Allen Carlson

Here are the pictures. Sorry I forgot to post them 😅

No problem. I'll have to wait till it's light out though

Got these apple trees as bare root 2 years ago, haven't produced yet.

1st year they looked great, but this late summer/fall they seed to be struggling a bit. The leaves were turning brown and staying on the tree
(maybe from lack of water or poor soil).

Just a few days ago I realized the wood along the trunk and the branches was splitting open. I did not see this 2 months ago, but I could have missed it.

Could it have anything to do with the unseasonably warm weather where I live (there hasn't really been consistent hard frost yet, and no frost for a while). Is there anything I should do to try and help them?

Thanks

Yeah, -30 was a record low for that time of year I think (or at least close to one). Anyway, I was referring to those hollow plastic signs

Jay-  We've had problems with weasels here. I'm not sure, but I feel weasels could find a way to get through a .5 in gap. Also, there are 0 trees by my coop, so it gets really windy- a few years back wind chill was below -30

Our 3 hens are currently living in a coop assembled from a kit, located inside of a larger unfinished coop. We'll be getting more hens in the spring, and I wanted to finish the bigger coop to ensure they'll have enough space.

The big coop is mostly finished, just needs a few gaps to be filled in. There's about .25-.5 inch of space  between each plank in the back wall. I don't know if I have enough wood to fill in these gaps. I was thinking maybe I could use some old campaign advertising yard signs instead.

Anyway, if any of you old pros see any problems with this, let me know before I waste my time on a fruitless endeavor 🤣

Last Friday morning, I went to go feed my chickens. When I got out to the coop, I found feathers everywhere, and one of my chickens was gone.

Just yesterday (Tuesday), I went to take care of them in the morning and found another one of my chickens with its head ripped clean off (pictures below).

In both cases, I think the victim hen was sleeping outside of the coop, but still underneath a covered portion of the run.

Any idea what the culprit predators are? (I was thinking weasel, but I'm certainly no expert). Any ideas how to prevent further episodes?



Also, from around the time the first hen was killed, my other hens have stopped laying completely. I live at 48 degrees north, so I was expecting a decrease in egg production in winter, but in previous years they didn't stop laying completely. Could they possibly be traumatized by the attack(s)?

Thank you all so much for your help. She is now back with the flock and happy. I think the irregular poo was just from her not eating or drinking enough, and she just sput up the water that was In her crop.

She seems to be completely normal now. Her poos are looking normal and there has been no more liquid
coming from her beak.

I felt her crop this morning, and it felt normal (I think);
it was soft, but no softer than my other chickens.

How much longer should I monitor her before I can give her a clean bill (beak) of health?