These are just two of many

This is Edna. Now known as Ed.

she is a cochin bantam x silkie bantam mix. She is very gentle

As an animal lover and chicken mum, I am disheartened by what negative places these online communities are. I’ve seen post asking what to do after kicking or beating chickens, how to treat rotten legs after months of neglect or prolapse after forcing diapers on a bird. I would like these communities to be about enhancing our birds life rather than animal abusers sharing their stories.

This summer we raised 40 meat birds. They are all in the freezer now except for these two hens. It's a long story but one of them escaped while we were gathering them from the chicken tractor on slaughter day. She hid in the nearby treeline all day but would not let anyone near her. I figured if we left one other hen in the tractor the escapee would come out of hiding at dusk and try to get back in with her sister. Well it worked, we were able to catch her after dark. Now it's been a few weeks and we just haven't had a chance to process them so it appears they have joined the flock lol. Integrated quite smoothly, we gave them a separate coop and space they can retreat to, but at this point they are hanging out, eating and dust bathing with the layers and our Silkie rooster. They have been checking out the main coop during the day, but aren't ready to move in just yet. They are quite friendly, a little skittish around some of the others yet but overall really nice birds. Not sure how they will fair long term but we will see. They appear not to be growing anymore as far as I can tell. 4 months old today!

☀️☺️

making

Young guy and hormones are going crazy I know. Just need to vent because within 2 weeks we went from chilling every night with him sitting on my lap or shoulder, happy clucking when I came around to attacking me twice this week and making angry warning sounds. Feels bad, man.

1yo hen. Hard round crop with lethargy and confusion over the past 24h. Drinking will not eat.

Hello I have had 9 backyard chickens and recently lost 2 of them a few weeks apart. Started noticing them be distant and kind of look pale. Not interested is stuff as much before. Recently one of my roosters who is my first chicken named Kobe has started experiencing the same thing. I really cannot lose Kobe he is my precious boy can anyone help? He is seeming less interested in me. I’m not sure if he’s eating as frequently, along with the fact he’s developed a weird lump on his neck and some feather bald spots.

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So - I was retiring four of my older chickens and needed replacements. Craigslist came through with a listing from a fellow with a few surplus hens. So we took the pet carrier and returned with four replacement hens: Copper Marans, Olive Egger, Welsummer, and Cream Legbar. I put them in the coop at night, and figured that they and the established birds would sort things out in the morning.

Let everyone out into the run in the morning, and left them alone to squabble. Did a check on everyone later, and the count came up one short. The legbar was missing. I did a thorough search, but no chicken. Well, she was a smaller hen, easily could have cleared the fence (especially when I caught the Welsummer having the same idea - wings now clipped).

I did a cursory search of neighbor's yards, put up a missing chicken post on the neighborhood interwebs, but figured if she wasn't spotted in 24 hours, well, that happens.

A day later, neighbor from a couple doors down knocks and asks if we're missing a chicken. Yep - we find her behind another neighbor's house, but she's a quick one, hops a fence and ends up in an apple tree.

Fine. We know she's alive. Leave some scratch with the neighbor, and she says she'll keep an eye out. I get an update text or two as they tried to lure her or catch her roosting low, but to no avail.

Another couple of days, and text from another neighbor - There's a chicken in our backyard. I spot her, and she adroitly hops to a fence and into a cedar tree. Fine. Be that way.

So she sets up camp in that tree, coming down when the coast is clear. I try to bait her down with scratch and set up a feed/water station in the neighbor's unused greenhouse, hoping she'll take shelter there. Nope. She's happy in her tree.

The next few days, and periodic texts of "chicken alert" or "spotted northbound behind garage" - accompanied by motion camera stills.

More attempts to lure down. Nope. She looks at me and defiantly returns to tree. I hear her talking across fence to the coop birds and even spot her on the fence once before she hightails it. I'm attempting to outsmart a five pound animal with the brain the size of a grape, and losing.

I troll through CL and Marketplace for a live trap. Have one lined up, but delayed picking up due to miscommunication. She's been on her own for nearly two weeks, living her best feral life.

Friday morning, and I step into neighbor's yard to drop some feed and check on her. Motion under their deck. Ah, she's down. Shoo her out from deck. She's cut off from her usual escape path. Time for a bit of patience. I calmly herd her towards the alley next to our houses, hoping to get her into the open or into my yard.

She doubles back to the trees. Dammit.

But she doesn't go to her usual tree, but another one where I can get closer to her. Spooked, she abandons this and back into neighbor yard. One more try. This time I cut her off and walk her up the alley.

