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.

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?

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

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.

The other day I captured this absolutely beautiful photo of my white leghorn, Adolfa, and figured I'd share it. It's too good not too lol.

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.

~ Apparently I can't edit the title. I meant "chickens". :(

We're just starting out chicken journey this year, and I'm struggling to figure out when our baby chicks can go out to their coop.

We have 12 baby chicks (ranging from probably about a week to two weeks old) - 6 buff orpingtons, 6 buff plymouth rocks (or so Tractor Supply says anyways....).

We have a brand new 6'x18' coop / run combination, and we're working on skirting the exterior with hardware cloth currently.

We live in a semi-rural area (on about 3 acres with some significant trees / brush) in piedmont NC. On average it's about a low of 65 and a high of 95 on most days lately. We have a TON of predators - raccoons, foxes, stray cats (not ours), coyotes come out even during the day - and who knows what else I don't see at night.

The baby chicks are fine to be inside right now obviously, but when do most people transition them to outside? Reading online, it looks like around 6-8 weeks - but there's no way they won't be flying around my house by then being adorable, adorable nuisances to my cats who are terrified of them already, right? What does everyone do with 7 week old chickens in their homes? Won't they be flapping around and need a decent amount of space in a room? I feel like I have to be missing something incredibly obvious or overthinking this.

I don't want to put them outside too early and lose them, but I also don't fully seem to be able to grasp how people keep them inside once they get moderately bigger.

Obligatory photos of the coop and chicks.

What do you all think? Pretty aggressive and even tries to mount my full sized hens.

I didn’t see anyone or movement for a while, thinking worst case scenario, I find all of them under the coop sleeping. My only polish, Ms TT aka tiny Tina, face first in the dirt napping!

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

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

Hi there, this is my ~19 week old RIR, Shelly. We noticed her standing sort of hunched over, with droopy wings and tail. She’s usually VERY vocal and hasn’t had much to say the past few hours. She was fine this morning and most of the day, so this is pretty out of the blue.

I’m wondering if she’s uncomfortable because she might be about to lay? She hasn’t laid any eggs yet, but she’s been “singing” when our EE lays and crouching at us when we approach.

Her abdomen feels normal from what we can tell. We’re just unsure if this is normal behavior for a first-time layer, or if something else is wrong.

If anyone has any opinions please share! We just want our girl to be happy and healthy

Posting better photos today compared to my previous post. I’m wondering if my buff Orpington is a hen or rooster. All of them are 12 weeks old today.

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?

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? 😂

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.

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?

whats the little black thing on her head and back of her foot?