Bullying, Bathing, Runts, and Handling Hens

[Farmer Viola]

mg15,
I am certain my girls don't have lice as I have inspected their feathers and skin very thoroughly, so sorry to hear about yours Dwarf is SOO cute! How old is she? She does look a lot like Runty!

cgoodloe,
with sunflower kernels, it's just the inside seed and not the shell, correct? Do you just get the kind for humans without salt? I would love to try it!


Tabatha,
yes Game of Thrones, haha! Did you read the books? are you watching the current season? soo good! I love that your chickens follow you everywhere.. I hope mine adore me like that one day! xD

Right now they are still a little skittish because I'm a giant human, but if I have worms on hand they will be crawling all over me to get treats! I can't help but wonder if I had raised them from chicks and handled them more, if they would be more people friendly.

Dook,
Drogo, I love it! I am really good at thinking of male names, but I have all hens, so.. some end up with boy names. That is really interesting about the different roosters personalities and the chicks! I have several different breeds, so they'd have different dads. I think that they weren't really handled much because they were raised with 1,000 other chicks.

I struggle between handling them to get them used to me, and not wanting to handle them because I scare them so badly just by picking them up. Sometimes when I feed worms, they squak and run away when I wasn't even trying to grab them. I hate that behavior. I don't know how to make them not fear me other than time and patience. The only way I can catch them (for poopy butt baths) inside the coop is by cornering them, and that makes me feel pretty awful too.

jtutmark,
Hah! I saw tiny Squinter charge the cat the other day, it was soo funny! I heard about a hen "saddle" you can put on them to protect their tail feathers (from mounting roosters), but it might help your girls grow their feathers back too? Just an idea!

 

[Farmer Viola]

Introducing... 3 new pullets!!!! I finally gave in to my SO and we got 3 more, for a total of 10

There are two Black Australorps (to replace my Beyonce who died >.<) and I got an Ameraucana!!!! I didn't want a green egg layer initially, but she was the last Ameraucana and I just fell in love with her beard and I had to have her. The farmer where I got her said she's an Ameraucana, but as I understand it their breed has to be 100% pure, otherwise they are an Easter Egger...so maybe that's what I should be calling her?

Right now she goes by Beard Face LOL! Taking name ideas for Beardy and the two Blackies!

More photos, cause I can't stop taking them:







This is a reply I made to another thread telling how I did their introductions. I'm going to copy and paste so I don't have to retype!

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I just (3 days ago) introduced 3 new 16-week pullets to my existing 7 16-week pullets. They are from the same origin and have the same hatch date. They have integrated quite nicely with my girls in a very short amount of time

You will find a lot of people will tell you that it is necessary to quarantine the new birds for 4 weeks in their own separate coop (do you have two coops? I don't) to make sure they don't have diseases that will spread to your flock. I did not do this. My pullets are all from the same place, and since they will free range together, diseases would spread right quick anyhow.

People will also recommend you keep them in a cage inside/near the existing flock's coop so that they can see each other before they are able to meet physically. I read 2-4 weeks for this stage. Again, I did not do this.

I gave my 3 new girls a bath first. I inspected them for lice and other bugs. I looked at their poop to see if appeared seemed diseased (it didn't). Then they had treats. I introduced them to my existing flock while they were free ranging with mixed reactions. I stayed close the whole time so I could witness their behavior. There was some squabbling, especially the first day, but nothing TOO violent. As long as they are not injuring each other or drawing blood, human intervention is not required; let them work it out.

I expected them to fight much more than they did, the whole thing was really quite tame. I noticed the 3 girls keeping together in a pack on the first day. The 3 new girls didn't go inside the hen house when it was time for bed (they were asleep on the ground? seems odd, I thought they would at least choose one of the roosts), so we waited until the existing flock was asleep and then we put the new girls inside the house with them. On night 2, they went in for bed time with the flock on their own.

On day 2 and 3, the new girls are no longer keeping in a separate pack and just walk among my girls freely. The Ameraucana is clearly near the bottom of the pecking order, so she is a bit skittish around Cersi, but other than that it was incredibly easy and non-eventful.

This is just my anecdotal experience; I am really new to chicken farming and I can't say that my methods will work perfectly for you!

