Very exciting day, little brown snake crawled across the wrong stretch of grass.

Colored some eggs

Sorry for the potato quality. Taken from my bed.

I just cleaned the brooder this morning 😭

The blue on Ned's Comb went away but 2 parts on the tip of his comb that I have circled are the 2 parts that have frostbite. I live in Hawaii and the blue only happened during the winter. If you don't know what can be considered a very cold winter in Hawaii is about 50-60 degrees which is definitely not enough to cause frostbite. I think this is frostbite because it showed up during winter. As well as I tried feeling the "frostbiten" part of Ned's Comb and it felt hard like a rock. But what really sums it up is that when the Blue on Ned's Comb went away those 2 parts were the only parts left. Ned is perfectly healthy, has no problems eating or breathing, and is very playful and is always excited when I let him out. He always crows. If this is frostbite what can I do to recover this part of Ned's Comb and treat it so it is normal?

My barred rock hen keeps getting holes picked into her sides by a couple of other hens. Has anyone found a sale that will cover a hens sides? All the ones I'm finding mainly cover the back, and I don't think they would go down low enough

Building a coop for our 6 new girls. Thinking of building a 4x8 coop, thoughts on whether this is a good size? We are based in Massachusetts for reference. Also wondering if we should insulate?

Hello! I am looking in to getting chickens and my husband and I are renting a place so we cannot have a permanent structure but the land owner is okay with us having chickens. We were looking into getting a chicken tractor coop.

I’m wondering how do you deal with snow in the winter. My husband said we can have chickens but he’s scared they will die in our winter. We live in a place where you can get 4’ of snow in one night and the temperatures can reach the negatives. It is not frequent but we’re worried about not being able to reach our chickens in the kind of weather.

My husband has had chickens before but he is from the tropics so it isn’t something he has a lot of knowledge about. Any tips or things I should think about would be great!

I’m also looking for chicken tractor recommendations that would do well in winter and that are good for beginners and easy to clean. Any recommendations would be great.

Also any videos or books to read on the subject or websites to visit would help too!

We're getting some chicks sometime this week and putting them in a brooder box inside our home and I would like to see if there was someway we could safely let one of our hens be with them? We have a small hen named Skittles that gets bullied very frequently by others in our flock and I thought it would be nice for her to take a break from them and be able to be by herself and mother the chicks we get for some time. The thing is, where should we keep Skittles with them? Obviously we can't have her live with them, but is it okay if we just let her do little hour long visits with them? Our brooder box isn't the biggest, and I feel like it could be uncomfortable for her.

Q: How often, and for how long, do you let your chickens out of their coop/run to free range?

We try to let ours out 3x a week for at least an hour or 2. Less if it’s snowy.

Follow up question - how long can I keep them in the coop/run without letting them free range? Like if we’re out of town for 10 days, are they fine? We have cameras so can check on them and an automatic door, food, water, grit, etc. and people that can check on them and collect eggs. The 4 chickens have 70 square feet between the coop and the run.

Hello all,

Last night, one of my silkie hens was killed. I am devastated.

My coop has been in long need of an upgrade, and I'm thinking of replacing the whole thing. I am looking for suggestions.

I found the "smart coop" that is installed with an automatic door and motion detecting cameras. It also has an app that reports to you if motion is detected at odd hours. This I think is my "dream coop". It is also close to 2,000 dollars, so before plunging in, I'd like to see if anyone else has experience with this coop or alternative suggestions.

A couple of things I am looking for:

• A plastic coop. I'm sick of dealing with rotting, cracking, cheap board particle wood that comes with your standard kits.

• Mid/moderate size. I have silkies so the size does not have to be huge, but I am also likely going to have more in the future, probably 15+. As of right now, I have 10.

• Easy to clean. This a must. It also goes along with the plastic requirement. Pull out trays are fantastic.

• Automatic coop door. Since I'm opting for plastic, I don't know that an aftermarket auto door will be possible, so ideally the coop I buy will already have one equipped.

If anyone has any suggestions, I really appreciate them. For now, the chickens will be toted into the garage every night until I can find a viable solution.

