2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

Argh. Well I ordered a coop heater plate. It might get to -15 next Wednesday night. I just think that's a bit cold for 4 little bantams. Hate the expense for something that I'll probably use once every 10 years. -15 is not the normal winter here. I can't bring them in the house, there's no room for them. They are very good fliers so would need an enclosure or they'd fly all over the house. Maybe I can turn it sideways and use it as a brooder plate otherwise, lol. But even that is every 5-10 years depending on my chickens' life spans. Oh well, what must be, must be. I won't eat out a few times to pay for it, lol.

The heated roost bars work well too. I got those. They come on when it hits 35 and warms them through their feet. They all used them(I got two). We are getting into the negatives today through next week. I just don't see how these little creatures can take that kind of weather. It's brutal. Granted mine are in the house, but next year they won't be. I'm also thinking that the dycks, especially the runners might not ever do well in this weather. They are very slim ducks to begin with.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Warning to anyone with roosters: keep an eye on their favorite hens. Today I checked Ash my top hen(and Wally’s favorite girl) she had some considerable feather loss from over mating so I picked her up to examine her more closely. Keep in mind I have 16 hens for Wally, more than enough to keep him “satisfied”. I lifted her wings and found a huge wound, that was matted with sand, bird, poop, etc... I gave her a bath, cleaned the wound, and set her up with a little pen in my garage. She’s going to need serious monitoring to avoid infection. I’ll take picture tomorrow to show you all. She was still laying daily, and acting completely normal. I can’t stress how important it is to look over your birds frequently! Had I not picked her up and looked more closely I would have never found this. I’ll be ordering hen saddles in the near future for any other “favorites” my boys have....

 

[llombardo]

Warning to anyone with roosters: keep an eye on their favorite hens. Today I checked Ash my top hen(and Wally’s favorite girl) she had some considerable feather loss from over mating so I picked her up to examine her more closely. Keep in mind I have 16 hens for Wally, more than enough to keep him “satisfied”. I lifted her wings and found a huge wound, that was matted with sand, bird, poop, etc... I gave her a bath, cleaned the wound, and set her up with a little pen in my garage. She’s going to need serious monitoring to avoid infection. I’ll take picture tomorrow to show you all. She was still laying daily, and acting completely normal. I can’t stress how important it is to look over your birds frequently! Had I not picked her up and looked more closely I would have never found this. I’ll be ordering hen saddles in the near future for any other “favorites” my boys have....

Ughhh--I have to check mine. I have a mysterious blood issue on the roost. Not a lot but enough for me to see. I checked butts from a distance and saw nothing. I saw it a couple days ago and none since then and once before that. . The faverolle started molting about 3 weeks ago. I see feathers from the others here and there. Really haven't saw any from her, but I'm not sure what I am even looking for here. I only see Prince mate with her every now and then, so I'm hoping its not a combo thing going on.

I was looking at feather fixer for her, but can all of them including Prince have it?

I haven't got an egg from the EE in about 4-5 days. I'm getting on average 3 eggs a day, sometimes 4, but I don't know who or who isnt(aside from the EE is laying or not) I think it's the two older ones and maybe the other 3 rotating in there. Everyone is eating, pooping and acting normal.they have a flock block, eat all flock now and get a meal worm mixed with a couple other bugs daily. Very little scratch and canned cat food every couple days.

 

[CannedMonster]

Ughhh--I have to check mine. I have a mysterious blood issue on the roost. Not a lot but enough for me to see. I checked butts from a distance and saw nothing. I saw it a couple days ago and none since then and once before that. . The faverolle started molting about 3 weeks ago. I see feathers from the others here and there. Really haven't saw any from her, but I'm not sure what I am even looking for here. I only see Prince mate with her every now and then, so I'm hoping its not a combo thing going on.

I was looking at feather fixer for her, but can all of them including Prince have it?

I haven't got an egg from the EE in about 4-5 days. I'm getting on average 3 eggs a day, sometimes 4, but I don't know who or who isnt(aside from the EE is laying or not) I think it's the two older ones and maybe the other 3 rotating in there. Everyone is eating, pooping and acting normal.they have a flock block, eat all flock now and get a meal worm mixed with a couple other bugs daily. Very little scratch and canned cat food every couple days.

Feather Fixer has as much calcium as layer feed so I wouldn’t use it with roosters.
Pippin started a partial molt when she was in our garage with the baby.
It’s 50 degrees in there and I guess that was too warm and she started loosing feathers.
She’s only about 8 months old and shouldn’t be molting at all.
The first yearly molt happens between 15-18 months old and then yearly after that.
Now that they’re outside with the flock she’s not loosing as many feathers, thank goodness...but she’s looking pretty raggedy.

