Chickens Found At a Park (The Story of Paisley and Butterscotch)

[Half-Pint]

The Mother's Day Chickens:









Today was supposed to be normal. Mother's Day picnic...coffee, you know. 2 o'clock we went over to a park right outside our town. It was beside a creek, and had many wonderful oak trees. After choosing a table, I went to work cooking hot dogs. 30 minutes later we were sitting, sipping lemonade and enjoying the breeze. It was a beautiful day; blue, warm, and was slightly breezy. Then, I heard the squacking.

Two children were chasing around a pair of chickens. Buff Orpington, Barred Rock. I knew enough to know that they were both large fowl, young, and skinny. They were emaciated, hungry, and thirsty. I walked up to the people standing by them and asked, "Are these your chickens?" They shook their head no, and that's when I decided that I was going to catch them.

I managed to get the Barred Rock before the Buff Orpington scrambled away towards the water. The area around the creek was thick with brambles and thorns. After about fifteen-twenty minutes my mother came down and pushed her towards me on the path. I lunged, wrapped my arms around her, and tripped my way back down. Everyone was congratulating me on catching her, and I took the praise with exhaustion. Talk about a rewarding outcome, though. We fed them some watermelon and bread, whilst finishing up the picnic.

My mother and I agree that we are going to rehab these guys. Both seem pretty tame, and will sit in your lap. We're not sure whether to keep them or not, but I am leaning towards keeping. My father had been talking about egg chickens, although we have bantams. Has anybody had any experience with introducing large fowl chickens to bantams?

 

[lightchick]

Introduce them like you usually introduce new chickens.

 

[WooingWyandotte]

Congrats on your hens! That sounded like an awesome picnic.

I have the sweetest blue Cochin hen named Claudia. She survived being mauled by my dachshund and lived in my room for some time, and we got quite attached while she was healing. Well she is now at the bottom of the pecking order, and my stupid roosters always mount the "lowest" hen, so shes having a rough go in there.

Moved her cold turkey into my bantam coop (they knew each other thru the fence though and have free-ranged tog.) and she's getting along wonderfully. I'm hoping she'll start laying again, poor dear.

Anyways, I think as long as its banty roo over standard hen (though I've certainly seen it happen both ways) its perfectly fine to integrate and I've had success on this occasion and many others!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Since you show your chickens I am assuming you have heard the oft-repeated advice to go with a month-long quarantine. I would also dust for mites/lice and repeat in 7 and 14 days just to be safe with permethrin poultry dust. You may need to worm them also. Don't forget to repeat the wormer to break the life cycle of the worms as well.

So they would be a month older than they are now when they integrate. I am guessing they are three months old or so now?? Maybe a little older.

So if they are about 4 months old when you introduce them to your bantams, they will be largish. So what I would do is to make sure the bantams and your large fowl can see each other through the fence (after quarantine of course as you don't want germs blowing on the wind towards your flock potentially) and get to know each other.

Be aware that there are diseases that can render a chicken an asymptomatic carrier, who can pass your quarantine but make your chickens sick. So I would put in a couple of "sacrificial chickens," no offense intended. If they don't get sick then things sound great and you could hopefully have a peaceful integration. The upside is that the two chickens who you placed with them will be their friends- hopefully- in the crowd so they don't feel all alone.

I am wondering if they are cockerels.

 

[Half-Pint]

They are, my guess, around a year old. Both look very much like hens. They are pretty large, they still need to put on muscle and fat.

We gave them a minimal amount of food and set them in a hutch. They are eating and drinking, which is good. What else could I feed them? I was wondering if scrambled eggs might be too rich...oatmeal?

 

[Half-Pint]

UPDATE:

They have settled a little. Butterscotch is the skittish one, Paisley is very calm. Butterscotch, when tired, will fluff up under Paisley and go to sleep. Paisley will then stretch her neck over Butterscotch's back. IT WAS SO CUTE!!!

