Recent content by Mountain_artist

Update! It's now Sunday morning and Neptune is walking around just fine! So, to answer my own question, it took 3-4 days for the pain to go away, or at least abate enough to get rid of her limp. She actually charged at me and ran right out when I opened the coop! I literally did nothing besides...

My TS was out of NuStock cream--that was my first choice, but it was easy to talk myself into the ivermectin just because that's what TS had and it involved far fewer applications. Rounding them up last night to put the drops on nearly killed me lol! 2 hens do not want to be caught! I can take...

I thought that might be the case too at first, but I really checked her out good and couldn't find any other injury, hot spot, sore, or anything. She is really big so I actually thought she might have sprained it or something---her general way of moving around is always really clunky and...

I know it takes a long time for the scales to improve/shed/molt/heal, but is that what's making her limp? I thought the mites tunnel into the legs and that causes the pain. I don't know what I'm doing though lol! I just want her to feel better. She is a gigantic black sex link and I feel bad...

One of my 4 hens, Neptune, started limping on Tuesday. I noticed she had the beginnings of scaly leg mites. I've never dealt with that before, but I saw some scale separation and the limping foot looked slightly swollen. I checked the other 3 hens and one more showed some slight scale separation...

Would a new rooster do anything positive to their dynamic? Or is that a whole other complicated mess? We are roo-free so far.

What if she were in a "look but don't touch" setup with the rest of the flock? She could sleep in her own spot and during the day, she'd have her own spot in the run with a fence separating it from the others. Would this meet her social requirement? I really see her being rotten to any new...

Those are great suggestions, and maybe this is a bit of karma for her because when we got the 4 sexlinks, she tried to kill them! All the other hens accepted them into the flock after lots of careful introduction using advice from these fora, but the hen in question, Chickpea, totally evil to...

Hi, I have 7 hens--3 are 3 y.o. Barred Rocks and 4 are black sex links that were new in March. Short story: Can a bullied-to-near-death hen live a happy life alone, separated from the rest of the flock? Long story: One of my Barred Rocks was attacked by a predator last year and injured...

I have the same situation. One of my hens is getting picked on so bad I had to isolate her. She was trembling in the coop hiding from everyone and wouldn't eat or drink. She was molting at the time so I figured she'd go back to normal after the molt, but now she's done and it's still going on...

Hi there, Do different hens moult differently? I have 3 barred rocks that are 3 years old. One was attacked by a coyote a year and a half ago and nearly died, but we stitched her up and provided intense medical care and she lived! Although she lays eggs again, she really hasn't been "right"...

That's really helpful! We are on a similar track. We have 3x 3 year old barred rocks in a coop that's pretty big for 3 hens. (We had 4, but Mr. Hawk paid one a visit.) We have a very large secure run too. We just bought 4 tiny rock red pullets yesterday. Right now, they are brooding indoors, but...

The other thing nobody has brought up is that she's getting like 1 of each kind of bird. Maxing out the space and having so many different breed personalities is a recipe for conflict. If she were keeping 4 of the same type of hen in there, and a hen known to be calm, that's one thing. But I've...

Hi, I have 4 barred rock hens who have been laying for over a year. All summer, I've gotten 4 eggs a day from them. For the past two weeks, I've only been getting 3 in the nest, and I find one cracked in the poop under the roost! This has happened to at least a dozen eggs in the past two weeks...

Hi, Last month I posted here when a coyote *badly* injured one of my barred rocks, Chickpea. We didn't think she was going to make it. Her side was ripped completely open and her vent and tail were chewed raw and open. My doctor friend sewed her up and we gave her antibiotic shots and she has...