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

[Teila]

Hey appps that is a tricky one! If you try it and it goes well, yippee but if you try it and it does not, risky.

I have not tried to integrate chicks that young but I would probably wait until they are a little older and a little bigger in case things change and there is some bullying. Having said that, as you know, I am a worrier and always err on the side of caution.

 

[tandykins]

So far this morning all I've managed to do regarding Pipper is check on her to make sure she isn't dead because I'm just incapable in the mornings without coffee and my pessimism gets jacked up to a 75,000 on a scale of 1-10. I'd checked on her a couple of times last night before going to bed. She's quite alert and responsive and behaving totally normally, if rather subdued and quiet - apart from appearing to be in some discomfort, dropping her wing, and squatting.

I haven't checked her crop yet but she'd drunk a fair bit of water last night, which is encouraging. I'm afraid I'm being hit harder by this than I usually am with my birds and injuries, perhaps because Pipper was raised like a spoilt brat indoors for 16 weeks and spent more of her time following me around the house in a chicken nappy so she wasn't alone all the time, than she spent in her own brooder. Of all of my chickens, Pipper is the closest to a family pet. Seeing her like this is harder than it usually is for me.

I hope everyone else's days are going better...

In other news, the Golden Girls are looking better. I need to treat their feet again today. We ended up naming them Gandalf, Brian Blessed, and The Butcher. When I got them, I was warned that they were "bad layers" and indeed probably weren't even laying at all.

They've been with us for 5 days and between the 3 of them have laid 14 beautiful green eggs. Bad layers my ***.

They're calming down and becoming more sociable. Gandalf sometimes lets me touch her, briefly, before giving me that skittish Araucana growl and running off. Brian Blessed, true to her name, calls me names, curses at me, shrieks chicken obscenities, and then runs away while flaunting her magnificent beard. The Butcher, obviously the boss, spends most of her day digging tunnels to freedom.

I've been keeping an eye on my thin rooster, Hoban Washburne (Wash) watching his feeding behaviours. Sure enough, the morning after I added more food sources he immediately went to feed and was immediately attacked by my head rooster (the moment his back was turned). He sought out a second source but was again attacked the moment he tried to eat. Well that'll do it.

I know that the primary cause of animosity between my boys right now is a lack of ladies. Normally everyone gets along. Our hen to rooster ratio is around 4 right now with the hens we've got in hospital, quarantine, and brooding eggs - but we're also getting a large influx of hens over the next several months, so I feel confident that this part of it, at least, will sort itself out.

In the meantime, I've offered a total of 7 food sources in extremely different locations in the yard and I'm monitoring how they're used. I believe in a choice-based approach to welfare so I'd rather see where THEY prefer to eat rather than telling THEM where to eat. For now, unsurprisingly, Wash prefers to eat around the corner from wherever Mr The Conductor (the one beating him up) is eating - fair enough, breaking the line of sight makes for a bit more security. I also took off his crow collar just in case it was too snug and wasn't allowing him to eat properly - I do this once every 3-4 weeks anyway to let their necks breathe and make sure the collars aren't causing problems. In just the last couple of days he's improved a bit. He's looking a little brighter, more confident, and significantly less battered (he's been taking shots to his comb now and then).

In the next 4 weeks, once we've got our breeding coop finished, I'll be separating him and giving him his own little flock which will probably make all the difference in the world for his self-confidence. He's a terribly anxious and neurotic little rooster, terrified of everything.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Good morning friends 

Tandykins I am sorry to hear that Pipper is not well.  I have a little experience with impacted crop but probably will not be as much help as others; Fancy for example.  Anyways, I agree with Fancy, in that whether her crop is empty or full this morning after not having any food will definitely help in the diagnosis. 

Dusty took sick one afternoon, very quiet, hiding under the coop, looking a little uncomfortable and out of sorts but the next morning she was fine.  I think something she ate did not agree with her or caused a slight blockage.

I hope Pipper is much improved today 

Fancy, as always, thank you for helping and good advice.

locknest4 the bugs are too small to really tell what they look like.  They do not jump, so probably not fleas.  I have Googled chicken lice, Northern Fowl Mites and Red Mites but while the pictures on Google are helpful, not being able to really see these things is not 

The bugs that came out of the roost join when I hit it with surface spray could be red mites, but the bugs I found on me were smaller.  A couple I found on the coop wall were smaller also and white, which research indicates they may have been juveniles and not yet ‘had a feed’.

