Consolidated Kansas

[sapphireblu76]

Just popping in to say "Hi!"

My hen is all better now. I'm not certain, but I think she might have had an ear infection; symptoms were similar.

Off to get some work done. Have a great weekend!

 

[HEChicken]

Anyone else know anything that might help her get back on her feet? It's the little red and white one that isn't doing well.

They're beautiful!!! After I had ordered my first chicks ever to be delivered by mail, I read a "recipe" to help shipped chicks recover from shipping stress, that I used on them and they all grew up very healthy (though they were all healthy when they arrived too so might have remained healthy anyway). The recipe is to put a little honey and a little ACV in water. I no longer remember the exact proportions but its not the kind of thing that requires that much precision anyway. I do remember using a 2-cup measuring cup so I want to say it was a tablespoon of each in the 2-cups of water and then I kept that by the brooder and refilled the waterer with that until it was gone. Then I switched to plain water.

Here are some not-so-great pictures of poor Old Sophia. She's the BO in the front left of the group picture. You can see she's bigger than the other chickens. She's always been the biggest, even before she was fat. It's not as easy to see here, but her thighs are much bigger than the other BOs. She seems to be healthy, other than her size. Is it really possible she's so much better at eating, or that much more devoted to eating, than the others? Or is it likely there's something else wrong with her?

I wish I had some answers for you. I would have to agree she looks pretty rough. My experience has been that chickens don't tend to overeat if food is available all the time, but just take what they need. I don't think I've ever had a truly fat chicken. I wonder if they are subject to some of the same glandular disorders that people are? For example, hypothyroidism will cause a person to weigh more due to an under-active thyroid gland, so perhaps the same is true of birds?

What do you have in the bottom of your chicken coop?

I started with 2 bales of pine shavings in a 10x10 coop area. Last week it was looking like it could use a little addition and I was about to go out and buy some when I remembered I have about 30 bales of straw at the old house. My chicken coop there was a straw bale coop and has to be dismantled prior to selling, so on my next trip over there, I loaded up some bales and took one bale, cut the wire, divided it into flakes which I distributed around the coop, and left them to it. Three hours later they had scratched it out into a much neater layer of straw than I ever could have! A week later they are continuing to enjoy scratching around in it. It only took one bale to add about 6" of bedding to the coop so at this rate I have about a decade's worth of bedding....

Just popping in to say "Hi!"

to you too!

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I was looking for Cuckoo Maran chicks (I love the dark chocolate eggs they lay) and stumbled across this site - I got 5 female chicks for $18 which includes shipping! I am hoping this place is as good as it appears. They have a lot of rare breeds at decent prices and the price includes shipping. Anyways - here is the site if you're interested: http://www.welphatchery.com/

 

[cherwill]

I wish I had some answers for you. I would have to agree she looks pretty rough. My experience has been that chickens don't tend to overeat if food is available all the time, but just take what they need. I don't think I've ever had a truly fat chicken. I wonder if they are subject to some of the same glandular disorders that people are? For example, hypothyroidism will cause a person to weigh more due to an under-active thyroid gland, so perhaps the same is true of birds?

I've wondered about that, too, since she's the only one like that. There's a bin in the coop that we keep filled up, and we throw some scratch grains out every morning and they get some veggie scraps nearly every day. She's not the low chicken on the totem pole. There's no reason I can think of that she would overeat. I wish there was a vet here who knew anything about chickens. One of the vets in the office where my niece works is taking some classes on chickens, but she hasn't been doing it for long. Maybe I'll call Monday and see if she can think of anything. I had an over-active thyroid which was treated, leaving me with no thyroid at all, so I know what you mean about that. I can't imagine my vet having a clue about diagnosing it, or how you would treat it in a chicken! If she had a thyroid condition, I could feed her almost nothing and she's still be overweight.

She's not a pet pet if you know what I mean, but she's a sweet bird. I just don't want to mistreat her, but it feels like I might be no matter what I do because I don't know what I'm doing.

Hawkeye, her eyes are both gold and they look clear and healthy, not watery or anything. I even double checked after you asked. The bluish cast must be some kind of reflection that occurred when I took the picture.

Sunflowerparrot, our coop is really an old wooden playhouse that used to belong to my niece. The floor is wood. We use pine shavings and lay them in 6-8" deep. Every so often we fluff them around to even them back out and move the poop to the bottom. The coop doesn't smell and we change the bedding 2-3 times a year. We've had it in operation for about 2 years, I think, and the wood floor is holding up so far. I worried about it rotting or something, but the poop is dried out by the time it gets shuffled to the bottom, I guess.

