Diary of a Crossbeak: Support for Special Needs Chickens and their Keepers

[cindersga]

That is what it sounded like! Glad it wasn't the lice! I am jealous about the river sand. I really want to do that but my housing is so big I will have to get tons of it hauled in. Let me know how it works! I know about this humidity. My silkies look like drowned rats every morning from the wet grass.
I forgot to add that I had seen your coop on the Georgia thread and that is the most awesome coop ever!!! I love it! I think your hubby needs to come and build me a few!

Well my husband loaded up the coop with the sand today. It was funny to see all the little tracks in the sand. It will be interesting to watch the chickens interact with the sand. I hope they like it. The grass is soooo wet and for most of the day and my white silkies have orange colored feet and even on their head. They look like a mess.

My husband did a wonderful job on that coop! I showed him what you said...got to give the man all the kudos he deserves. He also built me the most amazing potting shed.



All out of recycled materials and only cost us $521 (mostly the paint and the furring strips). The roof is all old tin

. It is lovely and now with the coop our backyard is even more charming.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

I am sure it is posted somewhere on this thread but I confess i am too lazy to read them all

. How do you hold your bird while you trim the beak? I read someone uses a pedipaws and does a little at a time so I got that part. My concern is our boy is 18 weeks and will tolerate being held for a brief period but I can't imagine that he is going to be happy with this procedure and I was wondering the most comfortable way to hold him, for him and us. Any input is appreciated.

 

[NewToFarming]

I am sure it is posted somewhere on this thread but I confess i am too lazy to read them all

. How do you hold your bird while you trim the beak? I read someone uses a pedipaws and does a little at a time so I got that part. My concern is our boy is 18 weeks and will tolerate being held for a brief period but I can't imagine that he is going to be happy with this procedure and I was wondering the most comfortable way to hold him, for him and us. Any input is appreciated.

My one girl I have to wrap in a towel because she acts like a crazy woman at first. But surprisingly mine calm down once I start the grinding. I am right handed so I hold them like under my left armpit with my arm over top of her on my lap. I do sit down to do it. I can still reach her head with my left hand if I need to hold it still. I then grind with my right. I hope this makes sense, if it don't I will try to get a picture for you. Mine do better with the pedipaws than the clippers. They did not like the clippers at all and it didn't go well for us.

 

[NewToFarming]

Well my husband loaded up the coop with the sand today. It was funny to see all the little tracks in the sand. It will be interesting to watch the chickens interact with the sand. I hope they like it. The grass is soooo wet and for most of the day and my white silkies have orange colored feet and even on their head. They look like a mess.

My husband did a wonderful job on that coop! I showed him what you said...got to give the man all the kudos he deserves. He also built me the most amazing potting shed.



All out of recycled materials and only cost us $521 (mostly the paint and the furring strips). The roof is all old tin

. It is lovely and now with the coop our backyard is even more charming.

Very nice! Your husband does great work and is very talented!

 

[Puddin Fluff]

My one girl I have to wrap in a towel because she acts like a crazy woman at first. But surprisingly mine calm down once I start the grinding. I am right handed so I hold them like under my left armpit with my arm over top of her on my lap. I do sit down to do it. I can still reach her head with my left hand if I need to hold it still. I then grind with my right. I hope this makes sense, if it don't I will try to get a picture for you. Mine do better with the pedipaws than the clippers. They did not like the clippers at all and it didn't go well for us.

Thanks, I think I can picture it. I was thinking of basically sitting on him and holding him between my legs so my hands would be free to hold his head. All of my birds seem to have an aversion to having their faces touched. I guess I can't blame them but they all want to shake their heads when you touch it and i was afraid when we started the grinding he would do the same. Dont' know when we will takle this but soon. His top beak is curving down below the bottom and the bottom is getting long. Normally he doesn't have much problem eating but it looks like it could start getting in his way. Did I mention he is our biggest boy out of our hatch? I wonder if he was cramped up in the egg and it caused his head to be crooked. Who knows. The kids love him.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

We did our first trim. Walter tolerated it pretty well. We didn't get all the top beak down to where we wanted but will go at it again later. I held him wrapped in a towel on my lap and my husband used our pedipaws and held the head and beak. We are going to try finishing with my husbands dremel tool because he has a smaller grinding stone and the pedipaws wheel kept bumping the bottom beak while we were working on the top.

Thanks for the support and advice. I will have to post a pic. soon.

 

[Little Roughian]

Well I originally joined to read about dealing with cross beaks. As if one special chick wasnt enough I had a chick hatch last night with 5 toes!! I guess it's extra special too!! Thank goodness this one won't need as much care as little Stewie! My little cross beak is now eating big kid food and doing great! Thanks everyone for posting all these helpful tips!

 

[NewToFarming]

We did our first trim. Walter tolerated it pretty well. We didn't get all the top beak down to where we wanted but will go at it again later. I held him wrapped in a towel on my lap and my husband used our pedipaws and held the head and beak. We are going to try finishing with my husbands dremel tool because he has a smaller grinding stone and the pedipaws wheel kept bumping the bottom beak while we were working on the top.

Thanks for the support and advice. I will have to post a pic. soon.

I am glad everything went OK for Walter's first trim!

 

[NewToFarming]

Well I originally joined to read about dealing with cross beaks. As if one special chick wasnt enough I had a chick hatch last night with 5 toes!! I guess it's extra special too!! Thank goodness this one won't need as much care as little Stewie! My little cross beak is now eating big kid food and doing great! Thanks everyone for posting all these helpful tips!

It looks like your baby has dark skin which means it could be a silkie or part silkie and they are a breed that has 5 toes so this would be perfectly normal for this little one! There are a few breeds that have the 5 toes.

 

[Little Roughian]

We don't really know what the little one is as there a bunch of different hens. There is two hens that have only small head plumes, but no traditional silkies. (I have no clue only "silkies" i've heard of are the full fluff looking ones!) I learn so much on here! I guess I should go survey the hens!