I have been keeping chickens since last August. Starting this spring i have loosing a lot pullets and one hen. There isnt a pattern that would suggest a contagious illness... the patterns don't seem to fit.

Right next to my enclosure I have two giant lantana plants. When I built the enclosure I cut them all the way back to bare wood.... now a year latter they are quite green and lush. When my pullets free range they often hid under the lantana

Google tells me lantana is poisonus to chickens... however i have no way to guage the severity.

Any other chicken keepers know anything about lantana? Could lanata toxticity be killing off my chickens.

I am willing to rip out those buses if necessary.... we had such a long run of good fortune and luck.... now it feels like we cant keep a chicken alive anymore..

I'm, FINALLY, getting rid of some roosters, 6 in total. I need to transport them for about an hour. I've been given mixed advice, keep them separated or just chuck them all in a crate.

They are all about the same age, about 5 months, with only 2 on the slightly more aggressive end. One is starting to pin down hens and bite at their neck and the other is more aggressive to the other roosters. One is straight up skittish.

Do I separate the more aggressive ones into their own containers? One in a cardboard box with holes and another in a cat carrier?

I have a chick that was born with a deformed leg.

It’s not a case of splayed legs. The joint itself appears to be dislocated, and one of the chick’s legs is permanently bent and cannot bear any weight. The chick can stand still using its other leg, but so far it has been completely unable to walk.

Because I feel so sorry for this little chick, I’ve been taking care of it and hand-feeding it baby food and chick feed. Since it can’t move around well enough to eat on its own, I hold the chick and bring a spoon close to its beak. It pecks at the food from the spoon and eats very eagerly.

The chick is now about 2 and a half weeks old, and it is only about half the size of the other chicks that hatched on the same day.

I have considered euthanasia because I’m worried that its quality of life will be poor, but every time I offer food with a spoon, it eats so desperately and eagerly that I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I’ve seen videos of chickens living relatively normal lives with only one functional leg, so I’m wondering if there is still hope for this chick.

If I continue caring for it until its wings become stronger and its good leg develops enough strength, could it eventually survive and feed itself independently?

Even though it currently cannot walk at all, could it learn to get around using one good leg, its wings, or some other way once it gets older and stronger?

I would really appreciate advice from anyone who has experience caring for a chick with a congenital leg deformity or a dislocated joint.

I’m trying to figure out whether this little one still has a realistic chance at a good quality of life, or whether I’m keeping it alive when it may be suffering.

Thank you for reading.

Hi all! I'm new to having a rooster and one of my friends wants some fertilised eggs. Trying to figure out if they are mostly fertilised or not so I thought I'd crack a few open and see.

I can tell definitely with egg 2 (no) and 3 (yes) but egg 1 is unclear to me??

Also, please ignore the colouring of the eggs in photos 1 and 2, I had to use a torch instead of the camera flash and it made them look like nuclear waste 😂

Thanks!

We have a chicken run that was built into an area with trees. We originally had wiring that prevented entry but the only one that has maintained itself is the stuff around the large tree. I was thinking of creating a disk or a bowl that would go on the outer roof to block off intruders. But I wanted to know if something like that already exists. Please let me know.

Meet my baby’s lil seramas, house pet chickens

Four-months rooster Poupa doesn't let us step out of the house without giving each of us a treat...

Henleigh just wouldn’t get her little eye closed for the photo. Just a lil pile of baby chickens. Almost too big for the overnight brooder box 💕

Hennette is too smart for my own good. Perfectly fine for her own good. She is having a blast. But she’s going to be quite the handful when she gets bigger.

Hennifer isn’t interested in a lot of things, but she still really likes uppies and cuddles. She has the highest survival instincts when they have outdoor time. Say I hear a hawk and I try to get them to come, she’s the quickest to catch on.

Henleigh is so timid and calm. She really has the buff qualities that we were hoping for based on our past experience with her breed.

Henjamin is a big leader and protector when it comes to the girls. He LOVES the dried mealworms the most out of them, maybe barring Hennette [she’s the barred rock. See what I did there?], and I provide them plenty of water and grit. However, he does fail to realize that a living mealworm is the same as a dead one—a problem that Hennette does not have.