So I am either dealing with a combined lice and mite problem or just some mites that recently arrived and have had babies.

Anyways, it is just a little frustrating that no matter how vigilant you are, how clean you keep everything and many prevention methods, they still get ya!  I try to use natural remedies also but I confess to losing a little faith in their abilities, especially in this case.

I blame those Evil Black Butted B&*^%$’s !! 

The good news, nothing moving in the coop this morning [the girls were in the run ].   A thorough examination of me after cleaning up the poop, taking down the next box blocker etc only turned up one of the tiny monsters and the best news .. the girls are still talking to me 

As I said, hopefully I caught them early this time around.  

I have the IT Team Workshop today and tomorrow but I will strip everything down again on the weekend, give it a good wash in hot soapy water and hit it with another dose of surface spray.

Teila your posts always bring a smile to my face. . If I had fewer birds I would give some of the ' home remedies ' a go , but once your exceed 20-30 birds it's just not time efficient or cost effective. Permethrin and pyrethrums are deemed fairly safe and after having rubbed Vicks on the chests of all 3 of my children throughout their childhoods , I have no hesitation in rubbing it onto my chickens legs.
I love that you have found yet another reason to hate the crows. I compare chicken creepy crawlies to weeds in my garden. I can spray ,clip ,mow and manicure but as sure the sun will rise tomorrow, the weeds will be back next spring, if not sooner.

 

[tandykins]

Teila your posts always bring a smile to my face.

. If I had fewer birds I would give some of the ' home remedies ' a go , but once your exceed 20-30 birds it's just not time efficient or cost effective. Permethrin and pyrethrums are deemed fairly safe and after having rubbed Vicks on the chests of all 3 of my children throughout their childhoods , I have no hesitation in rubbing it onto my chickens legs.
I love that you have found yet another reason to hate the crows.

I compare chicken creepy crawlies to weeds in my garden. I can spray ,clip ,mow and manicure but as sure the sun will rise tomorrow, the weeds will be back next spring, if not sooner.

I am normally an extremely skeptical person. If someone tells me something is true in science or medicine, I tend to look it up before believing them. I was telling my husband last night that with you I am 100% comfortable just taking your word for it because I trust and respect your research.

Some home remedies are great - white vinegar, for example, kicks butt in my garden killing mallows better than I've found most commercial weed sprays and is 100% harmless to my birds, yay - but it's not the magic wand a lot of people will claim it is, and that, I've found, applies for most (but hardly all) "natural therapies".

 

[appps]

Hey appps that is a tricky one!  If you try it and it goes well, yippee but if you try it and it does not, risky.

I have not tried to integrate chicks that young but I would probably wait until they are a little older and a little bigger in case things change and there is some bullying.  Having said that, as you know, I am a worrier and always err on the side of caution.

Yeah that was my plan originally but I'm actually hoping to avoid the whole integration pecking thing alltogether. When we put pepper and penny back at around 7 weeks they ignored the baby totally. I think she was so young she wasn't worthy of pecking as it was a given she wasn't going to challenge for their spot in the pecking order. By the time she was big enough to have been pecked if I'd added her then they still just ignored her as they and she knew her place already so other than their packing of mum on her return it was actually a very easy new chick transition.

I've started to notice more and more posts of people who do add them back this young and it seems to work fairly smoothly.

 

[tandykins]

Yeah that was my plan originally but I'm actually hoping to avoid the whole integration pecking thing alltogether. When we put pepper and penny back at around 7 weeks they ignored the baby totally. I think she was so young she wasn't worthy of pecking as it was a given she wasn't going to challenge for their spot in the pecking order. By the time she was big enough to have been pecked if I'd added her then they still just ignored her as they and she knew her place already so other than their packing of mum on her return it was actually a very easy new chick transition.

I've started to notice more and more posts of people who do add them back this young and it seems to work fairly smoothly.

