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

[SilkieChickStar]

Hi all! It's been a while. I'm still alive and so are the chickens.

We lost our Faverolles a while back, which was devastating and I was thinking the worst. But she was egg bound it turned out and she went downhill fast

All other chickens are doing well so far. Hope everyone is ok!

 

[SilkieChickStar]

Thought I'd update on my hensafe door. Has been rather a hair pulling experience. I've had three problems which made working out what was actually going wrong rather hard.

No. 1 turned out to be far less sun on the coop than I had realised. I knew it ended up in shade but was surprised to find it was only getting sun for about an hour so had to extend the wiring on the solar panel and run it way down to my vege patch to get good sun all day.

Then it kept not closing or opening on and off. I though it was due to the solar panel position so fiddled with that and scrolled through the program settings in case I'd stuffed up something there.

Then I noticed it was opening before the time I had set. Turned out that if you scroll through the programs as I did as you go you set them to 00:00:00 which while looking like nothing is set actually is reading open at midnight yikes. So luckily they survived the coop being open from midnight for 3 days while I worked that out and reset all timers and reset it up from scratch.

Finally thought it was all working and then had a couple of rainy days and we were back to it not opening and closing again. Ready to scream when I remembered there was a way to check the battery charge and sure enough it was half charging during the day then draining at night rather than holding its charge. So every time we got a rainy day it wouldn't recharge enough during the day and would then run totally flat by nighttime and the door wouldn't close.

So last night got an email (reply to one I sent Wednesday) that they are sending me a new battery but can I post back the other one. I guess to check I'm not fibbing. They better include a return envelope cause after all the frigging around I'm not really in the mood to pay to return it!

I Am still happy with the door and once we get the new battery suspect it won't miss a beat but there needs to be a big warning on it about that midnight opening bit.

I'm in the same position with my door.


It goes flat overnight.

I might check it's no opening at midnight though!!

 

[Fizzybelle]

Hi all! It's been a while. I'm still alive and so are the chickens.

We lost our Faverolles a while back, which was devastating and I was thinking the worst. But she was egg bound it turned out and she went downhill fast

All other chickens are doing well so far. Hope everyone is ok!

Sorry to hear that. Faverolles are such sweet birds

 

[Fizzybelle]

So I turned the backyard lights on to see Esme sitting out in the run on the ground. I went to collect her and bring her inside, and she'd laid a soft shelled egg whilst outside. She might've been perplexed the others were sleeping where she wanted to lay her egg. Doesn't explain why she stayed outside, but anyway, the egg is a normal egg shape, just feels like bouncy rubber. I'm guessing this means another vet visit again in the morning. Crop felt quite full too. She did eat plenty before bed though, so I hope it's just her dinner. Poor girl.

 

[satay]

4 marans and 3 millies hatched on Saturday. 3/3 millies but only 50% fertility on the marans . May have to give them a month before trying again.

 

[satay]

So I turned the backyard lights on to see Esme sitting out in the run on the ground. I went to collect her and bring her inside, and she'd laid a soft shelled egg whilst outside. She might've been perplexed the others were sleeping where she wanted to lay her egg. Doesn't explain why she stayed outside, but anyway, the egg is a normal egg shape, just feels like bouncy rubber. I'm guessing this means another vet visit again in the morning. Crop felt quite full too. She did eat plenty before bed though, so I hope it's just her dinner. Poor girl.

I would think a soft egg with be progress after the lash egg. If it was me i would start her on antibiotics and just watch her for a few days.

 

[Fancychooklady]

I would think a soft egg with be progress after the lash egg. If it was me i would start her on antibiotics and just watch her for a few days.

X2

 

[Teila]

Howdy folks

Sadly, not so good news seems to be significantly outweighing the good news in this thread of late.

this turns around soon!

Coram, appps and Fizzybelle best wishes for getting your issues sorted soon.

SilkieChickStar I am sorry to read of your loss

Congrats on the bubs satay!

Just to follow the current trend, we have also had an interesting few days.

On Sunday, Dusty, Crystal and Blondie were having a competition to see who could out-whinge the other.

Dusty would whinge and Crystal and Blondie would echo .. I had a feeling that one of them was going to lay an egg soon. Blondie was doing a lot of scratching in the nest box and even on free range, Crystal kept running back to the coop, checking out the nest boxes and then off free ranging again.

Monday morning the whinging continued and the drought was broken! After 95 egg free days at Bambrook Bantams, this was in the nest box:




Easy to see that it is one of Dusty’s, she has always laid pointy eggs.

That, however, is when the drama started. At afternoon free range, Crystal seemed out of sorts and straining a little. On closer inspection, she had remnants of a soft shell and yolk protruding from her vent. However, this was 04:30PM and as I do not have a hair dryer or anywhere safe to keep her inside while she dries, way too late and cold to be giving her a bath.

So, I cleaned her up as well as I could, let her roost with the flock overnight and planned out treatment, including a warm bath, for today. However, the good news, today she is fine .. no signs of any remnants, eating and pooping normally, no straining and bright as a button.

I have everything crossed that this was due to her returning to laying after a long break but will be keeping a very close eye on her; especially over the next few hours, egg yolk peritonitis is always a concern and I have the antibiotics at the ready.

It is freaky that after all this time egg free, Dusty and Crystal return to laying on the same day.

Do not break out the straight jacket for me, but the change in attitude and atmosphere leading up to the event was palpable .. I swear they knew what was going on and all were excited/on edge to the point that after months of no egg song, they were all in the coop singing the egg song, BEFORE that drought breaking egg arrived

 

[Coram]

Hi everyone. Bit of a drama there Fizzybelle! How stressful. I hope everything is ok. The Ocymav seems to have done the trick with my flock, and whatever it was, it didn't transfer to the peacock. A few more days of treatment and we MAY be through. The pen building has halted due to weather, but will post pictures when action starts again. We have some more bad weather and winds through today. Hope everything is ok down in Tassie Fancychooklady. Cheers.

 

[Coram]

Yay! For your egg Teila!!