A Bielefelder Thread !

[Coop de Grass]

Good job being a chicken attendant.

Mine are like that too. They relax in the bin, but I must always be near to keep them that way....Otherwise, the flapping & the splashing can awful Outside on a hot day is always the best way to clean them. Of course, I've been having my kids do it lately. They don't seem to mind getting wet.

I hope Schnitzel is feeling better soon. You're a great chicken mom.

Thanks for the praise. My kids are all out of the house, though the youngest is home this summer between Sophomore and Junior year... I can just see his face if I ask him. He does like the chickens.

So, those hens have become like my children...sigh.

Today was planned so that I was going to watch Wimbledon live and then the soccer live. Never happens because we're always having to watch around other things... So, of course, I went down to the coop planning to come back for coffee and tennis, and instead I came back with Schnitzel and a poopy butt!

I am going to get Chicken Diapers!

 

[DesertChic]

Don't laugh, but I think that I saw something about prosthetics for chickens... maybe they have a beak? Stop laughing, I'm being serious!!!

I've actually heard of prosthetic beaks. I learned about them watching one of the animal vet shows on Animal Planet. Interesting contraptions, but as I understand it, they don't actually work very well. Since I finally caught Hansel eating and drinking I think I'll just leave it to nature to figure it all out. His beak looked better today now that it's not all bloody. The silly boy was posturing with an Austra White I had in a cage in preparation for butchering...even with his broken beak. Silly boy just doesn't know when to quit! Such machismo!

 

[DesertChic]

Schnitzel's prolapse update.
Schnitie seemed ok outside in the dog crate which was covered on 3 sides. She did a few poos and everything was still inside. The last time I checked, she was being attacked by flies, so I decided to bring her inside, clean her up and keep her inside. When I went to clean her, she was prolapsed again. I decided to give her an epsom salt soak.

It is not easy giving that girl a bath/soak. I ended up sitting on the floor next to the plastic bin which was the only thing big enough to put her in! And then I had to hold her down while making sure her head didn't drop into the water when she was dozing in between trying to get out.

Getting her out was like taking a dog out of a bath! wings flapping furiously...

Then there was the blow drying.

I've trimmed a lot of those bottom feathers, so I'm hoping that it will be easier to keep her clean.

Oh boy! Sounds like you've had quite a day! Prolapse is definitely a tough one. I have another chicken friend who spent over three weeks treating her prolapse-prone hen multiple times per day. The hen eventually seemed to grow to actually like her Epsom salt baths, but unfortunately she still didn't make it. I sure hope you have better luck.

 

[Coop de Grass]

Oh boy! Sounds like you've had quite a day! Prolapse is definitely a tough one. I have another chicken friend who spent over three weeks treating her prolapse-prone hen multiple times per day. The hen eventually seemed to grow to actually like her Epsom salt baths, but unfortunately she still didn't make it. I sure hope you have better luck.

Thanks, @DesertChic ! She is now in the smaller dog carrier in the family room. She could see the tv and watched the soccer... all my chicks that start out in the house have been fascinated by the television. I gave her crushed egg shells because calcium seems to help with contractions. I just checked her and gave her some watermelon, and her insides are still inside. Good news for the moment.

Just curious is you can have prolapse without being egg bound?

I found out today that the one Biele hen who was laying was Jessica, so Schnitzel had not laid an egg in over a week - since it got really hot, I think.

Time for more research!

Also time to check on the 3 Biele eggs that are pipping and hatching tonight.

 

[CrowHollowFarm]

This is just my opinion so don't get upset, but why would you medicate a bird that's not sick? You are trying to stop something natural by altering their systems. It still mentally wants to set, the body temp is not what makes it go broody. I usually just put them in a cool place away from the other birds like a basement for a couple days. You could even leave the lights on and don't put bedding in with her. Then move her to a different pen if possible when you put her back out. Good luck.
This comment wasn't about prolapse, sorry. I was referring to breaking the broody hen post, should have specified.

