chicken behavior

Hi I have 4 hens and 2 roosters and they are 2.5 to 3 months old I keep them in a wooden cage inside my house so today all the two roosters were fighting and when I removed one rooster the other rooster started pecking hens so I wanted to know why they are doing this and what should I do I...

Hi there, this is my first time trying to post so I hope that I'm writing this in the right forum and I apologize for the length. So, I have a flock of eight chickens, all of them almost two months old and they were all raised together. All of them are very tame, but one of them stands out...

Hello everyone! To make a very long story (post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/taking-care-of-swirls-the-wry-neck-silkie.1298333/ ) short, I've adopted my neighbor's Silkie Chick, who somehow became afflicted with Wry Neck. Her name is Swirls (named for the fact she will spin/run in...

I’ve had my chickens since March 26, 2019 and I’ve recently went in their run and sat down and observed their behavior. What I found out shocked me quite a bit. For a long time, this is something that I didn’t even know about domesticated chickens. How they behave is very feline like. Like I’m...

I currently have 9 chickens, 2 Rhode islands, 3 Delaware Orphingtons, and 4 Black Sex Links (Black Star). A few weeks ago, I took my little 3 year old sister into the chicken run, which is 20 x50 feet, and she sat down on the floor, and all the chickens came running to say hi. She was sitting...

Hi, I’m new to this forum. I had young chickens last year and had no problems with them until in the winter predators stole all of them. A few weeks ago someone gave me 2 chickens and another 2 weeks later someone gave me 4 chickens. These new chickens always crowd in the coop in one corner of...

Hi! I'm looking for advice today. Last Thursday, a chicken was running amuck downtown in Nashville, where I work. I live in a more residential part of the city, and I have a small backyard flock of five. Animal Control caught the chicken after lots of drama (including her flying a half block...

Hello :) So, I have this bantam, he was my first rooster, and I've thought and thought and thought about rehoming him, but I just can't. I'm the only person in my family that can go into the coop without him hurting me. And not because he's not attacking me. I just understand how to act...

My chickens HATE being touched or grabbed, ever since they were babies, but they're oh so soft it felt so sad to leave those fluffy feathers alone. But suddenly yesterday my chicken squat when I came up to her and now I can pet her all I want! She's the cutest thing when she does it I feel like...

Hi, this is my first real flock (we have some older production layers here, but they aren’t mine) and I decided to try out several different breeds. The Chickens are about 8 weeks, fully feathered, and about to go outside. I’ve been trying to handle them so they aren’t too wild once they are...

12:50 pm Good Afternoon Friends, I am new to owning chickens. I’ve had my girls Shannon, Peep and May for approximately 6 months. My girls recently started laying eggs as of Tuesday this week. I have some concerns to this. How do I know the eggs are safe for consumption? I’ve researched this...

Hi, I have 1 young silkie pullet (I think) that I have only had for about 2 weeks that I bought in a pullet pair but the other one has passed away, but I feel my silkie is lonely so I have found a little bantam hen that is up for sale due to being picked on by the rest of the other chickens. I...

Hello everyone! I'm living right now in the highlands of Costa Rica (pretty cold believe it or not haha) and we used to have 4 chickens and a rooster but a few months ago an opossum killed 3 so only the rooster and 1 chicken survived. A few days ago we got 3 chickens, 13 weeks old and...

Hi everyone, I'm brand new to BYC but not so much to owning chickens. I recently moved to country NSW (Aus) and had 4 lovely Black Australorp/New Hampshire pullets which free ranged in our garden during the day and were put in their run/coop every afternoon and padlocked in. A few nights ago I...

Please help! A couple of days ago our white leghorn rooster- 9 months old starting picking on and pecking my buff's head from the comb down the back to the neck. She is scared and is hiding from him- they are all free range. Last night she came out and laid down and allowed him to peck more...

Hi! I have a gold sex-link hen named Pearl who is two years old, and has been staying in the coop all day, everyday for the past 2 months. She is not broody at all. She will eat and drink. She has lost a lot of weight. She use to run around with the others before she started acting this way. I...

So, I have 8 existing girls in a coop/run. I bought 8 more that are 6 weeks. I also bought a new coop. The last integration I did was really rough/violent. So, I had an idea. What if, I put the new girls in the new coop until the are 14-16 weeks by themselves. Then, integrate the older ones 2...

Hello! I've got 3 Wyandotte chickens - 2 hens and 1 rooster. They all seem to get along, although the rooster seems to prefer and hang out with one hen in particular. Both hens have been laying nice eggs. Recently, however, I have noticed that I am seeing some eggs that have too much calcium...

We've raised 5 out of the 7 girls from 2 weeks old. 1 is a Buff, 2 are Easter Eggers, & 2 are Barred Rocks. When we got them at the feed store, they scooped them up in a net and put them in a box (traumatic?). We've raised them since then with love; spent every day with them getting them use to...

Hello! I have 8 resident birds and 10 chicks, 5 of whom I’ll keep. I’ve noticed something that troubles me. Of our 8 resident birds, we have one guinea, 4 laying hens and 3 silkies. 7 of them are extremely loyal but the alpha silkie, if let out of the coop, darts into the forest as far as he...