Dolly is my girl who does what she wants. When we hold her, she closes her eyes. When I was dipping my chickens in a bucket of oil to treat scaley leg mites and all of the chickens were freaking out, Dolly was in the corner sleeping. When it’s a windy day and everyone seems on edge, Dolly is closing her eyes and leaning into the wind.

She cracks me up because she seems like she doesn’t care about anything but then she is kind of a bully when food is around. When I bring a tray of treats out to them, she stands in the middle of the tray. I just love her.

I genuinely don’t know if she’s my dumb chicken, sweet chicken, chicken that doesn’t know she’s a chicken, or my narcoleptic chicken. 🤔

Love these 6 week old sassy ladies! Last photo shows them making a diy dust bath on the floor next to the perfectly good tub that I made specifically for their baths 😂

My duck has had labored breathing for the past 3 days. Lethargic but able to keep up with her friends for the most part until today when she was finally slow enough to catch her. I have isolated her with vet rx in the water but any other suggestions would be welcome. She pooped a green watery poop with a lot of air today as well.

I had 4 12 week old bantams that I was nearly ready to integrate. I already have three adult chocolate orpington ladies. Out of the babies only one male cochin bantam survived. The babies and the bigger ladies had a separate Coop and I guess the babies coop wasn't as secure.

I have the little boy inside with me today. The top of his Crest has some blood on it so we are going to clean him up and give him a shower to make sure he doesn't have any other wounds. I've gotten him to eat but I haven't seen him drink anything yet. He is currently cuddled up to me and taking a nap. I have to go back to work on Tuesday so I won't be able to be with him for 24 hours a day. I'm trying to figure out the best way to integrate him into the remaining older ladies so he's not alone.

It's been a few weeks of them being outside together but separated by chicken wire. I've had them interact a few times which of course results in the pecking and light chasing to establish pecking order. Of course I'm going to wait until he's fully healed up so they don't see any red on him and attack.

Any advice for the next few days? Or advice on how to smoothly integrate him? Poor boy is traumatized..

Here are my girls. The rodents recently discovered that they can dig in and eat their leftover food on the ground. We had to take the food inside every evening.

We are planning to build a new coop and run for them. Any advice to prevent the rodents?

I had her quarantined away from the rest of the flock, because she has murderous intent towards the chicks we hatched. I noticed that her tail feathers were bald, at first I thought she might just be over grooming because she was bored. But she's been out with the rest of the flock for a few weeks now and it looks like it's getting worse. Coul

The first five photos are my Dutch booted bantams while the rest are Belgian Millie fleur d’uccle even a low quality Belgian d'uccle without its muffs or beard is considered a Dutch booted bantam.

Over the past several weeks, I keep seeing people posting their d'uccle but they literally are not that!

It is slightly driving me nuts because they would understand if they just looked up the breed standards for the breed that they think they have!!!!!!

They would quickly realize that, that is not what it is in the same way I did years ago.

Both breeds are glorious and beautiful, but I’m not gonna call a phoenix chicken a Yokohama. Even though both are closely related, they are two distinct breeds.

Ig just a side rant how it grinds my gears that people consider both of these to be one and the same.

Technically, they are highly HIGHLY closely related, but the beard and muff makes all the difference.

A low quality D’uccle can have minor muff or beard or be lacking it entirely (at that point it’s a Dutch booted bantam) but that doesn’t mean that Dutch booted bantams are also considered low quality.

Sorry for the rant, not sure what to tag this as but it’s been bugging me for a bit.

I really need help right now. I had a hen who suddenly became ill. I still don't know what it was/what happened but she's been recovering and has almost made a full recovery I believe. Well anyway, she was only taken from the coop for 3 days (she was in my house so I could monitor her/ try to see what was wrong.) After the 3 days she wasn't fully recovered but she was acting better and was eager to be out of my bathroom lol. I put her in a cage inside the coop where the hens can see her and she can see them. After i noticed she looked healthy enough I let her go back to the hens. I was worried for there interaction so I gave them treats and everything was fine while they was eating but then after i had at least 2 bullies that I know of. She was not trying to run away instead she would lay down and make noises (which I interpreted as please stop ) she was not fending for herself or escaping so I put her back in the cage inside the coop. Then after more time again I tried and same bullies attacking her. They have been together since chicks and are two years old. I live in town so I cannot free range my flock. It sucks that I now have a hen in a isolated cage that's not big, just roomy enough to be safe but not how a chicken would want to be especially since she's free ranged in the coop for 2 years!! Idk how to get her back in the flock.

