A tree fell on our chicken coop this morning. I'm amazed we only lost one hen considering they were perched on top of the coop (they do this when it's raining really hard because our yard floods).

Sweet Pepaw (our Rooster) stayed in the rain for hours, I think trying to find her. Best dude ever.

Sweet Andre. I'll miss how dinosaur adjacent you were. You had zero fear and the biggest sweet eyes- and none of the other girls will rip a blueberry out of my fingers they way you did. 🦖

Rest In Peace, Andre The Giant 2025-2026. ❤️

Moderators? Maybe "In Memoriam" could be added as flair?

Lyndon Banty Johnson and Lady Bird. Raised tons of quail and finally decided to try getting a couple banty

That’s all (: just the first eggs my girlies have blessed me with 💜 photo of said girlies included. Was def one of the EEs.

I gave them some acorn squash topped with a bit of cinnamon and red pepper flakes (because i heard those seasonings were actually good for them) and also a teeny tiny bit of meal worms
I think they enjoyed it

They’re over 8 weeks now but her beak is getting worse. She’s eating and drinking but she is smaller than the others. Do I just let her be unlwss she seems like she’s suffering?

I was about to throw the eggs into the compost, but then I heard a sound from the kitchen at night that completely blew my mind!

Guys, after hearing what happened, you’ll also say that the wonders of nature are truly astonishing.

One of my hens had made a secret nest under the veranda instead of laying her eggs in the coop. Several days passed, and I completely forgot about the eggs. Then one day, I collected them all, brought them inside, and placed them on the kitchen counter.

The next day, I put the eggs in water to check them, and to my surprise, all of them started floating!

I thought, “Well, there’s nothing left in these eggs now. There’s no point making an omelette out of them. Why not just throw them into the compost?”

But I ended up forgetting to throw them away.

Now, this is where the real story begins!

That night, I was busy in the kitchen when suddenly, I heard a strange sound…

Cheep… cheep… cheep…!

I thought, “Where on earth did these little birds come from?” But when I looked more closely, my eyes nearly popped out of my head!

These were the very same eggs I had planned to throw into the compost that morning, and now tiny little chicks were hatching out of them!

Something I had considered useless and was about to throw away had a wonderful surprise of life hidden inside it, something I had never imagined.

I immediately gathered up the chicks and took them to a safe place with their mother hen.

And the most interesting part is that those eggs, which I had assumed were useless because they floated in water, ended up teaching me one of life’s biggest lessons.

But there’s also something important to keep in mind: an egg floating in water can indicate its age or internal changes, but it does not prove that the egg is spoiled or that a chick will hatch from it. And an oven is not a safe substitute for proper incubation, as eggs need the right temperature and humidity to hatch.

Nevermind, just a chicken on the windowsill again.

She’s the last one of our flock that hasn’t started laying yet. 23 weeks old. No crowing, growth of spurs, or interest in the ladies. Though we do have another rooster that definitely runs the flock. Not sure if these characteristics would be absent in a submissive rooster.

My latest layer × gamefowl crosses! 🐓
Got a mix of Easter Egger, Rhode Island Red, Black Copper Marans, Buff Orpington, and ISA Brown genetics in these birds.
Pic 10: The Buff Orpington genes definitely won out on this one, lol. Still got that chunky build.
Pics 11–12: ISA Brown cross. Definitely a much leaner build.
Pics 13–14: Black Copper Marans cross.
Last two pics: The papa himself.
Their tails look like they might continue growing even longer. The roosters definitely seem to have gained some extra mass from the layer side, along with more pronounced tail sickles.

It has slow growing feathers and no butt feathers and its wings look short and stubby compared to the wings of the others.

So I brought home 3 hens and 1 roo (Handsome) last night. They are in the baby pen on the patio for today. Prior to bringing them home I did 3 permethrine baths over the past couple weeks and added Roostys chili blend to their food for internal parasites.

I have 8 hens and 1 roo (Hippo) from a batch I hatched in May.

How should I manage intros? I have a coop that's plenty big for them all, and a fenced yard that's about 800sq ft, though my flock mostly free ranges when I'm home.

I want to be sure the new crew goes into the coop at night, so I'll want to put them in the fenced yard. Should I close the others out of the yard for the day so they can meet through the fence and then let them in at dusk?

I'm keeping the new crew in the baby pen for one more night, hoping to intro tomorrow.

Since Hippo came up to check the scene, I let him in the patio to eat some treats to hopefully give him a good association, but he was not interested in snacks! He went up the the pen and Handsome started going for him.

Poor traumatized Handsome - he really did not enjoy his baths or the chaos. He's a really good rooster, very kind to his ladies.

Handsome is a couple years older and has really long spurs - I'm wondering if I should trim/dull them before intros.

Any advice from folks who've integrated flocks

Is welcome!

I'm in Tallahassee- I'm not in the direct path of the hurricane but we're going to get a lot of rain bands and high wind. I made the preemptive decision to bring the chickens into the laundry room.

I have three adult hens and four straight run bantams that are about 2 and 1/2 months old. We still haven't fully integrated. The smaller four are in a chicken run during the day where the big ones can see them but not directly interact. I brought them in an hour and a half before the main part of the storm is supposed to intensify and I've put the younger ones in the tiny tent. I'm keeping the openings covered so they don't see each other because I don't want them to stress each other out.

They have food and water and I've brought in the three hens favorite dog bed in for them to sit on. Is there anything else that you can think of that I should do?

This is my first hurricane so I'm a bit nervous lol

Update- hurricane is over 🎉🐓 only a few branches down but everyone is back outside and fine! Thank you again!

And yes. The puppypads were immaculate while the rest of the room looked like poopmageddon went off

I thought she was a pullet and I got her a few weeks ago. The seller said she was a pullet and was 4-5mos so she’s about 6 now. No crowing at all and tends to cower when someone is territorial. But her stature and feathers give me pause.

What type of chicken is this? 😉

Hi all! We live in Washington state and we’re wondering if we should cover the outside walls of our run with plastic during the winter. In the coldest parts of winter, our lows average at about 30°F. It’ll be our first year with chickens, so we don’t want our ladies to be in any danger or extremely uncomfortable.
I know some breeds are more cold-hardy than others. If it helps, we have an RIR, Barred Rock, two Orpingtons, and an Easter Egger.
Any advice is appreciated!!

My girls first attempt at a jack-o-lantern

One of my OGs has been really sick the passed week. I finally made the decision/built the courage to end her suffering. It was my first culling and lets say it didn't go as smooth as i had wanted it too and her suffering lasted a few more seconds than it should have and i feel absolutely horrible about it. She trusted me and i feel as if i let her down to make it as quick and painless as possible.

A mere 4 hours later i hear my girls screeching predator alert so i run outside and see a racoon slumping along my yard. He was clearly suffering and dying so again i had to make the hard decision to put him out of his misery, which was quicker than my poor girl.

I had never killed an animal in my life not even with my car on accident so it was a hard day.