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So, I just started building a mini coop for my mom this week It's a surprise for her birthday/christmas :) It's a trailer coop so she can bring the whole thing to my house when they go on RV trips. I plan to put it well away from my fenced area and put her electronet around it. Basically I've...

around here we can have bear problems with beehives. The only thing that stops them is a good stout electric fence. Not that they can't get through it, but it's far too much trouble. And I had a scare with a fox dragging chickens out. I can hardly imagine a BEAR. Leahsmom, (it was you who...

Happy to have good news to share about my little wry necked girl. She is looking SO much better. Still giving her lots of raw sunflower seeds and vitamin drops, but she holds her head up fairly straight now and has started digging holes in the bedding!

Wouldn't it just? Not feasible here though. I am hoping to get the back of my property cleared and fenced, and a real barn put up so I can have some other stock. Then I will be able to install a livestock gaurdian dog. We have a dog now, who is out in the yard whenever we are. But he's pretty...

I think caponization is fascinating and a great idea if you're raising meat birds who are going to be butchered past 12 weeks.... but don't know that I could do surgery on an awake bird by myself.... too squeamish and too soft hearted. Yeah. Everyone has to stay in the run until I finish the...

it was around ten thirty I think. We were just getting ready to get a belated start on school. I've never had a problem with a night time predator, other than an owl getting some gineas who insisted on roosting on the swingset.... But my daytime fox problem is murder.

Well that was far more excitement than I really wanted in a morning. I heard a lot of squawking and looked outside to see a fox standing on top of my obviously very valiant rooster, Mr. Bennet. What I should have done is taken the extra five seconds to grab the gun. I would have had a clear...

We had the same ridiculous december snows in our part of NY. My hoop coop stood up to it just fine. I knocked some of the worst of it off, but mostly figured it was extra insulation for the quack waddles. Ours is built of old oak flooring and 2x4's for the bottom with half of a cattle pannel...

I planted a bockin #4 division last spring. It still only has like... six leaves? this year. :( hoping it does MUCH better next year. My hope was to eventually supplement winter feed with dried comfrey because of the huge amount of protien in it. But I've had to put a little fence around it...

I didn't see anything I would classify as infection. clear liquid, and some sluggish bleeding, but nothing that looked infected to me, and no foul smell. But whole area sure looks like infection. hot to the touch, grossly swollen. but.... if there's an abcess in there I didn't find it going...

ok... so. Soaked for 20 minutes with hot as I could bear strong epsom salt solution. managed to get edges of scab up, but no puss. She violently protested having the area squeezed (and who can blame her) so. lanced with large gauge sterile needle. Nothing. Tought maybe everything is so hard that...

I think a really wet compress might work better than bucket, because it's right on top of her tail? it'd have to be really deep water..... I've got her in the hopsital pen at the moment. I'll deal with her after the kids have gone to bed..... Of course she's one of my hardiest, thriftiest, most...

OH I might be able to avoid having to lance the darned thing?? that would be AMAZING. eta: (I mean, I know I have to get the gook out, I just am afraid if I lance that I will do it wrong and cause more harm than good.....)

so. My turken girl carrying her tail so funny? Finally managed to nab her at feeding time today for a good look over. Good news, she's not egg bound. Bad news, looks like something got a hold of her, because she has a puncture wound, nicely scabbed, right above her tail. BAD news, under that...

no she carries her tail down all the time. I don't know how long she's been doing it, it's only noticeable because she now has tailfeathers again. I'll make a trip out oafter they're roosting tonight and see how she feels. Wish I could catch her in the yard because it's going to be rough telling...

I'm not sure if she has started laying again. she and her sister lay almost identical eggs, and i'm never entirely sure who exactly is laying. but I would think if egg bound she would be acting off? Maybe I should go grab her off the roost tonight and see what's what.

ok. so here's a strange chicken behavior. I have two naked neck girls, both of them jost molted and lost ALL their tailfeathers (very silly did they look indeed) anyway, one of them has started holding her tail cocked down all the time. at first Idon't think I noticed it, I thought it was just...

good news and bad news on my little legbar girl.... she's holding her head up! and she squawked in protest this morning when I hauled her out to give her medecine! Bad news is I felt her crop to see if she's been eating and it felt all squashy and gassy. At least no bad smell out of beak. so...

I am gaurdedly hopeful about my little legbar girl. She seems to be having an easier time holding her head upright to eat, and to be holding it in a more natural position while she sleeps. She was talking to the duckling keeping her company on the other side of the brooder today.

I have a couple that like to sleep in the nestboxes I change the nestboxes more frequently than I would like. Wood ash, wood chips, then hay or grass clippings. Generally after a broody has hatched in a box I have to change/clean the whole thing, other than that it's about every other week. If...