Bullying, Bathing, Runts, and Handling Hens

[Farmer Viola]

Oh.. she does eat on her own, but thank you! And I force-fed her different items, honey water for example.

Sadly, her condition was getting worse and worse, her suffering was clear to me, and I made the decision to cull her. RIP Ethel!

 

[mg15]

Oh.. she does eat on her own, but thank you! And I force-fed her different items, honey water for example.

Sadly, her condition was getting worse and worse, her suffering was clear to me, and I made the decision to cull her. RIP Ethel!

I am sorry.

 

[chooks4life]

Sorry, was offline for a bit longer than usual... Sorry to hear she didn't make it.

About the pine: yes, it can hurt her, cut her, etc, it's not common but in general introducing pine or shavings always seems to knock one chicken down. It doesn't always kill but it always seems there's at least one silly bird enthusiastically eating away at the new ground cover. Worried me, the one time I used pine shavings. Just had to hope it didn't kill any birds.

About the 'worm' --- I don't know, can't say for sure, but to be honest it looks like a smaller bird's poop, like perhaps you've got a visitor eating her food and going in and out through the bars as it pleases. If it were a worm, I'd expect her to be sicker, since it's blackened and I can't think of anything that would cause a parasitic worm to blacken so rapidly after death that it's still intact when it's passed. As always it may be something I am not familiar with. Maybe she ate a lineworm and it came out like that? They're pretty protected by their mucus, I've only seen 'newbie' freerangers eat them; the more experienced chooks spurn them.

I've been thinking... While her symptoms were dead-on for eggbinding, it's possible that of course it may have been something else; one of the reasons I thought it was more likely to be egg binding than anything else was that you mentioned she was fine the day before. But later on you mentioned something might have been off. This should have occurred to me because I've often thought a bird was normal the day before until I recalled some detail I'd not consciously noticed at a later date when it became obvious the bird was not fine...

Either way, if she was coming down with something, there would possibly have been no due egg, which makes it less likely it was egg-related at all. I should have thought of this but didn't.

I don't think this is the same as Wilma, due to her not gaining the apparently typical wattle coloration... But if possible, you might benefit from a post mortem. From her posture etc I am suspecting possible leucosis... But that might just be my mental imprint of my black Australorps dying from it. They adopted the same pose. But then again chickens are prone to showing the same symptoms for many different disorders.

About apple seeds: chooks rarely manage to get enough since they have to eat through an apple to get to it. Even with me smashing apples for them I've never had a sick bird from it. If, however, a chook did find enough pips to poison itself, I still would not think it likely, because like many birds chooks are known to eat seeds, berries, etc which are toxic to us, without being harmed. People are not supposed to eat more than 5 or so apple seeds a day according to some sources. I don't believe this because there are various fruit juice brands which sell juices made from up to 20 apples a bottle, which were crushed whole. Seeds included. Ergo, if these studies about the toxicity of apple seeds were correct, many people would be suing the juice companies. The pectin in apple seeds is a specific detoxifier for heavy metals. I have a little brother who was given mercury fillings against our wishes, and he craves apples and apple juice like there's no tomorrow. The body tends to know what it needs. Even if something is toxic, when we are direly in need we have a very enlarged tolerance for it; if I saw any chook eating excessive amounts of apple seeds I would let it, and just monitor it over the next day.

I think you might benefit from trying out various treatments for any bird with indeterminate symptoms. I would often try many different things and see what seemed to work. Since we can't always tell what is wrong from the start it can help to try a variety. Sorry I couldn't help. It's always disappointing. Best wishes.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I'm rather getting used to losing chickens now, sad as that is. We're down to 8 getting 3 eggs one day, 5 eggs the next day. I need MORE!!!

I dried out the "worm" and I don't think it was a worm, after all. Whew! I just noticed that I haven't had an egg from Runty in 7 days, so I brought her inside for observation yesterday (no egg yet). A small Runty egg was then found in the yard yesterday, so perhaps she has been laying the last 7 days, but in odd places? I think our property is just too large for such a small chicken to reliably make it back to her nest in time. I'm considering putting up some type of fencing to keep them contained closer to the coop and run. I would just keep her as a house chicken all the time, but she loves being outdoors, I can't do that to her.

Frankie hasn't laid (in the nest...) since brooding, yet.

Guess what! We're getting meat birds! They're going to be raised elsewhere, but I have agreed to do the initial chick rearing until they're big enough to their final location. Maybe 4 weeks at my place? Not sure yet. They're cornish hens and they only go until 8-10 weeks before slaughter. This way I don't even have to get my hands dirty! They're arriving at the end of this month, we're getting 60 of them. It will be a test run for me taking care of chicks, since I desperately want to add more egglayers to my flock. Don't kill me, but the meat birds are from a hatchery. It was a group decision on where to source them, and I couldn't find any local breeder farms, so I went with mcmurray hatchery. >.<

I'm drawing up plans for a coop expansion too, well actually a complete rebuild. Their current coop will be smaller than the new one, but this way, I'll have two coops!

