bald bottoms and swollen tummys!

[pwand]

Here's more info on other diseases besides Mareks these bettles transmit.
http://www.canadianpoultry.ca/darklingbeetles.html

 

[Haunted55]

Some scary stuff right? Still for Shell, I think it's the best answer for her birds. Or we can go back to the sardines, lol.

 

[shell3]

well i now have a giant tub of mealworms so thats what their getting!!

i didnt have time to get to the pet supply shop! an accident on the A road that connects us meant traffic was at a standstill and i wasnt sitting in that for 2 hours! sigh! will have to wait now til monday!
im still giving mealworms daily thou, i cant overdose them can i?? well i let bombie out for a couple of hours today and didnt see her pick but then i did so she was back in her own run! then i let her out this after noon again for about 30mins she ignored the other two all that time even thou at one point they were pretty much sticking thier butts in her face!! helpful!! but then all of a sudden she did it again so back she went to her run! i think she at least seems less interested so hopefully we are making some progress. and ill just keep at it.
i dont think i can raise mealworms, i know it sounds daft as i am obviously funding their deaths anyway by buying them dead in a tub but i just cant like the idea of raising something just to be fed to something else! i can never bring myself to feed the chickens the earthworms i find when gardening! ive even been known to save earthworms from the chickens!! oh dear! these birds are putting me through a lot of thought processes, who knew i was letting myself in for such stress with those little fluffy balls of loveliness i brought home from my sons school! not that id make a different decision if i had to start over, i love my girls, but they are certainly a lot of work! i always imagined them as easy to care for animals , i never imagined they were so complicated. you always see them in films, running about and the farmer just throws a handful of corn down once in a while! lol if only!lol
im hoping this isnt a space thing! cos i dont know what else i can do, i cant afford to build anymore run space and i dont really have room to build anything else. i have tried to upload pics for you of the run they have so as to get opinions but the site just wont do it at the moment, ill keep trying as id love you guys to tell me as it is. if anyone has time to click my profile there are pics of my setup on there, they are old pics so some changes have been made, we now have a clear corregated plastic roof and a coop which looks like a garden shed that takes up one corner. if you can imagine that id love your coments and will keep trying to get pics uploaded.
thanks guys xx

 

[shell3]

oh wow it just worked!! yay!! ok so heres their coop and run, as you see the coop takes up the back corner now and the little coop and run on the right is where bombie is being held at the moment!lol normally that coop would not be in there so as to give extra room but it was in there for the two new chicks to get outside without being atacked. thats something i need to do soon. im hoping to get bombie sorted quick in order to get the little ones outside but if not i may need to add a second little coop and run for them!!

 

[shell3]

oh now theyve all worked! so you can get a good idea now, behind the open door of the coop you can see they have a dust bath. but if you think im missing anything please let me know, advice is welcome xx

 

[pwand]

Shell: you have a beautiful setup for the birds and plenty of room. I feel it's more of a protein issue with Boombie, were she's been sick, especially were she was eating her own feathers during her sickness. Has she gotten over passing the blood? Try sardines, my girls go crazy over them. I would also stick with the veggie food, if you chose to go with the other feed, research it first.

 

[Haunted55]

ROFLMAO!!!! Giant tub!!! Shell3, feed them to them! I said this was one of those 2:00 am thoughts that just nag at you, lol. I am giving my birds mealworms again, lol. It's just when you have Marek's in your flock, you tend to see everything as a threat. KInd of like PTSS. It's very hard to get over. You don't have it, probably will never see it, so you shouldn't worry. Worry about your Father-in-Law who likes to get the best of you instead, lol.

I just had to start my 18 day old chicks on sardines today as they are picking at each other, the little snots! I've used Blu-Kote, my left hand is so blue it'll never come clean, Pic-no-More...yeah right! They lick that up like candy. Bitter Apple spray...the little jerks liked that too. So I started the sardines and I found a spray even worse than the Bitter Apple. It's called Fooey. OMG!!!! It is absolutley putrid! Yes, I am an idiot, I wanted to see how bad it really was...UGH!!!! I still have the taste in my mouth after 6 hours!!! Between the sardines and this stuff something has got to work.