I got them to eat wheatless oatmeal (that has flaxseed and other stuff like that) that had DE mixed in. Hopefully that will take care of worms (if any). I will dust them in a couple of days, once they have started to trust me.

I have been reading up and found that leg, eye, and beak color match these girls. Not sure on coloring...Butterscotch is a really dark, rich buff. Paisley, well, is Paisley. I wonder how her coloring compares.

 

[steny03]

Glad you rescued them. I also agree that they need to be quarantined, as you don't want to lose your existing flock to something coming in on your new girls.

If you suspect worms, please treat them with something other than DE. It's never been proven to work through ingestion, and in my opinion it is better to use one of the recommended cattle treatments (valbazen I think?). I would do a search on this site for options. I use a cattle de-wormer once a year as a preventative, and never have issues. Squash seeds have a natural anti-wormer in them too, but I'm not sure how many they need to eat to effectively treat an infestation...I toss one out whenever they are on sale in the fall for them. Dusting for mites and other bugs is a good idea too. Splashing a little apple cider vinegar in their water will help prevent, but not treat, worms as well. It also will help keep algae from growing in your watering set up too.

Give them a well balanced feed for chickens. Treats I think are fine, as they are useful to help tame and making friends too. Mine go cuckoo over dried mealworms, which are high in protein too. If it's warm out, frozen peas are a number one treat too for my flock. Heck, even a nice wild bird seed mix is a nice treat for them too.

Good luck!

 

[Half-Pint]

Glad you rescued them. I also agree that they need to be quarantined, as you don't want to lose your existing flock to something coming in on your new girls.

I should've added that I do have them separated from my existing flock. They are in an old rabbit hutch, with water, food and a nestbox.

If you suspect worms, please treat them with something other than DE. It's never been proven to work through ingestion, and in my opinion it is better to use one of the recommended cattle treatments (valbazen I think?). I would do a search on this site for options. I use a cattle de-wormer once a year as a preventative, and never have issues. Squash seeds have a natural anti-wormer in them too, but I'm not sure how many they need to eat to effectively treat an infestation...I toss one out whenever they are on sale in the fall for them. Dusting for mites and other bugs is a good idea too. Splashing a little apple cider vinegar in their water will help prevent, but not treat, worms as well. It also will help keep algae from growing in your watering set up too.

Wow, I had heard DE is great for worms! Amazing what you learn. I guess I will have to get some cattle wormer, then.

Give them a well balanced feed for chickens. Treats I think are fine, as they are useful to help tame and making friends too. Mine go cuckoo over dried mealworms, which are high in protein too. If it's warm out, frozen peas are a number one treat too for my flock. Heck, even a nice wild bird seed mix is a nice treat for them too.

Again, forgot to mention that I have given them layer feed. Not too much...they didn't really want a lot, so I adjusted it for them.

 

[steny03]

There is a lot of debate about DE. It is technically a mechanical pest control...meaning it cuts/destroys the pests exoskeleton...but it needs to be a certain size, in certain conditions, etc, to actually work. I know many members swear by it, but there really isn't any proof that it will rid a chicken with a full infestation. I have no problems with people who give it as a preventative, as it's pretty inert and won't hurt the chicken. I researched and made the decision that for my flock I will use a once a year de-wormer, but I've never seen any signs of my birds having worms either. I'm not sure how common it is in chickens.

But I don't want to de-rail your thread either.

I am looking forward to following this and finding out what will happen to your rescues.

 

[Half-Pint]

Today the two rescues got to go outside. We made them a makeshift run, so as to let them dig and peck at whatever they choose. Both seem to enjoy it, and I made sure I built the run under the lemon tree to give them shade.

Here are the two girls laying down:



Well, at least Paisley was.


Butterscotch pacing along the fence.


Paisley being lazy whilst Butterscotch scratches herself.



Both of them enjoying being in the outdoors.

But I don't want to de-rail your thread either.

No No No! I appreciate the advice. All of my experience with chickens come from bantams that came from responsible breeders. The only interaction I have have with large fowl chooks is when I go over to my friend's house.