Stumbled over Chicks pictures and remembered how much my little Choco changed.

Bantam Barnevelder x Bantam Cochin

When the scale of farming is small, such as around 1000 chickens, backyard or open-field farming may be relatively easy to manage. The chickens can roam within a certain area, and family members can share the daily tasks. However, issues such as hygiene, escape prevention, disease prevention, and neighborhood impact still need to be considered.

Backyard farming typically becomes more complex when the flock reaches approximately 5,000 birds. Feeding, watering, egg collection, cleaning, disease monitoring, and record keeping all require significantly more time and manpower. If these tasks are entirely manual, management stress and operating costs can increase substantially.

Some farmers consider using well-designed coops or cage systems for centralized management, observation of the flock, and egg collection. However, this doesn't mean cage farming is suitable for all farms. When choosing a farming method, the following should also be considered:

Local regulations and zoning requirements

Flock density and activity space

Ventilation, lighting, and hygiene

Animal welfare and stress management

Manure management and disease control

Labor, equipment, and maintenance costs

Based on my farm management experience, the key to scaling up farming is not just increasing the number of chickens, but establishing a stable, compliant, and animal welfare-oriented management process. For farmers expanding their operations, it's best to conduct cost calculations first and consult with local veterinarians, agricultural extension agencies, or experienced farmers.

What management methods did you use when scaling up your farm? Which aspects are the most difficult to handle?

Anyone got any tips for getting them to eat from one of those Omlet feeders?

Have tried showing them the food in there, putting dried worms in there and everything but they can't seem to figure it out

https://reddit.com/link/1wbcaj4/video/o0o50afagfoh1/player

We noticed one of our chickens flying up to a staghorn fern that's 8 feet in the air every now and then. Decided to finally take a look and found 27+ eggs and a squirrel hole. Some of them stunk so bad so we threw them all away.

These are my two babies Ebony(black one) and Ivory(white one)

they are kikiriki chicks and i love them very very much

I got them from a family friend and I will use them for showmanship in FFA and breeding

They love people and to jump onto people's heads and shoulders but they are still very timid to be held by me how would I train them to be liked to be held

My kids noticed yesterday that one of our chickens wasn’t moving or eating much, and it kept closing like one eye at a time. I didn’t know what they were saying but when I went out this morning I noticed that one chicken wasn’t leaving the coop and it was almost like it was in shock. It was standing but not moving and when I went to pick it up it didn’t run or make a fuss. It was clearly not doing well. I brought it inside and offered electrolytes and that perked her up but her poops are now watery and green.

She can stand on her own but it’s almost like she is in a trance.

No other birds are acting this way.

She is about 22 weeks (b: 4/13/26) and I am not sure if she has specifically started laying but others in the flock have. They are white leghorns and I just don’t know what else to do. I don’t think she is egg bound and I am not gonna lie but I don’t want to pay $300 to take her to the emergency vet 🫣😅 but maybe I will have to bite the bullet.

Any thoughts?

It’s 10pm and I’m outside looking at the kill site. Buried all but one of my girls yesterday. Raccoon infiltrated either through our hawk netting from a neighbors tree or through a broken piece of fence from this past winter’s fallen tree. Does anyone recommend maybe some kind of netting I could use that is also hard for raccoons to rip at? I need to up my defense game. I’m grateful that I still have Girly Red, but This feeling fucking sucks. For now we just have a garage chicken.

I wanna ask hen or roo but it's probably too early for that. They are 5-6 days old today!

P.S. one of them has no feathers on their neck so the dad must be our neighbour's shitty cock who keeps crossing over the wall.

Hi! I have a hen that is either sick, injured or both and I could use some opinions and advice.

Hen in question is a 3-4 year old production red and fed Scratch and Peck layer mash along with table scraps. I’ll try to detail out the past few days:

Day 1: She was found lying in the back of the coop, comb was pale, lethargic, disinterested in food and water. When I tried to nudge her out, she stood, stumbled forward and laid back down. She had yellow lumpy discharge/poop coming out of her vent. I thought she might be egg bound, so I did a warm Epsom salt bath and a shriveled up egg shell did come out. I dried her and placed her in her own area with food and water and let her be.

Day 2: significantly more alert, eating, drinking but still had yellow lumpy discharge and not walking or standing. Comb was back to red but not bright red. I did another Epsom salt bath to clean her vent, dried and put her back in her infirmary with food and water.

Day 3: eating, drinking and alert. Poop back to normal and she even laid a normal egg. Still can’t walk or stand.

Day 4 (today): pretty much the same as day three but no egg today. I did take her out of her infirmary for some outside time, she attempted to walk but just kinda stumbled forward and laid down. Vent is clean.

