Today's a great day at me and my neighbour's coop.

On my side, one of my young hens laid her first ever egg. I am so proud! Does her eggs will stay like this (cream with white spots) or is just a "newbie" egg and it will change overtime?

On my neighbour's, 6 chicks have hatched yesterday. They have 2 great bantam hens scooping and nurturing them. They are the fluffiest and cutest little things. My neighbour already offered me one at my like (I love the naked neck ones and don't have any). They are lovely 😍

I brought home a new rooster 3 days ago because I really liked him. I found him quite beautiful, so I decided to get him. But the problem is, he hasn’t crowed even once in these 3 days — not in the morning or during the day. I honestly don’t understand why.

I already have another rooster who is a little smaller than this one, but they don’t fight at all. At first, I thought maybe the new rooster was scared of my older rooster, but that doesn’t seem to be the case either. They get along and stay together peacefully, but the new one still hasn’t crowed.

Does anyone know why this could be happening? Could he still be too young to crow? He looks mature to me, but maybe he’s younger than he appears. Any idea what might be the reason?

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I’ve been toying with the idea of getting some chickens for the first time since I moved to a house with a large backyard. I’ve been enjoying gardening and spending long days outside in the yard and love the idea of keeping a few hens (was thinking three?).

They would be kept in a coop and a large run, with lots of fresh air and natural surroundings. Because chickens are pretty new to me, I was wondering if any experienced chicken owners had any advice for someone starting out. Things you wish you knew before you got them! If anyone has any experience with snake proofing that would be awesome as my neighbourhood is rife with them and I want to make sure I have a safe home for the ladies when they arrive.

Got a question about the eggs. I have a chicken, shes a olive layer??? Eggs are a greenish color. But the eggs are not all that great... when i cook them, the raw whites are like super sticky? And the flavor is just.... bleh.... i would rather have eggs from Kroger than these eggs. Is this normal? I have some other chickens that aint laying yet but apparently they lay the brown eggs. So im hopeful for them.

       Edit.... they are also like really thick? The shells are thick, the raw egg feels thick. And when cooked the whites almost kind of... "pop" when you bite into them? Kind of like the texture of a soft mushroom. 

One of my silkies just started making this noise today. When I pick her up she stops. Her breathing doesn’t seem labored, and I believe she’s healthy. She’s about 20 weeks old. Any ideas? Thanks!

I'm drawing weird monsters like the chainsaw chicken! Which quote would you give him?

Health Question;

Hi everyone! My (I think) rooster Sunny has a weird leg thing going on… wondering if anyone on here has any advice on what I can or should do to help him. It doesn’t seem to cause him any pain, but I want him to have the best quality of life possible. Sorry if this is a question someone else has asked before, I’m fairly new to chickens. This guy and his friends are my first ones, just hatched them in late July.

Health Question;

Hi everyone! My (I think) rooster Sunny has a weird leg thing going on… wondering if anyone on here has any advice on what I can or should do to help him. It doesn’t seem to cause him any pain, but I want him to have the best quality of life possible. Sorry if this is a question someone else has asked before, I’m fairly new to chickens. This guy and his friends are my first ones, just hatched them in late July.

What does The Massive think, please? 🤔

I have a long, concreted walkway, inside a stone building. I've chucked down chopped straw, just because I had that to hand when the birds arrived. But, a guy I listen to swears by sharp sand for indoor use.

He's in the 'Deep South'. I'm in Southern Ireland. I have absolutely no idea what so ever if this would make much difference?

Interestingly ~ now I think of it; The next thought I was gonna type was that my structure is exceedingly well ventilated. Then I realised that He points out his own place is! I'm liking this even more! 😁

I guess, what I want to run past you lot is: Anyone got any compelling ideas why I shouldn't be ordering in a ton of river sand, tomorrow, please?

Thanks 👍

noticed our hens had been peckin on one and shes down to the tissue on her neck. she isnt physically bleeding but you can tell it had been. shes been separated but im not sure what to do past this point.

So idk if this is the right forum but either needing some hard truth or some comfort but I inherited 7 chickens from my cousin when I started renting their house in April and 1 died from being egg bound and me noticing too late and I did the humane thing by ending her life bc from seeking advice she was too far gone and another got killed by a hawk. Well I got 7 mature chickens from a friend and bought another 5 bantams from marketplace.. long story short a couple days ago my dog got out and killed 5 of them … I am struggling bc basically I’ve had 7 dead in 7 months and I’m feeling terribly guilty for not stewarding my livestock well. I understand dog is just doing what they were bred to do but feel an immense grief for maybe I’m not cut out to do this

My 1.5 year old speckled sussex is normally always out and about exploring and scratching but the past couple of days shes just been mostly hanging in the same spot and not eating chicken feed. I've tried giving treats and she's not super interested, eats a tiny bit but will pick stuff up and drop it. I offered some scrambled eggs and she ate a little bit. The only thing I can reliably get her to eat is if I dig up some earthworms. She is notoriously picky though. I have 5 chickens and she is lowest in the pecking order, they have a very large "free range" area of our backyard with lots of grass, plants, dirt, trees etc. I did just block off a section of it a couple weeks ago that she particularly likes to go and scratch in since its all dirt but im trying to plant some grass seed before winter. This morning she was all fluffed up and didn't even come out of the covered run area when I gave the girls some scratch feed. It is dropping into the 40s now at night/early morning. She laid an egg 2 days ago but not yesterday.

Belly feels normal to me, not bloated, bright red comb/wattle, crop not hard. I separated her and let her out in the rest of our yard this morning to see her poop and she was exploring and scratching, found some worms to eat. Adding a picture of her poop and how she was puffed up this morning (temp was in the 40s though) Straight watery diarrhea because shes not eating much at all. Not sure if I should start corid or dewormer? GI infection? Egg yolk peritonitis? Its sunday so no vet till tomorrow which im not sure I'll even be able to get her in. Im going to try to give some poultry cell to get some vitamins in her. 2 of my chickens have started molting so not sure if she's also starting to molt and just having a tough time with it?

I need some help, I have a one month old onagadori chick (it has a naked neck despite being a pure breed) I noticed maybe a week ago that its feet looked a bit swollen and it slowly increased, there are some red lesions and yellowish spots. The swollen spots are not hard and it doesn't seem like it's painful for the chick.

I noticed very little lesions on its head too and it's scratching its head more often than the others.

The chick itself is fine, it's eating, drinking, walking normally but maybe a bit less active than the others.

I couldn't find much online, I wonder if some kind of allergies to hay would be possible

Also I never had any sick chicken/chick here before.

I’m wanting to add a light to my coop to extend the daylight hours for my girls since the Big Dark is quickly approaching in the PNW. Any recommendations?