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Like many parts of the US, we are having an emergence of periodic cicadas represented by three species, each with their own annoying song, even though they look a lot alike. The are really abundant on the ground where many will never be able to fly and ultimately reproduce. Not letting them go...

Great-horned Owl came in when my son forgot to close pen door. Owl got a pullet and consumed head and neck leaving carcass in front of game camera shown in second image. It was a windy night blowing things around and we had lots of lightening too. Remaining birds (22) scattered themselves about...

I had a sick chick, the only survivor of his brood due coccidiosis. He is well on to the road to recovery from very near death so he is a very tough little dude. He went through about a week where he had trouble thermal regulating. I took him from his mother at about six weeks post-hatch and...

Below is thread I started some time ago. Involved considerable effort. How can I get moderators to consider information provided rather than identity of the poster? https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/proper-wing-clipping-to-aid-in-containment-with-perimeter-fencing.1261276/

My son recently combined eggs from two broody hens under one hen. The first hen's eggs were at least a week ahead of those that were taken from the other hen. He knew start date for incubation with first hen although have only a rough estimate for the other. First hen has hatched off and...

Some of my chickens are selected each year to go off farm working at display animals where they come into direct contact with public. I assume many of the public are at least exposed to chickens earlier in the day. What I'm doing is setting up this group made up of a single rooster and about...

Hawks here working out territories and cementing pair bonds. Nests are also being constructed by some. Day before yesterday saw something I do not see every day. Two courting Coopers Hawks that were being harassed by American Crows. The male Coppers Hawk was soaring about 400 feet up while...

I have been raising some of my chickens for educators that are very tame and trained to perform even in strange environments with strangers around. I would like to try similar with a pair of Guinea Fowl. My goal is to have them come when called and to tolerate close handling. My chickens used...

I'm looking into getting about a dozen Guinea Fowl to forage roughly 8 acres that will be mostly open with cover patches. Area is managed with a combination of fencing and sheep mostly for benefit of chickens and wildlife. Concern I have is with fencing. The area will be subdivided using high...

My son is learning a painful lesson about his chickens. They are very vulnerable to frostbite. About 3 years ago we got a black Rampuri Aseel stag that he proceeded to cross into one of our American Game lines. We very quickly came to appreciate the black rooster was different from our games...

Rusty is stuck in the garage where he must suffer my offering weird stuff to see how he responds. I see the potential for it being tasty. Looks a lot like a granola bar. Rusty is giving it a try. He seems to like it just fine.

I'm noticing a couple interesting patterns in the interactions between my dogs and some of the roosters. Two dogs are free-range all the time and three others are rotated in terms of when they are out at night, and when not out at night they are allowed to run for a couple hours each day. There...

This is as close as I have seen an American Dominique hen to being cryptically colored. She is about 8 feet up in a wild plum tree with a dusting of snow and a clear sky shining through.

About a week ago I went out to check on penned groups of chickens and found a young stag / cockerel housed with hens was not looking thrifty. I handled him to find he was very much underweight. I needed a bird to collect feces from so brought him in hoping he would be good for that purpose. He...

My son and I will be setting up so free-range flock has a protected feeding site near where they roost. The site will also shelter dogs, sheep and goats. My boy is going to learn how to read chickens and create microclimates that birds will retreat to as wind chill gets extreme. He will learn...

I have a pullet inside that will be put through some experiments where she must visit multiple locations that are separated by 50 feet or more of travel and not in straight line and not within sight of each other. A big part of it will have her using stairs. So far, she has already figured out...

Shortly we are to get serious winds. I will be going out to "batten down hatches" and will be observing how the chickens respond. Those of particular interest normally roost in trees.

I have gone through a lot of effort to prevent losses of chickens and now livestock to neighbors' dogs. Most recent change has been to install a fence. When neighbors' dogs start barking, especially at my livestock, my dogs are prone to run over as a pack where a lot of barking ensues. This...

Currently, I'm commingling goats and sheep with chickens. All are free-range with in an 8-acre pasture. Free-range because animals limiting where they go so far, rather than the fence limiting movement. Problem that has become evident is where the goats are consuming feed left out for chickens...