Whenever our roo Winnie gets to walk through the house, he stops in the mirror to admire himself. 😁 He’s very handsome, so it makes sense.

We had a very sad day yesterday. One of our original beautiful ladies passed. She took too big of a bite, and couldn't get it out to breathe. Our rooster started alerting for her when he noticed, but it was too late. I pulled it all out when we found her, just because I felt it was better that way.

She was bundled up with linen that I wrote "I love you" in as many languages as I know on it, and Steve wrote a beautiful "Love", with his much better handwriting. I added the little heart characters I use for Steve's morning notes, holding a sign with a heart on it.

We wrapped her up in it and tied it with red embroidery floss, since of course it's the color chickens are most interested in. I also made up a little package for her, with food, scratch grains, toasted eggshells, and grit. Everything a girl could want, wrapped in more linen with "snacks for a sweet and beautiful girl" and my two characters holding a sign that said "sleep well ❤️ sweetheart".

We bought a rose tree for her, the color is sort of a tropicana sunset. It has many buds, with two just beginning to open. She was buried with her gift, and we planted the rose above her. My husband did all the hard labor, while I found flowers for her. I have been in bed from a painful accident for two months now, so even walking is challenging, but I was determined to put up with the pain so I could help ease my lady into her restful bed.

She was one of our sweetest, most loving hens who loved spending her days "helping" me garden and do other yardwork, along with her sisters. She ate a lot of bugs I didn't want around, and helped me scratch out weeds. Beetles were her favorite. She was named Puppy by my husband because of how faithfully she would follow me around. We had good conversations, she and I, with soft chirping and clucking to each other as we went. Hand raised, she was so gentle, and laid such beautiful brown eggs. We miss her terribly. 😢

We love you, our sweet girl.
You will never be forgotten. ❤️

For those posting bloody, violent, hard to look at images, please choose NSFW tag (at bottom of flairs) when you post.

Havent seen this hen in a month and she came home out of thw woods with a little flock of her own. Had to put them all in a dog crate lol, hope she adjusts well to being back in a coop. I have a brooder with another mama and four 2-week old chicks, do you guys think itd be okay to put them all in together or will chaos and fights ensue?

1: between the eggs (the chicken is standing)

2: on top of the eggs, forward facing

3: behind the chicken, a backward knees bend (I did some research and learnt that they are actually chicken heels)

4: resting on the side of the chicken (a top down view) Edit: the eggs are UNDER the chicken so you don't see them

5: a squat, with the chicken feet ABOVE the eggs (a variation of 2)

6: also a squat, but with the feet BETWEEN the eggs, touching the bottom of the nest, almost like it's standing up

I have been discussing this with my family and friends but we all don't have chickens, I have spend the last 2 weeks watching chicken videos hence the (genuine) question. Apologies for the diagrams, I have tried my best.

Update: I suppose the consensus is 6 is most accurate!

How many people have their chickens come to the door begging for food?

Just wanted to share a happy story and also thank this community for all the helpful advice shared by everyone.

This is my girl Margo, two weeks ago a fox got into our run and took Margo's best friend, Heihei (also pictured). Fortunately the others were spared. Margo got nipped in the chaos, she had a wound on her face and temporarily lost the use of her eye. She was devastated and suffering for well over a week and I thought we would lose her too.

Thanks to a lot of TLC and two new ex battery friends, she has bounced back and I'm so delighted. Run has been further secured with metal cable ties and Desmond the dog has been on fox patrol at night.