Yeah I've never tried integrating new chicks until at least 8 weeks old and then I feel like it's a bit early. I generally try at around 12 weeks. I'm trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with Queenie and her babies, though - because I sincerely doubt that 12 weeks is necessary for hen raised chicks. I also have the added problem of Queenie being quite fearful of humans, she was always quite poorly socialized and screams when you hold her. Her chicks are easily the poorest socialized I've ever hatched. I've been wondering if I'd be better off taking them away from her and finishing raising them myself but that feels like an absolutely horrible thing to do to all involved. :/ It's tricky knowing when, how, where, and under what circumstances to move new babies.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I am normally an extremely skeptical person.  If someone tells me something is true in science or medicine, I tend to look it up before believing them.  I was telling my husband last night that with you I am 100% comfortable just taking your word for it because I trust and respect your research.  

Some home remedies are great - white vinegar, for example, kicks butt in my garden killing mallows better than I've found most commercial weed sprays and is 100% harmless to my birds, yay - but it's not the magic wand a lot of people will claim it is, and that, I've found, applies for most (but hardly all) "natural therapies".

I'm a firm believer in science over hearsay and testimonials. Unfortunately most of the science is centered around commercial poultry and their primary concern is the ' almighty dollar ' not the longevity of the birds. Most of us start keeping chickens in the pursuit of
'Fresh ' drug and hormone free eggs. Our judgment can get a little clouded at times , there is so much information out there, but we are all striving for the same thing, happy , healthy birds that produce nice fresh eggs.
We all learn from each other and I think that the people on this thread are all kind and respectful of each other's opinions and way of doing things. I for one , am glad to be of any help .

 

[tandykins]

I'm a firm believer in science over hearsay and testimonials. Unfortunately most of the science is centered around commercial poultry and their primary concern is the ' almighty dollar ' not the longevity of the birds. Most of us start keeping chickens in the pursuit of
'Fresh ' drug and hormone free eggs. Our judgment can get a little clouded at times , there is so much information out there, but we are all striving for the same thing, happy , healthy birds that produce nice fresh eggs.
We all learn from each other and I think that the people on this thread are all kind and respectful of each other's opinions and way of doing things. I for one , am glad to be of any help .

My primary goal with raising my own chickens is my belief that my food should have a fulfilling, happy, peaceful, and loving life before I eat it and that raising livestock doesn't have to mean dissociating yourself from it. I hated the idea that one could not eat an animal they loved. I thought that one should always love the animals they eat.

 

[tandykins]

I finally got up the nerve to go in and give Pipper a proper check. I brought her out and simply opened the cage, waiting for her to come out on her own terms. She pecked around for a few minutes, came out, gave a glorious shake of her body, flapped her wings, and wandered around as though wondering what the fuss was all about. She was 100% back to normal. WHEW. I'm going to guess then, that she bruised a wing or something trying to get out from under the coop - because a night of rest seems to have made her feel a lot better. You'd never know anything had ever been wrong. I'm so relieved. -_-

Last night she'd take a step, hang her wings, flap them uncomfortably, stumble stiffly, and then just lie down to one side, hanging her left wing. This morning it was like nothing had ever happened. Of course, she immediately went for the coop to see if she could get back under it again. Thankfully, after her adventure yesterday, my husband tacked the bottom of the already very stiff wire down with tent pegs and secured it with cable ties. That should do the trick. -_-

 

[Fancychooklady]

I finally got up the nerve to go in and give Pipper a proper check.  I brought her out and simply opened the cage, waiting for her to come out on her own terms.  She pecked around for a few minutes, came out, gave a glorious shake of her body, flapped her wings, and wandered around as though wondering what the fuss was all about.  She was 100% back to normal.  WHEW.  I'm going to guess then, that she bruised a wing or something trying to get out from under the coop - because a night of rest seems to have made her feel a lot better.  You'd never know anything had ever been wrong.  I'm so relieved. -_-

Last night she'd take a step, hang her wings, flap them uncomfortably, stumble stiffly, and then just lie down to one side, hanging her left wing.  This morning it was like nothing had ever happened. Of course, she immediately went for the coop to see if she could get back under it again.  Thankfully, after her adventure yesterday, my husband tacked the bottom of the already very stiff wire down with tent pegs and secured it with cable ties.  That should do the trick. -_-

Good to hear. Just keep a keen eye on her over the next few days.