 

[CannedMonster]

Warning to anyone with roosters: keep an eye on their favorite hens. Today I checked Ash my top hen(and Wally’s favorite girl) she had some considerable feather loss from over mating so I picked her up to examine her more closely. Keep in mind I have 16 hens for Wally, more than enough to keep him “satisfied”. I lifted her wings and found a huge wound, that was matted with sand, bird, poop, etc... I gave her a bath, cleaned the wound, and set her up with a little pen in my garage. She’s going to need serious monitoring to avoid infection. I’ll take picture tomorrow to show you all. She was still laying daily, and acting completely normal. I can’t stress how important it is to look over your birds frequently! Had I not picked her up and looked more closely I would have never found this. I’ll be ordering hen saddles in the near future for any other “favorites” my boys have....

Thank you for the heads up.
I hope Ash recovers quickly.
I highly recommend Veterycin.
That’s all I had to use on Agatha.
My sex link, Red, is a favorite of Angus, as well as Agatha.
Red has had ragged and broken feathers for some time now.
I keep waiting for her to molt but she hasn’t yet. She’s 17 months old!

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Thank you for the heads up.
I hope Ash recovers quickly.
I highly recommend Veterycin.
That’s all I had to use on Agatha.
My sex link, Red, is a favorite of Angus, as well as Agatha.
Red has had ragged and broken feathers for some time now.
I keep waiting for her to molt but she hasn’t yet. She’s 17 months old!

I used veterycin and neosporin on the wound, as it heals and becomes less deep I’ll just use veterycin, I hope she recovers quickly as well. Once her wound scabs I’ll put her in the coop in my e-wing until she’s fully healed up. Ash started as just broken feathers, she molted and then this happened. I have another hen I’m getting a saddle for that is likely to be isolated soon too! Wally isn’t overly aggressive either, this just happened over a long period of time! Glad I caught it when I did!

 

[llombardo]

Do the tail feathers on the the base of a rooster become a part of the molt? I think I saw some kind of irritation on Prince.

I have used collodial silver twice for wounds now, both times it was healed up by the next day. I got to make more. I also have vetercyn.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Well, the chickens not only did fine overnight in the below zero temps, they are sitting on their outside perch! I have some tough bantams! I wonder if it helps that they came from MyPetChicken which is in Iowa. I'm guessing they get their hatching eggs from somewhere around there instead of somewhere farther away and warmer.
Speaking of MyPetChicken, I found a thread here from 2013 where someone put up pictures of her bantam EEs from there. They look exactly like mine! Guess they come from a long line of EE bantams. Hopefully that means they have nice colorful eggs!

 

[emrya]

Ughhh--I have to check mine. I have a mysterious blood issue on the roost. Not a lot but enough for me to see. I checked butts from a distance and saw nothing. I saw it a couple days ago and none since then and once before that. . The faverolle started molting about 3 weeks ago. I see feathers from the others here and there. Really haven't saw any from her, but I'm not sure what I am even looking for here. I only see Prince mate with her every now and then, so I'm hoping its not a combo thing going on.

I was looking at feather fixer for her, but can all of them including Prince have it?

I haven't got an egg from the EE in about 4-5 days. I'm getting on average 3 eggs a day, sometimes 4, but I don't know who or who isnt(aside from the EE is laying or not) I think it's the two older ones and maybe the other 3 rotating in there. Everyone is eating, pooping and acting normal.they have a flock block, eat all flock now and get a meal worm mixed with a couple other bugs daily. Very little scratch and canned cat food every couple days.

compare the protein in all flock with feather fixer- i believe it will be higher for all flock.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Warning to anyone with roosters: keep an eye on their favorite hens. Today I checked Ash my top hen(and Wally’s favorite girl) she had some considerable feather loss from over mating so I picked her up to examine her more closely. Keep in mind I have 16 hens for Wally, more than enough to keep him “satisfied”. I lifted her wings and found a huge wound, that was matted with sand, bird, poop, etc... I gave her a bath, cleaned the wound, and set her up with a little pen in my garage. She’s going to need serious monitoring to avoid infection. I’ll take picture tomorrow to show you all. She was still laying daily, and acting completely normal. I can’t stress how important it is to look over your birds frequently! Had I not picked her up and looked more closely I would have never found this. I’ll be ordering hen saddles in the near future for any other “favorites” my boys have....

Poor girl. Good thing you checked and found her wound early enough for it not have got infected.
I don't have much knowledge about rooster's but I'm guessing it's their spurs which cause the injuries?
Hope all goes well and she heals quickly - bless her.