Cheryl's Hen House...

[TerryH]

When I got the call from Dr. Clark this afternoon he told me that it would be best to euthanize #7. I prayed that the Lord would just take her. He answered but it was very hard to come home and see her dead. Dr. Clark just came by and got her.

 

[TerryH]

I posted this in the other thread but I wanted to copy and paste the post here as well as this thread will live on to document the journey and the other one will end.

Thanks everyone for all the kind words, comments, thoughts and prayers. Cheryl and I appreciate you all very much. To be quite honest, I am still reeling from it all. My heart is hurt. I can't get my head around all the researching, reading and working so hard to try and make things perfect for the chickens and for Cheryl to have her perfect spot to raise her chickens only to have this happen. All of them are important but the loss of #7 is a bitter pill for me to swallow. It has not been a fun week of chicken keeping.

The guys from the U of A made it clear that once Aspergillus is growing in the air sacs, lungs or other internal organs there is nothing that can be done. The swabs and inspections confirmed that all of them were in absolutely perfect health up to that point. The remaining 6 seem fine today. I have great hope that they will be ok.

So this morning once again we set out to endeavor to do everything we can to make it right and safe for the remaining 6. Cheryl and I decided that even though I had already shoveled 99.9% of the wood chips out of the run and the U of A guys had given their approval to the area, we would not settle for anything less than to clean every single wood chip and sliver of anything foreign from the run and scrape the ground. More of a project than one would think but we completed that task and disposed of that material. We cleaned all the shavings and PDZ from the coop and moved that material to the run. We thoroughly cleaned everything and added fresh bags of shavings to the run and the coop. Fresh PDZ on the poop tray.

We had moved the girls out to the chicken yard while we worked and they were obviously very happy to be out of the coop. Once we completed the work we let them back into the run and they immediately began to dig dust baths and had quite a time running around and playing. It was nice to sit with them. I feel like we have done everything we possibly can to mitigate the fungus issue. I suppose time will tell.

The run after cleaning.



And the run after loading the pine shavings back in and the girls enjoying being out of the coop.

 

[Finnie]

 

[mike6530]

Terry, 1st and foremost I'm very sorry for Cheryl and your loss!
I'm a new member to BYC only joining yesterday. I joined because it seemed like a wonderful place to learn and experience everything about chickens. And it is!
I became enthralled in your thread last night. Yes, it has taken me 2 days to read through it! I started at the beginning and read through to this point, never jumping ahead because this is truly a love story that needs to be experienced in it's entirety. I'm sitting here now, a 40 yo man, with tears in my eyes. Because you've shared "everything" with us from beginning to now, I feel a great attachment to your chickens. Silly, weird...I know. But I feel a hurt too and I'm sure it's not anything like what you and Cheryl are feeling but I wanted you to know how you guys and your "love story" have touched other people. You've shared so many lessons throughout this thread from rearing, care, building and now an unforeseen tragic lesson. As much as you're hurting and as much as I wish this hadn't happened to you and Cheryl and your "girls", I thank you for sharing! I won't be using anything from our local lumberyard or tree trimming companies! You've helped so many people immeasurably throughout your story and I've refrained from using "the end" anywhere in my post, referring to this point, because I hope it's not! I want your story to go on. I want to hear more about your girls and more lessons that you might have to share.
Thanks again for this thread and again, I'm so very sorry for your loss!

 

[TerryH]

Terry, 1st and foremost I'm very sorry for Cheryl and your loss!
I'm a new member to BYC only joining yesterday. I joined because it seemed like a wonderful place to learn and experience everything about chickens. And it is!
I became enthralled in your thread last night. Yes, it has taken me 2 days to read through it! I started at the beginning and read through to this point, never jumping ahead because this is truly a love story that needs to be experienced in it's entirety. I'm sitting here now, a 40 yo man, with tears in my eyes. Because you've shared "everything" with us from beginning to now, I feel a great attachment to your chickens. Silly, weird...I know. But I feel a hurt too and I'm sure it's not anything like what you and Cheryl are feeling but I wanted you to know how you guys and your "love story" have touched other people. You've shared so many lessons throughout this thread from rearing, care, building and now an unforeseen tragic lesson. As much as you're hurting and as much as I wish this hadn't happened to you and Cheryl and your "girls", I thank you for sharing! I won't be using anything from our local lumberyard or tree trimming companies! You've helped so many people immeasurably throughout your story and I've refrained from using "the end" anywhere in my post, referring to this point, because I hope it's not! I want your story to go on. I want to hear more about your girls and more lessons that you might have to share.
Thanks again for this thread and again, I'm so very sorry for your loss!

