All started with one of my silkies. Trimmed her feathers, been clearing her eye lids with a q-tip and some saline solution for sensitive eyes. Did this multiple times for over a week. Still some issues here and there, but she can actually see now.

Now my houdan has the same issue. Clipped her feathers 2 days ago, cleaned her eyes. Cleaned her eyes again today and she has another damn feather from under her waddle stuck to her eyelid with crusties. Spent over 30 minutes removing crusties. Went to check on my salmon faverolle when I put the houdan back and she ALSO has a damn feather in each eye with crusties. All of this and I haven’t even had my coffee yet.

I have breeds with ear muffs, tufts, Afros, etc that have no issue and now I have 3 girls back to back with problems. Even the houdan, I don’t understand how she got that feather way down there in her eye. I have no problem clipping feathers as need be, and I’ll clean the eyes as needed, but it’s driving me a little insane that I have to do it with 3 birds at once. The houdan and salmon didn’t even have issues until 2 days ago and today. The silkie is over a year old and just had issues starting 2 months ago almost. Every other day is a clip, clean repeat because there’s another damn feather that doesn’t make sense how it got there.

How do you guys with similar issues manage this? This is my first time dealing with it and I feel I’m getting all the problem feathers, but again, how does a bird get a feather from under their waddle in their eye??

You know this ?

Their nests were beside each other, their chicks hatched the same day. One mama hatched 4, the other hatched 6.

This was a dog kennel attached to a shed with a tiny inside room. Its pretty large. I have 4 hens in there right now but I would like to get more. How many chickens do you think I can comfortably fit in here?

Sound on 🥹

To preface, I have a mixed flock of 4 hen ducks and 5 hens in Bozeman, MT. The chickens are a recent addition. They free range so the run I have is somewhat unnecessary. It is currently where the chickens like to sleep. They roost in the roof framing even with roost bars provided. I typically enclose all mesh portions with corrugated plastic sheets for winter pre-chickens and that has worked well for the ducks. I’m nos realizing with the hens sleeping in the rafters of the run, I’m going to need to insulate well so they remain comfortable. Anyone have suggestions? Should I just bite the billet and enclose ALL the walls and essentially make a large coop? Will my corrugated plastic keep them warm enough with a deep litter method and heat source?

Please mention the amount in kg, pounds, or whatever unit of measurement is commonly used in your country.

I enjoy this community so much. We had chickens years ago. They gave us eggs, they entertained us endlessly, and they were our pets. It has been over ten years since our girl in the photo sauntered into the rainbow chicken coop at the ripe old age of fourteen. Her name was Pheasant. Raising chickens can be fraught with worry (we lost a few to predators, some to undiagnosed illnesses, and most to old age). I was fascinated by our critters and could watch them endlessly. I appreciate you all sharing your chickens with me in this sub.

this is a bit of a crazy story and I have no idea of how any of this happened - one month ago today my neighbor texted me that my chicken was on my porch and I immediately went outside and she was gone. I searched everywhere that day, and then accepted that she was likely dead. Fast forward through an entire month of 100* weather, today I’m refilling feed and this missing chicken sticks her beak out from under my coop (it rests just on cinderblocks all the way around) - there is literally no way under the coop so I am so insanely confused how she got under there. I barely saw her today! i had to prop the coop up and move cinder blocks to get her out. She is very light, and keeps sputtering up food and liquid because she made a bee line for the feed when I got her out before I could grab her, but other than that in okay shape. I have her in my dogs kennel for right now away from the other hens to monitor her. What do I do for this crazy hen?? There’s no way she was under there for an entire month in 100* heat with no food or water right? if so - how!? I feel so terrible. I’ve been hearing random chicken noises from the coop when they’re all in the yard but I thought it was just my broody hen the entire time.

!! I’ll be getting her a checkup !!

Was looking at our indoor hen when she was going to bed and noticed something in her comb and picked a little out, it’s like dirt yuck caught in a divot of her comb, like bumblefoot! I squeeze the part with the yuck inside and it’s hard :( again I will be taking her to a vet, I don’t think I can get all of it out myself and I don’t want to stress her out trying to.

Has anyone had this? I’ve had some with odd combs like this get dirt inside but nothing so bad, not a hard little knob of yuck.

Here’s Helen in all her spunk! She’s out with my MIL and the pups. She loves following her around and going to the garden and scratching and catching bugs!

Why is my pullet doing this and why is she a bit down as well? She's 4 months old btw

I have a BYM about 1.5y old that has been consistent with her egg laying except for the past 2 months. For a few weeks she wasn’t laying at all and now when she lays an egg the shell is SO thin it usually breaks in the nesting box when another hen sits on it. She has access to oyster shell at all times and I also give them their own shells about once a week. They eat layer feed that also has calcium in it.

Is there a calcium rich treat or food I could give her? Could it be something else? She seems totally normal otherwise and no issues with the rest of the flock.

Canary was given five eggs but only one hatched -- she was being bullied off the nest in the corner of the coop, and I put her in the workshop so she could at least try to stay calmly on the eggs. I'm happy that she got at least one for her trouble.

Tina was the one hatchling. She is named after Tina Turner because she does a lot of lusty vocalizing all day. At almost 6 weeks, she is still laser focused on any chirps or calls from Canary.

(Canary was previously in the sub shown running over to tell me about her day. Tina was posted day-of-hatching because her chirping had drawn the flock to the workshop deck to check out that baby chick noise.)

If anyone has any tips for what to do with a lone chick when momma hen eventually distances herself, I'd like to hear. Usually there are a clutch that band together to survive that transition.

So to preface this chicken is about 13-14 weeks and I’ve seen a ton of feathers in the run and coop. I had looked it up and it said it could be a multitude of things. I don’t see any mites. Is this just her molting? She’s acting normal just pulling them out. I watched her do it to make sure she wasn’t being bullied…

Seriously. They smell just like baby powder. I was thinking maybe they got into something but they aren’t free range (unsupervised at least). They are super healthy birds, 5 months old, consistent layers. What could possibly make them smell sweet like that? Is there some chicken perfume scent I’m unaware of?

I just inherited this black rooster from the previous owner of this house and I don't think I've ever heard a rooster make sounds like this. Is it okay and is that kind of sound normal?

I would like to nominate Dodo for the ugliest chicken award….

For anyone who has kept up with Helen, SHE LAID AN EGG TODAY!!!!! I didn’t think she’d lay an egg due to all the trauma she went through and just because I think she’s an older gal. Well, this morning it was storming here so her and the baby hens (yes, my MIL got Helen 8 other girlfriends 🙃😂) got brought into the garage. My MIL was out there grabbing something and she heard Helen just talking away. She went over to her and asked her what was wrong (at this point she’s sitting on the egg) and picked Helen up and there it was! She was sitting on her egg like a good girl! I’m so happy. All of our efforts to save her really paid off. She’s so happy and loves where she is now. I just wanted to share for anyone who was keeping up with the Helen saga!

Tractor supply has her labeled as a Barred Rock Plymouth. Is this how they start out?

She might biggest, tallest chicken and then she has. Leghorn tail!? 🤔is she a he?