Hey! I am a relatively new chicken owner (just under a year) and this is my first time with a molting chicken. I am in northern ohio and we are getting some pretty cold weather with more even colder weather/snow to come. My bird is going through a heavy molt and I just want to know if there is anything extra I need to do to keep my girl safe and healthy. Thanks in advance!

My silkie has been under the weather and I just saw her poop this. Should I start cocci treatment? Thanks

(Warning: gross description of injuries)

This is Scarlet. She is recovering from a scalping injury caused by one of my roosters. The rooster has earned a one-way ticket to his own bachelor pad, and Scarlet has taken up temporary residence in the shower of the spare bathroom.

The injury was gruesome, but her recovery is going amazingly. She’s doing really well.

So well that she has now become bored.

We were letting her take field trips outside so that she can see her flock, and then it got cold and windy. She can’t go outside in the cold with part of her skull still exposed. The wound is almost closed, and her feathers are growing back, but I’m guessing it’ll be another week or two.

Does anybody have any ideas for things for her to do? I feel bad. She wants to dig… she’s kicking the puppy pads all around the shower and spilling her food/water. I bring her interesting snacks and try to hang out with her when I can. But I can’t let her back outside until her wound is fully closed.

I'm hatching eggs for the first time, using an incubator and I'm on the evening of day 22. All silkies (shipped eggs) and on day 19 there were 7 eggs with movement. I had one hatch the evening of day 20 and 2 hatch this morning (day 22). The other 4 eggs don't have an external pip and I'm not hearing anything. I've been reading a lot of forums and I'm wondering what I should do tomorrow on day 23.

A couple things-we lost power for a few hours on day 3. Could this contribute to the late hatch? I've been keeping temp between 99-100, humidity in the 40s during incubation and up to 60-65 during lockdown day 19. Also after the first chick hatched, humidity spiked to 77. When I woke up 6 hours later, humidity was 34. I immunization bumped it back to 65.

So do I continue to just wait-or should I candle the remaining eggs tomorrow? I'm worried about shrink wrapping the eggs, but also would like to get my chick out that hatched over 48 hrs ago.

Hi all! This may be a stupid question. I inherited 6 chickens with the house I bought. The coop and run is definitely not big enough so I’m going to work on enlarging the run. The previous owners said they let them roam the yard every day for about half an hour. They don’t seem ready to go back in after half an hour, probably because the run is small. It ends up being a whole ordeal to get them back in.

So I’m wondering, do you let your chickens roam when you’re home but not out there or should you strictly supervise? I’ve seen two hawks around, but we live near some woods so they seem pretty well protected in the leaves and trees where they like to forage. We have a little over 2 acres but a lot of it is uncovered so I worry.

Alternatively, how do you get them to go back to their coop?! I bring out a bag of goodies for them but only one or two seem to be interested. Is there a secret?? Thanks!

We have five 12-13 week old chickens that we are trying acclimate outside. I live in Indiana and it’s 30 degrees, feeling like 15. Yikes. Anyways, today was the first day we put them outside. We have covered the run in a tarp to take most of the wind draft out as best as possible. It’s a lot warmer in there than outside, but still cold nonetheless. They are also with the rest of the flock and adjusting to that, too.

I’m concerned mostly that it’s too cold. I just don’t know. The rest of the flock is in their coop, while the chicks are huddled outside shivering and that makes me nervous. I haven’t been able to find research that says they will either be fine or not. My husband thinks they will be okay. But then shivering makes me think otherwise. It’s not going to get any nicer outside clearly with winter coming.

Thoughts about this? I would be distraught if I went outside and found them frozen.

Adding a photo of one of a broody mama’s with one of the babies that is in question for today!

My heated plate for my water heater died and the model I had isn't available anywhere so I need to find a new one. But I can only find horror stories about the metal plate ones you set a water dish on burning birds or melting plastic. What models or styles do you use to keep your flock safe and hydrated?

Meet Strawberry and Pickles McGee

We found them sitting out here just like this today...

We have two and the look drastically different, we are thinking this one is a roo

So we are going to hopefully begin our chicken adventures next year. We bought a house and have an old coop that needs fixing up. I always see chickens with the nastiest backsides!. Not only just gross but the skin looks so irritated. 😿 I understand they’re not supposed to be in the home or anything but is there a proper way that people can wash their backsides without stressing them out? I know, I know ! Its probably a silly concern but I want to know what to expect before we get into this lol.

A month or so ago, I stumbled upon some chickens in pretty bad condition and was told that all animals needed to go before the end of the day. I grabbed what money I could and scooped up what looked like a hen- she was sick with an upper respiratory infection, and so I dosed her with tiagard. This morning, my mom heard her crowing. Good ol’ cockadoodledoo. Guess the meds perked him up. I checked and sure enough, saddle feathers and a macho looking neck, comb is larger than I had thought.

Originally, she was gonna go to another chicken owner, but now that he decided to come out, nobody wants him (rarely does anyone seem to want a roo, haha).

My mom won’t let any harm befall him so he’s not gonna be turned into soup any time soon, before anyone suggests.

What should I do?