chicken behavior

We are first time chicken owners. The hens have started laying a few weeks ago and we are up to 8 eggs a day now! My husband built a great coop for our 8 mix-of-breeds hens. See picture. The problem is that they don't go inside to roost, they all huddles jammed together on the side outside area...

I have 2 ducks and 2 chickens and they share a coop just fine, but in the daytime when i let them roam the ducks get territorial and bossy and sometimes peck the chickens....theyve even intimidated my poor kitty at times >:( Im also having a bit of a hard time getting them to bond with ME, they...

I am brand new to the chicken world. I received two White Sussex for Mothers' Day and they have captured my heart. They wandered everywhere together. Unfortunately, while someone was taking care of them while I was away for 2 days, they flew the coop. After three days, only one returned. My...

Hello. Recently, our chicken which we got around 5 years ago has been visibly ill. The thing is, we have no idea what is causing this illness or how to cure it. For the past two weeks, she has been having Diarrhoea/ a very watery substance, rarely solid at all. This lead to her having very mucky...

You could imagine how excited we were to see one of our chickens lay their first egg.. but that was three days ago and she has not laid one since.. should we be looking for anything or reason why she isn't laying anymore after her first?

Hello, We had a momma hen hatch 2 babies (fertile eggs we purchased after she got broody). She is now chasing away one of the babies, not the other. This chicken appears to be a "rumpless" or maybe a turkey, see photo attached. Is this normal? She is getting very aggressive with just this one...

I am hearing that cedar shavings are bad and toxic in a chicken coop? Is this true? And why is pine not?

It might have been that I didn't post an introduction when I joined backyardchickens.com several years ago, so here are a few thoughts. Currently I'm in northern California, in walnut country, live on a small property, am a wildlife biologist, artist, and author. About chickens: Chickens are...

I was relaxing on my couch with my chicken, but then she started making an odd noise. The noise was reminiscent of a bubble sound effect mixed with a helicopter. I searched everywhere but I could not find it. My hen, Beowulf (Beo for short) is a rescue who used to be beaten and was half starved...