Utley has the bumblefoot. Today I noticed a slight limp and checked it, confirming the swelling and dark mark. She's been running with the flock and normal otherwise, and it is not hot to the touch or red.

We soaked it for 15 in Epsom, sprayed with antiseptic, wrapped it and she's resting in the coop while the others free range.

The vet asked us to bring her in, but they've been very over cautious before, once telling me a frostbite was urgent when it turned out to be nothing treated at home.

Any suggestions?

I have a small backyard flock with 2 austrolorps, a wyandotte and an easter egger. I got them in April and it is almost November. Only 1 of my austrolorps ever laid. She was laying daily for about a month and a half but has now stopped completely. No eggs from her for going on 3 weeks now. My other 3 hens have not laid a single egg.

Days are extremely short in winter where i live (dusk at 4pm in deep winter) and the sun is already going down at around 5-6 pm. I expected them to do the seasonal withdrawal but is it normal to not get an egg from a hen for damn near a year?

If i don't start seeing eggs until February when the days start to get longer that means several of these birds will have taken 10 months to lay. Is that normal?

I think this is a hen. Old English Bantam about 3-4 months old.

she sat very nice while i popped it out, went through both sides of her webbing and left a pretty decent hole.

Hey there, just got my first batch of chickens last month. Eight in total. They’re now 6 weeks old and finally living outside in the run my husband built. Aside from providing food and water and keeping the coup clean, anything else I need to be concerned with?

I live in Southern California- climate is very mild.

Thanks!

I recently got a splash ameraucana bantam rooster chick and while he's extremely sweet and healthy, he isn't developing any spots/splashes and has remained pure white despite being almost fully feathered. He still has very light, baby blue eyes despite all my other chicks now having their adult eye color or beginning to shift towards it and is the same size as my fibromelanistic easter egger and zombie chicks despite supposedly being a bantam. I'm very confused lol, these are my first chickens and I can't tell if my roo is actually a white ameraucana or if he might be leucistic? I've had a leucistic crow and a peacock previously so I can't help but notice a lot of similarities. I'm almost certain he isn't a bantam either, the last picture is of him, my buff polish, and my d'uccle chicks sleeping on my arm for size reference.

So I live about four miles away from where the massive chemical leak in Toledo Ohio happened. It was insanely thick here where visibility was zero but luckily my girls survived. That being said I’m not sure going forward if they will have any long term health problems or if I should give them something to hopefully help ward that off. Also I’m not sure if we should even eat their eggs again or just not for a while? Any advice is greatly appreciated as I’m a relatively new chicken owner.

I have a 7 month old splash Maran and her feet appear to have some feathers attempting to grow out. Is this painful? Are they ever going to get more feathered?

I have two other hens that are the same age from the same breeder with feathered feet and theirs were feathered from an early age, so I’m thinking not?

I’m currently thinking about keeping 8 chickens—are there any breeds that are both ornamental and good for egg-laying?

I have absolutely no prior knowledge about this.

Hi, I’m a single 20-something y/o lady who got into backyard chickens this past year. I am trying to grow my flock and twice now have ended up with Roos.

When I first got the birds, I thought I had a back-up-plan for this scenario but it fell through. As did my plan B & C, so I feel like I need to suck it up at this point and learn how to deal with them on my own. I am not allowed to have roosters in my county. They are sweet boy and I would love to keep them, but I can’t for the foreseeable future.

I would greatly appreciate any advice or resources on how to do this humanely, also maybe a reminder that I am doing the right thing, because I am super sad, lol.

Shes an easter egger, a year old, and its my first time having chickens😅. Does anyone know what the cause for this is, and what I can do? I checked the bottom of her feet and I don’t see bumblefoot or anything, and she let me move her leg around. All advice appreciated🫩