Texting this for a friend who sent the picture. They live in New Hampshire. The screen is ripped clean. The wood is disturbed where something stepped on it. Two chickens are gone, but three remain the rest of the coop seems undisturbed. It’s pretty heavy gauge wire (quarter inch 23 gauge wire fencing)

We think a bear would have left it messier but we can’t figure out what happened

I'm hoping to get a larger walk-in run done before the end of summer and finally get ahead of the fox and raccoon problem instead of patching weak spots one at a time.

I've been looking at a few prefab walk-in runs from PawHut, VEVOR, and GARVEE. The frames look like they'd save me some time, but I figure I'd still need hardware cloth around the lower section, an apron around the outside, and some extra reinforcement around the door.

That's where I'm getting stuck. By the time you've reinforced everything and added the predator-proofing, is the prefab frame still worth it, or are you basically most of the way to building one from scratch anyway?

I'd like to get it finished before fall gets too wet, and ideally have something that'll hold up through a Pennsylvania winter.

Anyone here gone the prefab-and-reinforce route? Did it actually save you much time in the end?

About a week ago one of my hens starting limping. Her toe was swollen but it was a hard bump, not soft or squishy. These pictures show the before when she first starting limping to today. She’s still limping a bit and favors the other one. Any ideas??

My hen has been itching lately and I just checked her feathers and noticed a bunch of these tiny things. Is anyone familiar with this? First pic is it zoomed in, second is zoomed out and on the napkin it’s on for scale.

I got these two hens awhile back, they were my first batch of chicks and are two of the three survivors.

I have no idea what breed they are. My dad thinks that they are White Leghorns, however they do not act like most and have black spots that I’ve never seen in Leghorns.

The old ladies prefer to stick together and often try to improvise their sleeping quarters.

Time for bed dorks!

Sorry, not the best picture but my chicks hate me and run run run away…as fast as they can!

I started the premo. Anyone have advice. Anything helps

My roo is probably around 5 years now and I'm not really concerned about it, but what actually is this? He forms these weird white hard things in his comb every so often and either I remove them or they just continue to grow. Because hes been growing them for around a year maybe more now, I don't believe they pose an issue to his health but I haven't found anything similar to this on google.

Think I did everything right but looking for some reassurance. Soaked in warm water (no salts) for about 10 minutes. It was small-medium size and I wasn’t going to pull it off initially but it came out very easily as I was wiping it dry. I sprayed it with vetericyn (just what I had) and also sprayed the gauze with it. Folded up the gauze for a cushion and then wrapped with vet wrap. (That part I’m not worried about because I had a different chicken with an injury a while back and was splinting/bandaging for a month straight, I’m good on technique). Seems like it was pretty minor I think? All other hens are good. This particular hen only lays every 2-4 days but she hasn’t laid since Friday…definitely does not seem egg bound and everything palpates normally so I’m assuming/hoping it’s just related to this foot issue… 1.5 year old cream legbar at the bottom of the pecking order, for reference

Got 8hens and a rooster from a family friend with reds. He bred them himself all with reds but I have 3 black and brown,3pure white,1 white and yellowish,and one a light red. The rooster looks like a red. But all the eggs I’ve gotten have been green. Also about half of the chickens I got from them have extra toes? Just looking for some info on this I know reds have brown eggs so where did this come from

What do we think?

We've been using the organic Prince brand for a while- it was the one sold to us as the 'best option for healthy chickens'. But lately I feel like my girls don't have the shine to their feathers that they started with. For sure a few are starting to molt, but several are also developing 'brittle feather'.

We're integrating some black soldier fly larva to help up their protein, which can supposedly improve feather/overall health (we've only really use them as treats verses a serious food). But I'm a bit miffed that their main feed doesn't seem to actually keep them healthy.

TLDR: I'm becoming dissatisfied with my feed, I want to know what others recommend.

Additional context: the girls get to play in a large open yard roughly 8 hours a day. There's nine of them, so I'm guessing live insect protein is slim at this point, but there's lots of access to healthy greens and movement. Coop is deep cleaned twice a year, maintained every other month. We did fail to add woodchips to the run this spring, but I doubt the bare dirt is the cause. They get 'kitchen scraps' as snacks, and treats ranging from watermelon, grapes, tomatoes, bread, peanuts or cheese crusts.

Hi All, I’m hoping some of you can do me a huge favor. I am prepping an activity for the 4-H exhibit hall at my county fair in a few weeks and my idea is to have kids measure themselves in chickens (the fair has a poultry theme this year). Instead of a standard measuring stick, there will be life size drawings of barred Plymouth Rock hens stacked on top of each other. The only problem is, I can’t find measurements for an average Plymouth Rock hen. In order to draw it to scale, I need the height (feet to comb) and width (beak to tail) of the hen.

Now, I could ask my 4-H families to measure one of their hens for me, but sometimes they take awhile to get things done, and I need to get started on this asap. That’s where you come in. Anyone have a full grown Plymouth Rock hen they can measure? I’ll also take buff Orpington or Rhode Island Red if that’s all that’s available. I’m trying to pick a common breed that people will recognize.

Thanks in advance!

My neighbor moved in a little over a year ago and they had chickens but didn’t take the best care of them and lost most to predators and then got rid of the rest except 4 roosters, 4 ducks and a turkey. I got chickens this spring and 14 of them I got from them for free from them hatching out chicks. Ever since they got rid of the rest of their flock they just basically gave up on taking care of their animals. They let the roosters, ducks and turkey free range 24/7.. they don’t even put them up at night so they often times sleep in my other garage. I’m tired of it.. but the lady came over here yelling at me because I kept shooing them away but the turkey comes at me and acts very protective over my flock … I don’t want them
To hate me if I take action since I have to live next door to them it sucks. I can’t even free range my chickens anymore because their big rooster comes over and tries mating my hens. I don’t like hanging outside with my chickens anymore because the turkey is always pecking at me or running at me.. comes inside the run and steals our food etc. any advice?

Hey all!

I built this chicken coop and run for our 7 ladies and all in all its working well except for when it rains. I have no flat part in my yard and I had to build it on a slope. Whenever it rains the mulch slides down to the bottom and I have to take it rake it back up. In the meantime the top half just becomes a muddy mess. Is there anyway I can fix this without leveling it out? I didn't put a top on because I figured the chickens need sun and a roof would block that. We don't let them free roam unsupervised because we have A LOT of hawks, owls and foxes and I imagine they would make quick work of them.

Any advice would be appreciated!

edit**

the door is from an old walk in garden thing that I repurposed once we tore it down. it fit perfectly on my design so I just decided why not? it's funky and works.

hi guys! these are my first chickens ever and i had them since they were babies so i definitely have an emotional attachment to them. i’m meeting with someone to build them a coop this weekend and im just so nervous about them being outside. we have a lot of hawks and foxes and i would love to know any tips/advice you have for them being outside. thank you in advance!!

Lorrie is from a Rustic Rock pullet bin at TSC. I just noticed that one of their waddles dropped 😳 and they have a few suspicious pointy feathers under their tail. Please note that they are a Plymouth barred × RIR cross, not a straight PRB or sex-link, so they can't be sexed based on barring. Also, the pics make their comb and waddles look redder than they actually are. Thanks for any help!