Recent content by boxermizer

My muskovies fly to the neighbor's pond every night and spend the night there. Tonight I noticed 2 showed up after I locked up the rest of my chickens and ducks and at 1am the dog was going crazy, so I looked out and 2 more had showed up. I went out to put them in the pen and noticed one was...

Yes, I will keep checking for maggots. I actually found an undiscovered wound by rechecking the next day. But I'd read that about the eggs. I appreciate the splinting manual!

This girl was pickup by a predator. I assume her leg got broken when it dropped her. Its broken between the knee and hip, its a little swollen, warm and bruised, but below the knee is not warm, discolored or swollen. Based on the sound when I put slight pressure on it, just as you would do when...

Thank you again for this! The night this one disappeared I found a lame one. Her leg is broken. I didn't realize at first that she had other injuries and by the time I noticed, she had 4 wounds with maggots crammed in. I used the tweezers, to my dismay, to pull each one out. I think I got them...

Interesting. Thank you for your reply. That is helpful. I didn't realize there were different types of maggots, at least in terms of their preferred tissue. I wonder if they had already made their way inside since she expelled some liquid when I first picked her up. I knew then that the...

Did she heal? How is she walking now? I have a duck that we believe had a run-in with a predator and now has a broken leg (2 other ducks disappeared the same evening before I went to lock them up for the night). The foot looks completely limp like your duck, but since I splinted and wrapped it...

A couple nights ago 2 of my ducks disappeared and one has a broken leg. I assume coyotes got them as they have started meandering into the tall grass. This morning one of the missing ducks showed up. She had at least 3 wounds that I could find, 2 were puncture wounds. All were covered in...

I have a duck that has been covering her eggs with hay, so I was hoping she would go broody. I was told they would lay 12-15 eggs before sitting. She now has 17. She is about 2 years old herself and never gone broody before. She's a cross between a Khaki Campbell and Rouen, I think (I don't know...

I already have them marked. I just don't like disturbing her daily to remove the newer eggs. She doesn't like me bothering her either. My regular chicken coop in relatively small, off the ground type, so I can't think of a way to section off part of it yet still give her the ability to move...

I have a bantam hen that goes broody every year, sometimes several times a year. I don't mind this, I actually like the idea (chicken raising babies, not me), but it seems I encounter one issue after another. She has successfully hatched a few chicks and ducklings, but the success rate is low...

Right! I looked and looked and couldn't find it. Thankfully I didn't have to worry about it this time. She's continued to be fine. But I've found a few other soft shell eggs since, including one today. But I also got 3 eggs today, including the soft one, so that means all 3 of my ducks are...

I had tried all the things. And all the things work - WITHOUT any guineas. They are so happy and calm and I have better egg production than with the guineas and things just seemed to get worse and worse. To where the guineas were chasing all the hens off the roost at night.

Sad to say, close to it. I had read about raising chickens, ducks and guineas together, but no one seems to have the trouble with guineas that I've had. As a matter of fact, I gave 2 guineas to a friend who had a couple guineas already and they've had zero problems with them. And for quite some...

I recently found out that getting rid of my guineas immediately solved the problem. My chickens now flock to me like I'm the food and I can get every single one of them to come to the pen any time of day. I can't believe how long it took me to figure out what the problem might be and how easy it...

I'm not sure what was wrong, but I'm thinking the soft egg in the nesting box that morning was the problem. I watched a couple videos where someone thought their chicken was egg bound and in both cases they laid a soft egg before laying a hard one. I'm guessing she struggled with that egg long...