Thank you for your kind words, Mike. I set out at the beginning to document the construction but some how along the way it became so much more than that. This is certainly not the end. I intend to continue to document and share the adventure.

 

[SunshineMary]

Terry,
First, let me say how sorry I am for your loss. Although I haven't commented, I have been following along reading about your coop and new chickens.

Second, I was wondering if you had asked the poultry specialists at U of A if wood chips are something that ought not to be used in coops or runs. Many times on Backyard Chickens, I have read that a healthy deep litter method should involve materials of different sizes and that wood chips are an excellent material to add. We had been planning to start adding wood chips, leaves, and pine needles on to the pine shavings in our run. We even have our own small wood chipper so that we can shred the branches and small limbs from around our property.

However, now we are thinking this may not be a wise course. How does one know if the fungus that causes Aspergillus is present in the wood chips? If there is no easy way to tell, then should woodchips not be used in runs or coops which use the deep litter method? If you are able to ask those questions to the poultry specialists, I am sure it would help all of us here to learn something!

 

[aart]

Terry,
First, let me say how sorry I am for your loss. Although I haven't commented, I have been following along reading about your coop and new chickens.

Second, I was wondering if you had asked the poultry specialists at U of A if wood chips are something that ought not to be used in coops or runs. Many times on Backyard Chickens, I have read that a healthy deep litter method should involve materials of different sizes and that wood chips are an excellent material to add. We had been planning to start adding wood chips, leaves, and pine needles on to the pine shavings in our run. We even have our own small wood chipper so that we can shred the branches and small limbs from around our property.

However, now we are thinking this may not be a wise course. How does one know if the fungus that causes Aspergillus is present in the wood chips? If there is no easy way to tell, then should woodchips not be used in runs or coops which use the deep litter method? If you are able to ask those questions to the poultry specialists, I am sure it would help all of us here to learn something!

That is being discussed in this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1129854/dying-chickens/50#post_17465927

 

[TerryH]

Terry,
First, let me say how sorry I am for your loss. Although I haven't commented, I have been following along reading about your coop and new chickens.

Second, I was wondering if you had asked the poultry specialists at U of A if wood chips are something that ought not to be used in coops or runs. Many times on Backyard Chickens, I have read that a healthy deep litter method should involve materials of different sizes and that wood chips are an excellent material to add. We had been planning to start adding wood chips, leaves, and pine needles on to the pine shavings in our run. We even have our own small wood chipper so that we can shred the branches and small limbs from around our property.

However, now we are thinking this may not be a wise course. How does one know if the fungus that causes Aspergillus is present in the wood chips? If there is no easy way to tell, then should woodchips not be used in runs or coops which use the deep litter method? If you are able to ask those questions to the poultry specialists, I am sure it would help all of us here to learn something!

Thank you. I have asked those questions. They are going to discuss the situation in it's entirety once the cultures that they have going now are complete so they know exactly what is going on in this particular batch of chips.

I would be very hesitant to make any blanket statements one way or the other. Wood chips are obviously something that is routinely used without any issue. Any pile of chips is going to have some sort of fungus in it which is a good thing for compost in general. I have no idea how to tell the good from the bad or a dangerous level vs an acceptable level. Even in our situation there is not much consistency. The 2 birds that died technically died from the same thing but appeared very different. Aunt Bea died very quickly with no outward sign that we saw. #7 took days longer while she struggled to breathe and had horrible looking poop that entire time. The rest of the flock appears totally unaffected. None of that makes any sense to me. They were all exposed for exactly the same amount of time to exactly the same thing.

 

[TerryH]

That is being discussed in this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1129854/dying-chickens/50#post_17465927

Yes. More discussion specific to the chips and a video that I did today are there.

 

[TerryH]

Some time with Cheryl and the girls in the chicken yard tonight. It's really nice for things to be getting back to normal.