Recent content by crowcrash

Unless you already have a history of lung issues, it's unlikely that you'll catch any zoonotic diseases if you practice good animal husbandry and buy your animals from a trusted source. All indoor birds are dusty and messy, but they can be enjoyable companions. The dust is very bad when they...

More space is the best answer, but some of us don’t have that. My pens are near my house, so I sympathize. For ground cover, I use wood chips (garden mulch) because they are cheap to replace and keep the ground more firm in the rain. I’ve seen suggestions for pea gravel, but also people saying...

I think with waterfowl, there’s a general “stranger danger” until the separate flocks spend enough time around each other or until a particularly aggressive male shows up. I immediately thought of the video going around in which a woman brings her pet duck to an area with wild ducks and it goes...

Yeah! I have a Pekin drake that gets the zoomies a lot, usually after the pool is refreshed. He’ll even zoom with his wings spread out like he’s flying, and he’s so big you can hear him from across the yard. I noticed sometimes a young baby will get silly and zoom and the other ducklings start...

I agree to close them up in their little house at night, and keep the coop somewhere against a wall or out of the wind. With that many babies huddling together, they should be okay as long as they're out of drafts and dry. Frequently monitor them like the special and delicate little beans they...

Yeah, this is normal, birds can be brutal. If the wound is not a spot that can be bandaged, there are medicated products made specifically for poultry that are colored blue so the wound isn’t as appealing.

I know they used to be overflowing with drakes and Roos, but Skywatch Bird Rescue in Castle Hayne may be able to get you in contact with someone closer to your area.

I'm a year late, but for people who pass by this thread trying to ID their chicks, here are some of the previous chicks in juvenile plumage (the Cochin and hens). oldhenlikesdogs was mostly correct, JedJackson was correct about #6 being a Japanese rooster. I don't have pics of them all since I...

1) After their first couple of days, if their needs are met, they should settle and not be loud too often except for the occasional upset - unless you are “mom,” then they’ll want to be with you 24/7. I raise babies in my laundry room so that they aren’t constantly startled or wanting to be with...

The aggression may probably related to the need to establish a pecking order (on top of puberty and boredom). It's recommended to have at least 3 of any social animal. They may be bonding so closely to each other that you are now bottom chicken. At that age, I'd honestly be moving them out to...

I've posted the guinea pigs on Grove community and a OK guinea pig group (can't remember the name) on FB, and on Tulsa pets craigslist several times since probably last August. You may recognize these pics. I went ahead and posted them and the chickens on Tulsa livestock yesterday. It's been a...

(Rehoming) This is a long shot, but would anyone in the Grove/Jay area be interested in a couple of adult male Abyssinian guinea pigs? I've tried to rehome them on FB and Craigslist for several months and no luck. There's nothing wrong with them, I took them in because I'm a dummy but I already...

If you have Facebook (I know, yuck), look for local chicken groups. You may find people who will build you a coop with real wood for much less than the pre-fabs, you usually just have to haul it.

Sorry about Tim :( Did your chicky make it through the night? I can't say this would always work but here's my recent experience. In my last batch I had a chick near death, cold and getting trampled. I wrapped her in a heat pad on low (mimicking a mama's wing), it was a cheap one from Walgreens...

Bantams can be pretty aggressive. At a bird rescue, a bantam silkie was the father to every chicken born there to the free-ranging hens (we collected eggs daily but there were so many, occasionally one would slip past and hatch naturally). He was notorious for escaping to be with the ladies and...