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

[RodneyRooster]

My LS was called Fred. I still have wilma

I know I liked him :-( now i think about it yeah, replacement fred as a name is hilarious. Maybe not too nice for the rooster tho..

How cute is the chick sitting on the egg !

Haha! I missed it too, how adorable! She has them well trained

Yeah absolutely - I had a hard time finding stuff that was either okay to use on birds or was either not really bad for use on birds. The flea shampoo I use is pyrethrum based, as is the spray I use on them. I'm not of the school of thought that pyrethrum is harmless for chickens, however, and we never use it as a preventative. I prefer to prevent mice and lights (mites and lice) with herbs and reserve the nasties for the treatment when my gentler methods fail - then I use it sparingly. I prefer to tackle the coop itself by marathon pressure-washing rather than heavily spraying the place. ^^^ THIS. I love my chickens to the point where -I make clothes for them-. I still, very rarely, forget to lock up their coop at night. That hasn't ended in tragedy for us yet, but it may well one day. These things happen to the best of us. I chalk it up to learning and just try to do better next time. If you feel bad, just give them extra cuddles and maybe some penitence treats. XD And on that note...because you can't mention chicken clothes and then not show people (that would be rude): I based the design on a chicken saddle. I was already sewing them due to my hens being a bit bare along their backs. I'm a total novice with sewing so this is all very new to me - but it was my first attempt and I thought it turned out excellent. I intend to keep fiddling with the design and (based on the suggestion of a friend) we decided that Pipper needs a tiny Victorian-style bonnet to go with her dress and I'm in the process of making that now. Because I have mental problems and too much time on my hands. >.> (Pipper, btw, is a 7 month old Golden Spangled Hamburg X Lavender Araucana and was hand-raised indoors for her first 16 weeks as a solo chick. My attachment to her is so great she has her own Instagram hashtag #PipperTheChicken XD) I also make chicken hats (bc that's totes normal), diapers, bow ties, crow collars, horrific implements of chicken torture and whimsy... https://instagram.com/tandykins/

OMG! i can just imagine the look on my husbands face when i show him this! And then the absolute fear and attempting to stop me from doing the same. I do love sewing.. haha. Well broody 2 has now joined the rest of the flock with her chicks FINALLY! Shut off the broody area straight away so she couldnt get back in lol. And best of all, they slept in the shed last night! relief. She did sleep in the corner on the ground under the roost tho instead of in a nesting box.. hey if she wants to be weird thats fine by me, as long as shes sleeping inside. I will have to start cleaning the coop a bit more often if shes going to do that tho i think. Somehow now theyre finally all together and the chicks are getting so much bigger my flock looks so much bigger! Not that u can tell in the pics as much but my first thought when letting them out was wow.. this isnt gonna be enough bread and grapes for all of u.. lol

Yeah pics dont show much at all but i feel so excited standing in the middle of them all now. One great big massive flock. For a bit longer..

 

[Fancychooklady]

Could be protein - I have been giving them quite a high protein diet lately.  I don't usually supplement them with calcium but keep a bowl of grit around instead for "free take".  The recent(ish) calcium supplementation has been because when I last pressure washed the coop I forgot to put the grit back in and began noticing calcium problems (whoops).   I'll take stock of the nutrition of the treats I'm giving them and have a look at cutting back the protein.

Calcium carbonate is ground oyster shell, unfortunately she'll grit , whilst containing some shell, is not sufficient to correct a shortfall. She'll grit is specifically to aid in digestion. It's only a couple of dollars for a 200 g bag so if you can find a supplier , it is worth a try.
Gout can also be the result of sodium bicarbonate toxicity, a common additive in the hatcheries. Wouldn't go there Annie

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/232/gout/

 

[locknest4]

So an update I lost my beloved Lloyd sweet little rooster he got sick here he is in his hat day!

And of course the replacement Fred

sorry to hear of your loss. Your new boy looks very handsome.

 

[locknest4]

Anniebee I suppose chooks are a bit like us- some, for whatever reason, take early retirement. At least she is well and healthy!

 

[Meeka3]

Meeka3 .... 

