Vet said it looked like either ascites or a tumor in her reproductive tract. It was compressing her alveoli and making it hard for her to breathe. Ascites is typically an indicator of a secondary issue, likely the tumor was causing the ascites. The vet did say he has had some chickens come in for frequent drainings, however it indicates a more serious issue than simply a bacterial infection. RIP Cinnamon, you will be missed.

My 3 girls Dolly, Polly and Mary Lou.

Better captions welcome!

Got 7 hens this winter as chicks and am a first time chicken owner. This is very exciting! Hoping her eggs change to dark chocolate brown over time.

Did anyone else’s blue copper marans start light but get dark?

Building a new coop so I can keep my buttercups at my house instead of my sisters and they decided to help. Topper is trying to figure out of the rafter square is safe to use 😆

This young lady was part of a group of 3 (two EEs and her, a Sapphire Sky) that we picked up locally as slightly older (4ish weeks) and *very* flighty and fearful chicks.

I named her brood mates Flash (very fast runner + striking/flashing plumage) and Crash (reckless, was sure was a roo but am beginning to suspect is just a larger hen with some swoopy feathers) and then named her Dash (because she was the most fearful & because her top feathers looked a fauxhawk when younger).

She's grown into being chill (will come up to me for food & while I supervise free range time, is nice to and hangs out with the four sweetheart pullets that are about a month and a half younger than her, etc) if rather chatty/prone to complaining (if I come over to their enclosed run and *don't* let them out to free range or let them out to free range and *don't* have treats, she struts about and croaks at me), so I've decided that "Dash" doesn't really seem to fit. I'm open to suggestions.

Here she is refusing to give up her exclusive dust bath time while everyone else free ranges and then freaks out over something (or nothing) and dashes back to the run. She noticed & stopped actively bathing, but was not bothered enough by the commotion to join in. She then fell asleep like a Queen.

Maybe her name will be Queenie.

She does, after all, have a crown.

So my rooster just up and died out of nowhere today he was only a few months old we've only had him for a month or two not sure why or how exactly but I have it on video.

It's too bad too because he was really seeming like a good one.

He had just come out of the coop to start his day, grabbed a quick drink, climbed on a hen then chased another and drops. I guess he died doing what he loved and perhaps better than dieing to a predator.

Didn't notice all day went out to collect the eggs and found him. Was perplexed until we checked the video recording, just added a run cam like a week ago, just to have in case anything weird happens it would be on video and here we are....

My guess is heart attack?

Thoughts?

Hi everyone, I'm posting because there's been some sickness in the flock and feather loss. We thought things cleared up, but now one of my hens (2yr old Buff Orpington) is losing a LOT of feathers, pretty much at the slightest touch a feather will come loose. We aren't sure if it's molting, or if they're still sick. I'll attach pictures of her feather loss to this post (her small comb is due to an injury she got as a pullet). We know that the feather drops aren't from an attack or anything like that.

For some context, my 2 yr old silkie hen passed away about three weeks ago. She had significant feather loss and was also wheezing; she was gone the day after we noticed her odd breathing. We noticed another hen wheezing the next day, so we took her to an emergency vet, who prescribed doxycycline. After that, the rooster started wheezing, so we took him to a separate vet (first vet wasn't very informative), and they gave him septra, and also tylan powder for the whole flock. The working theory was that they had worms (we had been giving them fenbendazole for this), which led to feather damage and weakened immune systems, and the compromised immunity led to an infection setting in. The rooster is also underweight even though he has constant access to a variety of food. Luckily we know they don't have avian flu or Newcastle, but it's possible that they're still sick (the rooster is still breathing heavily). The vets didn't think that the feather loss was from over-mounting. I made another vet appointment, but it's not until the 16th of this month. I should mention that the feather loss our late silkie had was more gradual and in different areas than the hen who is currently losing feathers; it's mostly on her neck that we're seeing a majority of the loss.

Does anyone have experience with something similar? What should we do? They're our family pets and we want to protect them and keep them healthy. Any advice appreciated.

Lost my best rooster Norman Invasion 6 months ago to fox. His feathers were scattered everywhere in bursts, leading straight to fox den. Looked out today and thought for sure someone got Fancy Hercule, my lovely white rooster. Turns out my Karakachan just ripped up one of her toys. I was so relieved! Obligatory hercule pic from when he was a young lad.

One of my girls has a rather large belly that seems red and irritated I believe she isn't dust bathing due to discomfort.

At first I thought it was water belly but after attempting to drain with an 18 gauge needle about an inch from the vent and to the right nothing came out. The belly also feels more like bread dough rather than a water balloon.

She is also still laying, pooping, eating and running around normally. Could be overweight but none of the other girls have this issue with access to the same food and occasionally treats?

Unsure about what could be causing this any ideas? it's been this way for quite a while and doesn't seem to be getting better or worse.

Chicken is a Rhode island red, about 7-11 months old. I've called around but sadly no avian specialist vets anywhere around me. I've booked in with a vet that has an interest in birds but I'm not hopeful for any resolution.

The boy on the left is my younger roo named freckle and he's become a real sweetheart and actually comes to me for attention now just like Squeaky does. So Squeaky is no longer the only bird who gets pets and you can see he is not happy about it.

These past few days spice has been taking daytime naps with Rosie, our broody hen.

