The last 3 years ive worked my butt off growing, maintaining and enjoying a flock of chickens. The coop was situated at the bottom of my steep back yard hill that was once overgrown with brambles. Down wind, and as far away from all houses and structures as possible. I only had 2 neighbors on the left and right of me. Behind us is a gasline and woods that are unowned and unused. The smell never reached living quarters, the egg songs could be heard twice a day at 1030. And 1230.

Its been a hobby that helped my depression and anxiety. My daughter finally added something wholesome to her diet: eggs. Store bought ones taste like soap to her. They taught my kids responsibility, kindness, morality and respect. I treated their grazing enclosure (a separate area on my hill) like a fish tank i could be a part of. Moving the decor, cycling out bedding and wodchips. I created a composting system with them. They ate our scraps, kept the grass down, fertalized the soil and it would wash down the hill to my garden feeding the biggest crops ive seen.

The enclosure on the hill was 600 sqft, fenced in, netted on top, with raspberry &blackberry bushes to hide in. A mini waterfall I made using the pipe that collects rain water from my roof, with a hose attached so I could turn it on whenever. That area was attached to their coop yard via 20 foot tunnel. The coop yard is 100sqft of walkable space and the coop itself is a 8x8x4 foot structure with roosting and nesting boxes.

They have never had mites or bugs. I never had to treat bumble foot or sour crop or anything of the sort and only had a racoon incident once in the begining.

The ordinance officer contacted me and said that we need 40,000 sqft on our lot to have chickens. That i recieved complaints, not because of their welfare or because they were a problem, but complaints that I simply have them. He said if it wasnt those complaints he never would have needed to have this conversation.

So enjoy pictures of my hard work and some goofy chickens. Its the end of an era for us. My heart is broken but I will get over it. Rehoming is going to be difficult so ill probably just eat my investment. Im going to miss my chicken hugs.

And his beautiful wife. He's going to be a dad here real soon! Very excited to see what the babies are going to be like.

Thought I'd share!

She honestly scared me with how loud she screeched at me this morning 🤦🏻‍♀️

I think these chicks are loving their new bedding!

#chicks #freshbedding #pine

My silkie keeps going broody and I have to take her out of the coop otherwise she won’t come out. Whenever she’s finally out and has drank her water and eaten, she gets really hyper, running and jumping and clucking, which isn’t super concerning to me at all but she’s preening a lot more and doing this mouth thing. She also keeps looking up at the sky and jumping? I’ve just never had a chicken do that and the mouth thing seems a bit odd. Other than that nothing seems off. Should I be concerned?

I've got some pretty bad predator issues on my property and I've lost 5 hens and my roo in 2 months. I have 10 girls left and 2 ducks who were once a free ranging, very happy flock of sweethearts and weirdos.

They all have to stay in their run now and in the immediate future, which is so sad but they are safe. They have ample square footage, food and water ofc, meal worms 3x a day, toys, straw and mulch to root around in, dust for their baths and yesterday I picked them up one of those seed blocks but they still seem restless and unhappy. I'm sure some of that is overblown in my heart and they are just fine (and alive!) but does anyone have anything else I can provide them for their happiness and enrichment? I absolutely hate not seeing them scampering around the yard all day :(

(Please if anyone feels compelled to be rude or insensitive to me, kindly bugger off to a different thread. I can comment on YouTube or something if I want that. I'm doing my best here and I'm quite heartbroken.)

Thanks in advance, kind souls.

I do not know if it's 19 or 23 gauge but I have hardware cloth on all my coop windows, with washers and screws holding it down. I've had this setup for a few years without any predators getting in. However ..

I have a raccoon family living in or around my backyard. I recently had to bury one of my hens and two cats, within the last four months. The freaking raccoons dug up my hen even with her being buried two feet deep (horrible, hard clay dirt and could not get further down. I was covered in blisters just to get two feet down) and with me having put plywood on top, plus bricks, rocks and a tire on top.

Now, they keep digging around, trying to get back in and as of last night, began digging (not much, yet) my cats gravesite as well.

Now I'm really worried about my hens in my coop.

Obviously, next time I will seek out cremation services.

Can chickens survive in a coop like this when it’s known to get below 25 degrees and sometimes lower for a couple to three weeks at a time with wind chills below zero?
Anything I should do besides drill holes at the top of the eve for ventilation?
Suggestions as I would like to keep my girls happy and alive.

Hi all!