 

[mg15]

Farmer Viola
Hi, I thought all my girls were perfectly fine, oh,, we don't have lice girls, and we don't have nasty butts, etc...I am sayin to them, and then boom. Whispers was egg bound and took her to the vet, and I ask, "what are those white crawly things around her eye", vet says, lice. ewwwuuu
And then the 15 hens killed, and now Whispers here in ICU with almost mortal wounds. As one of the BYC people said, you never know she may have gotten internal injuries, and then well....I used to rehab wild bunnies and rabbits, and they would come in look fine, and then dead. So we held our breath about Whispers, actually still am..

"Dwarf" is 10 1/2 weeks old. She walks around by herself, eats by herself, and peeps peeps peeps, . She is so layed back we put her in with Whispers for the nite to see if helps morale.

I am so glad you love Dwarf, She has very pretty very red feathers.
Thank you.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Poor Whispers I hope she recovers quickly, and I think giving her a Dwarfy friend is such a great idea. I am so sorry you lost those 15 hens, I would be heartbroken...

Runty still peeps too XD she's 16 weeks! Everyone else is beginning to cluck, except her. I hope she never changes

I don't know what medications you have Whispers on right now, but I've been reading about the amazing immunizing and health benefits of garlic for poultry and am going to give it a try. They say to mince it up and put it in their water. Mine are already on ACV water so I think I will put the garlic in a separate container. It is also thought that mites, lice, ticks and other parasites are not as attracted to the blood of animals who eat a lot of garlic! Garlic is also a natural wormer and reduces the smell of chicken manure in flocks fed garlic regularly.

 

[Dook]

Interesting to read your previous Australorp was called Beyonce! My sister had a mixed breed, but black hen and called her the same name X"D and the dark brown one she called Rhianna X"D heheh... perhaps a name for one of your newbies?



I have the same deal with naming.. got tonnes of guy names but mostly girls! I want to name my current rooster Sheldon..but my other half insists he keeps it's 'egg name' (we named some eggs before hatching!) which was Beta-Tape. =P I also have two 'twin' hens which are hard to tell physically apart, but they sound different X"D One of them was egg named '8-Track'

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]There was one chick that hatched grey, but grew white feathers... so was called 'Gandalf' not a fan of the name but my other half and his mate insisted it had to stay aswell! X"D[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And maybe something to try to get them more comfortable with pats/pick ups... we usually try to take a chicken in one at a time inside the house and sit them on our lap and pat while on the computer/watching TV ect until they sleep a little and get very comfy. Then they tend to like it alot after a week or so! (and try to come inside the house!) =P[/FONT]

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: I always fed mine a coarse grain mix that included black sunflower seeds. You feed them shell and all, they're great for the birds, always a favourite. Don't give them salted ones, you can buy whole sacks and bags from 5 to 25 kilos of them at produce stores or wherever you get your chook feed, probably. They should be a staple food I think. The grey or striped ones are best avoided, the chooks will turn off them anyway; the fat levels are too low as they were developed for cage birds like parrots.

 

[Dook]

My girls don't eat sunflower seeds all the time... sometimes thats all they want, sometimes they leave them and sunflower sprouts turn up in the grass! (and they are the only sunflowers I've ever had that grew HUGE, taller than me! like ones you see photos of!) if I buy them.. they turn out about a foot high XD
They also LOVE the sun flower leaves X"D

 

[Tabatha]

I've read ALL the books...impatiently waiting on the next one. Loving the series too...just irritated it's almost over and it will be NEXT YEAR before I get more. It's the only show forbidden to be deleted from my dvr...EVER...lol. This current season was my favorite book of the series...I read it in 4 days...hardly slept. I love how GoT fans can spot other GoT fans...lol.

Anyway...back to chickens...lol. The chickens will come around. I've had my silkie hen for a week and she will already (if I catch her) sit in my lap for an hour letting me love on her. I even take her for rides in the car. I tried growing fodder for them, but they haven't mastered the art of waiting...they gobble everything up as soon as the shells crack. I bought black sunflower seeds from the birdfeed section of the store. They love them.

 

[Tabatha]

I started mealworms in a 5 gallon aquarium too (found out how on here). I buy a small container of them (about 30 worms) from the gas station that sells fish bait. I put half in my worm farm and give the others as treats. They go absolutely crazy for them.

 

[Tabatha]

Here's Lita Riding On My Dash.