My chickens are closer to pets than livestock, and I know many of you can relate to that sentiment. I feel like I've failed them, but I'm not making that mistake again.

Rest in peace, little Hedwig.

We bought these golden comet baby chicks today. We were told they are 3 weeks old but I think they may be younger…like 1 week old. This is our first time having chickens and I want to make sure we are doing everything right for them. I know that their needs change on a weekly basis and I want the girls to be as happy and healthy as possible! Any ideas?

Happy Easter

Everyone, meet Hazel.

Recently I noticed Hazel's wattle was gone. I searched the ground to see if I could find anything thinking it had been ripped off. Nothing. Stumped, I posted on FB and someone suggested checking if it's in her mouth - I was sceptical but turns out they were right! I opened her beak and out came her wattle!

I thought maybe it somehow got caught in there by accident. Except she has consistently repeated this every single evening for the past few days. Each time I take it out of her mouth she's got it back in there just five minutes later. It's always the same wattle and it doesn't seem damaged.

She is fine overall but I would say she is a tiny bit stressed because her and two flock mates are currently having a bit of a turf war with my three other hens and rooster which were the original main flock (hazel and the two others are new) The flocks roosted separately for the past few weeks and have only just started sort of roosting together.

Why can't chickens be simple? 😅 It feels like every week there a new issue!

Any idea why she is keeping her wattle in her mouth?

I'm not overly concerned but I'm curious to know if this has happened to anyone else.

Thanks!

My partridge chick has really far apart extra toes, usually these extra toes seem to touch on all my other silkies but his are separated and super long. He walks a little slower than others right now, maybe because his extra toes almost touch when he walks. Is this normal to have extra toes this long and spread apart on a silkie?

https://preview.redd.it/4tm4onoygprc1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a21b612dc692f934904f4ac4ac51085088c286fa

https://preview.redd.it/0uy0wmd7hprc1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a38ee9ecb59b0116ca8f9f89b598a2209497059

Both the girlfriend and I are having respiratory issues because of the pine dust. Looking for an alternative to use in the tub until the little ones are big enough to go out into the run. Curious what other chicken parents have used?

4 week old jersey giant. I’m thinking roo what about yoo?!

Hello,

We have had a healthy flock of about 11 - 15 chickens over the past 4 years.

We live in a rural area and our chickens do get picked off from time to time so we add new chickens to the flock about once a year. We always have a variety of breeds - mostly rhode island reds, bard rocks, an Americana, A wellsummer, and more. The ones that have dies or disappeared over the past were due to natural causes (mainly predators). As of this morning, we are down to 7 chickens - not including the 3 Silkies we just introduced.

So we just added 3 new silkies to our flock 3 days ago. They have been kept in an extra large dog cage inside the larger chicken coop separated from the rest of our flock so they can acclimate. Since introducing them (3 days ago) we have lost three of our other chickens (found dead). Once clearly had thrown up a good amount of a watery / milky looking liquid before she expired.

Other possible factors:

1. The day before we brought the silkies home - Our 130 lb American Bulldog got into the trash and spread it all over the yard. He got really sick with a stomach infection and we had to take him to the vet. $2,000 later he is healthy again but we are assuming he got into something bad in the trash to cause the infection. Considering the chickens may have has access to the garbage, there is a possibility they ate the same thing our dog did.
2. There are a ton of mushrooms growing all over the property due to the storms. I walk around everyday and pick them the best I can but they spring up so fast its hard to get them all in the 1 acre area that the chickens and dogs roam. Possible our chickens ate some mushrooms?

Anyway, our biggest concern is the possibility of a disease introduced by the new silkies. I just wanted to reach out and see if anyone has experienced anything similar after introducing new chickens.

​

Thank you in advance! We are very worries about our girls.

​

​

Found this squatter with a full belly in my coop. Jokes on him. After I evicted him, I noticed one of my ceramic eggs missing. Someone's going to have a rough afternoon. My coop is elevated by 3 feet with the only access being the auto chicken door that's only open during the day. Any idea how to prevent future Interlopers? Also, what kind of snake am I looking at?