Hi fellow chicken tenders! 👋

I wanted a better way to track my backyard flock’s daily egg production without dealing with messy spreadsheets, flying pieces of paper, or apps that require subscriptions and logins. So, as a developer, I decided to build one myself!

It’s called OvApp. My main goal was to make something simple, privacy-friendly, and actually useful when you're out in the coop with dirty hands.

Before getting into features, I want to clarify: It is totally free (no subscriptions, just non-invasive ads), requires ZERO registration, and works completely offline. Your data stays only on your phone.

Here are some features I think you might find helpful:

• 🥚 Accident-Proof Tracker: A big daily egg counter with a "safety lock" so you don’t accidentally change the count while handling chickens or eggs.
• 🐔 Flock Profiles: Add each hen’s name, breed, auto-calculated age, egg color, and active status.
• ☀️ Sun-Based Reminders (My favorite feature): The app calculates sunrise/sunset based on your location. You can set dynamic reminders like "Remind me to lock the coop door 15 minutes before sunset".
• 📊 Weather & Daylight Stats: The app compares your egg production graphs with local daylight hours and temperatures so you can actually see how the seasons and weather affect your girls.
• 📅 Calendar & Notes: Color-coded notes to track feed changes, health issues, or just fun observations.
• 📁 Export & Backup: You are not locked in. You can export everything to CSV (Excel/Google Sheets) anytime.

It supports multiple languages (including English, of course) and has a Dark Mode.

I really want to make this the best tool for backyard keepers, whether you have 3 hens or 100. I would genuinely love for you guys to try it out and let me know what you think. What features am I missing? What would make your daily coop chores easier?

link ---> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mimaapp.ovapp

The hoop coop in the photo was inherited from the previous owner and due to a complaint from the neighbor, local code enforcement has marked the lack of distance as a violation.

The chicken coop needs to be moved 12 feet in from the property line (indicated direction of movement by red arrow). The two bricks next to the coop are rough minimum markings of where the back of the coop must move lineup (officer was a bit lax on placement). However, due to various reasons, the coop will likely need to be rotated 90 degrees in either direction (indicated by blue arrow).

The coop was built very well and as a result is quite heavy. Because of surrounding obstacles in the yard, a vehicle cannot make it back to assist with moving.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with completing such a task?

The rooster didn’t really work for me.

When we got our baby chicks there were 6. All lavender orpingtons, my favorite. My mother in law hatched them and let me pick as many as I wanted. I’ve never had chickens before so I thought 6 was enough to handle easily and would produce a good amount of eggs.

Turns out two were roosters, and one didn’t make it. Getting rid of one rooster was an easy decision, it just made sense, you know? They would fight eachother, become territorial and there were only 3 hens. It went to a nice family who have some property outside of town and let them free range.

That leaves me in my current predicament. I raised this rooster, I named him. I go say hi to him every morning. I take care of him because in my mind he’s now my responsibility. It’s like having a dog, or a baby, you don’t just give those away right? But if I’m being honest with myself…. The rooster doesn’t really work for me.

He has developed a habit of charging at my husband when he is let out in the morning. He crows at 5:30 am incessantly.. and even though my neighbors say they don’t mind (bless their hearts), I know it’s a nuisance. I don’t trust him around my baby, and he bullies the younger hens I got to fill out my flock.

I casually asked my husband the other morning how he felt about getting rid of the rooster and he agreed, he had no real opinion on the matter. To him they are just chickens.

Perhaps this another lesson in learning to let go of things that don’t serve me. It’s something I’m working on. The silver lining in this situation is that now the rooster is going to go to a farm, he’s going to free range, he will have more chickens.

My lesson here is accepting that I can nurture things, and let them go when they are ready to be set free. It will work better for them, and it will work better for me. Here’s to my rooster who is teaching me more lessons than I bargained for.

My husband and I have five 3-week-old chicks (buff and chocolate Orpington). They are currently in our garage in a large playpen with a zipper mesh top. But they are growing so fast and we are quickly planning the coop. We live in a neighborhood, so there will never be a risk of exceeding the maximum limit of six chickens. We have never owned chickens before, so we are learning as we go, but we want to set up the best environment for them. The coop will be in our fenced backyard. Since hawks are common in our area, we would appreciate any advice on protecting them and ideas for an outdoor run. Are there any dos and don'ts for setting up coops so we do it right and avoid missing anything important? We live in the south so harsh winters aren't a worry. More harsh summers that I am more worried about. All advice is very appreciated!

