Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

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Apps keep the water thing up my sleeve and use it if you need too as I too know what it's like to deal with a neighbour from hell. Speaking of which I have not seen the dog next door at all since Tony set up the camera. I am not surprised by that either as if she get's wind the dog is in trouble she usually ties it up for a week. Some sad news was out yesterday taking some BOSS to the free ranging girls and guys about lunch time when I realised I could not find Maxi. He has been out free ranging with the others since the last lot of rain we had. I did find him eventually dead under a gum tree. No signs of what he died of though so I am guessing maybe a snake. RIP Maxi.
 
megacakes said:
I've got a question or two I hope someone can help me with. One of the reasons I got chickens at home was because I fell in love with the ones at work. I teach at a small inner city school and we've had three Isa Browns there for about eighteen months. They have an absolute palace of a coop and run....the coop was their only home for a year or so, and is about 15 square metres. the run was built about six months ago, and is huge...maybe 40m or so. It's open, and includes several she-oaks. The girls are ridiculously well fed, getting scraps from the kids and the neighbourhood as well as the usual laying pellets and grit. Between 8am and 3pm they are allowed in the run, which is open at the top. this does allow other birds to get in, usually ibis, although they always wait until the chooks are locked in their coop before coming in.
They were looked after by the school handyman over the Christmas break, and just before the holidays I wormed them (now there's an interesting picture...syringing medicine into a chicken's beak. let's just say it wasn't the most successful venture ever) I know the handyman lets them free range around the playground on the weekends and so on, so they have a pretty good life!

When I came back in January for the new term, the girls looked terrible. Really moth eaten. I know that chickens moult, but I'm not sure when/for how long/often this occurs. I wondered if they had missed the kids a bit, as they are quite social and the coop is right in the middle of the playground. Over the past six weeks, I've noticed them looking happier. We still get 1-2 enormous eggs per day. They are perky girls who run the length of the fence, following people. One of the girls, however, still looks really beaten around. She's got hardly any feathers on her neck, an her whole body is quite patchy. She still seems happy, though. I'm sure there's a pecking order amongst them, but I've never seen her really getting picked on.

So...is this normal? Will her feathers grow back, or should I take her to the vet? Could this be some sort of mite that I haven't treated them for? It's been a pretty steep learning curve for me, as the teacher who originally organised the chickens left last year, and I've inherited the responsibility. Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, but the rest of the forum is so huge that i found it hard to find the right place to ask. Besides, you guys all have the seasons around the right way. :)
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I bought some x battery hens when we first moved here. I got them straight from the battery farm. They looked shocking have never seen hens so badly moulting. They came up a treat once they grew their feather out but until they did the looked really bad.
 
cluckcluckluke said:
Oh that sucks. So can you not raise chicks any more? or do you just have to keep them elevated?
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I do have chicks (in fact I have some hatching right now :) ) But I keep them elevated for the first couple months while slowly introducing grass and dirt from different places around the farm. When they go into the their bigger pen, it's deep litter to keep them just a little further from the dirt plus I used to give them sulpha-quin (which was great until they stopped making it) now I just put some powder in their water when it get rainy or if I have to have them crowded for a couple weeks. So long as you keep the run clean and they don't spend too much time on soul while they're young, I find that they usually do okay.

Satay; my condolences for the loss of your rooster.
 

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