#chicken advice

[homeofhousechickens]

PoultryDVM made a poultry feed comparison tool! This is a great way to compare the feed brands you have access to so you can choose the most nutritious feed for your birds.

You can also sort feed by ingredients so you can look at corn and soy free feeds, organic, non gmo, ect

I use Kalmbach's henhouse reserve for my grown chickens as whole/unprocessed feed helps decrease the gizzards ph which helps prevent digestive upset due to bacteria. I personally also find that unprocessed feed helps for chickens to have firmer less smelly stools. Henhouse reserve also has added vitamin D which is very important for my house chickens. If you want to compare our feeds for fun you can find henhouse reserve by sorting for "textured" in the feed form filter.

PoultryDVM: Poultry Feeds Comparison Lookup Tool

An interactive tool to allow poultry owners the ability to look up and compare nutrients in the various commercial poultry feeds available i

[starlit-mermaid]

My sweet girl Betty (she just looks like a Betty to me idk) she’s old. We inherited her when we moved into this house literally two days ago. (along with my boyfriends two cats again long story short its his moms old house that we took when she moved out and they stayed with her for the last few years.)

ANYWAY. I don’t know anything about chickens other than she needs to be fed and given water every day. I know she needs good bedding. But anyone who has had chickens, give me advice??!! I want to make sure I’m giving her everything she needs. Again she’s old, so idk if there’s anything special i should do? Google helps but id rather hear from people who have actually had chickens since I’d like to get more! We live in the north so our winters are the worst. Mentioning so i can get winter advice too.

Again she was inherited (we were not made aware before hand that we’d be getting her) so we didn’t just blindly get an animal we have no idea how to care for, but im now very emotionally attached to her and would like to get her some friends. So any and all advice is welcomed!!! ❤️❤️

[brighthawksflight]

Okay so today there was a falcon outside the chicken run today and thankfully the falcon couldn't get inside and nobody was hurt and I scared the falcon away but I'm worried now it might come back? Does anyone know if once a falcon knows where your birds are they will remember and come back and try to get to them again?? I'm just really freaked out and worried.

[chickenbit]

Does anybody know how to help stop plucking?

I have a Red Comet hen that’s at the top of the pecking order eating a lot of the other bird’s feather right now. We’ve put out extra oyster shell and have layer feed out for them, but I think it’s a habit more than a nutritional need for her.

The Salmon Faveroles have COMPLETELY lost their beards due to plucking, and are now starting to love feathers down their chest and on their heads. My rooster, Precious, is also starting to lose feathers on his head. I feared it was disease until I saw the Red Comet, Autumn, casually lean over and start yanking out feathers to eat.

The others don’t even resist her! They complain vocally a bit but otherwise don’t even move away, just go about their usual business.

How do I get this to stop? I can’t isolate her right now, since I’m already taking care of five other birds in isolation, and will be moving soon.

[chainedbones]

Hi, I'm interested in raising backyard chickens and I was wondering how you set up your run? Thanks :)

I personally don’t use a run but I did make one for when Cherry & Berry arrived and it was about ten chickens [head to tail] long and five chickens wide and that run was for two chickens. I had chicken wire all around it, top and sides so it’s pretty secure. The main thing is to ensure nothing can get in. It all depends on the size of your garden and how many chickens your going to get for the size. You’d need a house to keep them in at night as well. If your going to buy one I’d always go for a size bigger than what you need i.e if your getting three chickens get one for five. They’d appreciate the room. Even if you start off in a run and want to let them out in your garden, you’ll have to make sure your garden is pretty secure from predators. I hope this helps in some way 😊

[restlessreveries]

I call upon the power of birb tumblr

Just a quick question to the chicken community. What kind of chickens do well alongside silkies? I’m not really in a position to get any chickens right now so I can’t say how much space I’d have, but I’m curious about what breeds might get along with the walking cottonballs.

I kinda like the look of faverolle and brahma (though the leg feather care might be an issue on those) or maybe frizzle, but I’m absolutely open for suggestions on other breeds, particularly if they’re a bit unusual in appearance.

And before someone asks, my desire for a mixed flock is because I’m a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to tell a bunch of silkies apart if I can only find one color. :l

[homeofhousechickens]

My family bought two dozen chickens without telling me or even preparing a coop one year ago, so it goes without saying they had no plan about what to do if any of the little ones turned into a rooster, let alone an aggressive rooster. I'm really sad, because he's an asshole and he's rough on the hens, but I'm a city kid who gets attached easily and can't help but still see the little baby he once was. The idea of killing him makes me want to cry and I just don't know what to do. It breaks my heart.

No one else is going to want to deal with your aggressive rooster and rehoming him is just giving the problem to someone else.

There are resources online that might help you train him to be nice again like the people who run Rusty's Rooster Rescue facebook page, Roovulution-For the love of chickens facebook page, and Rooster Allies facebook group. Keep in mind you cant rehome your rooster to them or talk about culling but those people are very experienced in caring for and training roosters humanely.

[homeofhousechickens]

Brooder making tip. If you dislike the sharp edges of hardware cloth or whatever other mesh you use. You can use a glue gun to cover the edges and make them safe.

(Yes i know my window is lopsided, leave me alone! If it works it works!)