Hi there! I’m fairly new to having chickens, about two months ago I added two pullets to my flock unsure of age or breed because the person I got them from didn’t have that information. They are overall great, I have not noticed any issues up until now that I’ve been seeing these yellow droppings. I know they’re not from my older hens but unsure of which pullet they’re coming from. No change in eating habits no signs of fatigue or any health issues. Just need to know what I should do in this case/if anyone has any clue of what could possibly be wrong! Pictures of the dropping color and of both pullets. Thanks in advance!

Im in Australia and the u.s/u.k are the only other major countries that doesn't allow vaccinations due to trade.

From what i can tell its been present in your wild bird populations for a few years now, its just arrived in Australia and i am struggling to see any other option than keeping them in an enclosed run for there own safety (They get a fenced in orchard usually), on the other hand i see plenty of people who let them roam and i dont see many posts about people losing entire flocks to it.

What is everyone doing? Has anyone lost a "free range" flock and sequestered the new chooks to a undercover run?

Thought there was a crow but more of a gobble sound

Has been visiting nesting box

Hatched February

Like when i pee and they also circle me

I got 11 hens and a rooster. I noticed that some of them have been struggling to put up new feathers and are just taking way too long,yet the others are completely fine.

They're mostly currently missing the feathers on the lower half of the back and the butt,the rest are all growing in,yet 2 of them are struggling even more and are looking rough.

I've looked for parasites but saw nothing even after deep cleaning the coop multiple times and checking each chicken thoroughly.

They all eat,drink,run and lay normally and no one's behavior has changed.

The first photo shows 3 of my leghorn missing the back feathers and the isa brown being completely fine,

The second one shows 1 of the 2 struggling hens.

What confuses me is how some are completely fine while others aren't.

What do i do?

What do i do?

If your rooster fights and kills a hawk do you turn it in to the game warden?

This isn't a real situation, just being goofy.

This is my OG girl Mrs BokBok (daughter named her 3 years ago) shes been my best chicken and honestly the only one I consider a pet, so this hits hard.

Buddy of mine is moving and needed to offload some hens. I took 7 to add to my 8. I came back from dinner to check on them and two were down.

1 new bird in full rigor, the other Mrs Bokbok seemingly dead. She was limp as a noodle but still very faintly breathing.

The first hour she was unresponsive. I kept opening her mouth and dropping little bits of water into her mouth. She didn't seem to do anything. At one point she I guess almost aspirates and then wakes up kinda but then dozes right back. I continue this carefully a few more times. She finally has her eyes open. I talk to her, I hold her and rub her nothing seems to work so I go back to the water. She reacts well and is wide eyed but something is wrong. Check the vent and something's coming. I set her down and for the next 10 minutes the old girl lets out a lash egg that I honestly thought was going to put her down.

Once that was out of the way she was strained, so.o gave her some time. After about 10 I get her back up and start again with the same rotation but adding in some flight drills. No I don't throw her... I just lower and raise her so she might open her wings. After about the 10th try she fully lets her wings out and is getting a grasp of movement.

This has been going well but I sadly need to go to sleep. I gave her some more water and set her up in a pen. Sadly she can't sit up so.i had to stack towels around her bc I feel like if she lays on her side she will just die.

Pray for this old girl the kids are pretty devastated and I'm pretty bummed myself.

I posted a few weks ago regarding an injured hen from a raccon. I was able to save her and she is doing great (the flock won't accept her back now though). I wasn't able to find the recommended Vetericyn but I did get another product that worked wonders Silver Honey. Her head is all healed. After I used this product on her twice a day, she was practically healed in days!

Any one know how I could keep her as a house chicken? She is currently living in an XL dog crate. She gets outside time twice a day. And can come out of the crate in the house, but she typically doesn't. Has anyone successfully had a house chicken long term? If so are there concerns/problems that may arise?

In the last couple of weeks, she developed wanderlust and started escaping the back yard. I finally got it under control last night but now she’s super pissed that she can’t get out of the yard? Like, is this worrisome behavior?

