Aliceinwonderland
In the Brooder
- Nov 2, 2023
- 6
- 6
- 10
Just wanted to add an update on my girl Tabatha to this thread. Thankfully she’s back to her usual self now!
This is what we did to get her back to good health;
I brought her in the house in a cage for a week or so to keep an eye on her & give her regular feeds. She’d got to the point where she would only really eat if I hand fed her poor girl. She had her usual food with additional boiled egg, tuna, prawns, sunflower seeds & vitamin E & B liquid tonic on a tiny bit of bread each day. Along with poultry tonic in her water.
After a week of being well fed we put her back with the other girls but took out the main bully hen & kept her separate for a few days. This did reduce the intensity of her bullying but obviously didn’t stop it completely.
We added extra feeders & drinkers to the run to allow more opportunity for her to eat & drink.
We also added a new hen to our flock of 5 making them a flock of 6 again after losing a girl back in the summer. We seem to find they like it better in even numbers & pair off a lot. New girl Daphne buddied up with Tabatha & balance was restored.
Tabs put weight back on but was still doing the walking backwards thing - it probably took about 3 weeks (maybe more!) for her to completely stop the odd head shaking & walking backwards behaviour.
We continued to feed her up with the additional foods & vitamins as often as we could probably 3-4 times a day.
Happy to report that she’s back to her usual self, she still bottom of the pecking order but is happy & healthy. We continue to feed her the additional food just incase but in smaller quantities & only twice a day.
Thanks again for everyone’s help & advice, I don’t know what would have happened without it! Our girls mean the world to us & we always thrive to give them the very best life possible.
This is what we did to get her back to good health;
I brought her in the house in a cage for a week or so to keep an eye on her & give her regular feeds. She’d got to the point where she would only really eat if I hand fed her poor girl. She had her usual food with additional boiled egg, tuna, prawns, sunflower seeds & vitamin E & B liquid tonic on a tiny bit of bread each day. Along with poultry tonic in her water.
After a week of being well fed we put her back with the other girls but took out the main bully hen & kept her separate for a few days. This did reduce the intensity of her bullying but obviously didn’t stop it completely.
We added extra feeders & drinkers to the run to allow more opportunity for her to eat & drink.
We also added a new hen to our flock of 5 making them a flock of 6 again after losing a girl back in the summer. We seem to find they like it better in even numbers & pair off a lot. New girl Daphne buddied up with Tabatha & balance was restored.
Tabs put weight back on but was still doing the walking backwards thing - it probably took about 3 weeks (maybe more!) for her to completely stop the odd head shaking & walking backwards behaviour.
We continued to feed her up with the additional foods & vitamins as often as we could probably 3-4 times a day.
Happy to report that she’s back to her usual self, she still bottom of the pecking order but is happy & healthy. We continue to feed her the additional food just incase but in smaller quantities & only twice a day.
Thanks again for everyone’s help & advice, I don’t know what would have happened without it! Our girls mean the world to us & we always thrive to give them the very best life possible.
