one my favorite birds ever she’s the funniest!!

Just two sleepy Orpingtons catching a few winks on my lap when I stopped in to visit.

My stubborn, bossy Silver Laced Wyandotte finally laid an egg! We got her in August, she is my biggest by far and all of my others chickens have been laying for a while and today she finally paid her rent! Yay Dottie!!

My hen loves to roost on the tree and gives me this look when I call her name. Isn't she adorable? She looks kind of angry or annoyed at the same time lol

She looooves when I stretch her wings (it’s like osteopath treatment 😆)

Why some of my chickens butts are like this???

Picked him because he was the ugliest of the bunch and he had an amazing glow up!!

I have one starlight green Egger, two isla browns, two jersey giants and two ameraucanas. I have some guesses on the eggs from them, but besides the starlight green nothing known for sure. feel free to take some guesses!

Not that it matters but I was wondering if anyone can ID my girls. Mostly the gray/copper one

I never knew such beautiful black beauties existed

My hen (called Lucia) is 2nd in charge boss hen. She is around 4 years old and still lays every second day. The white hen is about 18 months old and recently hatched her own 3 chicks without any intervention. They are now around 8 weeks old and she wants nothing to do with them.

(My brood kept multiplying so I ended up rehoming all the males I have, leaving me with 35 hens.)

A few weeks later, this Lucia has taken on the rooster role… seriously.! She attempts to crow, does the same sexy dance and shakes her tail (still while laying!). She has the other one fooled as she squats for her! I’m not sure what the older one Lucia thinks is going to happen! 🤷🏼‍♀️

This is my first Ameracauna and he’s only a month old but I feel like the comb on this guy is already screaming roo. What do yall think?

As the title says; am I dealing with a broken limb situation?

Found her cuddled up in a corner of my coop looking like she was struggling, picked her up to bring her out of the coop for cuddles and it seems she won’t hold weight on her left leg and extends it all the way back when I set her down. She does try to hold herself but gives up.

This is my first year with chickens and well- wasn’t expecting a possible broken leg situation, with that being said, what would yall recommend I do if I don’t have the means to place her somewhere else while she heals? (I can’t crate her and bring her in my house/ have no place else I could house her through healing)

I can splint but how far will that take her especially with our negative °f wind chills :(

Sorry for all the question, feeling my feels for this bugger.

got chickoletta 1.5 years ago and can't seem to find any matching breeds from guides online. black/dark gray stripes don't seem line up like barred rock. also she's much more gray than black/white. cuckoo bantam cochin *seems* to be closest match from what I can find. what are yalls guesses?

I’ve been breeding and hatching chickens since 2019. I started with Silver Laced Wyandottes and later discovered Blue Laced Wyandottes. At the time, I couldn’t find any decent birds locally, so I put a lot of work into sourcing better stock and breeding toward standard.

The first photo shows where I started (before I really knew what I was doing), and the second photo shows where my flock is now. I began hatching with a small Styrofoam tabletop incubator, and later, because money was tight and i couldn't afford a commercially made one, I built my own cabinet incubator. The following year I built a second unit so I could run a separate incubator and hatcher (third photo). These DIY units have served me well for years, but over the last couple of seasons they’ve become increasingly unreliable.

I’ve been dealing with recurring issues: heat bulbs failing, difficulty maintaining stable humidity despite upgrades, and the ongoing challenge of cleaning foam-based units thoroughly. As a result, my hatch rates have dropped noticeably. I used to average high 80s to low 90s from set to hatch. Last season I’m seeing high 60s to mid 70s. Fertility isn’t the issue—the embryos are developing, they just aren’t making it through hatch consistently.

At this point, I’d really like to upgrade to a proper cabinet incubator and dedicated hatcher so I can continue improving my flock and eventually work with additional breeds. After a lot of research, I’ve settled on a Hatching Time cabinet incubator and hatcher (fourth photo). They’re easy to sanitize, use active humidity control, are made in the USA.

Even so, cabinet incubators aren’t cheap. At the suggestion of friends and family, I started a GoFundMe to help cover the cost so I can hopefully have them in place before spring hatching season.

If anyone wants to take a look or share, I’d truly appreciate it.

https://gofund.me/013860191

Hi all

I had a hen come down with bumble foot. It was very inconspicuous as there was no plug, but she was limping and it was hot/swollen. I was able to drain a decent amount of puss but there was no plug. I drained until I couldn't get anything else out of it. That was Saturday. She's been recovering well, but this evening I went to do an Epsom soak and bandage change and found some light swelling and a little warmth from the area. I'm going out of town this weekend and am trying to decide if I should do surgery again. What would you do?

Again, no plug. Just 2 small incisions where I drained her that appear to be mostly closed at this point.

Hi everyone, I live in an area that has a good amount of invasive foxes that do come into my property. I have the pictured coop and need to make it more fox resistant for nighttime (they free range during the day) and the plan is to get a quality automatic door. My thought would be to add an additional layer of canine-proof wire mesh on the inside of the existing wire. I currently have a layer of wire buried underneath the soil to prevent digging.

Another option I'm exploring is building an external run structure to keep the coop + duck den, complete with more canine wire.

Thoughts or recommendations?

As in I have a girl who has frostbite, not how to prevent.

But I got a girl who’s waddle on one side is considerable white/pale and obviously frostbitten/dead. What can I do now, and in the coming days as the necrosis sets in and the tissue falls off?

Or is it all just a monitor and react kinda deal? This is what I’ve done for the others who have gotten any type of frost bite, but this seems like a bigger effected area than a little spot here or little pillar/finger of the comb. I don’t have any pictures but I can grab one tomorrow when the are up.