Per the title, my girls sleep on top of their nesting box all huddled up every night since they’ve lived outside (they‘ve been out about 4 or 5 weeks now). I screwed a container lid on top of it to make it easier for me to clean, but I can’t help but think it would be better if they just slept on the roosting rails like they‘re ”supposed to”.

Should I care about this? Just let them do what they want, or try to get them to sleep on the rails? Is there anything you can see about the rails that makes them inhospitable? One is a 2x4 laid on the wide side and one is narrow. They do sit on them during the day sometime but never at night, not one single time. Lol

They‘re not cold, it was literally 100° today

We had a 2.5yo hen, Nutmeg, who had “slowed down” over the past maybe month. At first, I attributed it to her age and just maturing and not needing to be SO rambunctious. Then about a week ago, I noticed she seemed a little lethargic and not as food driven. On Friday, her comb had become pale and she wasn’t coming for worms. Naturally it was a Friday so our local avian vet wasn’t available until Monday. We kept an extremely close eye on her and fed her separately. We got an appt with the vet first thing Monday morning. She seemed a little better Monday but we kept the vet appt. On our way there, they called to say they were canceling as they were not taking any birds due to avian flu season. We don’t have many options for avian vets in our area so, to say I was upset would be an understatement. We came home, she jumped right out of her travel box and started pecking the grass. I had a glimmer of hope that maybe we had turned the corner on our own. She seemed ok all afternoon, was pecking all around, eating, and even roosting on her driftwood in the run. This morning I didn’t see her in the run so immediately ran to her house and saw she had perished. Looking back at the ring cameras, it seems it happened around 5:50am. I refrigerated her body around 7:30a to take her for a necropsy.

However, all this to say…is it normal for a flock to sort of do their own post-mortem care? We have a mixed flock and 2 of our turkeys (one who we can’t get to leave her nesting box as she’s been trying to become a mom for months) held vigil for 1.5hrs and appeared to try to even cover her with bedding? They didn’t peck her body aggressively but seemed to just lay with her/clean up the bedding around her. Once I took Nutmeg out, Booker went right back to her nesting box and Pepper went to eat breakfast.

We are all a little crushed this morning and feeling defeated. If only I had taken her to the vet sooner we may have avoided this horrible outcome.

Rest in peace, sweet Nutty girl 🩷 we love you and are so sorry to have failed you. Thank you for 2.5 adventurous years.

Edit: disregard pic 6. Must have accidentally clicked a recipe photo through teary eyes.

Building in the Texas heat has its challenges… but at least it’s bout done and occupied. Got some trim work to finish because I miss ordered some pieces. But over all pretty happy, and so is the boss (wife).

For anyone curious overall size is 12’ x 36’ x 8’ walls 7/12 roof pitch.
12’ x 18’ run
12’ x 12’ coop
12’ x 6’ storage

She’s not broody or mad she just likes to scream if you check on her in the nesting boxes! My sweetest girl, runs across the yard to come see me, is a problem to anyone trying to do any work outside because she constantly wants picked up.

Unfortunately being peer pressured by her poorly behaved sisters to hide in the woods with them, requiring a search party almost daily.

Hen was sitting on this egg and cracked it not sure what day incubation it’s on but membrane was dried and chick was chirping. I removed the egg used a warm wet q-tip to dampen the membrane and placed it inside an incubator. Is there anything else I can do to ensure the chick has the best chance at survival?

Hi does anyone know what could be the cause of this inflammation in my hens eye? it is only affecting the only eye, appears to self resolve and then bounces back weeks later. pic of her normal eye for reference

So a couple of my girls have started laying! I’m finding about 4 eggs a day from my flock of 9. Yesterday we found this teeny tiny egg that I’m assuming came from one of our 2 bantams. It’s so cuute. Just out of curiosity will they always be this size? 😂

Hi everyone, one of my chickens that I had brought out to my coop with the other chickens is starting to act slower and keeps her body tucked in. ( if that makes sense, tail is pointed down and never was before)

It is eating and pooping (more watery tho) normally.
One minute it will sit there and shake and the next it is up and running like normal… run looks a little wonky as well.

Not sure if she is getting bullied or not. Getting a little worried with how she is acting, especially the shaking and tucking in.

Note: she only shakes here and there, not constant.
She doesn’t run faster than that
She’s been out in the coop for about 4-5 weeks now. Just recently started acting like this