2018 Newbie Chat!

[BBZZZZTT]

Candice is back to her usual spunky self this morning! Whatever was bothering her seems to be better. What a relief!

It is very possible she was overheated/dehydrated! At 93 degrees even with shade it's easy for those little bodies to overheat!
Usually cold is the concern with chicks, but they don't regulate body temp well in either direction. Even in a heat lamp environment they are able to come and go from the warm area as they need to cool off or warm up.

Somewhere back in this thread I was posting about one of my welsummers who got overheated over 4th of July. I just noticed something off, she was just kind of hypoactive. Any chance she got she would just sit down and doze off. She was still easy to wake up and would eat and drink and everything, but something was just off. She kept keeping one of her eyes closed- only one. I was worried she had an eye injury that was bothering her. I should also note at this point she was no longer panting to cool off, she had already become too hypoactive and dehydrated to do that.
I took her inside and gave her some food soaked in electrolyte water and kept her in the cool basement overnight. The next day she had perked right up.

Chickens exhibit strange symptoms sometimes, and it's always good to rule out the simplest diagnosis first. When I was googling symptoms, the fact that her eye was always shut led to some pretty gruesome results.
I find it best not to over analyze. Heat index is 110 degrees and my chicken is doing something weird? Into the air conditioning!

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I am sure I will get a lot of criticism for this (and I doubt anyone will agree with me) but I have taken the decision to completely separate little Roo from the flock and take care of her myself. After almost a week of no incidences yesterday one of my hens turned on Roo and ripped a mouthful of feathers out and this morning the other hen chased Roo and wouldn't stop until she caught her and gave her a sharp peck. Today was very cold, windy and rainy and the hens would go into the run when the rain got heavy and went out again each time the rain slowed or stopped for a time, but the kept chasing Roo out of the run, so I took a chair a sat in the run, Roo's mum (lilah) went into the nest to lay, my other two hens snuggled down on my lap as they often do and poor Roo hid under my chair. After a time Lilah having laid her egg came out to forage, Roo as always running along peeping behind her trying to keep up, then as the rain poured again the hens came back into the run without Roo who I saw trying to huddle under a single leaf sticking out from a plant I have, she was wet through and shivering with cold. I took Roo indoors dried her off, I put on my fluffiest dressing gown sat her on my chest where she snuggled down and fell asleep. When she woke she stayed with me the whole time, ate her chick feed while on my lap, had a dust bath on a tray I put on my lap, followed me around and only peeped when she wanted me to pick her up again. I put her to bed a short while ago and sat at the side of her cage until she'd finished scratching for the treats I'd hidden in her cage then when she got on her roost I turned out the lights she peeped once only and is now fast asleep despite being in there on her own.
Secondary to this, the flock have been peaceful all day without Roo, and for the first time ever all three hens were foraging together along with the ducks all getting along great.
I've put Lilah outside in the hutch with the other two, who I don't think know yet that she is in there because it is dark and they had already put themselves to bed when I put Lilah in and I am a little nervous because it is their first time sleeping together and Lilah's first time sleeping outside since shes been here, plus is her first time sleeping without Roo but the difference in the flock and the difference in Roo having separated them has been immense and all positive.
Roo will continue to live indoors with us until I decide she is big enough to handle everything and then I will slowly introduce Roo back into the flock as though she had never been here before.

 

[CannedMonster]

