Derperella, the (weird) Faverolles, & Friends

[froggiesheins]

CONGRATULATIONS softboiled...DERP ROCKS!!!

 

[Nambroth]

So happy you like the mug! How wonderful, great photo!

Here's a link to the chick resuscitation video: http://www.bucknrunranch.com/blog/2013/02/07/chick-resuscitation/

 

[CinnamonQueen]

Nambroth, I need a little help. Two of my chickens also have Moa's hygiene problem and they don't particularly enjoy being held. I am not looking forward to trying to wrangle them and try to trim their fluff. Thanks in advance!

 

[Nambroth]

Nambroth, I need a little help. Two of my chickens also have Moa's hygiene problem and they don't particularly enjoy being held. I am not looking forward to trying to wrangle them and try to trim their fluff. Thanks in advance!

I have found that the easiest way to restrain upset bird wiggles is to use a towel. Go through your towel closet, pick the one you hate the most, and dedicate it to be the 'chicken towel'. This towel will be so handy that you will be amazed you ever lived without it. Use it every time you need to restrain a chicken to do hygiene, checkups, worm them, check for mites-- anything! Just wash separately from your normal clothing.

If your girls really stress out and won't even let you catch them, consider doing this at night. Go out to the roost with your towel, and talk to them in low and gentle tones.

The key to doing this-- daylight or at night-- is to position the towel slightly forward of the hen. You want it to completely envelop their head, it doesn't matter if the rear end of the chicken is poking out. Wrap it securely around them, but not tight. Firm but not squeezing! Make a chicken burrito, where their feet and wings are held gently but firmly in place by the towel, and their head is lost in one end so that they only experience dark, soft, fluffy towelness.

Always try to support the burrito chicken from the keel (her breast bone) and gently hold her sides as necessary. This will allow her to breathe normally, as being in a towel can often lead to rapid breathing on the chicken's part. Sometimes on the human's part, too, but that's unrelated. Take a deep breath.

If you have a helper, have them gently but firmly hold the chicken burrito, with the head facing their chest. Open the towel to reveal the not-so-fluffy butts, and trim as necessary.
If you are alone, I have found the easiest way looks a little awkward. Make your chicken burrito, and if you are able, take it inside. Sit down on your feet, and place the burrito between your legs so that the head is facing toward your belly/chest. You can then lean down over the chicken burrito, open the butt end of the towel, and trim. Sometimes I lean forward quite a bit to use my chest to further pin the chicken burrito, if the bird is really wiggling. Better to use a few moments of squished chicken than have a bleeding mess if the bird leaps at the moment you are trimming close to her rear end with scissors! (this is also a good reason to use blunted scissors if you have them).

Take the chicken burrito back out to the chicken realm, a few treats in your back pocket, and immediately open the towel while offering treats. She may just forgive you!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Chicken burrito! This gives a whole new meaning to a favorite meal. I'll never be able to face one again!

 

[artsyrobin]

Wow! I am saving that, how many times i have argued with or that fluffy! Amazing!

 

[CinnamonQueen]

I have found that the easiest way to restrain upset bird wiggles is to use a towel. Go through your towel closet, pick the one you hate the most, and dedicate it to be the 'chicken towel'. This towel will be so handy that you will be amazed you ever lived without it. Use it every time you need to restrain a chicken to do hygiene, checkups, worm them, check for mites-- anything! Just wash separately from your normal clothing.

If your girls really stress out and won't even let you catch them, consider doing this at night. Go out to the roost with your towel, and talk to them in low and gentle tones.

The key to doing this-- daylight or at night-- is to position the towel slightly forward of the hen. You want it to completely envelop their head, it doesn't matter if the rear end of the chicken is poking out. Wrap it securely around them, but not tight. Firm but not squeezing! Make a chicken burrito, where their feet and wings are held gently but firmly in place by the towel, and their head is lost in one end so that they only experience dark, soft, fluffy towelness.

Always try to support the burrito chicken from the keel (her breast bone) and gently hold her sides as necessary. This will allow her to breathe normally, as being in a towel can often lead to rapid breathing on the chicken's part. Sometimes on the human's part, too, but that's unrelated. Take a deep breath.

If you have a helper, have them gently but firmly hold the chicken burrito, with the head facing their chest. Open the towel to reveal the not-so-fluffy butts, and trim as necessary.
If you are alone, I have found the easiest way looks a little awkward. Make your chicken burrito, and if you are able, take it inside. Sit down on your feet, and place the burrito between your legs so that the head is facing toward your belly/chest. You can then lean down over the chicken burrito, open the butt end of the towel, and trim. Sometimes I lean forward quite a bit to use my chest to further pin the chicken burrito, if the bird is really wiggling. Better to use a few moments of squished chicken than have a bleeding mess if the bird leaps at the moment you are trimming close to her rear end with scissors! (this is also a good reason to use blunted scissors if you have them).

Take the chicken burrito back out to the chicken realm, a few treats in your back pocket, and immediately open the towel while offering treats. She may just forgive you!

Thank you! This may need to become an article!

 

[flynn]

I just received my order of 24 Faverolles and am very excited to see them grow. I love the roo, Mr. Favor who was thrown into my Minorca mix last year and when the Minorca roo went rogue attacking everything in sight as an adolescent, including Mr Favor he went to someone who wanted a "Guard Rooster", he's a good one,
Mr. Favor took over and the hens just love him. The yard is so very much calmer. He is a love but fearful cause he had pasty butt as a babe and I always had to clear his bottom and being the only in a group of flighty birds, it's only natural he would be more so than usual.

Now with my new order I have conjunctivitis and pasty butt on most of the 24 chicks. I'm ironing their feathers out of their eyes w/ emu oil and trimming the feathers from their vents and applying pain relieving neosporin. They seem well otherwise and recover quickly after this treatment. The eye problem and the butt problem seem to be from stray feathers, lol.
However there is one looks born w/o an eye and the other eye looked crusty so I soaked it like I did the gooey eyed ones and the eye bled and is a drying hole. I can't bring myself to kill it and thought it would die by natural causes, it found the water and then the food and seems now in one day to be understanding and fighting to live.
Could your group help me know if I should leave it to God or is it in pain and suffering and needing me to take it in my hands. I don't know how I can, I admire the lil thing so much for the determination and progress. I think it can smell me now and wants to come to me. All very odd and not what I would expect.
Any thoughts?

 

[NovaAman]

You will need to provide a whole new level of protection and care for an eyeless bird. Are you prepared to do that? It will not be able to defend itself from being picked on. It will not be able to free range, or range in a pen that doesn't have a covered roof. It will not be able to see dangers around it. If you are prepared to go the extra mile for this chick, like having it as a house chicken, or in protective custody with another hen or two for companionship, then you need to cull. There are people with blind chickens. Always placing feed and water in the same place, keeping roaming areas to a minimum, and a watchful eye... Well, you have to decided how much time you can expend on the care of just this one little guy. Me... I am not a culler if I don't have to. I'd probably let it go, make a nice tractor that predators could not get into at night or day, and move it around the yard so it has fresh grass everyday, and keep it with 2 friends. It can be done. But you will need to WATCH it.

 

[NovaAman]

Artsy... LOVE your new avatar.

AND welcome to BYC and the Derparella Club, Flynn.