The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Officialish Chicken Photo Thread!

186K views 2K replies 114 participants last post by  ChieTheRider 
#1 · (Edited)
Show your girls and guys!

Here are my RIR's (19)! Hatched September 25th, 2011. Today I got my first two eggs! I've had chickens since I was 20, even had two laying hens in my historic downtown apartment when I was in college! Spring 2010 I was out of town for two days and there was a horrible uncommon gnat outbreak. I lost my three laying hens. So now with an improved coop, and yard we are BACK in business! Please post your eggers! We just love ours!!





I have a running contest with my Co-op friend Mary to see who can keep their hens laying the longest. So far I'm the winner, hint it's all about fresh clover! Keep it a secret! LOL!
 
See less See more
3
#1,434 ·
Seeing all these new hens out there makes me feel a bit better, and a bit worse about what I'm saying here. I found one of our hens, Angel, in the road dead this morning. She was hit by a car. That was probably everyone's favorite chicken. I took the carcass and got rid of it before my sister saw it, Angel was "her" chicken. She will be missed.
This was her with a chick.
 
#1,441 ·
another question for you all. My flock still refuses to accept Lana back in. In the wide open yard she can evade the pecking, but if I let her in the coop with them at night I go out in the morning and they're just pecking the snot out of her.

So, I moved her to the new coop alone. ALL ALONE! poor little thing. A friend gave me two white leghorns that look like her so she would have a couple friends until I can move the rhode island reds in one at a time.

In the meantime however, the new girls are in horrible shape! pecked and featherless and grungy. The person that gave them to me had about 30 hens cooped up in a pen about 10 by 12. To each their own, but the more dominant ones have taken their toll on the meek.

They seem healthy enough and eat, drink, poop and lay eggs. But, what supplement would be good to get some feather growth going on?
Chicken Rooster Beak Poultry Bird
 
#1,443 ·
I think you’ll find, Blue, that just feeding them as you normally would and having them in a quieter, non stressful environment that feathers will grow in well on their own.

Chickens can be the worse when it comes to pecking on the innocents and I have a tendency to think Rhode Island’s are the worse at it. What I have done in the past that has worked for me is to put the innocent(s) in a wire cage in the middle of the coop when they’re locked up over night and then let them out in the morning with the group - this affords them protection while the others get used to them. After a week or so, they are more or less accepted but may be at the bottom of the pecking order from then on.
 
#1,444 ·
All of the reading I've done points to exactly that, the Rhode Island Reds are mean girls from high school! Ugh! Unfortunately they lay eggs.

My plan. Leave the nice little white girls in the new coop for a week or more. Maybe 2 weeks and then at night take one red at a time and move them over. Leave one there for a week and then bring another one.

Is this a good plan?
 
#1,449 ·
That may well work -- you'll have to keep us updated.

I saw egrogan's comment on quarantining. I think you know the flock the new ones came from? How did they look? My initial thought is that if anyone is at risk, it's probably the newbies as they aren't in as good as shape as they could be.
 
#1,445 ·
The only thing to consider is potentially quarantining the new ones. I don't have experience introducing new adults to a flock, but have read 3-4 weeks of separation because you worry about respiratory stuff spreading. Just something to consider. Dreamcatcher Arabians may have advice on that?
 
#1,446 ·
egrogan, I actually did consider this, but the only place I had to put them was in the new coop with Lana. So far, and it's been a week, they are all doing well. Actually the new girls are starting to put on a little weight and go straight for the food first thing when I open the door in the morning.

If I'd know what meanies the reds could be I may have reconsidered before bringing them in. But now they're here and I need to keep everyone as safe as possible.
 
#1,450 ·
The flock they came from was a mishmash of pecking order. Not over clean, but not horrible to walk into and it didn't smell bad. While the one and only feeder was knocked over and empty the waterer was full and clean. ((sigh)) I just thought there were way too many chickens in a small confined space and the more timid ones were a straggly skinny mess while the bigger more dominant ones were looking pretty good.

At any rate I got a couple of them home and try to leave them be. They're pretty flighty and nervous. I'm used to my others that will follow me all over the place waiting for treats. These new ones are just now learning that I'm not going to grab at them so they're calming down a little bit. As of yesterday everyone is back on their egg schedule so that's good.

I keep forgetting to get a new and final picture of Lana too! She's walking around pretty well now. She's crooked! There's a bend in her tail and one wing is ever so slightly higher than the other. Doesn't seem to bother her though. All her feathers filled back in and she's putting her weight back on. I'll try to get one this afternoon after work.
 
#1,454 ·
It's been awhile since I've had chicks, so I have a question about them coming into lay. I know it takes some time for their system to work things out, but I've gotten about 4 soft eggs and one shell-less yolk under the roost this week. I still have the Start & Grow feed out and am thinking I should just take that away (they're only eating about a cup of that a day though between 11 chickens so not eating much). They have free choice oyster shell and high quality layer pellets. Do they just need time to figure it out?
 
#1,455 ·
They should have been switched to a layer formula after about a month on starter. Most starters have antibiotics and such in them, you don't want that in your eggs. Put them on a 16 % Layer ration and they should start having good eggs, but I'd give it a month or so. I mix some oyster shell right into my feed when I serve up their feed. I get the odd "paper shell" every now and then but have never had a totally shell less egg.
 
#1,456 ·
Dreamcatcher, it's the Purina product "Start and Grow" which they recommend you feed until 16-18 weeks. But they're at 20 weeks now, so I will just ditch it and only put out the layer. It is 16%, made by a local VT company.

I just don't remember having this many soft shells with my last batch of chicks but maybe I'm wrong.
 
#1,459 ·
Well our chickens aren't laying at all...they randomly to that and just quit. They've been off for months. They know where the nest boxes are, they've laid before, what the hey? We've confirmed it's not the feed, water, housing, space, stress, or illness. We've even locked them in the coop and kept them there just to see if there were really laying but hiding somewhere else, but they still don't lay. How long can a chicken hold it?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top