 

[Coop de Grass]

This is just my opinion so don't get upset, but why would you medicate a bird that's not sick? You are trying to stop something natural by altering their systems. It still mentally wants to set, the body temp is not what makes it go broody. I usually just put them in a cool place away from the other birds like a basement for a couple days. You could even leave the lights on and don't put bedding in with her. Then move her to a different pen if possible when you put her back out. Good luck.
This comment wasn't about prolapse, sorry. I was referring to breaking the broody hen post, should have specified.

No worries! I just pull my hens out of the nest box until they give up, but @DesertChic is in Arizona, where the temps have been around 117°. Her coop has air conditioners and she still just lost a hen to heat stroke. She also doesn't believe in medicating chickens... Gotta say, if I was in that situation, I think that I'd administer the baby aspirin...

 

[DesertChic]

This is just my opinion so don't get upset, but why would you medicate a bird that's not sick? You are trying to stop something natural by altering their systems. It still mentally wants to set, the body temp is not what makes it go broody. I usually just put them in a cool place away from the other birds like a basement for a couple days. You could even leave the lights on and don't put bedding in with her. Then move her to a different pen if possible when you put her back out. Good luck.
This comment wasn't about prolapse, sorry. I was referring to breaking the broody hen post, should have specified.

I usually don't resort to any kinds of medication, but I had one extremely persistent broody that I simply couldn't break and she was beginning to waste away. The temperatures here were simply too high to allow her to sit on eggs...we hit 117° for several days and remained above 105º for a few weeks. My little A/C units couldn't even begin to keep up and every other method I'd tried, including moving her into the air conditioned house in a dog crate, failed to break her. It was a choice between allowing her to die of heat stroke or giving her the aspirin. I gave her the aspirin. She's my most amazing mother hen and I didn't want to lose her because of bad timing.

Since then she's gone broody one more time but I caught her quickly and put her in an isolation pen with frozen 2-liter bottles of water and a/c blowing on her. I managed to break her in two days and avoid any other complications. If I didn't have so many chickens right now, and the weather weren't so insanely hot, I would let her sit on some eggs, but this really isn't a good time.

 

[Coop de Grass]

It was a choice between allowing her to die of heat stroke or giving her the aspirin. I gave her the aspirin. She's my most amazing mother hen and I didn't want to lose her because of bad timing.

Since then she's gone broody one more time but I caught her quickly and put her in an isolation pen with frozen 2-liter bottles of water and a/c blowing on her. I managed to break her in two days and avoid any other complications. If I didn't have so many chickens right now, and the weather weren't so insanely hot, I would let her sit on some eggs, but this really isn't a good time.

These days I wish they made nest boxes with removable tops...I hate seeing them in the nests panting. I may try some wooden crates that I have used in the past - the younger ones all wanted to sleep in them, so out they came!

 

[CrowHollowFarm]

I guess we don't deal with that kind of heat here, good luck.

 

[Faraday40]

I usually don't resort to any kinds of medication, but I had one extremely persistent broody that I simply couldn't break and she was beginning to waste away. The temperatures here were simply too high to allow her to sit on eggs...we hit 117° for several days and remained above 105º for a few weeks. My little A/C units couldn't even begin to keep up and every other method I'd tried, including moving her into the air conditioned house in a dog crate, failed to break her. It was a choice between allowing her to die of heat stroke or giving her the aspirin. I gave her the aspirin. She's my most amazing mother hen and I didn't want to lose her because of bad timing.

Since then she's gone broody one more time but I caught her quickly and put her in an isolation pen with frozen 2-liter bottles of water and a/c blowing on her. I managed to break her in two days and avoid any other complications. If I didn't have so many chickens right now, and the weather weren't so insanely hot, I would let her sit on some eggs, but this really isn't a good time.

Wow! I guess you must collect your eggs quickly & never leave them outside or they'll incubate on their own!