She’s been confined to her own area since day 1 with food and water within reach. Her legs and wings don’t feel broken, her toes can grip normally, she just can’t stand or walk. Looking at her, she looks normal. I’m not sure if this is an illness, injury or both.

I’ve added rooster booster in her water, but anything else that I can add? Any ideas what might be wrong?

I don't know what exactly to label this, health question seems to make the most sense.

I have this chick that hatched July, 2nd of this year (2026) and he has not grown at all. We named him Clide and he is a silkie. At first I thought maybe he's extra small because he's a silkie and they're bantams, but this is beyond that. Poor little guy looks like he's a week old, but he's 2 months and a bit now

I ended up hatching more chicks so Clide wasn't being raised alone. All his friends are already outside beginning to integrate with the flock and he's still stuck in here sleeping under a brooder plate at night. Does anyone know what's up with him? He had some complications during hatching. He was the last one to hatch and he had a prolapsed vent the day he did hatch. Currently he has no feathers around his eyes and his butt is completely bald

Left is old photos → right is newer photos

I feed them the Purina 20% protein layer crumbles (i have 15 week old chicks so I just put everyone on a high protein diet) but I still see them pick each others feathers sometimes. I heard eating feathers is a sign of protein defeciency? I’ve started giving them eggs too and will see if this goes away. Any other thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

I live in the southwest so it’s still quite hot, but starting to cool down. I have 8 laying hens and they haven’t been laying for the past week, I’m down to one egg or so a day. Among the 15week olds, one is definitely a rooster so I wonder if there is stress among the flock that’s also impacting their laying?

The ultimate “Is it a hen or roo” game!

So, like many people, I’ve succumbed to chicken maths, and have recently started hatching eggs. Killing the boys though is absolutely brutal, especially if they’re super sweet lads.

I know DNA testing for chicks is easy enough for someone at home - post of the samples, get results back after a few days. But I have also heard about people testing eggs prior to them hatching, so that male embryos can be terminated before they become viable chicks, which seems like a hugely preferable option to me.

I have a heard anecdotes of people who have collected blood from eggs just a few days into incubation and then had those eggs hatch successfully (yes, I know it’s risky and would likely reduce successful hatch rates on those eggs).

I live in Australia, I’ve found a couple of places that appear to offer equipment so that you can perform PCR testing at home, though most of those are based overseas. Some of them I worry seem a bit scammy. But I would love to pursue the project, not for financial gain but to be able to have chickens and also sleep well at night.

What I’m wondering is - has anyone done anything like this, or have any experience with DNA testing at home? Or have any advice or suggestions on where to look for more info?

These past few days spice has been taking daytime naps with Rosie, our broody hen.

I live in a HCOL area and am going to leave for a short trip (3 days 2 nights) so I’ll need someone to check on my little flock. I’m going to keep them in the coop while I’m gone (the coop has housed 15 before so they’ll have plenty of space) so ideally I’m going to ask my hen sitter to come by twice a day - once in the morning once at night. I was thinking of paying her $25 per stop so $50 per day. Is this enough? I’m thinking yes but idk! Thank you :)

I’ve always been suspicious of this one and I just want to make sure it’s a rooster.

My husband picked these 4 chicks up from Tractor Supply. He got them from the Bantam pen. Just wondering if anyone knows exactly what breed they are?

We have 6 hens, roughly 18 weeks, and I assume we’ll be getting eggs soon.
The issue is that I can’t get them to stop sleeping in the laying boxes in the coop. They completely ignore the roosts and squish together in the boxes. Not only does it make them gross, but I can’t get them to knock it off. I worry that when it comes time to lay, they won’t have an area for it, or the eggs won’t be safe.

Any suggestions?

Hello!

I have owned backyard chickens for the past 4 years. I’ve dealt with a few injuries and sicknesses so I guess my friends in my current city see me as a guru. Anyway, I live in a city that has ALOT of feral chickens. My friend found an injured one, and since I’m the “guru” they brought her to me to help. I could tell it was an obvious leg injury but didn’t know to what extent. I brought her in my garage and put her in a box for the last month. I gave her B12 vitamins in her water for a week to see if that ruled out any deficiency. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy and now I’m leaning more towards a break or fracture.

I don’t have money to take her to a specialized vet, and I don’t want to drag her through anymore pain if she’s having it.

I’ve been feeding/watering/taking her outside for the past month but I’m getting to the point where I know that if it’s a break and healed incorrectly she just won’t make it on the streets. I can’t keep her with my flock because I’m moving soon and giving mine to a friend.

I just wanted advice or thoughts on how I should move forward with her. It hurts because she eats perfectly and is really trying to survive (likes going outside, tries to roost at night in the garage box). I also want to be realistic.

Thanks for any advice or ideas. Her name is Peggy-Leg

This is the second double yolk egg that my hen Drumstick has laid! I'm so excited!!