This is how I've successfully brooded chicks (the coop portion). I built a very, very simple elevated (above the nesting boxes) brooder that has a wood floor, frame, and walled/ceilinged with hardware cloth - and a swinging door. It is butted up against the side of the coop, with a little pop...
I switched to all flock feed for my hens - who are laying the same as they did with layer, and gave it to my three-day-old black coppers, and at eight weeks+, they are fat, dumb and happy.
Perfectly describes one of my production blues. It's happened with her off and on since I've had her, which is going on four years. Poop is under the egg, so, yeah, she's probably pooping a bit before the egg plops out. I have a 2" plastic putty knife that I have by the nesting box to scoop...
I can't tell from what you're writing how much protein, then, do grass cuttings contain or how much a hen gets? That said, regardless, my main contribution - because this forum does exist for us all to provide our own experiences so that others might benefit from our experiments, is that my...
This caught my eye, as I give my four hens huge amounts of grass clippings in the summer - with no drop in egg production, and they don't get any grass when it's dry, and the eggs keeping coming at the same rate. However, it made me wonder about protein content in grass, and from the first...
I successfully used the heating pad sitting on a frame, so the chickies can get underneath - it they get too warm, they can come out or stand on top of be beside it. There's an article, I think, on this forum on it. Here we go...
Looks very nice. In looking into the future - and even present, it looks like you need to open the human door every morning and close it every night? That might become burdensome - if that's the case. You might want to think about adding a pop door that's on a timer or, better yet, a solar...
Writing a 2nd post contradicting my observation, though not drastically. Two of my hens had loose stools for quite some time. Two others didn’t. I stopped the raw oats just to take out a variable, and the loose stools pretty quickly stopped. Could have been something else, but I’m leaning...
I've come to like the crows for similar reasons. They've warned me a few times about predators - and I'm paying them back by giving them a few treats when I treat my hens. They "co-mingle" with my girls by pecking at the ground just on the other side of the fenced-in area. Hens don't mind.
Thanks for your response. In short - yesterday she laid. And since I'm just going into my fourth year as a chicken owner, I've not had enough experience to call this anything short of miraculous - because it was so unusual given what I've witnessed the past three years. It was a slightly...
Two-year-old Blue Production - in an earlier thread, she was my girl who would poop half the time a little bit before she laid an egg. About a week ago she laid a shell-less egg, and hasn't laid since. About four days ago, she was listless, tail down (the penguin look), and not eating. That...
Finally got a stinker a couple of days ago - just now posting. I think this weighs on the side of my latter theory, that my hen is pooping a bit before laying, then plopping the egg down in the dung. One photo shows the egg as it was found - with an odd dab of poop on the "top" of the egg...
Update: This has been an example of taking your car to the mechanic - and the noise stops. My hen has laid 8 or 9 eggs that are clean - but I noticed something. First, let me make clear my original theory: She was pooping/laying simultaneously. I've rethought my theory to: She is pooping a...
I don’t think my girl has a poopy butt/feathers that is coating as the egg comes out, but I’ll keep an eye on that. Thanks for sharing your experience!
Haha - that’s a relief to hear; trust that I tried to google this prior, and nobody said they have birds that poop every time they lay, so I’m glad to hear it - and I so concur that it’s annoying as h-e-double hockey sticks. I will still post a pic of my poo delight just to compare eggs. 🙃
I'll have to take a picture of a poop egg next time it happens, as I always clean off the majority of poop with a twig at the nesting box. I have included a photo of my second BP's egg from today - the spots have darkened, but they were reddish upon retrieval and wash off. However, the spots...
Two of my hens are blue production, 2 years old. One of them, for months if not for as long as she's been laying, has poop on her egg about 1/3 to 1/2 the time she lays - otherwise, perfectly clear of poo. Recently, though, a couple of times, instead of poop, there's been a bit of blood. I...