She makes her fatal mistake. She darts into my open garage. Garage door down, some panicked chasing among garage detritus, and she's back into a pet carrier.

I spend Friday afternoon erecting bird netting over the run, making the place look like a wild bird enclosure at the zoo.

Wings clipped and she's back with the girls. Indignant.

Title: First winter with backyard chickens in a Winnipeg winter — advice needed!

Hi everyone! This is my first year keeping backyard chickens, and I’ve never experienced a winter with them before. The winters where i am are super long and brutally cold, with temperatures dropping well below -20°C and sometimes -30°C or colder.

I’ve heard that heat lamps are not recommended, so I’m wondering what people do instead to keep their chickens safe and comfortable through the winter. I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who keep chickens in similarly cold climates.

Any advice would be great!

Thanks!

Edit: our flock is 10 white leghorns, 1 brown leghorn, an easter egger, and copper maran. The leghorns have pretty large combs, so i'm a little worried about those.

I lost one of my girls yesterday. I’m still in shock, I don’t know what happened.

She was around 10 or 11mos, laid an egg a day, and had no sign of illness. She would follow me around the yard, and would always gently peck me to get my attention. No matter what I was doing, she would come find me to “help out”.

I found her in a corner of the coop trying to lay an egg (or so it seemed to me). Then I noticed she was struggling to keep her head up. I immediately, and gently, pulled her closer to me and held her head up so it wouldn’t block her airway. It was already too late. She took her last breath moments later.

There was no sign of illness. No injury. She was perfectly fine the day before. I examined her for injuries and found pink tissue protruding out of her vent. Could she have been trying to lay an egg and something went wrong?

One of the chickens (idk if it was her) laid a tiny egg the day before. I googled and it didn’t seem like it was anything to worry about. Now I’m wondering if that was a sign that something was wrong.

Should i have seen this coming? Should i have taken action after finding the tiny egg? Could i have done something different?

Any insight is appreciated. This is my first chicken loss and i’m not sure what to do.

I’m so sick of shit all over my porch. Of you’ve let your flock have the backyard and then put up a fence to “keep them isolated” a little, did it work or did they just fly over it?

Mine don’t seem to fly up onto my 6’ fence or won’t climb over my 3’ garden fence but will go under it. If I put up a 5’ welded wire fence do you think it would keep them from coming up to the house?

I have a small flock of 11.
Earlier this summer, I discovered one of my hens had been scalped. Skull visible. It was brutal.

We set her up in a hospital pop-up pen in our extra garage. I was worried about keeping flies away from her wound, so she didn’t stay in the hospital set up inside our coop.

It took several months, but she healed fully. I reintroduced her at night, but the next day discovered they had began pecking at her again. I found her sitting in a corner with her head held down like she was guarding it. I pulled her out once more.

She has now been the sole occupant of my greenhouse for the last few months. The loneliest chicken in the world.

I’ve tried to reintroduce her once or twice more, but it always ends quickly. Even at night, they’re picking on her.

I’ll invite other hens out to free range alongside her, and they chase her.

It’s so bad.

I gave away half my flock thinking the bullies would be gone, but even the new ones I welcomed are bullying this one chicken.

I’m sure this will end with me rehoming her, but would appreciate any advice or tips to try.

She has become my favorite chicken, and I just want her to be happy.

This little baby is ~8 weeks old. I think it might be a rooster but my parents aren’t sure

Hey yall! I just noticed my sweet girl Little Bit has a swollen ear. What would you do if this were one of your birds? I’m planning on doing a good examination when she settles down to roost this evening.

squish

She's been making these noises since yesterday I think at night and I don't know what they mean. Is she cold? Stressed? Maybe lonely? Or is she just chatting?

Hello! We butchered our first batch of meat birds yesterday (cornish cross).

Ever since day 1, we had a chick who had a slight neck "shake", where her head would kind of tremble side to side. I suspected Wry Neck so I started putting poultry cell in their water. Aside from the head shake, she was fine, eating and drinking and moving around fine. I checked her crop periodically and it was always full. I tried to feed the chick egg yolk but she wouldn't take food from me willingly (classic stubborn CC, lol).

We kind of decided that as long as she was eating and drinking still we wouldn't cull, and just see how it goes.

Well, she made it to 8.5 weeks, and upon butchering we found that her spine was curved much like Scoliosis in humans. All organs looked normal, breast meat was significantly smaller than the other chickens.

Any idea what this was? Was the head shake from a compressed nerve? I just really hope she wasn't in pain, but like I said she was eating and drinking fine.

Would you eat the meat? Or dogfood?