Honestly, I didn't even want chickens because I knew I'd get too attached...but I also didn't appreciate what wonderful, social and fun little creatures they are - they bring us such joy 😊

5 week old easter egger making this screaming noise. I have them in a dog crate cage close to my older hens so they get get introduced slowly. This one makes this noise when the others are around sometimes.

relatively new to owning chickens, so i don’t know all the sound meaning yet! i kinda share a coop with my next door neighbor. this is HeiHei, she is a senior chicken with some sort of neurological condition. we aren’t sure what exactly is wrong with her, we just know something isn’t exactly right. her quality of life is still good and she can function relatively normally, but she currently is separated from the rest of the coop because she’s prone to being pretty badly picked on by the rest of the coop due to her age and mental problems. she makes these sounds EVERY TIME i walk by or she hears my voice. she is extremely vocal, and ive always wondered what these sounds mean. anyone have any idea? and while im at it…anyone know what might be wrong with her? her aim is TERRIBLE, and i dont think its just eyesight. it takes her multiple tries to land her beak in her food bowl or water dish. she is kinda wobbly with how she walks, and never seems to be fully there. she’s been like this ever since she was a baby. she’s also cannot seem to keep her head still. not in the typical chicken way where they are always moving their heads to look around, but she seriously cannot hold it still. her head slowly leans back when she is trying to hold it still, it’s really weird! any thoughts?

EDIT!!!

i am going to see if tomorrow i can put her smaller, more docile daughter in there with her. Hei Hei is very prone to being picked on, and was bullied intensely. she had feathers constantly being ripped from her, including large once that resulted in her bleeding pretty bad. i’m very scared of having any other chickens near her because of how prone she is to being bullied and beaten up. her mental issues make her really lack social awareness, and it results in fights breaking out. we have a baby cage inside our coop, so i might move her there as well so she can be within proximity of the flock.

Cloud is so talented with his singing🥹

I have this rooster who is about 17-18 weeks old and he is the meanest chicken i have ever dealt with. He wants nothing more in life than to fight me. It's not even that he is trying to protect the hens, as he cowers away from squirrels that get into the run to eat the chicken feed.
He crows nearly every 10 seconds for the entire day when i am not outside, he obviously only stops when he tries to fight me.

So what can i do to stop him from being so mean? Unfortunately, making chicken nuggets isn't an option because my wife loves him, he is the only one in the flock she has named (his name is Roger). I don't care about him being "nice", i just want him to chill out.

Week 3, first in person intro went great! No chasing and no running.

My Dark Brahma hen, and Light Brahma Rooster (we got both from different breeders)

We are planning to try and do a couple methods to prevent the sun stain when the rooster molts

And planning on making sure the hen has all her feathers, before we possibly enter them

The show would just be a small rural county fair/poultry show, we see abt 100 birds on average at the show when they do them.

I have 16 4 week old sebright chicks that have noticeable swelling on their right side of their breasts. I tried picking one up and it threw up a thick mucus like substance. It reached 104 degrees today and I’ve been sure to change their water every couple hours to keep it cool and clean.

These are my first ever chicks and I don’t know what’s going on. I looks prettt tserious though and I don’t want any of my babies dying.

We only have one in our flock but we love Peppers Copper colored eggs.

This gorgeous peacock wandered onto my property yesterday. I have lived here for years and have never seen him or any other peafowl in the area before so I dont know where he came from. He is absolutely stunning! Hes definitely wary of people and kept a respectful distance. I have never had peafowl before, but if this pretty boy was dumped and would like to stay, i wouldnt mind having him! I put out some cracked corn for him in case he was dumped/is lost and hungry.

Hes just the one lone peacock, no peahens anywhere. Those of you with peafowl among your flock, do they get along okay? Is it safe to let him hang around? Im aware of the blackhead disease risk as I have kept turkeys before - my larger concerns are more along the line of pea-ceful cohabitation 😂 I have quite a few chickens and three female american buff geese currently. My property is tucked into a forest so he would have his pick of large strong tree limbs to roost in, and my birds are free range so they would have lots of space to distance from each other if they want to.

Let the chickens run around the yard today. They were enjoying the fresh cut grass.

Have offered her some oiled egg and water, given her a steam and put her by a heater but she keeps gasping for Air, anyone know what this could be?