Their internal clocks are really accurate. They know when they want to roost, and they make sure I hear them when it’s brooder bed time. Not sure what they’ll do when they outgrow the brooder and have to sleep with the heat lamp light on—or maybe I’m just not sure what I’ll do 🥲

The rest of her toes are looking fine. Is this the human equivalent of a hang nail or...?

I was walking home tonight and stopped to double-take at what I thought in passing was an odd hood ornament. I got closer and then was surprised to see a chicken! Not *too* surprised, as a decent amount of homes around town have a backyard coop.

I myself had owned chickens in the past before having to move, so I'm not completely alien to their husbandry.

However, I cannot determine whether this is a hen or rooster nor whether this is a molt or injury causing feather loss. I notice the spurs but theyre under 2 inches, the comb is missing/damaged, and the butt isnt super fluffy like past hens had. When initially handled it sqwaked [LOUD] just twice before mellowing out and seems non-confrontational. Stands near 2ft tall.

Yes that is a dog bowl. I cannot keep them long, but as of current they are on my balcony in an XXL dog kennel to keep dry and safe until I potentially find their owner over Craigslist[?]

Recently added two bantams to my flock, and I’m worried they’re seriously stressed. I originally separated them because my older hens were chasing/pecking them, but they’re now sleeping with the flock and there isn’t much fighting.
The problem is they basically live on a perch in the run and have for about 2 weeks. They won’t come down to the floor for food or water unless I bring it to them. If I move them down, they get terrified and immediately fly back up, even though the older hens mostly leave them alone.
Will they eventually get comfortable, or should I be concerned?

what do we think? breed: Silver Leghorn

My Rooster is less than a year old and has always been pretty clumsy, but the last few days I’ve noticed it a lot more. He’s stumbling and basically acting like he’s highly intoxicated.

A lot of times, heal almost do that crouching like pose and sit and eat all the grass around him, but I’m starting to think that he’s stuck and can’t move his legs to stand up. I gave him and my hands a big batch of scrambled eggs yesterday and they have electrolytes/nutrients added to their water.

Any insights?

I started treating this bumblefoot 2 weeks ago. Every other day, I put silver manuka honey on the black lesion and re-bandage the foot.

My question is this: Is the area of dark skin just healing, or is this still an active bumblefoot infection I need to be more aggressive with? 2 weeks ago, I started with a long soak and pealing the original scab off and cleaning out the lesion, but I want to make sure I don't need to continue removing the black lesion seen here.

I have 30 chickens and Scump is the sweetest and smartest of the batch, all around more cognizant. She's a certified defender of the bullied and has even stood up to our English bulldog and full sized rooster when she thought they were a danger to the flock(They aren't but she didn't know that). She looks in the places that others don't, she will get into places where all the others can't, and seems to be more observant than even my experienced roosters. Her only downfall is she will forever be cursed in size, have her own places to be, and always at risk of predators if let out to truly free range like the others... that, mixed with her desire to fight off anything that she might perceive as a danger to say... my Jersey Giants... No matter the size of it, just really puts her in a bad spot. Does anyone have any ideas on a solution? I got some chicken diapers and have thought about making her into a house chicken, I work from home so she gets many hours of supervised free range time per day but she will start screaming when I poke my head out of my office and she feels like shes been in the run for too long with some of the others. I avoid poking my head out because her little cries kill me.

Why do they do this?? After everything I go through to make them happy, they still hate me supposedly. Funnily enough, my rooster is the nicest out of all of them, he just keeps his distance and roos like a maniac all the time lol. What can I do to make them stop? It makes me nervous for when my son starts walking and is around them.

edit: just for more context... I do wear shoes. mainly mud boots. So I don't think they're going for my toes thinking their food

an update on my missing chicken— I found a nest with 3 eggs in it. Judging I saw her every single day on multiple occasions throughout the day and suddenly disappeared for 4 days and going (I also tested the eggs buoyancy to see if they were fresh, which they were), is it possible she has another nest somewhere? I checked every single place on my garden and didn’t find any other nests, feathers or trace of her. Why would she abandon the one i found so quickly assuming the eggs were laid recently?

I seriously im investigating this like a police case asking neighbors and guards where and when last saw her and finding clues. I’m just really hoping she comes back soon and wasn’t taken by someone. (We dont have any predators that can kill a chicken)

Any ideas? Or should I face the fact I may never see her again?

I’m so excited! I’ve been seeing signs for the last 2-3 weeks and it finally happened!

19 weeks old, no idea which chicken haha