wife had to take over my chicken responsibilities and reluctantly became a full time...

My birds free range a couple hours each night. I have a pond in my backyard, but it is small and the water is five feet low, and there were no chicken footprints in the mud. This was a big bass hook with a large sinker attached. The weird thing was that it went through both waddles. Maybe her...

I got two BR pullets in June. They are healthy and active, but their eggs don't look quite normal yet. They've been laying since July. The initial eggs were perfect, tiny eggs, and I expected them to get full size in August, but they only started getting to large size in October, and they are...

I've got some apple cuts in water with plain table sugar right now. I smell alcohol, but I thought the apples were supposed to sink after a week and they haven't after ten days. Wondering when to strain. If I understand correctly, I can wait possibly months for mother to form after I remove the...

What should I expect to happen when my high production birds get close to three years old? People seem to insinuate that they will just stop laying, but few seem to speak from experience. What happens to egg quality, and are these older eggs viable for hatching?

My sister has a dozen RSL's that are over two years old. They started molting at the beginning of summer, and went from laying a dozen XL eggs a day to three. Not only that, but the eggs are often pale, thin shelled, bumpy, or misshapen. I guess they've come out of the molt, but the eggs haven't...

I just noticed his left-left toe has no nail and looks swollen. The right-right toe also looks similar, but the nail is tiny. All the other nails look normal. What could cause this? Could it just be swelling covering the nail, and if so, why would only the outer nails be affected?

Backstory: I ordered two BR started pullets (16+ weeks) from Meyer. They arrived in a tiny box, and the tracking showed they had been in there without food/water for three days (although oddly there was almost no poo in the box). They were exceptionally quiet, yet appeared healthy. However...

Never knew we even had mink in Indiana. Just turned the corner from my house today and saw one cross the road in front of me in broad daylight. This was only five hundred yards from my house/coop. I am confident the coop is secure at night once the auto door closes, but I didn't think there were...

These are 16 week olds from Meyer Hatchery. They are vaccinated and appear very healthy. How long to quarantine? I'd like to think one week will do.

I've hatched Production Reds, and see chicks every day here that everyone identifies as the production variety (and I tend to agree since they look just like mine did). But what does a pure breed RIR chick look like? How can we tell if they are Production or Heritage variety as chicks? 4-8 week...

I just noticed this happening a few weeks ago. I keep the coop door open while my birds free range, and when I close it at night I now frequently have to chase a sparrow or two out. I thought the problem would cease after I installed a new automatic coop door. Somehow the sparrows are finding...

I have a small backyard coop, you've seen the kind that are like 4x8 with a built-in run. I've decided I want to add a couple more birds and, rather than free ranging as their only excercise, to provide a 20x20 little chicken yard (not secure yet) for them to enjoy all day. I can't justify a...

I'm in Noblesville, and looking for a Barred Rock hens. Pullets are fine too.

Assume you want to hatch eggs, and produce sex link offspring. What's the ideal roo? Rhode Island Red? And my second question is, if RIR is ideal, then does a Production Red work just as well? I mean, I hear crossing RIR and a BR will make sex links, and I assume they mean Production Reds...