Poultry Keeping General Discussion #1

Dansta - i saw on FB your going to start letting the fuzzbutts out in the play pen?

Well we got 2 eggs in 2 days so either another girl is laying or 1 of the girls is ramping up her efforts, the girls are still so excited about finding eggs and caring for the girls, it's quite nice to watch them.

All 9 girls are out free ranging during the day now, i find the silkies tend to be in before the others and often as it's gotten dark i go down and they are alreayd inside waiting for me, otherwise they come running as soon as i open the gate.

DP has 2 big trailers in the paddock so i am wondering if we move it if there might be eggs under there, i don't really want to get down on hands & knees and check in case there is a snake under there.

All in all i think the girls are going well though and i'm happy they seem ok.

ZF if u see ur chooks under there ever, u can be pretty certain there r no snakes there. The chooks would avoid it like the plage :)

We got our first Silkie egg on the 20th, the girls are ever so excited that their little ones are laying :)
It's starting to get a bit colder here over night and in the morning so hopefully it wont be too bad for the girls as the chicken hotel is quite open!
Still not 100% sure on WHO is laying and although every 2nd day we get an egg in the nesting boxes twice in 2 weeks we've had a random egg behind the door, we also found a silkie egg along side 1 this week :)

Can i just say though, how cute & small are the silkie eggs :p

My poor Mrs Slocombe isn't well. She's had something wrong for a while - I suspect it's a cancer of her reproductive organs or similar (often how hens die) - she has considerable ascites (fluid in her tummy) and has been having a bad week every now and then and then rallying and being really active again for a few months now. This past week though, she's just continued to go down hill. The fluid is really bad, she's very heavy and can no longer get up on the perches - she is sleeping in the nesting box instead.
She's still eating alot an always has a full crop in the afternoons, but she is very slow and wobbly because of her fat tummy.

It makes me so sad to see her like this, she's my favourite girl....I think if she hasn't either improved or passed by Saturday, I am going to have to do the deed because I can't let her suffer....:(

zf: yep the fuzzbutts have a play pen. that i move around the house yard - i'm looking into a rabbit hutch for them to move into very soon as they currently 'roost' in the bath! tilli is a friendly one. she'll come running to me and will sit on my sholder for a while before flying back down the ground. they're also in love with munching on milipeads.

Ausgirl: aww :( i'm sorry to hear that hun :( we've lost two chooks n 12 months. one was littarly keel over a die and the other a stray cat got her. *hug*

AFM: been busy with the fuzzbutts. they're three weeks old now and really cute. tilli is the friendliest of them all. and she'll come running to me. the others run away from me though unless i have oats. they love oats! the chooks in the shead are going well. off the lay it seems - dont really blame them with the weather we've had. hopefully next week i'll make up some roosting boxes for them and fix the chook run up so they cant escape - so then i can 'lock them up' for a week or two so they can learn where to lay - again. one of the chooks. dusty who was one of 4 chicks from hudini is now 3 months old - when can i tell if they're a rooster? im thinking spot maybe (who was from eather chook or casper) a rooster but its hard to tell! the dog chased bandit under the house today...didnt hurt her just scared her. but hopefully he'll grow out of it! i'm also going to look into getting some isa browns (the big friendly ones) so the kids can have some chooks to 'pat' (as the fuzzbutts are bantom/silky/mungrel chooks LOL) and i can also have bigger eggs. i've worked out 1 bantom egg = 1/2 a isla egg haha.

Our Isa Browns are great with the kids, as soon as they hear us coming they wait at the gate and then follow us in (even without food), they are still quiet flighty though in the sense of patting them and you'll probably have more luck with the kids patting your little hand reared fuzzbutts in the long run.
The silkies aren't too bad as they don't seem to see you coming so Miss Z has actually been quick enough to catch one and they are ok to give a quick cuddle and a pat and they don't flap around on her too much.
Miss A doesn't seem quite so sure about them though which is funny as she picks up any other living creature! :rofl:

Of the four ISAs we've had, two hand reared, one of the hand reared ones was okay with being picked up by anyone, the other can only be picked up by me but loves a scratch around her head. Our friendliest hen is one we got at point of lay, she will let just about anyone pick her up and hold her. Our flightiest is another from point of lay. I think it's down to personality as well as raising them.

we lost two more baby chicks. one was due to her getting out of the play pen and nextdoors dog playing with her. and tilli last night :( tilli had a growth on her neck (was really big saturday) and she seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. last night she was so tired. i put her in her own box under the lamp. checked on her at 3am and she was alive. by 7am she'd passed :( so two babies left. and casper is sitting on another lot of eggs. i told DH that after this batch of caspers eather no more or i give them away...i feel so crappy tilli passed away. but thease chicks where the weaker of that brood. so i'll bury her tomorrow...*sigh*

My Mrs Slocombe died on the weekend :(

So sorry ladies.


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Oh dear it's a sad chicken thread and I'm afraid I have bad news too. :(

On Friday morning a dog got into our yard and there were no chickens to be seen and a whole lot of feathers near the fence.

After I walked DD1 to school I looked around the neighbourhood and eventually found our poor Gemma lying upside down in a front yard around the corner. I thought she was dead, legs in the air, but when I picked her up she was somehow still alive. I carried her home to die in dignity. Kept giving her some water by syringe for the day, put her in a cage covered with towels for the night and was very surprised she made it through.

