2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

Poor Diamond. She's been getting the feathers pecked off the bottom of her neck like crazy. She's lowest on the pecking order. Well, the other day she suddenly had them pecked all the way up the side of her head and the top of her head! No blood though, thank goodness. I have no idea what happened. I can only guess that maybe she and Pearl were in the two nest boxes and Opal or Jade wanted to use one. Of course they wouldn't bother Pearl, she's top chicken. Maybe she got trapped in the nest box by one or both and couldn't escape? I have no idea. I put some no-peck stuff on her head and it hasn't gotten any worse in the past couple days. I let them out in the yard almost every day, unless there's a hawk around when I go out or it's raining. I've been giving them some extra protein just in case too.

I was looking at pictures of gnat bites and to me it resembles pecking. Just cover all bases. The gnats are really bad and killing off lots of birds this year. I think this is what happened with my Rain. When they go in the coop at night I speay cintrella on the coop, must the window areas and mist the run. I also put lemon grass in the nesting boxes.

You can also put blue kote on her. It will stop them from pecking and give her time to heal. Make sure it doesn't get in her eyes.

Mine have started laying on the floor of the coop in the corner. That's probably because the younger ones have been sleeping in the nest boxes and the olders probably don't like it. Tonite I had to move Precious off the eggs and rake them out, she was not happy with me. I've caught 2 of the ducks trying to sit too, they are not as serious as Precious appears to be.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

I've been gone for a few days, went to visit a friend in Moline. While I was gone Jade went broody again. I told my husband to just keep pushing her out of the nest box and put her on the roost at dusk. He did that, bless his heart. But then yesterday she decided to make a nice little nest spot on the floor of the coop in the nice new shavings I had put down before I left! She outsmarted us! So it's off to the dog crate. I didn't want my husband to have to set it up while I was gone and hoped that just removing her from the box might help.
Hope everyone is doing fine and chickens are all well! It's been good to have a few nice days here and there. I finally got my flowers planted.

 

[No More Empty Nest]

I put Jade in the crate during the daytime and the roost at night. She wasn't very happy with the crate at first but soon got used to it. She's now ok. Hoping she'll start laying again soon.
How's everyone doing?

 

[llombardo]

I put Jade in the crate during the daytime and the roost at night. She wasn't very happy with the crate at first but soon got used to it. She's now ok. Hoping she'll start laying again soon.
How's everyone doing?

Working lots of hours. I'm exhausted. I have pup that will be 15 and her back legs are not doing well. From the pressure of trying to get up she pees/poops, so I put a diaper on her while I'm gone. She has figured out howto take it off if it's even a little bit wet, so I come home to a small mess daily. Then the ducks are messing with me. They were taking turns sitting on eggs, well I keep removing them. They stopped laying for a couple days, then I started getting one egg. Today there were 3 but either one of the runners has a smaller different color egg or the ducks may have stole an egg from one of the younger chickens but I can't figure out how. I thought maybe they got to the ducks side and laid in the nest or they laid close to the fence and the ducks stole it. All of the above is absolutely crazy but I got this small egg as proof..lol

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Working lots of hours. I'm exhausted. I have pup that will be 15 and her back legs are not doing well. From the pressure of trying to get up she pees/poops, so I put a diaper on her while I'm gone. She has figured out howto take it off if it's even a little bit wet, so I come home to a small mess daily. Then the ducks are messing with me. They were taking turns sitting on eggs, well I keep removing them. They stopped laying for a couple days, then I started getting one egg. Today there were 3 but either one of the runners has a smaller different color egg or the ducks may have stole an egg from one of the younger chickens but I can't figure out how. I thought maybe they got to the ducks side and laid in the nest or they laid close to the fence and the ducks stole it. All of the above is absolutely crazy but I got this small egg as proof..lol

Lol, chickens and ducks are always doing something surprising. For about a week mine slowed down laying. I'd get no eggs one day then 1 egg for a couple days, then no eggs. I only have 4 to begin with and 1 was recovering from going broody so no eggs from her, but still that was too few eggs! I found a few of Pearl's tail feathers under the roost one day and thought are they molting?? It's not time for them to but stranger things have happened. Then they suddenly started giving me 2-3 eggs a day again. Jade still hasn't started laying again. Who knows?
It's hard when pets get old. My last dog became incontinent and had to have a belly band on. Fortunately he never pulled it off.
I went to my Aunt's 100th birthday party last week. It was really nice seeing relatives I haven't seen in years.

