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I have 5 peking ducks, 3 females and 2 males. As seems to happen every summer the females are overbred, and are developing sores on the top of their heads where the boys grab them. Is there any sort of a hood, or tape I can put on them to keep their heads from being beat up (similar to a...

Chickens will always try to get on the highest roost. So best to have all your roosts at the same height. If one chicken doesn't like the chicken next to them on the roost even if the other chicken is several feet away, the more dominant chicken will go peck at the other chicken. So it's...

Ok maybe she's not really drunk, but Edna one of my buff orpington hens has been acting that way for the past 2 days after we put a chicken saddle on her. She was a lot better today, but still hung-over. Yesterday she was walking backwards, sideways, fell off the roost twice, couldn't figure...

Yesterday I got a letter saying that Advanta is closing my small business credit card account with them effective May 30th. Well they are closing all small business credit cards effective May 30th. Nothing like getting 4 days notice that they are closing your account. I did a little bit of...

What should be the height and width of an Angora rabbit door between the run and hutch? I've read the minimum hutch/run height should be 18 inches and the rabbits can get up to 12 pounds. So I'm thinking the size of a heavy breed rooster, but of course they don't walk on 2 legs. Thanks for...

Our hens laid their 1000th egg today.

I'd like some input on the cheapest fencing/wire that I can enclose a chicken tractor with that is fairly predator proof. Hardware cloth can get expensive if you need alot of it. I was thinking like a 1 in x 2 in welded wire that would keep out daytime predators. Anyone use anything less...

We decided to take the plunge into the world of meat birds. We did some searching for who might have a good free ranging meat bird and found JM Hatchery in PA. So today we ordered 25 multi colored range broilers from them. We wanted to take advantage of our 5 acres and get a meat bird that...

In general most peeps on BYC use a 4 sqft per chicken rule of thumb to determine how many chickens will fit in a chicken coop. I know there is some slack in this "rule" if they are only in the coop at night and have an extra large run space. So say you made a 4 ft by 4 ft coop and put it up...

This morning I noticed my rooster Leo had a bum that was more red than normal. Upon closer inspection I noticed a couple mites. I've been giving the chickens a bucket full of wood ashes every week to dust bath in. I put the ashes in a cat litter box and they all dive in, except today it...

Over the summer I recall reading a thread about using a pipe that is about one foot off the coop bedding to vent the coop and ammonia. Anyone else remember the thread or can find it or was it a link to another site? Seems like it would work great in very cold weather instead of a bunch of...

Does a rooster need to be organically fed along with the hens to have "organic" chicks/fertilized eggs? I realize it's only one cell being contributed by the male but does it matter if it's "organic" or not?

Has anyone ever fed stuff like garlic, onions, fish (ok maybe not fish), to make their eggs have a little extra flavor to them? Or anyone know of any chefs who like to try wild and crazy things like that in recipes?

In the spring we are ordering more chicks. My wife only wants to get 2 breeds total. She wants more EE's and some Welsummers or Marans. The Welsummers and Marans she mostly wants for dark eggs. What breed does everyone prefer and why? Thanks for any input/advice.

Anyone know of any good craft fair listing sites? I've been looking around and joined one but they didn't have anything local. I'd prefer to not join a bunch and waste money to find out they don't have anything in my area. (upstate, NY). I wish you could preview before joining so I could...

Oliver my buff orpington rooster killed a ruffed grouse today. He's not very aggressive but he's very protective of his hens. Not 100 percent sure what happened but the grouse was dead with alot of neck feathers scattered about.

From your experience what breeds of chickens are good winter layers? Also do you provide yours with supplemental light to keep up their production or do yours lay good in the winter without extra light?

Can roosters tell the sex of a chick? Back in August we bought 3 Easter-Egger day old pullets. Oliver and Leo our 2 roosters always ignored two of the chicks, but at any chance they would try to kill the third chick (Penny), that turned out to be a rooster. They would even try to peck Penny...

If you were a chicken what breed would you be? I used Henderson's The ICYouSee Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart. http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html I think I would be a Fayoumi rooster. "very economical eater; does not like containment; lively; flighty, known for wildness"

What does everyone plan on doing next spring for your backyard flocks. We currently have 6 buff orpington hens, 1 buff orpington rooster, 1 buff rock rooster and 2 Easter-egg, 11 week old chicks. My wife would like to add 4 Welsummer chicks, 4 Maran chicks, and 4 more Easter-egger chicks. Our...