I hope people don't mind the vague title and the longer opening, but often when scrolling I get so sad seeing sad posts so this way people only see the sad parts if they decide to read further.

I have a hen, she has tricky health. She was diagnosed with a bursa (bursal?) tumour two years ago (but questionable, the vet wasn't sure). I'm in a rural area, and you think there would be good avian vets where there are lots of chickens but there is a bit of a 'let nature take it's course with livestock' attitude that means the vets have not been great when taking the birds in and in fact they were surprised to see a chicken.

I am 95% sure of internal laying. I can't tell from an external exam as she has a bulge below the vent and lower abdomen, like a fatty deposit that makes it impossible. I did an internal exam, inserting a finger by about 3cm, which is about as safe as it felt as that was as far as the open part of the vent would go. There is no egg. She has the penguin stance, and watery diarrhea of an egg bound chicken but with no obstruction to that area she has no blockage to affect poop passing physically which indicates to me that the diarrhea is due to infection/distress.

She isn't a great eater. She in the past has been a huge eater, I wouldn't be surprised she has a bit of a pendulous crop, and regularly goes off feed for a while when moulting, and she can get an air-filled crop regularly likely as the crop is malformed/overlarge. She really was a guts when she was younger and would stuff herself until she was running around with a basketball. She was very obsessed with food and it was hard to limit her eating whilst keeping her in a flock. At the moment she is underweight due to the summer moult and then it takes a while to get her to get back on feed. Her crop can have a lot of air in it, but it does not feel like sour crop, it feels like air, not liquid, it's very squishy less dense than water. No smell to the beak. The last week or two coming out of the moult she was eating more and more, now we are coming into real summer and was going well until yesterday..

I noticed her tail feathers bobbing yesterday, today she is doing the penguin. She is still eating but only her preferential treats and picking at her actual feed, but will guzzle scrambled eggs, meat (hid her worming tablets in it, I use meat sticks and cut slices into them to hide the pill) and pancakes (I share my leftovers if I make too much). I don't over feed treats day to day, but today that is all she wants to touch. She is drinking water which I have boosted with avi-cal. They eat a regular feed without a tonne of calcium as the roosters can get gout, but they have oyster shell grit available. They free range and get lots of forage.

Question - I have read with internal laying that if it is the odd egg going into the cavity that over time it can be reabsorbed as long as they don't continue to lay and internally deposit the eggs. What if I can reduce sunlight dramatically to recreate winter and try to cease her laying to give her a fighting chance?

I have a spare room (floor boards I can clean) and she can be my lovely house chicken, I just hung a thick doona over the curtain rod to recreate block out curtains. I can let sun in from 9:30-3:30 to recreate a nice depth of winter light experience. (I'm in Australia, so it's summer, the days are long at the moment). I can bring in toys and treats and give her a nice room to inhabit, and during the day even work out of the room with her on my lap so she isn't too lonely.

Does it sound crazy or do you think it's got some rational medical/husbandry logic to it that is worth a shot to give Ava a chance to get better?

Edit: I can't rule out eating canetoads is not somehow in the mix. I try to euthanise a bag full a night but numbers are overwhelming as they breed on the neighbours dams. There are less and less each night as they have started coming out in the evenings and I'll regularly filling the freezer.

We’re new to the chicken life, but we fell fast. We hatched and raised four so far and absolutely LOVE these birds.

They are almost all old enough to move outside now and I’ve been building them out a luxury domain with a cozy coop and automatic coop door.

We just got the door and I was testing it out. I was a little disturbed by how much force it closes with. The one I ordered closes, and then opens if it hits an obstruction and closes again even if it hits something.

I put a food scale under it and measured about 4lbs of pressure. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but I assume it’s enough to kill one of our fluff butts.

So, what do you all think? Is this a non issue? Should I get a more sensitive door? Wait till the babies are older before installing it?

🐣

This duo is inseparable. Looking for male and female name combo.

Hi,

I live in northern Minnesota and as we are entering the colder months, I am wondering where is the best place to put the chickens' food and water.

The layout is pretty standard: a fenced in run connected to the coop.

My initial thought is to put their water in the coop. It's one of those heated dispensers with little metal buttons that they can depress and get water. I thought the (even minute) amount of extra heat would help keep the chickens warmer this winter. But the downside is that some water does drip and that soaks into the bedding and creates extra moisture inside the coop.