 

[cherwill]

I was looking for Cuckoo Maran chicks (I love the dark chocolate eggs they lay) and stumbled across this site - I got 5 female chicks for $18 which includes shipping! I am hoping this place is as good as it appears. They have a lot of rare breeds at decent prices and the price includes shipping. Anyways - here is the site if you're interested: http://www.welphatchery.com/

I wish I had room for more chickens! They're such a pretty breed, and I love having a colorful egg basket.

 

[Trish44]

Sunflowerparrot, I couldn't get that link to work. I'll have to look later when I'm not so busy.

I just stopped in to see what everybody is up to & rest for a few, cleaning is really tiring. We went to Wichita this morning & got my new phone, did some shopping, & got the oil changed in our new car & tires rotated. All of the maintenance is free for the first year, so that's nice.

Hawkeye, was it you asking about where to get free Kindle books? I use Pixel of Ink & I get a list of free & bargain books daily, I rarely ever buy a book but if I do it might be 99 cents. I have almost 300 books on my Kindle right now, so I can read for a very long time. I love my Kindle, especially to read in the car & take on vacation. We have a house full of books that we have collected, they're about in every room of the house, but now that we have our Kindles we don't buy as many.

I thought I had my hens trained to use the new nest boxes & then I bought more fresh straw & they just want to get up on the very top bale up by the roof of the run & lay up there, silly girls. I can barely reach those eggs & those of you that have met me know that I'm pretty tall. In the two days after I put that new straw there I found a bunch of eggs. I heard a bunch of egg songs this morning when I was getting ready to leave, so I hope the girls are starting to lay better again now that it's cooling off some. I have been getting about half the number of eggs that I was until it got so hot this summer. I need to get some more Barred Rock chicks next spring, those girls just have laid through all the heat & everything, but by then they will be about 2 so I will need some new ones coming up. The only Red Star hen I have left is also a trouper, she is a very good layer. I'm anxious to see how this one brown leghorn I got & the ancona hen do when they start laying.

Danz, those are some pretty chicks you got, I'm sorry about your little roo. I think you need to write a letter to the postal service & tell them what happened & how much you had to pay for those chicks. I did that after the horrible experience I had with my eggs & I actually did get an apology letter from the local postmaster. I don't think they realize how much these things cost & what a loss it is. I know that won't replace your chick, but it might make you feel better, it did me.

Well it's almost time to go do chores & got to get back to work. My son & his girlfriend are supposed to be in about 10 tonight. It's going to be a very busy weekend.

 

[HEChicken]

I was looking for Cuckoo Maran chicks (I love the dark chocolate eggs they lay) and stumbled across this site - I got 5 female chicks for $18 which includes shipping! I am hoping this place is as good as it appears. They have a lot of rare breeds at decent prices and the price includes shipping. Anyways - here is the site if you're interested: http://www.welphatchery.com/

I don't know why the link isn't working because I did a google search for Welp Hatchery which I've heard of before and their website looks to be identical to the link you provided. Ah well. I don't know if you noticed but the minimum order is 25 chicks and you have to order a minimum of 5 of each breed. You may get a call from them saying they can't ship your order unless you add on 20 more chicks....

 

[sharol]

I have a request from Chickens-Duckies-Etc. She has a surplus of Muscovy ducklings (some hatching even as I type). She needs to "thin the ranks" so's to speak, and would like to sell some of them really cheap. She doesn't have computer access due to a computer problem, and she asked if i would help her contact the list to see if anyone needed any Muscovy ducklings.

If you are interested, please pm me and I'll get her phone number to you. She lives in the Osage City area.

Sharol

 

[sunflowerparrot]

How to discipline Fern?

Last night, I was putting the chickens in their little coop - then got Fern and had her go into the coop so she could go out the hen door to the fenced area (same routine we've always done). One of the chickens got out the hen door and into the fenced area because Fern wasn't being cooperative and was sniffing around their food - this upset the one chicken and she left! Fern went out the door and started chasing the chicken! I scaled the fence, grabbed Fern by the skin on the nape of her neck, flipped her quickly to her back and yelled into her face.. She knew she had done wrong. I then put her in the crate (which she sleeps in every night) and finished up with the chickens (and new rooster, Jasper, from Trish).

Was that the best approach? Other suggestions should she do this again? That was the first time and I believe it is because the chicken initiated the drama by running.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

I don't know if you noticed but the minimum order is 25 chicks and you have to order a minimum of 5 of each breed. You may get a call from them saying they can't ship your order unless you add on 20 more chicks....

Well dangit HEChicken - you just burst my "I got a great deal" bubble... I be you're right though. I'm sure they'll send me an email saying I didn't order the minimum.