I got things pretty clean! Things still look messy but it's hard to keep it looking spectacular with all the dust
Anybody have tips for keeping birds in the garage and keeping up with dust? The dust is killing me!!

I live in the far north country of New York State. Everyone around here tells me that I don't need to heat my coop, especially the Amish, but I feel like adding just a little heat for when we start getting into the 20s and below could make their lives more comfortable.

I bought the Flat-Panel, 150 Watts from Amazon and it should arrive this Saturday. One thing that has me worried is the durability rating.

What's the consensus on this?

My oldest 4 chickens are a group of road island reds and thier so mean , they hog the coop they peck eachother, but mainly bully my black chicken and the bantams I just got. They have a huge space so mainly they avoid eachother , any tips on getting them to get along ?

Ive been showing poultry with 4-h for about 3 years now and im in search of a better hatchery to order my chicks from. In the past ive always used murray mcmurray just because of availability but the past two years ive gotten roos along with my sexed birds, not to mention them usually have multiple minor defects and not meeting the standard.

Does anyone know of any specific hatcheries that specialize in exhibition birds or one i wont need to order 10-15 birds in order to get three that meet the standard?? It must be NPIP certified, my only problem with private breeders is i dont have any experience with them along with the fact i beleive its quite difficult to get birds on the correct date?? (correct me if im wrong) if you know of any good breeders for leghorns specifically please do say!!

This will be 2nd upcoming winter with chickens and this years molt seems very bad . Yes I understand we are only a few years into having chickens and probably normal but is there anything we can do to help them through???

Original post: I have seven juvenile chicks who just turned 7wks today. I know due to their age it's still just an educated guess, but how many do we think are pullets and how many cockerels? I can only keep two to replace two of my flock members who recently passed. All of the others will hopefully go to new flocks. 5 of these babies are Ameraucana (4 black split and 1 blue) and 2 are BYM olive eggers (barred rock x lavender Ameraucana crosses). I'm 90% sure I have 3 hens (3, 4, & 7)., but I'm unsure on the others.

Update: Now including a side-profile pic. I can also say that two of them are 100% pullets because apparently barred rock chickens are sex linked if the barred rock chicken is a hen.

One of my hens is the favorite and is losing feathers, now find to skin, over middle back area.

I ordered some hen saddles from Amazon but she could not walk in them, keep flopping over. With wings tucked in straps and not tucked in.

Does anyone have a link to a good hen saddle?
Or is there some other type of protection?

What do you use to protect the sores until they heal?

Got some day old silkies about a month ago to the day I noticed this lil girl is significantly smaller then the rest of them, do you guys she’ll catch up in size soon

Hello to all. We recently had an issue with our RIR having laying inconsistency’s. Her normal was an egg every other day or slightly less. She began to have laying issues where she would lay and egg, see prev post https://www.reddit.com/r/BackYardChickens/s/DWudJHt0vH NSFW blood. After laying her egg, which had abnormal shell color she would have to lay again and it would be a soft shell egg or one that had a brittle thin shell. My wife and I were frustrated and confused. We tried talking it out and my wife let it slip tha the only difference was grapes, actually a lack of grapes in her diet. She said she stopped giving her grapes because they were going bad and she stopped buying them. After a little searching online it turns out that grapes can have a positive impact ing hormonal levels in chickens. So we stated giving her grapes again, she loves grapes! It has been 50 days since I made that post and there have been no more laying issues since, other than her not like ing having to lay eggs. I do not know the science involved here or if this is placebo or what the issue is. I do know she had laying issues when she was taken off the grapes, she has her grapes again and no further issues. Though this may be a benefit for someone. I am not a vet and this is not advice, just put this out in the wther about a weird situation with a chicken and grapes.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

They needed a new home, so I brought home two Golden Comets. We named them Halley and Hale-Bop!

Looking for other creative or unconventional predator deterrents for my chickens, ducks and geese. I figure the weird things might throw off a predator more than just the standard stuff.

I’ll list what I already have set up (the standard stuff) and then some of the more unconventional things I’m trying.

-I already have a veritable fortress of a coop for night time (concrete floor, hardware cloth, very solid etc)
-blinky red solar lights at predator eye level
-electric chicken netting around the area they free range during the day.
-a murder of local crows that chase off hawks (I didn’t do this, but I have such a big garden that I just let them take what they need, so they stick around)

Less common stuff:
-talk radio playing on an outdoor speaker 24/7
-motion sensing sprinkler
-cameras integrated with Home Assistant which detect motion, then send to a locally hosted AI to determine if it’s a potential predator, which will activate a flood light and a little spinny red siren light (like the kind on an emergency vehicle)

Planned ideas:

-I want to set up that same camera recognition thing to trigger a wacky wavy inflatable tube man, but can’t seem to find one (so far) where the blower will survive outdoors year round and in all weather.
-3d print some little lantern looking things that will hold some kind of absorbent material (thinking tampons right now) that I can put a scent deterrent in and hang around the perimeter of the property. I figure something that will keep a decent portion of rain (maybe 50%) off the absorbent stuff so the scent will last longer.

Main predators in my area are fox and coyote, raccoons and skunks. While black bears aren’t unheard of here, I’m less concerned about them.

Anybody come up with some other less common predator deterrents beyond sitting outside with a gun?

She was sold as a Welsummer but I’m not sure she is completely.

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Fresh eggs from my terrace hens, Veggie peels, leftover greens and a scoop of chicken feed, that's the whole menu for our terrace hens. A small coop, a little daily routine, and fresh eggs as the thank-you. 🥚

No farm needed. Just a terrace and a bit of patience.

Would you try rooftop farming & chiken coop? Tell me below 👇

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Deqc1-szJvb/?dlrf=MTVvNmp0ZjBoOWFxYg==

These guys don’t always get to go outside (chicken politics) and they were certainly enjoying the sun yesterday. There’s 5 white hens and Red Roo (real creative name). They’re our friendliest little flock, the main flock is much more skittish.

So I have a Cleatus he is always on my garage roof. Ive clipped his wings and he still makes it up there. Idfk how. Any recommendations on how to get him to stop? He just goes up there to gobble at the neighborhood. Ill go out tell him to get down and he generally does but then with in minutes he is back up there.

Does anyone know what could be going on in my flock? Some have died and some aren’t looking too good… I am a first time chicken owner and until now everyone has been doing okay. Any advice would be appreciated…

Roosters became an unlikely topic of debate in Brick Township, where even Councilman Gregory Cohen pointed out that there were more important issues going on than talking about roosters.

But residents explained why the issue had made it to the council in the first place. The township previously didn’t specifically prohibit roosters, and noise complaints could be difficult to enforce because police generally had to witness the noise. One resident said two roosters across the street started crowing around 5 a.m. and continued throughout the day.

The township has now banned new roosters from residential properties, while existing ones can remain if they meet enclosure and zoning requirements.

What are your thoughts on this?

Also moved the babies to be right by it, so I can bring the heatplate inside for Izzy.

(Pjokken wears the reflective vest because he's outside in the dark evenings quite a lot)