- Thread starter
- #64,351
She does have an impressive beard and chops! I love that they are grey and she is cream as well. It helps them to pop.
Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock
- Thread starter BY Bob
- Start date
So, the point I want to make after all the stuff about crop complaints, hens off their feed due to moulting, underweight chickens in general and medical style interventions is essentially a point about keepers and not so much about the chickens themselves.
We all want to do the best we can for our chickens and of course we start off with a fairly limited toolkit in both knowledge and equipment and as our experience of the numerous problems chickens have increases so does our knowledge and hopefully skill. What seemed to be impossible tasks when we started out become easier and they go into out toolkit.
The first case of egg binding is likely to send the less experienced keeper into a complete funk and some will never have touched a hens vent before let alone shoved their finger in it covered in grease.
Many are worried about hurting the hen and it gets forgotten that a hens vent can stretch enough to pass an egg you may have trouble fitting in your mouth whole.
Then there is the worry about breaking the egg. If you are an avid follower of the ER threads there will be dire warnings about pushing bits of shell further up the oviduct, infections and cuts; the list of possible horrors seems endless. Hens breaks shelled eggs in their oviduct more often than one might think. Particularly sitting hens who are delivering their last egg before switching off their laying cycle.
They break them because they push their abdomen down on the clutch they’ve laid. Some of you will have seen a hen wiggling down on a pile of eggs trying to ensure maximum body contact.
Have a look at a good diagram of a hens reproductive tract and look in particular at the various bends and where these bends are in relation to the egg productions process. Eggs that get stuck when shelled are in the very last delivery stage, at worst they are still in the spray booth where the colour is applied.
I and my vet have broken eggs in egg bound hens and then carefully flushed out any bits of shell with no ill effects. Yes, you need to be careful but sometimes this is the only way the egg is going to come out.
The point? The first time I did this I was a bundle of nerves, shaking and worried. Now, I wouldn’t think anything of it.
BUT! Each time I see a hen who looks like she may be having trouble laying an egg, I don’t go for the full on emergency procedure just because I can do it now.
Many of us can end up feeling helpless confronted with any sick animal. If one has been unfortunate and had a succession of chickens die it can undermine ones confidence and lead to overreaction to any perceived health problems. There is often then a tendency to reach for the most powerful tools in our toolbox in an attempt to put the problem right.
Some cultures are more prone to this than others often due to the availability of the medication or the knowledge. Unfortunately along with these availabilities comes a conviction that all can or should be saved at any cost.
The indiscriminate use of antibiotics is a classic example. In Spain I’ve witnessed people getting antibiotics for the common cold! In the food production antibiotics were given as a matter of course as a preventative! Antibiotics are for when there is a life threatening infection, not as a just in case treatment.
Tube feeding; It’s for emergency situations. I’ve been through all this with the sheep we kept in Catalonia. The person who owned the sheep had read about tube feeding but hadn’t really understood what it was for. When the lambs arrived and those that were having difficulty latching onto mum or just wandered around clueless, out came the tube feeding kit. Not one single lamb I dealt with ever need tube feeding; what they needed was patience and attention and an understanding that perhaps it was better for the lamb to die if it was never going to be able to feed from its mother; not just better for the lamb but better for all those who would have to prepare bottled feed and go and pour it down the poor creatures throat four times a day for the next few weeks.
Tube feeding, it’s a great tool to have in your toolbox but it should be at the bottom of the box and only used in emergencies when all other avenues of help have been exhausted. If you’ve got to the point you have to tube feed then you have failed at some earlier point in your chicken care.
We all want to do the best we can for our chickens and of course we start off with a fairly limited toolkit in both knowledge and equipment and as our experience of the numerous problems chickens have increases so does our knowledge and hopefully skill. What seemed to be impossible tasks when we started out become easier and they go into out toolkit.
The first case of egg binding is likely to send the less experienced keeper into a complete funk and some will never have touched a hens vent before let alone shoved their finger in it covered in grease.
Many are worried about hurting the hen and it gets forgotten that a hens vent can stretch enough to pass an egg you may have trouble fitting in your mouth whole.
Then there is the worry about breaking the egg. If you are an avid follower of the ER threads there will be dire warnings about pushing bits of shell further up the oviduct, infections and cuts; the list of possible horrors seems endless. Hens breaks shelled eggs in their oviduct more often than one might think. Particularly sitting hens who are delivering their last egg before switching off their laying cycle.
They break them because they push their abdomen down on the clutch they’ve laid. Some of you will have seen a hen wiggling down on a pile of eggs trying to ensure maximum body contact.
Have a look at a good diagram of a hens reproductive tract and look in particular at the various bends and where these bends are in relation to the egg productions process. Eggs that get stuck when shelled are in the very last delivery stage, at worst they are still in the spray booth where the colour is applied.