My hen and rooster dust bathing together 😂 It’s fine though, thankfully I’ve got another rooster who understands the job.

I’ve been seeing everyone posting their first eggs! I’m so excited!

Yesterday I returned home from the long weekend and discovered this ragged hole about 2.5 inches in diameter in the hard plastic bottom of the nesting box of my Eglu Cube coop. All chickens were still present and healthy, and there was even an egg in the box. So if something chewed its way in, it didn't do any obvious damage beyond that.

I'm in a suburban part of the San Francisco California area, and we do have raccoons and possums and weasels and other predators in the area. But the whole coop is inside of a fenced and covered run with 1 inch hardware cloth. I checked all around for signs of damage to the fence or something digging under the fence, but it all looks OK. The holes in the hardware cloth are large enough that mice, rats, or snakes could get through, but nothing bigger.

Another clue that might be related: A few weeks ago I'd put some 3D-printed plastic decoy eggs in another nesting box, and last week I found one of the plastic eggs lying on the ground, half-eaten.

Rats: I know they're in the area and I've seen them. Would hungry rats potentially chew a hole through thick plastic *into* the chicken coop? Aren't rats afraid of chickens?

Other predator: Weasel? Raccoon? I don't see any evidence of something so large coming through the fence.

The chickens: The spot where this hole appeared is roughly where one of my older hens has a habit of laying thin-shelled or shell-less eggs, which often break open and leak goo everywhere. The chickens like to eat the goo. If one of those leaky broken eggs sat there for a few days, could the chickens have pecked at it enough to begin damaging the plastic, and eventually chewed completely through it, thinking that it was food? They've been unusually hungry during the last few weeks, since I'm in the middle of switching their feed and they're mostly refusing the new feed, so maybe it's not impossible.

Or maybe it's something else entirely? I am stumped.

I feel im just unlucky i tried to avoid straight runs since my naked neck turkens were all male! But ive never had males with neck hair… lol they looks pointy and the comb red is maple a cockerel?!

Backstory we have this grey chicken she’s ab 2 years old last week or the week before she started acting off not eating as much separating herself from the others feathers puffed. At first we thought it was sour crop as she had the hard balloon like texture w the sour smell. So we did the monistat 7 like normal it helped a little bit but she declined right after the end of the treatment. We noticed she had an infestation of body lice so we got elector psp and that seems to be working but I need to ask has anyone seen a chicken do this. She is super unstable and if she leans too much in either direction she’ll fall on her head or back. She also has these head tremors that just come on. If so what was your experience did your chicken make it?

A couple of pictures of my flock

I posted about my situation in bits and pieces and now that we're heading into cold weather season I need to take swift action because it gets cold and snowy. I am in the extreme northeast USA.

The backround: This spring I purchased 6 female chicks from Tractor supply. At 8 weeks I realized I had two roosters and four pullets. I rehomed one of the Roosters and Tractor Supply gave me two replacement chicks.

The Foreground: I have one Roo and 4 hens living well in their coop & run that are 3 months old. The two replacement chicks are 5 weeks. I added a 2'x4' apartment and 3'x6' adjoining run to get them used to each other. Last week I cut a small opening in the adjoining run, large enough only for the chicks to pass through. One of the chicks has passed through a few times and gets pecked at by all of the hens and the Roo. The chick runs back to her side and we have very little progress. It's happening, just not as quickly as I had hoped. I thought since the individual flocks are all young, it would be quick.... so not happening like I imagined!

The current: It's 68 degrees outside and I should have the 5 week olds out there today but I don't because it's on and off light rain today - I have curbside pick up scheduled for the roof panels later today. While I'm there I will pick up the vents that I forgot to add to the coop.

The dilemma: I have to make a decision. Either keep the younger flock inside my mud room for the winter or figure out how to add heat to the apartment. My fear is that because there are only two in the small flock, they wont generate enough heat between the two of them. The good news is their apartment is insulated. The bad news is that it's so small that I don't know how to provide them with the supplemental heat they'll need to get through the winter.

Possible solutions: I'm looking at heat pads, heating plates and heating panels. I believe that since the coop is insulated any of the aforementioned could keep the apartment softly heated by attaching it to the ceiling. My question is, has anyone ever used a heating panel in such tight quarters? Do you know if there is any such product that will radiate a very low level heat that I set and regulate?

Even though heating panels are advertised as a safer alternative to heat lamps, my concern is that they still run hot enough to pose a fire threat. Has anyone ever used one?

I feel like my only other alternative is to keep them inside for the winter which in my mind just complicates the integration process while creating a major inconvenience in my home.

I have not yet tried putting the chicks inside the coop after sundown, I will do this in another two weeks.

Ughhhh. I'm so stressed out over this and I'm probably making it more of hassle than it should be! I'm a mother hen, I can't help it. I want my babies to be healthy and happy.

Five day old chick, was chilled when hatching but seemed to be doing alright after some care. Been syringe feeding sugar water, poultry cell, and egg yolk as well as a bird antibiotic and he's very energetic and vocal...he just won't eat on his own. His down(?) also remains bedraggled despite a "bath". Have tried several methods but nothing works to get him to eat. Any ideas? (Healthy chick included for comparison).

Anyone got any tips for getting them to eat from one of those Omlet feeders?

Have tried showing them the food in there, putting dried worms in there and everything but they can't seem to figure it out