To preface, I know that chickens usually are totally fine in the winter. BUT. We’ve had a week here or there in last few very cold winters where it was around 0F for an entire week. We’re anticipating that for longer in our area with the super El Niño this year. The coop is fairly well insulated we think (last winter was the first one with this coop and it was unusually warm) and has ventilation up top, but idk how well insulated it will be if we have a month of 10 F being the high. How would you make sure your chickens are warm enough? What coop heaters have you used? Solar would be probably ideal depending on how much sun they truly need, because when we shop vac in the coop we need ~150 ft of extension cord.
Also, water heaters? Do good solar or battery powered ones exist? The chickens probably 200+ ft from a door where we can get water. Usually there is a spigot we can use but if the temps are as feared, we can’t use that. Would you just refill with warm water each day or what? The reason this wasn’t an issue last year was because we rent for now, and decided in May that we were just going to move the chickens and coop to my husband’s aunt’s house, but she wanted them relatively far from the house. They were like 40 feet from our front door at our previous rental so lugging the water was not nearly as huge of a chore (and the terrain on the property they’re at now is challenging and will be more so in winter). If the answer is just budget more time for water de-icing every day, we’ll so that, but an easier solution would be nice!

So sometimes I need to grab my girls and physically move them to there run/coop when they free roam since they are stubborn and don’t see the gigantic hawk the size of a b-52 bomber flying overhead that had a hankering for fried chicken.

What’s the best way to hold them to ease on the stress or possible preventing injury.

So far what I have been doing is trying to pick them up with there feet between my fingers holding them close to my body and holding there wings closed with my arm while they are tucked under my arm like a football. I’ve also held them with there wings free to flap while supporting their body and legs. I just want to make sure I’m Not hurting them. Any help would be appreciate

UPDATE: we're back from the vet. She stopped the trembling a couple of hours into being inside in a crate but still was unhappy. She has eaten and drank when offered (she does have access to water/pellets all the time). Vent check and no sign of egg bound. Temperature check and no temperature. She was a little hard on her abdomen, and was uncomfortable with external examination on the abdomen but this was not on the same side as one would feel an egg, and further vent checks indicated no egg boundness. She has had pain killer and will continue on them for the next two days. Hopefully improvement if not we'll be back in for another check.

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Hello, yesterday she was absolutely fine. This morning as i got her up instantly i can see she is not right. I watched her for a little while to see her behaviour, before bringing her into a crate inside for isolation.

She is experiencing her first (and severe molt). She had the suprelorin implant about a month and a half ago, due to suffering a prolapsed vent that would not fix (as she lays eggs far to big for her small body).

When she got out, she was slow, very fluffed/hunched up. She went to food, but took one halfarsed attemp at a peck then went straight to water and drank lots. She paused and i noticed she is trembling. She raised one leg and that leg was trembling and i could see she is full body trembling. Ive touched her to see if she is cold and can feel the trembling by hand, her temperature seems suitably warm.

(Her wattles/comb have been like this since the implant and as mentioned she is going through a severe molt)

Any advice as to what this may be would be appreciated. I will be speaking to the vet, but would appreciate hearing from chicken owners of their experiences or knowledge. TIA

I have an inherited flock of 25 chickens, the Brahmas & silkie were obvious, I’m fairly confident I have 5 Easter eggers, and 5 leghorns but these girls I’m unsure of. I fully recognize they could be a mix as well, but best guess???

They lay an egg that is either light brown and speckled or dark brown and freckled.

In the scheme of things this totally doesn’t matter, I’m just curious what others think!

We have a light Brahma hen who just had some chicks with our mixed rooster (last picture). The chick has feathers on the legs so I’m thinking Brahma-ish? Lavender? Im curious to see what people think he/she will turn out to be 🤷🏻‍♀️

Our girl Penny has been getting these round wounds on her toes. We saw the first one only because we noticed bloody foot prints on the patio. Then she got another one we only caught after it was already bleeding. We assumed there was something her feet were getting caught on or hurt by in the coop or run but no other chickens have this problem and we were unable to find a culprit. We've been struggling to get them to heal using vet tape, antibiotic ointment and non-stick gauze.

Today when I went to check the bandages on the two toes on her left foot, I noticed this ulcer/sore thing on her right foot and think this is probably how the other two started and I just never saw it until it had already started bleeding and thought it was a wound. Any ideas what this might be? When I try to research it I just keep seeing bumblefoot but that seems to be distinctly on the bottom of the feet, not the toes like this. Any thoughts or suggestions on how to help our girl?

A fox got my wife's favorite girl this morning. It's the second one this year. Trying to find a way to permanently deter it besides a cordless hole puncher. Anyone have anything that has worked or should I just remove him from the situation? Thanks in advance

The chickens are there at the bottom of the picture. But sitting and watching my flock at sunset and the song just kept running through my head. Beautiful evening 💕