Why are my bantam chicks dying?
First bantam hatch. Twelve chicks, and I have lost three in four days. They are tiny, maybe half the size of the standard chicks I raised last year, and I think I am treating them like standard chicks. Brooder has a…
Why is my guinea fowl limping?
One of my twelve has been limping for about four days. She still keeps up with the flock and still eats, but she is clearly favouring the left leg. They free range over a couple of acres so it could be anything. I have…
Why is my button quail growling?
Six button quail in a converted cabinet indoors. One of them has started making a low growling noise, a few seconds of something like a tiny motor revving or wind down a chimney, and then a run of louder higher calls…
Silkie panting: fluff, heat stress and when it is illness
Four silkies, and on any warm afternoon at least two of them stand about with their beaks open breathing fast and their wings held off their bodies. The run has one small tree and not much else. The other hens I keep do…
Can you eat quail eggs after the date on the carton?
Bought a box of quail eggs for a recipe in late September, used about half, and found the rest at the back of the fridge tonight. The date on the carton was ten days ago. They have been in the fridge the whole time,…
Why does my quail sound like a frog?
Twenty coturnix, hatched about six weeks ago, and for the last few days there has been a low croaking coming out of the pen. I genuinely went looking for a frog in the run before I worked out it was one of the birds. It…
Switching a flock to nipple waterers: how the training goes and what winter does to it
Moved four hens off an open drinker. Worth doing, and the two things people worry about are not the two things that matter. The training is easier than expected Most birds work it out within a day, and several within…
One hen has sat in the nest box for nine days flat and screams at me - how long do you let a broody stay broody?
One of my four is completely stuck. She is in the same nest box every time I look, flattened out like a pancake, and she makes a noise I have never heard from her before if I reach under her. There are no fertile eggs…
My hens are five and lay maybe one egg a week each - what do people actually do at this point?
Four birds, all hatched in spring five years ago, all healthy and active, and between them I am getting three or four eggs a week. The feed bill has not changed at all and I have space for six birds maximum in the run.…
First pullet eggs are tiny and one had no shell, is this normal at 20 weeks Laying
Two of my six started laying about ten days ago. The eggs are maybe half the size I expected and yesterday I found one that was just a membrane sac, no shell at all, sitting under the roost. They're on layer pellets…
Chickens or ducks for a small garden that floods every winter?
We have maybe 60 square metres of lawn over heavy clay, and it sits under standing water from November to February. Everyone local keeps hens, but two people have told me ducks cope with the wet far better and keep…
Four hens, no eggs for eleven days, all healthy and eating normally Laying
Flock of four, all just under two years old, laid consistently through spring. Eleven days ago production stopped dead, not a slow decline, just nothing. Combs are red, they're eating and drinking normally, no mites I…
What does feeding four hens actually cost a month once you stop guessing?
Four hybrid layers, a covered run, and a 20kg sack of layer pellets that I keep buying without ever noticing how long it lasts. I want a real monthly figure before I add two more birds, including whatever people spend…
New pullets three weeks in and the old hens still draw blood at the feeder New Flock
Integrated three 18 week pullets with my existing four hens three weeks ago. Did the see but not touch thing through wire for two weeks first. Everything is fine in the run during the day, but at the feeder there's real…
Condensation dripping on my hens at night in a coop I thought was ventilated Coop & Run
Wake up to wet backs on the two birds who roost at the far end. Coop is a converted shed, about 6x4 feet, six hens. There are two vents at roost height on the door side and I keep them open all winter. Outside temps…
Hardware cloth over the whole run or an electric wire, garden is small Predators
Lost a hen to what I'm fairly sure was a fox that dug under the run fence. Garden is about 8 metres square so the run is small and close to the house. I can afford one of these properly: either skirting the entire run…