Our three laying hens are having egg quality issues. It seems like our new flock members always start out laying quality eggs, then things go down hill from there.
PBE - currently laying (blue) misshaped eggs with calcium deposits and wrinkles or striations along the side. She is almost 2...
Recently there has been a lot of drama around the nesting boxes in the morning. We've narrowed it down to one of our newer hens that recently started laying as being the primary culprit. She is displaying some strange behavior that I have not personally seen before and it seems to go beyond...
One of our older hens just got hit with flystrike 😞🤮
With the high heat and heavy rains we’ve been getting here in Colorado, the flies have been intense this year. It happened very fast and with the 24 hour cycle of fly larvae, things can go downhill quickly.
This particular hen has always had...
We picked up two mixed breed chicks in February. The person we got them from wasn’t quite sure the parents.
This is Cleo. She has a smaller build and unique facial features compared to our other hens and even her sibling. Her face reddened up early too.
While it doesn’t quite show in this pic...
Over the years, we've seen a trend of consistent egg quality issues in our flock. When one of our recently added members, a Prairie Bluebell Egger, started out laying the most beautiful eggs in November, then began showing signs of the same egg quality issues that we had seen with other flock...
4 week old mixed breed is starting to show some wattle development. Been keeping an eye on this one as it had a prominent comb early on.
Hints of rust color around the unfeathered area on the shoulders.
We’ll see what is looks like at six weeks, but I think it might be time to start looking...
After seven years, it was time to replace the poop board and roosting bars in our coop.
For folks with a smaller flock/coop, this configuration has done us very well. It was probably one of the more impactful changes we made to our hand-built coop early on. Makes for very easy cleanup and room...
I’m leaning towards pullet, but always second guess eggers. About 8 weeks old. Comb started to turn pinkish about a week ago. Feathers can be ratty on any given day, which sometimes make them look pointy.
I’ve read hatcheries have different “recipes” for Cinnamon Queens. This is our first CQ, assuming with the white tips it is a RIR x SLW cross?
Curious to see what everyones CQ of this variant/age look like. This one is about six weeks old. Lots of comb development, which seems to be expected...
Big-R had Black Australorps and Prairie Bluebells commingled in a single bin. Of the sea of chicks that looked to be Australorps, we chose this one because it looked slightly different and appeared to have a pea comb assuming it might be a grey/black Prairie Bluebell. Thoughts?
Hen has developed severly swollen ankles. She has always been a bit of a hot mess for a variety of reasons. Curious what we may be adding to the already long list.
One of our Easter Egger hens, Olaf, has always been a noticeably large bird, even when she was a chick.
The other day I was reminded how big she really is when she was taking a drink next to one of our Buff Orps.
Here she is trying to groom the dog’s nails.
How big are your Easter Eggers?
The other day we noticed what appeared to be the result of one of our hens shedding their intestinal lining. It consisted of a white foam with red blobs mixed in.
From what we have read this could be normal, or a sign of Coccidiosis, so we kept a closer eye on the flock throughout the day...
Our year and a half old Buff Orpington, Big Mama, came out of a hard molt, laid for two days, skipped one day, laid another and then called it quits. It has been 2 months now and still no eggs.
We were afraid she might be egg bound or about to go broody, but she is not showing any signs or...
We get some strong winds here in Colorado, there’s a fine line between ventilation and drafts with our coop. Here is our latest attempt to add more ventilation that is somewhat resistant to those bitter cold wind gusts.
The lighter colored one appears to be getting a pea comb suggesting Easter Egger, which is what we were shooting for, but local feed store staff really had no insight on what breeds they were offering. Little worried that the pea comb might have three rows, but I also know that isn't definitive...