I don't know much about marans, but I think I can almost safely say they are not welsummers.  Have had a welsummer from before pullet stage,,, and she never looked quite like that.       .....   Had the golden hackles from very early in her life, and has become a really beautiful, straight backed welsummer, with all the trimmings.   

Lovely photos here though.    Had me intrigued so I googled maran chicken colours.   

There are certainly some strains of marans ( from what I have searched ) that can be called 'brown'  e.g. black tailed buff marans ??? they are brownish red, but I really don't know for sure    

Not much help I know - except to say I think I will put the house on your chickens not being welsummers. 

So sorry to hear that one of your girl chickens died.   Always sad to lose a lovely bird like that.  

Cheers ..... 

you may well be right, although I couldn't find any photos of black tail buff babies, the characteristics were similar, but I think they may be a cross, because the top and bottom photo babies are very red with yellowish legs( not as dark as wyandottes legs), and the middle photo, which is more brown, has cream legs. It was sad to lose the other little one, there were no symptoms at all, I have a feeling the little rooster was picking on her and wouldn't let her eat because he started to do that to the little Wyandotte, so I removed him and now he spends his days in my garden, and nights in another pen. Every time I go outside I have to sit on the grass to keep company because he's on his own, he can see the others, but he likes my company.

 

[EllaLouise94]

I have four chickens. Two have all their feathers and look very healthy. The other two... They are missing almost all of their tails feathers and are aggressive towards the other chickens and my duck. The feathers just don't seem to be growing back. They came from a battery farm of some sort so my mum and I thought maybe that's why they had no feather because of either stress or others pecking at them in such a confined space. But we have had them two months now and still no growth. I'm starting to think they're maybe sunburnt on their tails now too because it is red raw. Occasionally I will see the other chooks peck at the rear of the two with no feathers, but mum has looked constantly at their behinds and can't see any mites or anything.
Anyone have any idea what it might be?

Hey all,

 

[tandykins]

Calcium carbonate is ground oyster shell, unfortunately she'll grit , whilst containing some shell, is not sufficient to correct a shortfall. She'll grit is specifically to aid in digestion. It's only a couple of dollars for a 200 g bag so if you can find a supplier , it is worth a try.
Gout can also be the result of sodium bicarbonate toxicity, a common additive in the hatcheries. Wouldn't go there Annie

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/diseases-of-poultry/232/gout/

I actually have about 1kg of calcium carbonate powder but I opted not to use it when I was told by someone that I should use shell grit instead. Well at least I have it on hand already! XD

Quote: It can sometimes take quite a while for feathers broken close to the skin or pulled out to grow back - 2-4 months isn't unheard of. You might try chicken saddle to protect their backs. They will certainly be getting too much UV exposure on those spots and a saddle will help protect the area from the sun as well as from exploring beaks of chickens who see red backs.

I went out to take pictures of the new chooks today and picked up one to look at her feet. Already such an improvement!!

 

[Fancychooklady]

I have four chickens. Two have all their feathers and look very healthy. The other two... They are missing almost all of their tails feathers and are aggressive towards the other chickens and my duck. The feathers just don't seem to be growing back. They came from a battery farm of some sort so my mum and I thought maybe that's why they had no feather because of either stress or others pecking at them in such a confined space. But we have had them two months now and still no growth. I'm starting to think they're maybe sunburnt on their tails now too because it is red raw. Occasionally I will see the other chooks peck at the rear of the two with no feathers, but mum has looked constantly at their behinds and can't see any mites or anything.
Anyone have any idea what it might be?

Hey all,

Hi. They might just be recovering from a moult, but it almost looks like rooster damage. Do you know if there was a rooster where they came from ?

 

[EllaLouise94]

Hi. They might just be recovering from a moult, but it almost looks like rooster damage. Do you know if there was a rooster where they came from ?

I don't really know anything about where they came from unfortunately they were given to us by a friend who got them from where they were

 

[Fancychooklady]

I don't really know anything about where they came from unfortunately they were given to us by a friend who got them from where they were

Oh well in that case, I think it would be fair to assume that they might have had a roo running with them. Even though you haven't detected any lice or mites , I would be inclined to treat them , are their legs clean ?