E's flock - chicken math is real! (and working towards sustainable meat bird flock)

[imacowgirl2]

Grabbed the NH hen with the enlarged crop off the roost tonight and put her in the other half of Dude’s crate…those dividers are amazing! Wasn’t sure if we were dealing with impacted crop or sour crop or both, so decided to go anhead and treat her for both. Turns out she is more than happy to gobble down both coconut oil and miconozole cream if we shove a pinch of scratch grains on it - so both are down her with zero stress. As she was eating them I was hearing burps, so we are definitely dealing with sour crop…when I felt her crop last night I didn’t feel anything hard or fibrous, so hopefully we are just dealing with sour crop and not an impact on on top of it.

I think her company will be good for Dude. He became (or rather attempted to become) a lot more active as soon as we moved her in. He is still eating and drinking and has bright red wattles — just can’t put ANY weight on his feet, so I have no idea what’s going on. I keep wondering if we should cull him, but as perky as he is, I’m not ready to make that call yet. If he starts declining then we might have to, but for now we will watch and wait.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Dude is still going strong…he did try to stand up a bit tonight, and was shifting around more than I’ve seen him do in the past days, so maybe he is improving? I did trim some feathers under his vent because they were getting full of poop, though his vent itself was clear. Tonight I fed him a gray feeder full of scratch grains because it looked like he may not have eaten much; he gobbled half of it down, so that should help keep him warm tonight. He also drank a good amount tonight as well, and I made sure to dry off his wattle afterwards so hopefully we can avoid frostbite.

Debating whether we need to rig up some sort of sling for him to keep him from getting sores…going to do some searching on that.

Crop Top, the NH hen with the sour crop is still doing well, her crop wasn’t as overfilled tonight as it has been the past couple nights. She climbed up on the roost I provided for her before lights went out, and I did see her poop a small green stinky poop.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Over the past two days we lost two meat chicks (down to 17) from the boards holding up MHP falling over, and a layer chick from getting up between the heating pad and pillowcase and getting stuck. Revamped both MHP with sturdier frames without the pillowcase covering.

In brighter news, layer chicks are fully integrated into the flock - 3 weeks old to the day!! We removed the dog crate today. Those chicks are definitely enjoying the ease with which they can zoom around the coop now. They also think they are hot stuff using the horizontal nipple waterer - I didn’t think they’d be able to get anything out, but they do. We will still keep their chick waterer available for a few more weeks but it’s nice to know they have a water source in the morning before we get out there to thaw theirs out.

Put all the roosters back together today too and it was SUCH a non-event. There was a bit of wing dancing, but no chasing, pecking, or anything else.

Fridays project is installing the door between the two sides of the rooster coop, then Saturday afternoon or Sunday, the meat chicks are moving out there.

Felt Crop Top’s crop last night …definitely only squishy and not hard/fibrous so going to stop the coconut oil and continue the monistat through Sunday. She is a grouch cooped up, so I’m going to let her out during the day and pen her up at night so that she is easier to medicate at night and first thing in the morning.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Also put Dude in a sling today for a few hours…he did use his legs to kind of maneuver around a bit, so going to continue that.

 

[Iluveggers]

Sorry you lost a few chicks. I use a heat plate but am too afraid to make one wrong. So I bought the ones from rent a coop.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Cute fully integrated chick pic (and I love my camera for spying on them!)

Had to put a couple extra baskets in for chick protection because one of the California Whites is being a bully and chasing chicks more than she used to.

The chicks still haven’t gone outside but they are definitely enjoying the entire coop when Ms. Bully is outside.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Just for funsies weighed one of the Blue Australorp chicks and one of the NH chicks - NH chick was 298 grams and the Blue Australorp was 177 g. Definitely not imagining that the NH chicks are significantly bigger than the layer chicks!

NH are exactly 3 weeks old today and the layer chicks are 6 days older.

Candled the Buff Orpington eggs today (well, most of them...have 5 more to candle tonight) -- found only 2 duds, so that is good. They are on day 10 today.

 

[imacowgirl2]

I may not survive the experience of deworming chickens for five days straight…

It’ll be easy they said. Just catch them on the roost after dark they said. Pull their wattle down and squirt it in their mouth they said.

I’m here to tell you, our hens apparently missed the memo…despite it being full dark, they were flying all over in the coop and screeching loud enough to draw in every coyote in a ten mile radius while E was trying to catch them. When we gently pulled their wattle down, they were yanking their heads all around like I was trying to murder them. A few of them placed very well aimed vicious pecks. One shook her head like crazy and sprayed dewormer all over everything.

One night down, four nights to go…

 

[imacowgirl2]

Also, in other news, Crop Top’s crop is enlarged again…not sure what to do with her.

Dude is still going strong - E has been taking him outside on sunny and warm days, and the other day he stood by himself for about a half minute when she set him on the ground in a standing position. Continuing the Vitamin E and Vitamin B each day.

Layer babies have taken to roosting in the nest boxes…I’m letting them for now because it’s still pretty cold at night but once the nights warm up we will be relocating them to one of the million juvenile roosts available to them.

Did a deep clean of the coop today…technically probably could have waited until further into spring, but it was a beautiful day out, and I want a nice clean pleasant coop for during the upcoming muddy season — especially because we have had more hawks hunting close lately so they ladies are staying penned up for the majority of the day.

 

[imacowgirl2]

Just because…cute pic of the meat chicks hanging out. 3.5 weeks old today.