EMERGENCY! egg bound!!!

[CliftonQuail]

Hello @Nabiki, @007Sean, @CliftonQuail & ALL of you who have been so helpful to me this first season with my quail!
I REALLY value & appreciate your feedback & answers to my questions.
First, just want to give you guys an update... Myrtle & the rest of the hens are all doing great. With the automatic misters & fan they are tolerating our 100+ degree weather well, (it was 110 degrees the other day!).
They are now on 1/3 Layer feed & 2/3 Organic Maintenance feed and I'm offering ground egg shells mixed with Oyster shell grit& a handful of white hulled sunflower seeds, (they go for it like it's chocolate cake!).
After her egg bound ordeal, I kept Myrtle tucked in darkness for a full week recuperating (as advised), the first day I put her back out in the Aviary she started laying again, I've been holding my breath, because she is still laying these gigantic eggs! ( I attached a pic so you can see how much lager they are compared to the other hens).
But so far she is doing perfectly fine, and its been a week she's been back with the rest.
View attachment 3601538

But I have a little leak in my automatic (gravity) watering system; it has not been an issue so far as it was slight & gave them a cool place to lay in the damp sand. However, it has progressively gotten worse & is draining their 5 gallon bucket too fast, so I have to repair it, & plan to do it this Wednesday; because I'm going to lift the aviary off the base to do this, I'm going to give the aviary a good "going over" at the same time (add fresh sand etc). That means taking all my hens out for a few hours. My question is this.... can all 5 of my hens remain in a large dog carrier (24 x 17 inches... picture attached) for about 4 hours? I know that's cramped, but right now, I have nothing larger.
View attachment 3601532

I'd think they'd be fine for 4 hours in that carrier. I use a similar sized carrier for isolation, but short term should be fine. Obviously keep it in the shade with feed and water available. If you have a waterer that can attach to the door, that would help free up floor space. I use the ones at the below link, but have to use a zip tie, or two, because the included hanger is just a little too small for the gap in the wire:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PP6PJ2N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[CliftonQuail]

Yeah, I feed white heart sunflower seeds to all my birds, everyday, 1 handful per pen....although I may stop doing that...it's getting rather expensive now!

I've seen you mention white heart sunflower seeds a few times, but I can't find anything by that name via internet search. Can you provide a link, please?

 

[Nabiki]

Hello @Nabiki, @007Sean, @CliftonQuail & ALL of you who have been so helpful to me this first season with my quail!
I REALLY value & appreciate your feedback & answers to my questions.
First, just want to give you guys an update... Myrtle & the rest of the hens are all doing great. With the automatic misters & fan they are tolerating our 100+ degree weather well, (it was 110 degrees the other day!).
They are now on 1/3 Layer feed & 2/3 Organic Maintenance feed and I'm offering ground egg shells mixed with Oyster shell grit& a handful of white hulled sunflower seeds, (they go for it like it's chocolate cake!).
After her egg bound ordeal, I kept Myrtle tucked in darkness for a full week recuperating (as advised), the first day I put her back out in the Aviary she started laying again, I've been holding my breath, because she is still laying these gigantic eggs! ( I attached a pic so you can see how much lager they are compared to the other hens).
But so far she is doing perfectly fine, and its been a week she's been back with the rest.
View attachment 3601538

But I have a little leak in my automatic (gravity) watering system; it has not been an issue so far as it was slight & gave them a cool place to lay in the damp sand. However, it has progressively gotten worse & is draining their 5 gallon bucket too fast, so I have to repair it, & plan to do it this Wednesday; because I'm going to lift the aviary off the base to do this, I'm going to give the aviary a good "going over" at the same time (add fresh sand etc). That means taking all my hens out for a few hours. My question is this.... can all 5 of my hens remain in a large dog carrier (24 x 17 inches... picture attached) for about 4 hours? I know that's cramped, but right now, I have nothing larger.
View attachment 3601532

I'm glad to hear that she's doing well.

Your ladies will be fine in the carrier for a few hours.

 

[007Sean]

I've seen you mention white heart sunflower seeds a few times, but I can't find anything by that name via internet search. Can you provide a link, please?

TSC sells them. Royal Wing Sunflower Hearts Wild Bird Food. 16% protein, 48% fat. Here a pic of the bag. Kinda expensive @ $16 /5lbs. but they are like "crack" to my birds! they turn their beaks up to BOSS.

