Hello Everyone, my name is Jenny. I have been a "lurker" for about a year now. I have been watching my Dad raise meat birds and tend a laying flock of Buff Orpingtons for many years. My husband, 3 kids and I live on a small acre in Bennington, Nebraska. I bought 6 Buffs and one Indian Runner Duck this spring. I heartbreakingly lost all but two of my girls to dogs in September. A a couple of months ago my Dad culled his entire laying flock as they were old enough to have pretty much ceased production and he was having increasing problems caring for his livestock generally. One lovely little girl hid in a nest box during the "culling" and saved herself. She was running loose on the farm for a few weeks before he caught her and brought her to me. She was skinny and stinky and sad and I fell immediately in love with her. I gave her a bath and blow dried her (wet chickens love love love blow dryers) and kept her in the house for a few weeks to make sure she was ok. One night I snuck her into the coop and placed her on the roost. The girls gave her the stink eye but they didn't bother her (now I am the part where I decide to cease being a shy lurker). We got a ton of snow here in December. The first time it snowed I went out to the coop in the morning and my two girls were standing in their window looking at the snow like "what is THAT!?" - it was very funny. This was about day two or three of the new girl being in the coop. The new girl (who still doesn't have a name despite the fact I adore her) never left the nest box - it was making the nest box owners furious!! With everyone staying in the coop - the nest box owners had more and more time to think about the fact that the new girl was hanging out in their nest box ALL OF THE TIME. This is upsetting. I decided I needed everyone to come out of the coop and get some fresh air - so I scooped out the run and put bedding on top of the snow that was left and then I put treats on the far end of the run. This temporarily solved my problem. Last week I had to lock them up during the blizzard. I went out the first morning of the blizzard and my two wonderful girls had pulled every feather out of the new girls butt and were taking swipes at her as I was watching. I ran back inside to BYC to figure out what could be done to make this stop - back out in the blizzard - I applied vicks vaporub (no kidding) to a bald chicken butt and threw some ham, a half a can of corn, and few pieces of broccoli to the girls. I also added some cider vinegar to their water in case this was mites instead of bored - mad - cooped up birds. Over the last week I have continued my food entertainment party and protein enhancement plan and seem to have successfully stopped the picking. The point of all this is that I would have been heartbroken had my girls killed the new girl and if it wasn't for the wealth of information on this forum - I wouldn't have figured out how to stop it. I owe you all a debt of gratitude and I had to quit being a lurker so that I could say thank you. I am going to build a much larger coop in the spring and increase my flock to about 20 birds - and I will so look forward to getting your advice when I get my new babies in the spring. Thank you so much.
Jenny
Jenny