Took her to the vets for ABs on Sat morning, vet not hopeful, but gave her a shot of steroids and ABs and sent me home with syrup to start Sunday if by some miracle she made it. She was a bit more encouraging when she weighed her at 1.8 kg and we found only two puncture wounds (neck and one leg).

Sunday she started eating a bit, by Sunday afternoon she looked much brighter and I thought she'd turned a corner.

She's getting there, wounds healing nicely and eating more. She is perching okay in the cage, but not walking because of her sore leg. But there doesn't appear to be nerve damage, so we'll just have to let her recover at her own pace. Chicken physio twice a day. Lol

There's no sign of the other two, one of which we raised from a chick. :( I put a sign on our fence and we've told the neighbours. Christy suggested phoning vets but no luck yet. I'm very glad DD1's favourite is home and I think she was the only one injured (no other feathers anywhere i could see) so hopefully the other two have found somewhere to stay. But if Gemma recovers and they're still not back we'll have to get her a new friend.

I'm alternating between delight that she looks like pulling through and sadness that our other girls aren't home.

And looking after her is time consuming! I am taking a variety of food out to her every hour, twice a day medicine, cleaning the cage out, getting her out to sit/stand on the grass a bit, I could make it as a chicken nurse!

Oh Jennifer13 :(
So sorry for all the chicken sadness ladies.

We've been getting a few eggs, we had 3 the other day & randomly get an egg other days :)
The girls love finding the eggs & even better they like eating them!

Penelope seems to have lost quite a few feathers, the others don't seem to be molting as much but hers are quite noticeable, is that normal?


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zf: yay on finding eggs! and the girls eating them too. always a good thing! as for the feathers i have no idea :dunno: maybe shes getting tussles with the others?

AFM: i think this time next week all the fuzzbutts will be gone. ying and yang both have growths on their chests - that are only getting bigger and poor yang has an air bubble on her right leg :cry: its huge. i've preaced it twice with a sterile pin and it made no differance. if they get worse i'll be ending their lives as i cant allow them to live with this - knowing the growths may well kill them when they cant breath/eat (and neighbours have said this is most likely what'll happen) im angry 'cus they didnt drown in the floods but will most likely have to die any way. and its even worse that i've put so much into them and this happens. ARGH. casper is sitting on 6 eggs so hopefully we'll get some baby chicks from her - after that i'll be taking eggs away so we dont end up with too many chickens and any we do end up with - i'll be giving away.

Oh no, Dansta. :( I hope the new chicks to come have a much better run.

Still no sign of our two missing girls and I've rung around all the vets in the area with no luck.

But Gemma is improving day by day. She's trying to move around more although she still can't balance properly. But she can stand up now and her wounds have almost healed over. She's in good shape overall so it's just giving her some time to recuperate. I'll move her into the coop on the weekend if she continues to improve, at least during the day. I'm confident she'll be back to her normal self eventually. It's a bit of a miracle actually, considering last Friday morning I found her upside down legs in the air and more than half dead.

Oh Jennifer13 i'm so glad she is on the mend.

All the girls seem to be going well here, they are really good with the girls and follow us as soon as we walk through the gate.
HotI is going to be my lovely egg collector & chicken feeder while i'm away so i HOPE the foxes stay away for the week as our dogs wont be here making noises etc.

HOw often do you lovely ladies worm your chooks and what is the best thing to use?
We got 2 large eggs today and i will be checking for a Silkie egg when i go down with the veggie scraps later as we have been getting 1 normal & 1 silkie egg a day.
I still don't know WHO is laying but Penelope is still loosing feathers so i know it's not her but i was ssuming the 2 new girls were laying maybe every 2nd day and maybe another girl has come on now but i would have though that we would be getting more eggs and that the original 4 might be pulling their weight by now?????

The girls kinder might be getting chickens in as their next little project, if they do i might look at getting 2 chicks to bring home.. what would i need for chicks, i am assuming they can't just go straight in with the big chickens as it can get quite drafty and cold in there?
I am really enjoying our girls, have to dust them again though as i think they are getting some mites back.
I've also noticed most of them seem to have yellowish colored legs, and i am not sure if they have always been that color IYKWIM.. any ideas?

Worming should be every 3months. Then followed up 2 weeks after you do it. I use avitrol plus- you can get syrup or tablets that you dose down thebeak.

Ok so I've had my older girls about 3mths now, will organise once I'm back from hols & just do all the girls so I know they are done!


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The lovely old gentleman across the road came over this afternoon to tell us that one of our missing girls was in his yard, she'd been killed by a fox. :( At least we've been able to bury her at home. Poor Celia chicken.

Our neighbour was so nice, he's been keeping an eye out and walking around his property calling them periodically since I found Gemma in his front yard.

DD1 was so composed about it. DP went and retrieved what was left of our poor girl and she insisted that she wanted to see her before she was buried. She told DP she looked a bit like the chickens we cooked and told me afterwards that she was definitely dead. Bless her, she wanted to make sure so she wouldn't worry anymore. I'm so impressed with how stoic she was. She made a sign for her grave.

I don't know whether just to give up on the remaining chicken or have one more look around there tomorrow. And I'm kinda annoyed that they didn't come when I originally looked! Guess they made it a week in the wild at least. Silly girls. :(