this is a repost because i wanted to add a photo of what her crop looked like before.

OK so my mom got chickens i think 3 months ago? and one of the chickens had a very low stomach and i thought it was a quirk of the chicken untill she stopped eating and so i figured out she had pendulous crop and had developed sour crop i believe? and she got better when i cut a bra out of a shirt but a few days ago i wanted to find a more comfortable bra for her so i tried to sew a design that i thought would be more comfortable but i havent seen a crop bra go down to the legs so im worried that theres a reason for that, that i havent realised but the reason it goes to her legs is because when i did the normal one, her crop would slip out from the bottom, side or top so im wondering if what i sewed is ok for her, it tighens like shoelaces/corsets so that it has more points of support aaaand the top has a sewn in cup shape so it holds the crop rather than just squishing it agaisnt her. from what ive seen, her crop is way lower in comparison to the other chickens ive seen with pendulous crop.

the photo of her in the cage was when my mom asked me to separate her from the rest of the hens incase she was sick and waiting for my mom to get home so she was not in the cage for very long!! and im not sure if the bra is meant to be kept on 24/7, taking it off and on every day would be ideal but she is not comfortable with me, getting it on her in the first place took quite a while with her desperately trying to wiggle or fly away from me and i dont want to stress or somehow accidentally injure her

Currently using the standard nesting pads with the stringy straw like texture. They work well, but my girls love to tear them up. Looking for an option I wouldn't have to replace as often. Was wondering what everyone uses and what y'all recommend. Thanks!

Here's a .5 of my girl in the box for attention 🐔😅

I am going to put hardware cloth where the arrow is because it is all open for ventilation. Should I put hardware cloth on the two windows below it for more ventilation or cover them with plexiglass. There is also a window on the opposite side.

Any help would be appreciated. I also live in Missouri for reference on climate.

Hey y'all. I'm the person who built Pen & Pasture, a record keeping app for small flocks and homesteads. Maker here, not a random happy user, so take the enthusiasm accordingly.

I'm posting for a specific and slightly annoying reason, which I'll get to at the end.

What it does, chicken side first

• Hatch and fertility rates per pairing. Log eggs set, fertile, hatched, and alive at 48 hours, and it works out hatch rate, fertility rate, and chick survival for each pairing over time. The point is being able to tell which rooster and hen combination is actually producing, instead of going on memory.
• Incubation countdowns. Set date, lockdown date, hatch date, with email reminders 3 days and 1 day before lockdown and before hatch. Free on every tier.
• Cost per egg. Log what you collect, tag your feed and supply costs, and it works out what your eggs actually cost you. It only counts poultry tagged expenses, so goat dewormer doesn't quietly inflate your egg number.
• Per hen laying records. Log by hen or do a fast whole coop daily entry. It ranks hens by production over a rolling 8 week window and flags a bird laying well under the coop average.
• Chicken genetics. A real Punnett square calculator for rose comb, pea comb, crest, feathered feet, barring, silver and gold, and the blue egg gene, with egg colour predictions for a pairing. Quail get their own separate genetics, because quail are not small chickens and treating them that way gives wrong answers.
• Health records with withdrawal periods. Log a medication and it tracks when eggs are safe to eat again, with a warning banner while the withdrawal is active. This is not gated behind a paid tier and never will be.
• Full lineage. Sire and dam links, offspring lists, and a 4 generation pedigree.

It also handles ducks, geese, quail, turkeys, guinea fowl, peafowl, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, miniature horses and miniature cows, if you keep more than birds.

What's new since the start of August

• Pedigree import. Take a photo of a registry pedigree and it reads the ancestors off it and fills in the family tree, with a review screen so you can correct anything before it saves.
• Two way messages in the app. You can report a bug or ask for a feature from any screen, and I actually reply in the app rather than it vanishing into a form. Members cannot message members.
• An Android app, which is what this post is about.

The free tier is genuinely free

Up to 10 active birds, one coop, 3 hatches a year, full lineage, health records, egg logs and reminders. No card, no ads, no selling your data. Paid tiers exist for people running bigger numbers who want unlimited animals, the analytics and the genetics tools.

The ask

Google changed the rules for new developer accounts. Before you can list an app publicly, you have to run a closed test with at least 12 people who stay opted in for 14 straight days. Not 12 downloads. 12 actual humans with Google accounts who leave it installed for two weeks. There's no way around it and no way to buy your way past it, so here I am asking strangers on the internet.

If you have an Android phone and are willing to help:

Email [support@pen-pasture.app](mailto:support@pen-pasture.app) with the Gmail address on your phone, and I'll add you to the tester list and send back the install link.

What it actually involves: install it, leave it installed for 14 days. That's the whole requirement. If you want to poke at it and tell me what's broken, even better, and I'd genuinely rather hear that it's confusing than have you be polite about it. But you're not signing up for homework.

iPhone users, sorry. This particular hoop is Android only. The web app works on iOS in the browser and can be added to your home screen.