I am sure I will get a lot of criticism for this (and I doubt anyone will agree with me) but I have taken the decision to completely separate little Roo from the flock and take care of her myself. After almost a week of no incidences yesterday one of my hens turned on Roo and ripped a mouthful of feathers out and this morning the other hen chased Roo and wouldn't stop until she caught her and gave her a sharp peck. Today was very cold, windy and rainy and the hens would go into the run when the rain got heavy and went out again each time the rain slowed or stopped for a time, but the kept chasing Roo out of the run, so I took a chair a sat in the run, Roo's mum (lilah) went into the nest to lay, my other two hens snuggled down on my lap as they often do and poor Roo hid under my chair. After a time Lilah having laid her egg came out to forage, Roo as always running along peeping behind her trying to keep up, then as the rain poured again the hens came back into the run without Roo who I saw trying to huddle under a single leaf sticking out from a plant I have, she was wet through and shivering with cold. I took Roo indoors dried her off, I put on my fluffiest dressing gown sat her on my chest where she snuggled down and fell asleep. When she woke she stayed with me the whole time, ate her chick feed while on my lap, had a dust bath on a tray I put on my lap, followed me around and only peeped when she wanted me to pick her up again. I put her to bed a short while ago and sat at the side of her cage until she'd finished scratching for the treats I'd hidden in her cage then when she got on her roost I turned out the lights she peeped once only and is now fast asleep despite being in there on her own.
Secondary to this, the flock have been peaceful all day without Roo, and for the first time ever all three hens were foraging together along with the ducks all getting along great.
I've put Lilah outside in the hutch with the other two, who I don't think know yet that she is in there because it is dark and they had already put themselves to bed when I put Lilah in and I am a little nervous because it is their first time sleeping together and Lilah's first time sleeping outside since shes been here, plus is her first time sleeping without Roo but the difference in the flock and the difference in Roo having separated them has been immense and all positive.
Roo will continue to live indoors with us until I decide she is big enough to handle everything and then I will slowly introduce Roo back into the flock as though she had never been here before.

Are you still going to give Roo free range time?
She needs to have sunlight and outside air, grass, etc.
Even in winter.
At about 4 months she’ll be just about the same size as the others.

 

[CannedMonster]

It is very possible she was overheated/dehydrated! At 93 degrees even with shade it's easy for those little bodies to overheat!
Usually cold is the concern with chicks, but they don't regulate body temp well in either direction. Even in a heat lamp environment they are able to come and go from the warm area as they need to cool off or warm up.

Somewhere back in this thread I was posting about one of my welsummers who got overheated over 4th of July. I just noticed something off, she was just kind of hypoactive. Any chance she got she would just sit down and doze off. She was still easy to wake up and would eat and drink and everything, but something was just off. She kept keeping one of her eyes closed- only one. I was worried she had an eye injury that was bothering her. I should also note at this point she was no longer panting to cool off, she had already become too hypoactive and dehydrated to do that.
I took her inside and gave her some food soaked in electrolyte water and kept her in the cool basement overnight. The next day she had perked right up.

Chickens exhibit strange symptoms sometimes, and it's always good to rule out the simplest diagnosis first. When I was googling symptoms, the fact that her eye was always shut led to some pretty gruesome results.
I find it best not to over analyze. Heat index is 110 degrees and my chicken is doing something weird? Into the air conditioning!

I read that chickens often nap with one eye open.
They have the ability for each eye to act independently and can nap with one open to watch for predators; mostly airborne ones like hawks.
Apparently ducks do this too.
In a flock, as most of them nap, each will take a turn keeping watch.

 

[Geranium]

The start of a chicken coop!

 

[CannedMonster]

So after a full week being stuck in the prefab coop/run together we let the bantams back out this morning.

Unfortunately I should have had DH let the LF birds out first and wait until I got up to let the bantams out...
Because when I let them out the roosters immediately try to breed as many hens as possible, chasing them all over.
This is what they do every morning.

I forgot about that!
So Silkie was trying to breed Pippin and Angus heard her squawk and ran over and kicked Silkie off and chased him all over the yard.
Then Angus tried to breed Pip and DH chased him away from her because he was so afraid Angus would crush her.

Oliver, my 11 week old Australorp cockerel, was trying to dominate Silkie and the bantams to establish himself higher in the pecking order.
Several times throughout the day Silkie tried to breed Pip and Angus would rush over and kick him off.


I’m so disappointed.
This didn’t go the way I was hoping at all.
The pullets really didn’t stay with Silkie throughout the day and Silkie, again, was still chasing Agatha and Emily, trying to breed them.

Then at bedtime I found Silkie, Pippin, Cricket and Itsy in the walk-in coop with the big birds and the teenagers.
So I had to get each one and take them back to join Mitzi, Minnie and Bootsie in the prefab.


Am I ever going to get these birds to figure it out?
I can’t have Angus trying to breed bantams. He’s going to hurt one of them.
I guess they’ll just have to stay in the prefab until I figure something out.
I feel bad though because I have so much space for them to free range.

DH has started working on building our privacy fence around our huge side yard.
This part of our property is fenced off from the backyard by a 4’ chain link fence.
Maybe after the fence is done I can put the bantams over in that part of the yard where Angus can’t get to Silkie and Silkie can’t get to Agatha and Emily.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Are you still going to give Roo free range time?
She needs to have sunlight and outside air, grass, etc.
Even in winter.
At about 4 months she’ll be just about the same size as the others.

