My *guess* is that they can't have citrus because it would mess with how their bodies absorb the calcium to make eggs. Citrus/citric acid would break down the calcium and flush it out of the body. Other vitamins like vitamin D help more calcium be absorbed. Someone can correct me if I am wrong...
We have a dehumidifier with an auto pump that runs in our basement and I set it to 45% humidity, so I don't think they could thrive here. A little costly to purchase and run monthly, but I've enjoyed the difference it makes in our basement since we spend a lot of time there. I have extreme mite...
Yuck, I could not imagine having this problem indoors. I purchased a bag of Purina unmedicated starter feed from the TSC in Cedar Springs and just had this problem for the first time in 8 years of keeping chickens. I wonder if it is the same store? I have another new bag of medicated feed that...
I have had this chicken for over a year now. I know how grit works, and have seen them picking the right size pebbles and eating them, but this is different. As soon as I opened the coop door this morning, she bolted out like she is starving and starts scooping up big gulps of sand. Her poop is...
You can always cut off the top, to turn it into a top loading feeder. Or, cut out just a little bit from one side of the top, and then drill a small hole through the center and attach an eye loop backed with a washer to the top and turn it into a small hanging feeder.
I would put sweet potatoes in a different category than regular white potatoes. They actually contain lots of different vitamins and would make an excellent treat. We also feed the skins since sweet potatoes are from a different family and don't contain the solanine.
Food is the easiest way to any chicken's heart. That said, birds that weren't handled as much when they were new chicks are never as comfortable being handled, in my experience. The more time people spend with them, the more comfortable they will be with you if they are used to you being part of...
If there was one thing I had to do over again, it would be the fencing.
Currently, the fence is set up like this:
Made of 8' treated landscaping timbers from Menards
Posts set with one bag of quick cement, 2 feet under ground, 6 feet above ground
Fence buried about 1 foot
Fence material...
I used 1 cc syringe that I just stuck into the end of the safeguard paste. I pressed gently on the paste syringe while drawing it up into the 1 c syringe. Then I poked it into the middle of the bread squares and grabbed one bird at a time and fed it to them outside of the run and stuck them into...
It did not, unfortunately. I took our ailing rooster Orion to a vet (finally found one that would see poultry) after three days of the neomycin and no improvement. The vet found a high number of protozoan activity, and sent me home with five days of Metronidazole. He only made it to day 3 before...
I just wanted to add an update to this for anyone finding themselves in a similar predicament. I treated twice with Safeguard, once and then again this past Tuesday which was 10 days after the initial treatment. I used between 0.6-0.7 cc equine paste per bird, given in a piece of bread for the...
This type of beak trimming is different than cutting it way back like they do commercially. You are trimming it back to where it should be naturally. I use a toenail trimmer for beaks, and then I use a rotary nail file to smooth the edge. If you house a chicken indoors or in a cage for a while...
Both male and female combs will be very tiny at that age, but in my birds anyway the pullets' combs are so small that they are barely visible. Some hatchery strains may have pullets with larger than usual combs though, so it is hard to say if this method will work all the time.