Your set up is really quite awesome Shell3. Ummm.....what was your address again? Only kidding, but it really is something! It's funny...we are putting up the same clear roofing over my chicken's run right now. With the weather we have in the winter mine really need a place to go out of the coop. Mine is no where as pretty as yours but I think it will do. I'll be wrapping mine in plastic on the sides so it will act as a greenhouse and help heat the coop on sunny days. With temps going down to -20 degrees F., they need all the help they can get!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Thank you Pwand and Haunted for your Darkling Beetle links. Wow. I guess I didn't figure those darn things would carry diseases. But I did get from both the articles that mentioned these beetles as beetles tested right from the coop crawling around free in chicken poop and grain kept in the coop...and not necessarily farmed in a bin. Now hard to say where my supplier picked out her first worms etc...I just don't know. I got them from Amy of Westknoll farms a reputable supplier on here from BYC. I've been using the same Beetle and worms reproduced in bins that are cleaned out every couple months as they cycle out without any ill effects, on my birds.

It's sort of like that Butter vs. Margarine thing they are always going on about. Butter is better for you than Margerine...or is Margerine better than Butter health wise? LOL. you know what I mean? Everything is bad for us it seems. One can't even be sure that their spinach is good these days for E.Coli scares on that. I imagine it's the same with this beetle. I know my beetles and worms arent' crawling around chicken feces or open/molding feed bags before I feed them. IJDK.

Shell your coop set up looks amazing. I've seen pictures before but this wider angle gives so much more perspective. Thanks for that. Bombie doesn't look so poor off either, even seperated in the little coop. It afterall was her first little house and she probably feels right at home like an old comfy cottage with warm memories. xx

 

[Haunted55]

In all honesty...I don't think any of you have a thing to worry about. I was just bringing up something rather interesting I had found with my research on Marek's. Me, I wouldn't consider raising them now. I did at one point, but nope wouldn't be a good idea for me. Like I said, it's just one of those things that you wonder about sometimes. Doesn't make the ideas correct, just there. Some may know my view of Marek's in that my chickens have it and because of the virility of the strain here, I have to think that so do I. To not think that way could very easily make me a Typhoid Mary with the Marek's virus. Nah...I'll pass.

 

[shell3]

Thanks guys, im so relieved that you think i have enough room here for them! i was really concerned about that! i had mentioned an extension to hubby and he was not impressed!lol. im thinking that i will let them roam a bit when im out there in the garden to keep watch but i need to go over the garden with a fine tooth comb first!lol goodness only knows whats lurking,nails,bits of broken toys! although i cant see any i know my chooks would find them if they are there!! but even then they will only be 'free' for an hour or so at a time and it wont be daily so the fact others think this problem isnt space related had me a sigh of relief.
well i had a problem because i had to get the chicks outside! they had outgrown their indoor cage and were anxious to move on, i had set all the little coop up in advance so it would be an easy move when the time came but as you all know, bombie is now using that coop so i had to improvise! i have managed to borrow an old rabbit hutch from my lovely neighbour and after putting it all together, hosing it down and disinfecting it with chicken safe spray i now have it set up in the run and the babies spent their first night outside last night. i was so worried they would be cold ect but this morning they seem quite happy with the new arrangement and plenty warm so thats a relief!


so this is the new hutch in place! its not ideal but it is the best i can do for now!



and here are my new babies! 'Fifi' on the right and 'Billy' on the left.

so i checked the girls bottoms again last night and Angel is fine, bald but fine, nice pink smooth skin, so just waiting for some new quills to pop through. Beauty on the other hand, not so much!, the skin is red and looks scabby like its been weeping or spmething! so today ill bring her in for a bath and a coating of neosporin , poor baby, shes going to hate this!! and ill have to keep her indoors to dry as its not very warm today! she'll hate that too!

I let bombie out with the other two a lot over the weekend while i kept watch for any feather picking and she didnt do it for 45 mins then she did pick one feather and i sent her straight back to solitary! then later she was allowed back out and she did the same. at least shes going a longer time in between doing it, im thinking shes slowly loosing interest and the time in the coop alone is making her forget the habbit, fingers crossed! i still cant trust her unsupervised yet but im hoping it wont be long before she can be full time with her sisters again.

pwand- she still has the pink poop from time to time but its a lot less and most her poop is normal now.
haunted-

i cant believe you tasted that stuff!!! omg! i sprayed my girls with this 'peck stop' and the smell alone was enough for me to know it tasted putrid!lol didnt stop the little 'snot'(lol) though she still ate the feathers coated with it!! 6 hours later you have a taste of hell in your mouth and a blue hand and i bet they look you straight in the eye and pick another feather!lol brats!!

The plastic roof has been brilliant btw, before that run was like a bog during heavy rains even thou i had tarps all over, they just sprung leaks! this new roof makes sure theres no pooling and the rain just runs right off, its great stuff!
Bogtown- thank you for thinking bombies not bad off in that coop, and the coment about it being a comfy cottage made me feel better, i know they like to roost at night and she cant in here but as you said this was her first home so she knows the deal. i think shes quite comfy here too. xx