I will be giving her supervised free range time as of tomorrow or Wednesday - my plan is to keep her indoors for today and maybe tomorrow, my reason being that I want to give both Roo and Lilah time to adjust plus I am hoping to break Roo from her dependency on Lilah and teach her to come to me for her needs and when the others become aggressive rather than trying to be with Lilah who lets the others get on with it.
I feel bad for both Lilah and Roo, - Lilah has been very patient given that she gave up parenting a week ago, but I realised ages ago that Lilah was itching to be with the flock night and day, but having Roo around hampered Lilah's full integration into the flock, plus Roo was leaving herself wide open for attacks because she wouldn't leave Lilah and wouldn't run to the hiding places but would try to get under Lilah instead, then Lilah would walk off and the others pounced on Roo who would still try to get to Lilah instead of going behind a board or something.
The flock had peaceful days and got to the point where they let Roo nap under the trampoline with them, but the difference in the flock and Lilah with the group, without Roo was remarkable and the three hens were hanging out together as though they were best buddies.
I think it unfair to Lilah, unfair to Roo and unfair to the rest to leave things as they have been, plus I worried for Roo who seemed to be getting so depressed, everyone here noticed the vast change in Lilah, the flock and in Roo once I'd separated them. Roo wants and needs constant attention, she loves to roost on a shoulder or chest and will snuggle up and falls asleep while being gently stroked, Lilah is very active, she rarely rests, she forages continuously throughout the day and Roo was getting exhausted trying to keep up and yesterday slept for almost the entire day once I'd got her in.
I believe in my heart I am doing the right thing for the flock, for Lilah, for Roo and for us but I guess only time will tell.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I read that chickens often nap with one eye open.
They have the ability for each eye to act independently and can nap with one open to watch for predators; mostly airborne ones like hawks.
Apparently ducks do this too.
In a flock, as most of them nap, each will take a turn keeping watch.

I've seen my ducks do it but never seen the chickens doing it but that might be because the ducks are keeping an eye out at nap time so they don't have to lol

 

[Anna Ranieri]

So after a full week being stuck in the prefab coop/run together we let the bantams back out this morning.

Unfortunately I should have had DH let the LF birds out first and wait until I got up to let the bantams out...
Because when I let them out the roosters immediately try to breed as many hens as possible, chasing them all over.
This is what they do every morning.

I forgot about that!
So Silkie was trying to breed Pippin and Angus heard her squawk and ran over and kicked Silkie off and chased him all over the yard.
Then Angus tried to breed Pip and DH chased him away from her because he was so afraid Angus would crush her.

Oliver, my 11 week old Australorp cockerel, was trying to dominate Silkie and the bantams to establish himself higher in the pecking order.
Several times throughout the day Silkie tried to breed Pip and Angus would rush over and kick him off.


I’m so disappointed.
This didn’t go the way I was hoping at all.
The pullets really didn’t stay with Silkie throughout the day and Silkie, again, was still chasing Agatha and Emily, trying to breed them.

Then at bedtime I found Silkie, Pippin, Cricket and Itsy in the walk-in coop with the big birds and the teenagers.
So I had to get each one and take them back to join Mitzi, Minnie and Bootsie in the prefab.


Am I ever going to get these birds to figure it out?
I can’t have Angus trying to breed bantams. He’s going to hurt one of them.
I guess they’ll just have to stay in the prefab until I figure something out.
I feel bad though because I have so much space for them to free range.

DH has started working on building our privacy fence around our huge side yard.
This part of our property is fenced off from the backyard by a 4’ chain link fence.
Maybe after the fence is done I can put the bantams over in that part of the yard where Angus can’t get to Silkie and Silkie can’t get to Agatha and Emily.

Sorry it didn't work out for you yet but I'm sure you'll get there
Just sounds like you have a few high spirited and really determined birds there, although Silkie seems to be quite the rebel especially when it comes to Agatha and Emily - must be love surely.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

I'm thinking that Diamond might be a cockerel. She's 5 weeks. Has actually had more pink/red in her comb than the others for a couple weeks now. She's my only cochin so I have nobody to compare her to though. What do you think? She's my friendliest one so if she is, at least that's good. I know it's too early to be sure, lol.