I also moved their water outside into the run thinking that this would force them to get up and out of the coop in the winter while also giving them easy access to their food during the day. The downside is that while the coop is bomb-proof, the run is only mostly bomb-proof and I have seen some critters in there at night and this will only attract them more.

So, I'm looking for suggestions, where is the best location during winter for their food and water, out in the run, or inside the coop?

I'll be taking over the care of my grandmother's chickens over the winter as she can't get her walker through the snow. Every morning they get fresh water, meal worms, layer, some fruit and fresh greens. In the evening they get scratch. I'm curious if I can just include their scratch with all the morning stuff or is it necessary they get it in the evening?

The automatic door failed and I didn’t check on them until just now, so they’ve been without water and food for 30+ hours and it was unseasonably warm today. I brought some water into the coop and two out of three have been drinking a lot, the third doesn’t seem interested. Should I bring the third one inside? Anything special I can give them for food or water to help them out?

UPDATE—Thanks for the advice, all. Gave them electrolyte water last night and some scrambled eggs this morning, they seem active and hungry which is good. I’ll pick up some watermelon for them when the store opens.

Hi everyone, last night I unfortunately, through my own stupidity, I didn’t close my chicken coup properly and lost 6 of my girls to a fox attack. Now I’m not sure what to do. I want to bury them (deeply) in the backyard or garden but my mum says, that will just attract the foxes back to the coup and I should put them in bags and throw them in big bin somewhere. I would really love not to do that, as it doesn’t feel right but I don’t want to endanger my remaining chickens… especially when they are so shaken up. So, would it be safe to bury my girls if I dig the grave deep enough, or will the smell bring the foxes back? Thanks guys. Appreciate you

I assume I just catch all the chickens at night then lock them in there for a few days?

My Jersey hatched out some eggs in the middle of August and she's still caring for them like a good mama, which is a bit surprising since she's a first time mama, i am happy about it though just want to know how much longer she'll continue

I saw this here are decided to try it. Grated off some area of a pumpkin and asked the girls to finish. They did a great job.

I'd like to know how many chickens you have and how much you spend on pine shavings per year typically. Or even, how many 8 cu.ft bags of pine shavings do you go through per year?
Trying to figure out the running costs of chickens with regard to bedding. Also, let me know if you're using the deep-litter method or not.

I just realized that I put a dozen eggs on the freezer 4 hours ago. I know they're fine, but will they not work for anything like baking, for example?

I have had a small backyard flock (8 hens) for going on four years. We have lost a couple over the years to predators. Last spring we added 2 new chicks to the flock, and a couple of the original hens were too aggressive in their battle for supremacy. So in the name of peace I separated the two older hens since they don’t really lay all that much and after that, the flock mellowed out . Well, the newbies are laying champs, but the rest of the hens just stopped laying altogether. Well, I needed space, so I slowly introduced the two original hens back to the flock. The newbies evidently have a good memory and walloped one of them pretty bad as in I’m absolutely surprised she is even alive. Weird thing is she is living her best life, and behaving quite normally eating and drinking etc. even though she looks like what would be a catastrophic injury. Honestly, at this point the cost ratio does not favor the chickens. Additionally, the kids have lost interest in them and I do most of caretaking and I have many things else I would rather do. I like my chickens I do, but this is my first flock so I’m at a crossroads. So, help!

I have a month and half old turkey and a two month old silkie they are getting too old for the brooder the highs are in the 70s whilst the lows are in the 40s is it too cold for them?

https://preview.redd.it/24pv1cx5wcyd1.jpg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=059383c4f0524e171cb38e449c557b5db882afa9

Now all my ladies sound like lemongrab

I was sold this product at my local Tractor Supply to give to my Rooster to treat his cecal worms. I noticed that it never said ‘for chickens’ anywhere on this product. Should o return it?

I unfortunately only have one chicken left from my flock and am taking good care of her. She is very friendly. My boyfriend asked if would take his last two chickens . Would this work? They are all the same size . I just don’t want my solo hen to keep being alone

My two rescued roos are just about to start crowing (far left and right) and I am looking to rehome them as I cannot legally keep them and obviously there aren’t enough hens for even one rooster in my flock if I could keep them.

Please indicate if you are interested and we can DM about details.

NOT FOR THE STEWPOT.

I am looking for somewhere they can live out their lives, and not be processed for meat.