I and my vet have broken eggs in egg bound hens and then carefully flushed out any bits of shell with no ill effects. Yes, you need to be careful but sometimes this is the only way the egg is going to come out.
The point? The first time I did this I was a bundle of nerves, shaking and worried. Now, I wouldn’t think anything of it.
BUT! Each time I see a hen who looks like she may be having trouble laying an egg, I don’t go for the full on emergency procedure just because I can do it now.
Many of us can end up feeling helpless confronted with any sick animal. If one has been unfortunate and had a succession of chickens die it can undermine ones confidence and lead to overreaction to any perceived health problems. There is often then a tendency to reach for the most powerful tools in our toolbox in an attempt to put the problem right.
Some cultures are more prone to this than others often due to the availability of the medication or the knowledge. Unfortunately along with these availabilities comes a conviction that all can or should be saved at any cost.
The indiscriminate use of antibiotics is a classic example. In Spain I’ve witnessed people getting antibiotics for the common cold! In the food production antibiotics were given as a matter of course as a preventative! Antibiotics are for when there is a life threatening infection, not as a just in case treatment.
Tube feeding; It’s for emergency situations. I’ve been through all this with the sheep we kept in Catalonia. The person who owned the sheep had read about tube feeding but hadn’t really understood what it was for. When the lambs arrived and those that were having difficulty latching onto mum or just wandered around clueless, out came the tube feeding kit. Not one single lamb I dealt with ever need tube feeding; what they needed was patience and attention and an understanding that perhaps it was better for the lamb to die if it was never going to be able to feed from its mother; not just better for the lamb but better for all those who would have to prepare bottled feed and go and pour it down the poor creatures throat four times a day for the next few weeks.
Tube feeding, it’s a great tool to have in your toolbox but it should be at the bottom of the box and only used in emergencies when all other avenues of help have been exhausted. If you’ve got to the point you have to tube feed then you have failed at some earlier point in your chicken care.
- Thread starter
- #64,353
That was very distracting.Nice rendition.
But I found his t-shirt so very distracting..
- Thread starter
- #64,354
My youngest daughter loved The Giving Tree at an uncomfortable age too. She was much younger than I would have liked her to be when she read the book. There was always something special about her soul where books like that spoke to her somehow. The rainbow fish was also one of her favorites. The Lorax as well.The Rainbow Fish is a really pretty book but I was never comfortable with the story. It just doesn't seem right that he is giving away parts of his body.
The giving tree makes me uncomfortable for similar reasons.
(Aside from the fact that the boy is a selfish jerk in that story imho.)
Chicken Tax
- Thread starter
- #64,355
Wonderful photos.
I am no good at this game at all. Therefore I shall abstain.- Thread starter
- #64,356
My colder also believe expiration dates to be absolute. This must be a generational shift of some kind.To be fair, people have been preserving food in these ways for centuries. And without putting expiration dates on things!
Disclaimer: if you try to serve my (adult) kids anything out of date they will have conniptions.
Chicken tax
- Thread starter
- #64,357
I might be able to add a little table for them to hide under. The good news is they are not getting injured.
This morning there was no interaction between them at all. That feels like a little backsliding to me but maybe they are just getting smarter.
I believe that I will give them access to the big run tomorrow and see what happens.
- Thread starter
- #64,358
Perhaps. Complicating factor though, we always either had chickens and fresh eggs or the farmer next door did. Why would we use powdered eggs when fresh were right there?Too young to remember war time dried egg then.
- Thread starter
- #64,359
I would have fallen asleep if I had stared at an egg for 5 minutes..........
Last edited:
I've been absent this weekend and was about 100 pages behind but all caught up now. Rosie got sick with the Rhinovirus that almost turned into walking pneumonia. She was sicker with this then she ever was the entire time she had covid. I'm glad to see the integration between Phyllis and the littles is going well. I think in a couple weeks they'll be best buddies.
Similar threads
New posts New threads Active threads
-
Latest posts
-
-
Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.- Latest: notabitail
-
-
-
Latest threads
-
-
-
Any idea what her base genes are?- Started by ChickenCameFirst
- Replies: 1
-
NF mites and a crop full of dirt
- Started by CactusAdjacent
- Replies: 0
-
Shed to coop conversion
- Started by GretaVanFlock
- Replies: 4
-
-
Threads with more replies in the last 15 days
-
-
-
I culled my first cockerel, now what?- Started by redinator
- Replies: 120
-
*Answer These Questions The Best You Can Please *- Started by N3mesis_IceWing_NightWing
- Replies: 107
-
Open Contest Spooktacular Scavenger Hunt- Started by casportpony
- Replies: 95
-
