My daughter,who is in charge of locking up at night and letting the ladies out each morning, said two mornings in a row the lids were off their feeders when she went out. So we put up a trail camera and oh my. At least 5 raccoons out there partying down on the feed. I guess I didn’t realize they eat chicken feed. Wondering is these are the culprits eating peppers in my garden.
We seem to have an abundance of the trash pandas lately. I’ve seen more than one in the front of the house lately, close to the street, on the cameras and that’s unusual. This started a little before 11 pm and my husband went out sometime close to 4 and saw 3 still out there. They took off when they saw him. Now to set traps and figure out how they got in the pen….

This is Tank, she likes to stare at me.. she takes a while to process things and doesn't quite understand that she's a chicken. You can truly see the cogs clashing together in her brain.

she seems lethargic, doesn’t want to stand or walk around, she kind of falls back onto her feet and doesn’t fully stand. video above. we thought it was the heat so we put her feet in cold water then we brought her inside and gave her cold water and ice veggies to pick at as well as a couple scrambled eggs. it’s the next day and she is still acting the same. can anyone kindly help me figure out what could be wrong?

Hi, My road island red boy is a bit older 5 months old now and he does this when I approach him. He’s shown no signs of aggression and I’ve been spending a lot of time with him and giving him treats. He’s a great rooster.

I understand I was chasing him in this video which I probably shouldn’t have, so he might have been protecting himself or showing dominance. I just want to know what this little side step movement means or if it means he was going to attack me.

Thanks guys!! xx

My 3 year old audibly gasped and yelled "Mom, mom, come here" because she thought my Austerlorp had died but she was just sleeping in the sun 😂 It gave me a chuckle.

* It was 88 F today so not deathly hot. We also have lots of shade trees in the yard and plenty of water sources. * She was just out here vibing 🥰

First time chicken owner. Picked these gals up on mother’s day this year and have really been enjoying them. Even more than I expected. So have my daughters (3 and 5 years old)

We live on 3 acres suburban adjacent with good woods. I wanted to be able to move the coop and run once a month to not wear out in one spot. So far been great! It’s 4 screws to detach the coop which is light and on wheels and two people can just pick up the run and set it in a new area of the woods. Biggest pain is just pulling up and redoing the stakes around the interior perimeter of the run but no big deal.

Chicks are:

- Coco Papa, the silver Wyandotte (leader and most outgoing)
-Bella, the salmon favorella (loudest, most curious, minor menace)
- Aegon (Egg) the Turken (wileyest, quickest and most skeptical of everything but very chill and social after a bit of time. Honestly kind of like a cat)
- Barbra the Easter Egger (most chill and easy going)

No eggs yet but my family love these guys. Doing everything to make sure they do not have predator issues. Auto door with auto light to bing them into the coop and locked up at night, although the run has not been broken into as of yet. We’ve had digging evidence (probably raccoons, but they can’t get through the stakes. I’m hoping to be able to free range them more often, which we do when we are out with them, but we have a couple of red shouldered hawks around. I’m worried about (and so are they - they bolt to safety when they hear them)

Hi all,

I've seen a lot of posts recently about trying to decide what to do with extra roos. I started a new flock this year and went straight run because I wanted options for my rooster/roosters that I keep. As of this morning, I have harvested 10 this year, and while I work really hard to make their lives good up until that one last bad moment, I still struggle a bit emotionally with the process. I know it needs to be done and every time the flock seems so much more relaxed, but I still don't care for it much. Nonetheless, I had quite a few bullies and a couple that were absolute monsters to the hens, so I did what needed to be done to take care of my flock. Hopefully this helps someone else trying to decide what to do with their extra roos, too. Keep on keeping on, y'all!

As you can see on the video, her breathing is "raspy" and weird, she also looks more upset than usual.

I'm really worried, I can take her to the vet but I'm still hoping to get some help here too, thank you. :(

Also I got that feather off her beak after the video ended.

i have a pullet a little bit older than 3 months old who i just noticed is laying down with her butt up in the air like this. she is eating, drinking, using the bathroom, and acting completely normal, this is the only thing that’s been different. i checked her vent and it looks normal, her crop is fine, and everything else looks and seems to be as it always was. any idea what’s going on?

They look like hens to me aside from their monster legs. They are also much larger than their Easter Egger / Ameraucana counterparts at 10 weeks. There are two of them (each in their respective picture).

I'm having a real hard time posting this without it being automatically denied. But my 6-month-old chicken has developed a strange walk. Her feet are clear of any damage or bumble foot, she eats drinks, and defecates normally. She runs around with the other chickens and they all are eating the same commercial feed and are vaccinated for Merrick's. Any idea what's wrong with her?

I have two roosters (I used to have 4): 1 Wyandotte and 1 Zombie. I used to also have a second Wyandotte and a Blue Marans-esque rooster, but they got a little aggressive with hens, so we rehomed those 2. The roosters are 3-4 months.

I recently got done building a chicken coop in my backyard. It is the first structure of any kind I have built, I have no building experience, didn't use any tutorials or plans, and the only help I got was a hand from my wife from time to time if I needed it. Currently housing 6 hens and looking to get more. Just curious to see what other people think!

Also, more roosts have since been added after these pictures were taken.

My 12week old pullet is making a weird squeaking noise. We have had chickens for 5 years and never encountered this noise. Is it the beginning of crowing? Does she have a respiratory issue? All the other hens seem fine and she seems ok too aside from the noise. Thanks in advance!!

I know it's hard to tell at this age (around 7-8 weeks) but give me your best guesses!!

The cameras I use surprised me with a free trial of their creepy new AI feature that is supposed to detail what the cameras are picking up.

I decided to list every term they used to describe my coop.

-chicken house
-hen house
-chicken shed
-hen pen
-wooden house
-wooden enclosure
-wooden structure
-chicken troupe (?!)
-cage
-room
-pet enclosure
-house

Notice how coop was not on this list lmao.

It also picked up our chickens as:

Cats
Dogs
Opossums

It also picked up my dog as a raccoon.

Edited to add: I have since disabled this feature! AI will no longer be getting my chicken troupe/hen pen data 😤

Does anyone have a good recommendation for a holder for serama/bantam sized eggs? They roll around a lot in the regular egg holder I have and I'm worried they'll end up getting broken. I've seen some for quail eggs but those might be too small - I've never raised quail, so I don't know how big their eggs are but from what I've seen they're like...fairy egg sized.

I try to keep the eggs organized oldest to newest so I use older ones first, so just having them stacked in a basket or something doesn't work.

This is Bumble. We've been battling bumblefoot with her and hopefully coming around the bend. Bumble has accepted her nightly routine and barely needs to be held anymore ♡ bless her heart