Ok, so maybe there is a lot of information out there on this topic but when I search I come up with results for all of my words including "Care for Chicks" "Feeding Elder Bugs" etc. All kinds of nonsense that has nothing to do with what I'm wanting more information on. Even when I look up caring for rescued battery hens I come up empty. So, I apologize if I'm repeating topics here but I have some questions and hopefully you guys can give me some answers.
Here's the story. I went to my first poultry auction about a month or so ago I guess. I was in search of a replacement for my daughter's Silver Laced Cochin Bantam chick who had been accidentally killed by my stupid Shorthair. There was a box of lovely little Mottled Cochin chicks there and some other very nice younger birds. But the first box I'd peeked inside kept coming back to me. There were two black balls of feathers squished into a box about 6" wide by about 14" long. Just sitting there unmoving and completely silent blinking up at me with those huge golden eyes. I couldn't get a good look at them because of the cramped little box and it's position on the floor amid cardboard boxes of roosters and spent production reds. But I could tell they were Black Cochin Bantams and definitely hens. So when they came up, they went home with us.
Once we got them into my Blazer and out of that little box we could get a better idea of their exact condition. Crawling with mites, pale combs and wattles, horrendously long toe nails like I'd never seen before, and morbidly obese. I don't have any pictures of those first days because I wasn't honestly even thinking about documenting anything, just getting them taken care of and back on the right track God willing.
So we treated them for mites, clipped their toenails and wormed them. When I first weighed them both were nearly 50 oz. I believe their ideal weight should be more like around 28 oz. I was horrified at how overweight they were. They just sort of trundled across the ground when they were forced to move and weren't much interested in either eating or drinking. After a few days both started picking at the fermented feed and were drinking well. I wasn't too worried about them not eating much since they were so horribly fat I figured they should actually slow down on the eating anyway.
Now, here we are a month later, they've both slimmed down to around 30 to 34 oz which is still a bit chunky but I don't think quite as life threatening. Each night they jump up onto the roosts in the coop themselves. Each morning they hop down and make their way across a little ramp to their original enclosure where I fill a bowl of fermented feed for them to pick at away from the velociraptors they share their new life with, down below. Then then come down into the main run and I carry them across the yard and set them down. This way they have to make their way back the 50+ feet to the run, where they want to spend all of their time. This way they get some exercise and pick at the grass in the yard on their walk home.
I am not sure of their ages but both of them creak when I pick them up. And their little wing joints pop and creak when they flap their wings. One has little grey hairs in her eyebrows like an old dog or cat will get. So I'm thinking that they are much older than I thought at first. Not just past prime but genuinely geriatric.
There seems to be very little info out there on caring for and accommodations for geriatric hens. I know the majority of people keep bantams for ornamental and/or pet purposes rather than production purposes. So I guess my question is, what do you all do with your old bantams or even standard chickens other than butcher and eat them. I'm really not imagining too many people are stewing up old mille fleur d'uccles or cochins or seramas.
So how do you take care of your chickens as they reach 4, 5, 6 + years old? I'd like to have my two little feather balls for a good many years to come if possible.
Is there anything special I should be doing for them or anything special I should be feeding them? I believe my two are a bit arthritic. Are there any supplements I can give them safely?
How do you keep them from getting fat? How do you slim them back down if they do? I've heard horror stories about fatty livers splitting and hens bleeding out in minutes as a result. I've also read that this is the prediction after they get that fat pad below their breastbone and across their belly. IF I get them back down to and keep them at a healthy weight, will the danger of their fat little livers splitting lessen? Will the fat go away there as well?
Any other tips, advice, personal stories, I'd be so happy to hear.
And here's a couple of pics of my little old ladies chillin' on the sidewalk before their morning stroll back across the yard to the run and compost pile.
Here's the story. I went to my first poultry auction about a month or so ago I guess. I was in search of a replacement for my daughter's Silver Laced Cochin Bantam chick who had been accidentally killed by my stupid Shorthair. There was a box of lovely little Mottled Cochin chicks there and some other very nice younger birds. But the first box I'd peeked inside kept coming back to me. There were two black balls of feathers squished into a box about 6" wide by about 14" long. Just sitting there unmoving and completely silent blinking up at me with those huge golden eyes. I couldn't get a good look at them because of the cramped little box and it's position on the floor amid cardboard boxes of roosters and spent production reds. But I could tell they were Black Cochin Bantams and definitely hens. So when they came up, they went home with us.
Once we got them into my Blazer and out of that little box we could get a better idea of their exact condition. Crawling with mites, pale combs and wattles, horrendously long toe nails like I'd never seen before, and morbidly obese. I don't have any pictures of those first days because I wasn't honestly even thinking about documenting anything, just getting them taken care of and back on the right track God willing.
So we treated them for mites, clipped their toenails and wormed them. When I first weighed them both were nearly 50 oz. I believe their ideal weight should be more like around 28 oz. I was horrified at how overweight they were. They just sort of trundled across the ground when they were forced to move and weren't much interested in either eating or drinking. After a few days both started picking at the fermented feed and were drinking well. I wasn't too worried about them not eating much since they were so horribly fat I figured they should actually slow down on the eating anyway.
Now, here we are a month later, they've both slimmed down to around 30 to 34 oz which is still a bit chunky but I don't think quite as life threatening. Each night they jump up onto the roosts in the coop themselves. Each morning they hop down and make their way across a little ramp to their original enclosure where I fill a bowl of fermented feed for them to pick at away from the velociraptors they share their new life with, down below. Then then come down into the main run and I carry them across the yard and set them down. This way they have to make their way back the 50+ feet to the run, where they want to spend all of their time. This way they get some exercise and pick at the grass in the yard on their walk home.
I am not sure of their ages but both of them creak when I pick them up. And their little wing joints pop and creak when they flap their wings. One has little grey hairs in her eyebrows like an old dog or cat will get. So I'm thinking that they are much older than I thought at first. Not just past prime but genuinely geriatric.
There seems to be very little info out there on caring for and accommodations for geriatric hens. I know the majority of people keep bantams for ornamental and/or pet purposes rather than production purposes. So I guess my question is, what do you all do with your old bantams or even standard chickens other than butcher and eat them. I'm really not imagining too many people are stewing up old mille fleur d'uccles or cochins or seramas.
So how do you take care of your chickens as they reach 4, 5, 6 + years old? I'd like to have my two little feather balls for a good many years to come if possible.
Is there anything special I should be doing for them or anything special I should be feeding them? I believe my two are a bit arthritic. Are there any supplements I can give them safely?
How do you keep them from getting fat? How do you slim them back down if they do? I've heard horror stories about fatty livers splitting and hens bleeding out in minutes as a result. I've also read that this is the prediction after they get that fat pad below their breastbone and across their belly. IF I get them back down to and keep them at a healthy weight, will the danger of their fat little livers splitting lessen? Will the fat go away there as well?
Any other tips, advice, personal stories, I'd be so happy to hear.
And here's a couple of pics of my little old ladies chillin' on the sidewalk before their morning stroll back across the yard to the run and compost pile.
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