Arizona Chickens

[pastrymama]

we just got home a little bit ago from swim team and some errands. kids went out back to discover one of my beautiful wheaten ameraucanas torn to bits, parts everywhere courtesy of my beagle. I don't know how she got out, but I am soooo mad. my beautiful fluffy faced girl. sucks.

so in light of this, big surprise, I have decided against raising my baby roos for meat. I am completely grossed out by yesterday's carnage of the backyard and have lost interest and the stomach. picking her up was super hard for me.

so I have 4 baby roos that need to be raised for whatever, they are sulmtalers from widget creek ranch, ca says they are fabulous meat. they should be about 4-5 weeks old right now. come and get them please.

 

[pipemum]

pastrymama, sorry to hear about your ameraucana.

 

[pipemum]

I have a chicken butt question. When I received my 3-day old cuckoo marans chick, she had a very swollen vent and a bit of her umbilical cord attached in the front, also very swollen and sore looking. She was pooping normally, eating and drinking, and otherwise acting a-okay. But her vent was constantly, um, on the go. Always opening and shutting. Again, no problems pooping, no signs of straining or anything. Just..active vent.

She's 5 weeks old now, and her vent is still very visible and still, um, active. My husband walked outside, saw the chicken last night, and immediately asked what was wrong with her butt. The area is finally getting covered with feathers, so hopefully it'll at least be out of eyesight soon, lol.

Is a constantly pulsing vent normal? The other chickens fluff and now feathers have concealed their vents. I guess there's not anything I can do if it's NOT normal--she's totally healthy otherwise. I'm wondering though, if this one is going to have problems laying when the time comes.

 

[GreatWhiteAfro]

I have seen pictures someplace of Possable strange eggs. One was an egg that was stuck, the second egg came down and the shell was laid down over both with the bottom egg not quite double shell. There were a number of pictures of eggs not quite finished, it looked like both eggs are not complete. If I could figure out were I saw that I would reread about Possable things that could happen. Do a search you may find it before me. It looks to me like two eggs were released almost on top of each other and the pure hens body did not finish ether of them (from the picture). Dose that make sense?

I may have time for a search tomorrow night, I will be spending the night in the hospital. My mother broke her hip and they may be doing surgery.

The eggs themselves appeared normal, on the small side, but normal. I think they look weird in the photo but when I took them out of the coop they looked and felt like any other egg. The shells were thick and the shape was right on, it's just weird to me that she laid while on the roost. And it appears two at once, they have to be from the same chicken because my other two eggs I got are blue, and my other girls are only around 15 weeks old so not quiet ready to lay, and they should have brown eggs since they are black austrolorps and a red sex link. Not sure what to think since they haven't laid anything in two days.....

They sure have been visiting the nest boxes alot, I think one of my girls likes to sit on the golf ball I have in there because she's always in that box. Hope to get some eggs today!!

 

[pollo disco]

I have a chicken butt question. When I received my 3-day old cuckoo marans chick, she had a very swollen vent and a bit of her umbilical cord attached in the front, also very swollen and sore looking. She was pooping normally, eating and drinking, and otherwise acting a-okay. But her vent was constantly, um, on the go. Always opening and shutting. Again, no problems pooping, no signs of straining or anything. Just..active vent.

She's 5 weeks old now, and her vent is still very visible and still, um, active. My husband walked outside, saw the chicken last night, and immediately asked what was wrong with her butt. The area is finally getting covered with feathers, so hopefully it'll at least be out of eyesight soon, lol.

Is a constantly pulsing vent normal? The other chickens fluff and now feathers have concealed their vents. I guess there's not anything I can do if it's NOT normal--she's totally healthy otherwise. I'm wondering though, if this one is going to have problems laying when the time comes.

I had one that had that, and yes, it does go away as the bird gets bigger. It is funny to look at though. hehe. My kids get a real good laugh as the chick would walk around the kitchen floor and wiggling the butt. Just be sure to keep other birds from pecking at it. They get curious and mean sometimes.

 

[Arizona Son]

Are the snakes coming up through burrow holes in the ground? Like the ones that ground squirrels make? I have a bunch of those squirrel holes in my backyard, and I would HATE for snakes to use those for a freeway to my chicks! I'm so sorry to hear about your chicks.

What a coincidence that you just wrote that, because.....
YES! That is exactly what happened! This morning, I was in the pen doing some cleaning & noticed a hole concealed under the litter. I started running the hose into the edges of the hole, literally filling it in with sand from around the edges when up pops ANOTHER snake! (this would be snake number 3, if you've been keeping track!) And it was certainly big enough to be eating chicks! So the ground squirrels, in addition to dining on chick starter/feed & drinking from the waterer, are now facilitating the snakes with entry into the outdoor pens.

I havent killed this snake yet, but I have my temptation to grab him up & take him over to DesertMarcy for relocation purposes.

I think this one is a bullsnake. Marcy, i'll happily spare his life & trade him to you for a replacement chick or two, haha hee hee

 

[GreatWhiteAfro]

Went to the coop and found this next to my golf ball decoy.....


Looks and feels like a nice egg!

 

[Arizona Son]

Time of year when they are hatched can also contribute to size, depending on weather conditions where they are grown out.

Marcy, can you explain this in a bit more detail, if you wouldn't mind? I am curious here.

 

[ChicksOfHazzard]

I have a chicken butt question. When I received my 3-day old cuckoo marans chick, she had a very swollen vent and a bit of her umbilical cord attached in the front, also very swollen and sore looking. She was pooping normally, eating and drinking, and otherwise acting a-okay. But her vent was constantly, um, on the go. Always opening and shutting. Again, no problems pooping, no signs of straining or anything. Just..active vent.

She's 5 weeks old now, and her vent is still very visible and still, um, active. My husband walked outside, saw the chicken last night, and immediately asked what was wrong with her butt. The area is finally getting covered with feathers, so hopefully it'll at least be out of eyesight soon, lol.

Is a constantly pulsing vent normal? The other chickens fluff and now feathers have concealed their vents. I guess there's not anything I can do if it's NOT normal--she's totally healthy otherwise. I'm wondering though, if this one is going to have problems laying when the time comes.

Maybe she's doing kegel exercises?!

 

[pipemum]

Maybe she's doing kegel exercises?!