 

[Farmer Viola]

Runty is back laying today! Yippee! Her limp is mending, too. Need to get some type of mobile fencing set up to contain her and, well, everyone.

Frankie laid an egg today! She was off lay for 14 days total, 8 days since she was released from broody prison. In fact, all 7 hens laid an egg today! Only Penny was the odd girl out.

The days are getting shorter, slightly under 12 hours now, and the rainy season is about to begin. I'm considering adding a light on a timer when the daylight hours get even shorter. I think in the dead of winter, our days are only 8 hours. I know that it might harm their longevity, but I plan to develop a new flock within the next year anyhow.

 

[chooks4life]

Best wishes and I hope it all goes well. I would be a little concerned about bringing hatchery stock in when you don't know what's been happening with your chooks for sure, yet, since it could be a disease.... But of course it's a very open ended thing and learning is often done the hard way for lack of alternatives. While I'm no fan of hatchery stock I am sure there are good hatcheries out there, and I wish you all the best with your purchase.

 

[Farmer Viola]

If it were a disease, wouldn't symptoms be more widespread? And wouldn't symptoms be consistent in the birds I have lost?

Anyhow, the meat birds will never be combined with mine. The chicks will be in the barn, and they're going to the farmer's house after only a few weeks. The deal was mostly set by the farmer and my SO, without much of my input.

Buying from hatcheries is pretty much considered "the way it's done" around these parts (rural country area). Trying to talk about finding an alternative chick source, while time is of the essence, isn't really being tolerated.

Also, I'm at a complete loss at how to go about finding any other source -- I did search. There aren't backyard breeders just wanting to give away their chicks or fertile eggs, for cornish hens anyway. For that matter, I can't find any backyard breeders in my area who want to sell fertile mixed breed eggs, either. I've tried to follow your methods, but so far, those resources don't seem to exist...

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: I don't think it'd be just one disease, but quite often it is just the minority that shows serious symptoms or dies from it even if it is a pretty serious disease. Symptoms vary from bird to bird with some diseases. But I don't know for sure what's happened.

About the non-hatchery stock preference, that's pretty personal and each to their own; my choices there reflect my experiences which probably reflect the fact that I live in a 'young' country with stingy importing concessions and limited genepools. In your country you've got huge genepools and some people there are very pleased with their hatchery stock so some must be doing a great job. I have seen terrible stock from American hatcheries too, but some good ones as well.

Sounds to me like you've just got to work with what you've got and not worry about trying to fit anyone else's preferred methodology. Your poultry husbandry must be tailored to suit your circumstances and resources, your environment, and the genetics you can access. All the best wishes with that. I don't have a perfect flock or setup or anything like that, and when I move house again it'll be another steep adaption curve, I expect.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Hmm alright.. well.. that's disconcerting for any future additions to my flock, since I DO eventually plan to add more egg layers. Disease in poultry seems to be a losing battle. I guess I have to either expect to lose x% to disease, or just not raise chickens at all.

I have been pouring over this website: http://www.papaspoultry.com/
He is from here on BYC and he has a lot of rare breeds. He uses multiple bloodlines for diversity, and then breeds parent birds selectively. What do you think about him as a source?

I would be ordering fertile eggs and incubating them myself. Ok well not literally, but I'll buy an incubator! XD The exception to that plan would be if the stars aligned and one hen was broody when the eggs arrived; I might let her lay on some. I think it would be really cool to have one or two hens in mother-mode toward the new chicks, but it would be nearly impossible to orchestrate the timing.

The other option is finding someone locally with a barnyard mix of breeds who wants to sell me fertile eggs. Seems like breeding might be less intentional with this route.

 

[Farmer Viola]

I ordered comfrey and rue seeds a few months back, planning to add to my herb garden. Today, I was doing more research about comfrey and looking at photos of mature plants. I realized that I have multiple comfrey plants growing around the chicken run! We have mowed these plants over multiple times, but they always come back. They've never grown tall enough to flower because we never let them. I'm almost certain comfrey is growing in the front garden, too. It makes me realize how little I know about plant identification and how many different plants the chickens could potentially eat at any time.

There are around 6 comfrey plants literally encircling the outside of the run (it used to be a garden), and there's 1 comfrey plant growing inside the coop. The one growing inside is regularly pecked to death. I also found catnip growing outside the run, so who knows how many other interesting plants around there have been disregarded as weeds!

Now, I know that comfrey is intended to be used externally (broken bones) and made into a tea, but will eating the leaves in an unlimited quantity hurt in any way? I have read that comfrey "can be toxic," but also that those studies were bunk:
Quote:
I believe we have Symphytum Officinale or Common Comfrey. Does "common" mean stripped of medicinal properties (it has less alkaloids) or could it still be useful?

I can also say for certain that I have seen foxglove growing wild in the hiking areas around my house.


edit: this warning from Mother Earth News sounds ominous, but maybe they are just trying to protect their butts:
(Please Note: Comfrey is toxic to the liver for both humans and livestock and should not be taken orally or used on open wounds. —MOTHER.)

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/comfrey-leaves-zmaz74zhol.aspx#ixzz2eEj9ra5H​