Poultry Keeping General Discussion #2

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Hmm DD2 has liquid AB's at the moment i wonder if that would work?

She's not using her leg at all and doesn't seem to like putting pressure on it, the biggest wound actually looks like it's drying up ok, there is 1 small one though that seems to be constantly wet IYKWIM.
Will put more betadine on her a little later and see how we go but if she can't use that leg then she's going to have to go

[diva det]

we got our chooks!!! WHOOT
so excited- we got 4 - Daisy, Peach, Yoshi and Bowser Jr - my DS2 who is 3 named them and he loves super mario lol

they are 21 weekers so should start laying in a couple of weeks.
my kids are gonna pee their pants with excitement when they come home from school and see them!!!
finally we have our girls!!!

[Jennifer13]

Woohoo det!! Lol at the names. Hope the kids love them!

ZF, probably not recommended but if the alternative is death, I reckon give it a go. Can you weigh her first? Mine took about a week to stand on her leg and if we didn't love her so much there's no way we would have persisted. Poor thing still staggers a bit!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I could weigh her.
About to do more betadine, guess we see how she's going as to how long we persist. We do love her, girls are being so attentive.


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[Shanti]

Yay det!! Enjoy them!!!
We have 7 chooks (2 died) but have never named them lol there are too many!

[diva det]

ok think i am a bit obsessed
last night i went out twice in the middle of the night to make sure they were ok
tonight i have allready been out once
i feel soo responsible for them xxxx they are so vulerable

[Tegam]

Hi everyone. Can you tell me what you do about native birds eating all your chooks food?


Iooookopllkd

[Jennifer13]

I don't mind supplementing the native birds' diet. They don't come until after the girls have finished. Seed I scatter in the coop and woe betide the bird that gets in there with them after I close the door. I've had to put a little top knot pigeon in our bird hospital for a few days once!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

We really need to get smaller wire on the front of the chicken hotel & block off a bit at the top of the roof, we get little birds in but not a huge amount. I tend to let the girls free range during the day then give them feed at night when we lock them up.

*det* i have to refrain myself from going down to the girls a few times a day, i could literally just sit there and watch them, they all have their own little personality's - we can almost guarantee that every time we open the door that Dora is the first one trying to get out
If you have very similar looking chickens and you've named them and want to know who is who we got little clip on rings in different colors off e-bay, they were quite cheap and the kids know exactly which chook is theirs. We all have our own color to put on future chickens.

ETA: HTB - the smaller cut is scabbing over now and the bigger one is drying out a lot more so i am hoping they are on their way to mending. She weight bared on her leg for a bit longer this morning but still is a little funny trying to walk (it just slips straight out in front of her) so we might take her off the tiles & newspaper and put her outside on the grass today for a little rest.
Hopefully a couple more days inside and she should be good to go... my bathroom stinks and her backside needs a good clean up as she's not moving herself after a #2 so we do that at the end of each day with saline to give her a bit of a hand.

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

Update: HTB went back in with the other girls last night - although she doesn't seem to be able to get up on the nesting boxes she was alive & well this morning. She doesn't seem to be getting pecked or anything and ventured outside a little today.
She's still hobling but seems to be improving more outside with her friends than she was in here.

SADLY though we had another attack today
Looking out the window i could see feathers near tree's near the house, went outside and sure enough quite a few feathers there, ran down and locked up the girls to notice that Dora was missing - yelling out to her (she's normally the first there when you call) and she was gone
Got the girls on the qquad and rode around only to find her coming out from behind the shed area down near the creek, she was walking, not hiding and seems active enough but has a cut around her vent.
I can't tell how serious it is as she's quite active so i have to hang her upside to check it but it looks long but not deep and not bleeding too much, i am making up a saline spray to spray on there and once DP is home will get him to hold her so i can pop some betadine on it... maybe a day or 2 inside with saline washes & betadine and she might be fine to go back down once the wound dries?

Needless to say our bigger dog is locked up with 2 leads in the front yard, we have no idea why she's after the chooks now (for a game we assume) and why she's so intent on digging out of the front yard as she hasn't done that in ages

DD1 is devestated as it's her chicken, so HOPEFULLY being that she's active we should be ok with her too... a little worried about the cut being near her vent though and the chance of infection?

[Jennifer13]

Ah no ZF! We had to keep our chickens separate to our dog that died last year as she would have killed them (narrowly avoided it once with me crash tackling a small Jack Russell as it shot out the door and past me!). The dogs had the back yard and the chooks, the front. Has to be that way so the dog doesn't escape, but it's also why our girls were visible and chased out by a strange dog.

Hope Dora is okay. And the first attackee.

[~Kim~]

Hi girls wondered if I can pop in to ask a few questions?

We have 3 chooks (Penny, Lyla and Miss Prissy) and we got them quite young so only Lyla's started laying this week. Her eggs are quite small. Is that normal? Do they get bigger, or will they stay the same?

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

What breed are they?


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[~Kim~]

I wouldn't have a clue ZF. We got them from some friends who inherited their parents (the chooks parents) when they bought their property.
They aren't little chooks like bantams and they look like Isa Browns but I don't know for certain.

[Floweryfields]

Chooks eggs are usually very small when they start laying, they get bigger as they lay more.

[~Kim~]

Ah cool. Thanks Ausgirl. That's what I thought might happen.

[Floweryfields]

Ah cool. Thanks Ausgirl. That's what I thought might happen.

Once a had a teaspoon size first egg - soo cute!

[~ Zarava Flutterby ~]

I'd heard they get bigger.
I love our silkie eggs, so tiny, white & cute.


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