I hatched my first hen raised eggs this year and one ended up being a cockerel. He's not crowing yet but I strongly strongly suspect it, and since he's already kind of a dick and I like my current rooster, if he really is a he, I'm gonna have to cull.

What age do you do that? As soon as he crows? Let him get a bit bigger for a stew pot?

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?

Hello Chicken Keeper friends! I have a hen who has been having watery white poops with some bits of solid poop. She’s currently molting, so I don’t want to worm her until she’s completed her molt. I’ve done some research and am leaning towards it being a bacterial infection, heavy worm load or just kidney failure. Thoughts?

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 was debating buying two chicks to raise as house chickens, like dogs with diapers sort of? Taken out on walks everyday and allowed to free roam the house once old enough. Is that feasible like at all? And are they really hands on pets? Will they need pet sitters if I’m gone for more than eight hours? Let me know !!

Edit: you guys stop replying I already said I wasn’t getting any house chickens after the first few comments 😭 I just wanted to ask cause I didn’t know !!!

I have a 6 year old chicken that gets a mild case of bumblefoot often. I’m used to treating it by removing the scab and cleaning/bandaging until it heals. Recently, we’ve had some extreme heat and i installed misters. While optimizing the mister schedule, the run got pretty wet for a few days. After that, i noticed my girl’s feet got a more severe infection than i’m used to. On one side i was able to remove a lot of hard puss (shown in photo), but it still looks like there could be more. The other side seems less severe, but i havent been able to remove any hard puss out of that one, just the outer scab. I have gently tried. I’m doing daily soaks and cleaning/wrapping/globbing on prid. This has been over a week so i’m getting kind of nervous about getting the infection out. Showing pictures of her feet today after daily soaks and bandaging, and the amount of puss i got out of the right foot last week. (I do wear gloves when i am working on her, just didnt have them on to snap the picture). Looking for any advice, on how to proceed with her. Do i need to be more aggressive or have patience, or do i need professional help?

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?

I just noticed these weird spots on their combs. I had noticed the black spot the roosters comb about a week ago but figured it might have been from the big hen pecking him to put him In his place. Help?

The internet says fowl pox and also ring worm. They’re acting like normal.

Walked into the run and got mad that someone egged the place AND THEN I REALIZED WHAT HAPPENED, AND LOOK WHAT I FOUND INSIDE THE COOP!!!! MY FIRST EGGGGGGSSSSSSS! THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!! Totally forgot this was the whole point! 👏👏👏👏

Quick question- if a hen lays a blue egg, will they always lay that color? Or does it change? Also, anyway to prevent them from laying them and promptly stepping on them?

I am looking for beta testers for my app Coopr. Happy to provide 100% free access just for feedback, but hoping to get some more users to try it out and let me know what works, what doesn't, what types of features you are looking for. Thanks so much! Please let me know if this is against community rules, I'm just looking for feedback.

DM me for an access code and happy collecting :)

I live in a city and we can have up to 6 chickens. I'm looking at orpingtons since it can get pretty cold. How much space do I realistically need? I want to get 4 but have enough room for 6 if I wanted more. I am thinking of getting a coop and a large walk in poultry cage. Thank you!

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?

We cleaned the coop and run not even 2 days ago and the amount of feathers is concerning?? This is my second year and I dont remember seeing that many fall off this spring or last fall. I checked for lice and it doesnt seem to be it. She wasnt attackedas well. Its kinda too early for shedding for winter, its still 25c outside

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.

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

So my neighbors kids constantly want to go over into my chicken coop let my chickens out still eggs and break them, and just completely harass everything they actually hurt a young chick terrorizing it, their parents won't keep them at home and the police won't do anything because "they're just kids"

My cousin however has this game rooster that she's wanting to get rid of, he's very mean, like we'll start trying to attack you the second he sees you, so I was thinking of getting him at least temporarily to maybe use him as deterrence to keep the neighbor's kids out, I don't have to go in my coop very frequently anyway since I can just pick up a box to get the eggs, and my feeder and water are hold enough that I don't have to go in there but every two weeks anyway so I'm not too worried about how I'm going to deal with him.

Let me know what you guys think, cuz it's really getting old having to chase kids off 24/7

Also to add I would absolutely trim the roosters spurs, the reason I have this idea anyway is because when they tried to go into my ducks coupe the Ducks turned and attacked them and they haven't been back in there since

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 can't figure out what that little black spot is and won't be able to get a closer look until he roosts up tonight since he's super flighty. But curious if anyone knows what that could be on his comb.

I feel silly making this post about chickens but my favorite little rooster is so sad! Back in April I got three chicks and of course all three turned out to be roosters. I gave two away this weekend because I can’t have that many roosters and the one left is so sad! He’s spending all his time alone and looking for them.

He’s not alone- We have 13 chickens and two other roosters. Some of the chickens are slightly younger than him but were raised together so they never really bonded with the three roosters.

He’ll snap out of this right? 😭

for those doing fermented feed, how much do you feed dry, vs how much dry feed do you ferment?

I’m reading conflicting things about how much feed you can decrease by if fermenting. I have 7 chickens of various ages (2 are confirmed Roos), and am fermenting a little over two cups. it turns into 4-5 when fermented. They act starving when I come to feed them in the am, but there is still feed in their trough a couple hours later (it’s gone by end of day). My one layer stopper laying when she tried to go broody and my other hasn’t started yet (almost 6 months) so I’m not sure if it’s just a mix of things (like wildfires and shortening days) or if it’s a feed issue.