 

[007Sean]

Hello @Nabiki, @007Sean, @CliftonQuail & ALL of you who have been so helpful to me this first season with my quail!
I REALLY value & appreciate your feedback & answers to my questions.
First, just want to give you guys an update... Myrtle & the rest of the hens are all doing great. With the automatic misters & fan they are tolerating our 100+ degree weather well, (it was 110 degrees the other day!).
They are now on 1/3 Layer feed & 2/3 Organic Maintenance feed and I'm offering ground egg shells mixed with Oyster shell grit& a handful of white hulled sunflower seeds, (they go for it like it's chocolate cake!).
After her egg bound ordeal, I kept Myrtle tucked in darkness for a full week recuperating (as advised), the first day I put her back out in the Aviary she started laying again, I've been holding my breath, because she is still laying these gigantic eggs! ( I attached a pic so you can see how much lager they are compared to the other hens).
But so far she is doing perfectly fine, and its been a week she's been back with the rest.
View attachment 3601538

But I have a little leak in my automatic (gravity) watering system; it has not been an issue so far as it was slight & gave them a cool place to lay in the damp sand. However, it has progressively gotten worse & is draining their 5 gallon bucket too fast, so I have to repair it, & plan to do it this Wednesday; because I'm going to lift the aviary off the base to do this, I'm going to give the aviary a good "going over" at the same time (add fresh sand etc). That means taking all my hens out for a few hours. My question is this.... can all 5 of my hens remain in a large dog carrier (24 x 17 inches... picture attached) for about 4 hours? I know that's cramped, but right now, I have nothing larger.
View attachment 3601532

They will be fine for a few hours!

 

[CliftonQuail]

TSC sells them. Royal Wing Sunflower Hearts Wild Bird Food. 16% protein, 48% fat. Here a pic of the bag. Kinda expensive @ $16 /5lbs. but they are like "crack" to my birds! they turn their beaks up to BOSS.
View attachment 3601572View attachment 3601573

That's cheaper than what I'm paying for BFSL which mine love. Even though the seeds probably lack the calcium boost of the BFSL, I may pick up a bag the next time I'm at TSC to see what they think.
Thanks.

 

[YWoody]

I've seen you mention white heart sunflower seeds a few times, but I can't find anything by that name via internet search. Can you provide a link, please?

Because I have such a small flock, I just buy ACE Hardware's 8lb bag but @007Sean likely has a better source for large quantities.

 

[YWoody]

I'm glad to hear that she's doing well.

Your ladies will be fine in the carrier for a few hours.

Thank You!

 

[007Sean]

Hello @Nabiki, @007Sean, @CliftonQuail & ALL of you who have been so helpful to me this first season with my quail!
I REALLY value & appreciate your feedback & answers to my questions.
First, just want to give you guys an update... Myrtle & the rest of the hens are all doing great. With the automatic misters & fan they are tolerating our 100+ degree weather well, (it was 110 degrees the other day!).
They are now on 1/3 Layer feed & 2/3 Organic Maintenance feed and I'm offering ground egg shells mixed with Oyster shell grit& a handful of white hulled sunflower seeds, (they go for it like it's chocolate cake!).
After her egg bound ordeal, I kept Myrtle tucked in darkness for a full week recuperating (as advised), the first day I put her back out in the Aviary she started laying again, I've been holding my breath, because she is still laying these gigantic eggs! ( I attached a pic so you can see how much lager they are compared to the other hens).
But so far she is doing perfectly fine, and its been a week she's been back with the rest.
View attachment 3601538

But I have a little leak in my automatic (gravity) watering system; it has not been an issue so far as it was slight & gave them a cool place to lay in the damp sand. However, it has progressively gotten worse & is draining their 5 gallon bucket too fast, so I have to repair it, & plan to do it this Wednesday; because I'm going to lift the aviary off the base to do this, I'm going to give the aviary a good "going over" at the same time (add fresh sand etc). That means taking all my hens out for a few hours. My question is this.... can all 5 of my hens remain in a large dog carrier (24 x 17 inches... picture attached) for about 4 hours? I know that's cramped, but right now, I have nothing larger.
View attachment 3601532

They will be fine for a few hours!

 

[YWoody]

They will be fine for a few hours!

Thank you