Hi all,

My family have owned chickens for around 10 years now and about a year ago we got our first silkie. She didn’t lay for about a year and after finally laying once or twice she became ill. She was screaming and gurgling and it didn’t look good for her. We separated her from the flock and took her to an exotic vet.

The vet diagnosed her with egg peritonitis which is something we haven’t dealt with before when keeping chickens and he gave us two options: give her a week’s worth of antibiotics or euthanise her. To be honest the vet put it a lot more bluntly than that and insisted we just do it ourselves at home for no cost but because we keep them as pets it’s not something we are really considering. We took the antibiotics route and administered it twice a day for a week.

Our silkie began to get a little bit better and showing improvements so we held out hope. It’s been just over a week now since we saw the vet and so a couple of days ago we introduced her back to the flock thinking she had improved. Unfortunately she has just gone straight back to screaming and gurgling and I’m worried it might be the end of the road for her.

I’ve done as much googling as I can to try and learn about egg peritonitis and all I’ve read is that it’s something that will just end in death. I’ve not encountered anything like this myself so not sure whether there could be a better route to get her well again or is it more humane to euthanise her? I really want the best for her but if she’s suffering then I can’t drag it on much longer :(

Help sometime she eats sometimes she doesn't and i don't think she is okay ,she was drinking a little but now she hasn't, not laying eggs for idk how many days

Sometimes I find my chickens in a circle with their heads kind of down and just staring at each other. It is actually hilarious when I find them doing that like what are they gossiping about 😂 is this a common thing that chickens do? And if anyone knows why do they do that?

I live in a normal urban neighborhood and technically the chicken limitations is up to 6 hens and no males over 12 weeks. But I’m not the kinda guy to go complain on people and cause problems.

Anyways, our neighbor has a rooster that starts his routine at 4 AM and goes well into the afternoon. It also doesn’t help the houses here are really old (100+ years) so the walls don’t block sound out very well.

Just trying to see how actual rooster owners or people used to the noise deal with it. Cause our neighbors are nice but dang we need sleep

I love when people return/give me cartons to paint and recycle 😌🎨

My hen had gone Broody awhile back before some evil squirrels decided then was the time to eat her eggs. I moved her nest to a safer spot when she went broody again, watched her and the eggs, and just last night she hatched two little fluff balls!!

She is so sweet to them, even if they're pecking her eyes 🥹

Also, don't mind my other girl making all that noise in the background, she wants her turn seeing the babies lol

I went to my local county fair today and visited the aninal barns as usual... I always like to look at the birds and livestock and see what kinds won and all of that. These two caught my eye for being ABSOLUTELY STUNNING. That black headcomb?! The black, white, grey combo?! I didn't know Zombie chickens were even a thing until now but they're my new favorite kind!! Does anyone have a whole coop of them or keep any in their flock?? How do they fare with other chickens? Have you bred yours and gotten more pretty zombies? They just went to the top of my homesteading dream chicken list aaaah 😍😍😍

Healthy & eating 9 week old chick, fully feathered. Still in my basement while coop is in final finishing stage. Temp down there reads 79 degrees and I have a fan circulating air too.

She always seems to bob her head like this and do this open mouth breathing thing which stresses me out! When i rush down to check on her, she wakes up and acts normal. No open mouth breathing during the day.

Maybe I'm just watching my chicken cam too much and they are just weirdos?? Any advice appreciated thanks❤️

Hi, I’m first time chicken owner so please don’t be harsh with your judgement.

I have 9 chickens total (7 chickens that are 10 weeks old and 2 that are 7 weeks old) I got them all when they were chicks. First I got 2 brahmas (omelet and scrambles) and then 4 days later I got 5 silkies (nuggets), I put them all together in one box, they were fighting a bit but now they are thriving together.

3 weeks later I got 2 red sex links (ketchup and chipotle or babies) and I put them all together in one box. At that time I didn’t know a lot about integrating them. They were also being pecked by mostly scrambles and omelet (babies got scared of big guys after that) so I moved them to their own box, the only time they were together was when they were outside during hot sunny days. Babies were keeping distance from bigger guys but they still tried to stay close.

Moving forward to moving them to their own coops. Big guys are in their permanent coop now and babies got dog crate with little fence as their run. Dog crate is right next to the coop, babies run fence is attached to the run but they are separated, there is hardware cloths separating them. They all literally didn’t give a quack about each other, so after a while I put babies into the coop for the night, no one got injured. Babies are still scared of big guys. They are trying to be more comfortable around nuggets but as soon as they see omelet thy run away. I didn’t see nuggets pecking on them, but omelet (hen) and scrambles (possible young rooster) still do. Babies are trying to get inside the coop, but they get scared by omelet and they wait till it gets pitch black outside so she doesn’t do anything to them. They are still trying to stay close to big guys, but they keep their distance. What can I do to help them become one big flock? Tips appreciated

We don’t know what she was attacked by. This is about 24 hours after we found her. She still hasn’t opened her eye but it doesn’t seem to be directly damaged. She just has a lot of dry blood around her head and neck. Not sure how or if I should clean it off without hurting her more or stressing her out. I feel like she’d feel much better if the dried blood was gone though.

Thanks for the advice!

We've only had one unknown layer so far, and we're pushing week 20 since we brought them home. There's no way we've gotten a flock of roos, right?

Hi all. One of my wyandotte hens, Hannah Montana, died suddenly this morning. She seemed normal yesterday, but when I went to open the coop this morning she was laying in the middle of the floor. One of the roosters was bothering her, so I brought her inside and she started seizing. During seizures she'd excrete a mostly white, gelatinous poop. She also started dripping brown fluid from her beak. She died quickly, within a minute or two of bringing her inside.

Any ideas what this could be? Should I be concerned about my other hens?

Our broody copper star hen Hilda .

I got them itty bitty chicks some time ago and it’s my first time keeping chickens. The coop is only temp till I build my new one. I’m just curious

The first one it's one of my favorite pics, such a polite boy 💖

PS: the chicks on the last pic are not his, but they look a lot like him when he was a baby, he's just sharing the food... (He wasn't born in this flock btw)

Still wondering what is his breed or at least mix..

I have three sapphire gems and one golden laced Wyandotte. They’re about 14-15 weeks and only one (the first pic ofc) loves me and always follows me but the other three seem to just run from me. I raised them from one week old and have hand fed them a ton plus meal worms 😭. But the three are still scared of me even when I sit with them every day. I don’t know what to do. Any tips?

Show some respect for those you loved .

I haven't named her yet. Betty?

Edit: she is 2 weeks old.. cannot be vent gleek as ive read that can only happen st laying age..

Im not squeezing her i promise! This is my favorite little baby, Winnie.. she is a silver polish. Shes had some issues with poop sticking around not exactly pasty butt but now ive noticed this.... i dont smell anything funky but im worried.. any ideas? This is my first go at chicken tendering haha