 

[llombardo]

At least 2 of the younger girls have started laying. It would be Willow and Cinnamon. Both have decided they need to sneak over to the duck side and lay in the ducks nest. I have no clue how they are getting over. They are squeezing through somewhere.

 

[llombardo]

Well the heat is here. The run was a mud put, boy does that wet mud stink. I put more mulch down for the chickens and River Rock for the ducks. The mosquitos are out in full blast. I think I may put the bug light in the run.

I put the netting over the side yard, so now they come out a couple hours a night. I installed a fan in the coop, so I put it on a couple hours before they go in to cool it off and leaving it on at night.

I got a cute little play house and turned it into a dust bath area

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Well the heat is here. The run was a mud put, boy does that wet mud stink. I put more mulch down for the chickens and River Rock for the ducks. The mosquitos are out in full blast. I think I may put the bug light in the run.

I put the netting over the side yard, so now they come out a couple hours a night. I installed a fan in the coop, so I put it on a couple hours before they go in to cool it off and leaving it on at night.

I got a cute little play house and turned it into a dust bath area

View attachment 1831992

That's really a cute idea for a dust bath! Keeps it all contained too. The rain has been phenomenal. I bet half my plants will die when it finally stops because I'll be so used to NOT watering them. And the weeds! I can't keep up with them.
My bantams are exasperating, lol. Now Diamond is broody! Being a cochin she is much more persistent. She was in the nest box all afternoon the other day and then stayed there at night. Yesterday she was in there all day. I'd move her out and she'd sit on the grass clucking and then go right back to the nest box. The other 2 would stay out for a while, eat and drink, walk around for a while, then go back in. She didn't eat or drink which concerns me. I'm hoping she came out when I wasn't looking to at least drink. Last night I moved her to the roost 3 times. Each time she hopped back into the nest box. The last 2 times were at 11:30 pm. I thought sure she'd stay on the roost at that late. Nope, right back to the nest box. She's still laying eggs so I haven't put her in the crate yet.

 

[llombardo]

That's really a cute idea for a dust bath! Keeps it all contained too. The rain has been phenomenal. I bet half my plants will die when it finally stops because I'll be so used to NOT watering them. And the weeds! I can't keep up with them.
My bantams are exasperating, lol. Now Diamond is broody! Being a cochin she is much more persistent. She was in the nest box all afternoon the other day and then stayed there at night. Yesterday she was in there all day. I'd move her out and she'd sit on the grass clucking and then go right back to the nest box. The other 2 would stay out for a while, eat and drink, walk around for a while, then go back in. She didn't eat or drink which concerns me. I'm hoping she came out when I wasn't looking to at least drink. Last night I moved her to the roost 3 times. Each time she hopped back into the nest box. The last 2 times were at 11:30 pm. I thought sure she'd stay on the roost at that late. Nope, right back to the nest box. She's still laying eggs so I haven't put her in the crate yet.

I do not even want to discuss weeds. They are everywhere and I can't stand it. I just noticed they are growing out of my gutter..

 

[No More Empty Nest]

My Diamond (bantam Cochin) has been broody for a week. She's been in a small crate all set up like it's supposed to be. I let her out 2-3 times a day for exercise, closing the door to the run or else she'd go right back in the nest box. She'll eat a little, drink a little, and poop. Then she runs around the outside of the enclosure jumping up at the hardware cloth, trying to get in.
When she's in the crate, she doesn't perch on the 2 x 4 that's in it, she sits on the grate like she's sitting on a nest. I tried putting her on the roost in the coop a couple nights when she seemed like she was getting better. But she jumped right off and went into the nest box, even when I tried at midnight hoping she'd be sound asleep and wouldn't notice!
Today when I picked her up I thought she felt light, so I checked and I can feel her breast bone. I made her some scrambled egg and she gobbled it down. She'll be getting more tomorrow.
I let her go into the nest box tonight since the crate isn't working anyway. I left a bowl of moistened feed in with her and put the feeder and waterer from the crate next to the nest box. Plus this morning when I opened the crate she just sat there instead of running out. Then when I took her out and set her down outside, she just sat there too. I thought she looked depressed but maybe she was just weak from not eating well. So I didn't want to put her in the crate again. She did eventually start walking around and ate a little. I'm also concerned about her feet since she's sitting on the grate instead of the 2 x 4.
She's lowest in the pecking order and the others have been absolutely horrible to her when I let them all out together. They started being horrible to her a couple months ago. She has no feathers on the front of her neck and she has very thin patches on the top and one side of her head from them pecking at her. She doesn't run from them, she just freezes in place. This past week she has started running away so maybe the pecking will get better.
Poor Diamond!