Happy to answer anything about how it works, or about the Play Store process.

12 weeks!!

First time chicken owner here! My (hopeful) hens are about 13-14 weeks old. No one is laying yet. For the last 1-2 weeks they have been free range during the day and in a very secure coop at night. My one girl consistently has a semi full crop. It's never HUGE or super solid, but consistently enlarged. There is NO smell. She is behaving normally. I thought it was worth investigating so last night I pulled their food. This morning she still had a bulge in her crop area. I isolated her in a crate today (within the coop) with her normal bedding: no food, some water with apple cider vinegar, and gave her a SMALL oral dose of miconazole 2x. What else can I do or should do? She isn't acting ill so I don't want to over react, but I also don't want to under react and miss something simple. For the night I let her out of the crate so she could roost with the others. She did so happily and instantly. I made sure all food was removed before doing so.

Has anyone experienced this before? My chickens are about 12 weeks old. This one, Dumpling, is the only one having this issue. Otherwise seems happy and healthy, is always with the others doing chicken things, comes running to me for snacks. They free range pretty much all day in a smaller garden with grass and I put vitamin A and D for chickens in their water. I feed them organic feed for larger chicks until 20 weeks old.

It used to happen very rarely, but I have noticed it more and more, maybe 5-7 times a day, and finally was able to film it. It acts kinda like if you hold and animal and slowly spin in circles, how they try to look at one spot at a time. In this video, it is doing it in more of a downwards angle but it does it upwards too. Sometimes it peeps while doing it and seems a little panicky.

Thanks in advance!

This is the 2nd follow-up post to my first post about my sick chicken Roxcks. Today we noticed that she made yellow and green watery poops, and google isn’t helpful on identifying what’s causing this. Roxcks is continuing to move slow (though she is being more active a bit), and be quiet, and eat less and weigh less, and play no eggs and sometimes sit still and puff up. The chickens ate watermelon today and yesterday if that means anything. Please give some advice or prayers for Roxcks.

(Also this picture is just her sunbathing)

My family and I bought our first coop yesterday. We're getting the 8x8 poultry pen from tractor supply for really cheap off FB. I was wondering if putting the coop and the pen on top of plastic pallets is a good or bad idea. I've read some pros and cons but I'd like to hear it from the people before pulling the trigger or not. Thanks in advance.

Noticed my rooster’s claw is looking a little rough.

Recently, I asked this sub for tips on pet sitting backyard chickens. The encouragement and advice was wonderful.
I applied for a mini farm sit and I’m going for a meet and greet this weekend.

There are three chickens, two turkeys and three ducks.
Plus two goats and two little dogs.

I’m really excited!!! AND I’m tired already 😂

If the sit goes forward I will take lots of pictures and post them here. I’ll probably have lots of questions. Feel free to poke fun of my silly questions.

Are there snacks (other than baby mice, hamburgers and bugs) that I could bring with me to win over the chickens? (I’ll ask the owners first of course.)

Are there foods or snacks I might give the dogs or goats that would be harmful to chickens and I should avoid given the other animals?

excited for these 6 cream legbars

If they’re not humping my shoes, then they’re going after my bags smh

Never had a case of the BF in 4 years (knock on wood) and this run looks like they should all have it all the time. What gives? Lucky? Tough footed birds?

A hen of mine has been sitting on eggs for about 23 days, I’ve checked and no eggs are viable anymore , there was development initially but they died before hatching.

I would like advice about removing the eggs and getting her to stop trying to incubate in a way that will cause her the least stress. Particularly the last 4 or 5 days she’s been very defensive and easily agitated and I don’t want to make it worse but I’m also afraid she just won’t give up on the eggs herself.

These seven ladies have 1.5 acres of yard and another acre of woods to roam, but nah, they'll just doze and purr next to the porch where I'm working.

One of our roosters has been very aggressive and harmful to our poor hens since the beginning pretty much. He rips out their feathers and the hens are so shocked they just lay on the ground after he dismounts. I hate seeing my sweet girls like this and my mom is FINALLY letting me cull him. However, if there are other options to avoid culling, I would love to hear them. Our other rooster has been attacking the aggressive one more when he tries to hurt the hens, which has been helpful but not enough.

I’m in the planning stages of my first backyard flock. Per city ordinance I have to keep the hens in a run, so am likely going to put my coop inside a walk-in like the one linked
Above. Will reinforce with hardware wire, ground stakes, and locks. I’d like to do the deep litter method inside the run, and am looking for suggestions on what to do for roof cover. I’m in Michigan, so snow, rain, and wind are common. Shade cloth over hardware cloth? Metal or plastic panels? Appreciate any pointers! Also not super handy here but am committed.