Help! Hen has Injured foot!

[Eggcessive]

Her leg looks pretty painful to put weight on. With the location of the swelling being away from the joints, it may well be broken. When the bones heal, they will form a callus or thickening at the juncture. Let us know how she gets along.

 

[JoeInPA]

Her leg looks pretty painful to put weight on. With the location of the swelling being away from the joints, it may well be broken. When the bones heal, they will form a callus or thickening at the juncture. Let us know how she gets along.

I absolutely will update. Thank you all so much for all of the help and advice. It seems that she knows she is injured so for the time being I'm just going to let her go as usual. If it appear to start getting worse I will crate her at night or maybe splint it.

 

[JoeInPA]

I won't lie, I totally fell asleep around 5:30 (I am wiped!) and when I woke up around 8 they were all already asleep on the top roost perch. I'm just going to let her go as she is calm and I don't want to cause a bunch of chaos trying to get her into a crate. I don't like the idea of her hopping down from that roost but I don't like the idea of her jumping around in the crate even more.

 

[Shezadandy]

I won't lie, I totally fell asleep around 5:30 (I am wiped!) and when I woke up around 8 they were all already asleep on the top roost perch. I'm just going to let her go as she is calm and I don't want to cause a bunch of chaos trying to get her into a crate. I don't like the idea of her hopping down from that roost but I don't like the idea of her jumping around in the crate even more.

I'm not an early morning person in any sense of the word, but if you happen to be up before she comes off the roost in the AM, you maybe could lift her down to save the leg the downward impact.

Also, if you can raise the poop board so it's just underneath your first roosting bar and under your hardware cloth window -- using 2x4's around the edges. Sorry to graffiti your coop- the yellow would be the plywood- so you'd have 2x4's screwed into your vertical wall supports (might take a couple to make up the space for the plywood- or if you have another scrap to fill in the gap??) to support the plywood, then my blue dotted line would be a board in front that would sit 1" above the plywood to keep it from sliding off. Then you could leave the plywood un-secured, and therefore very easy to pop out from the bottom if it needed a good wash. High enough so the chickens can use the space underneath...

It also adds another little nook where the chickens can hang out up off the floor.

 

[JoeInPA]

I'm not an early morning person in any sense of the word, but if you happen to be up before she comes off the roost in the AM, you maybe could lift her down to save the leg the downward impact.

Also, if you can raise the poop board so it's just underneath your first roosting bar and under your hardware cloth window -- using 2x4's around the edges. Sorry to graffiti your coop- the yellow would be the plywood- so you'd have 2x4's screwed into your vertical wall supports (might take a couple to make up the space for the plywood- or if you have another scrap to fill in the gap??) to support the plywood, then my blue dotted line would be a board in front that would sit 1" above the plywood to keep it from sliding off. Then you could leave the plywood un-secured, and therefore very easy to pop out from the bottom if it needed a good wash. High enough so the chickens can use the space underneath...

View attachment 1960567

It also adds another little nook where the chickens can hang out up off the floor.

Thanks for the colorful diagram! I should have enough wood scraps lying around to make that. If not, lumber is fairly cheap. Also if you weren't aware, the left side has a door on the bottom that opens up, so that would make it really easy to open and slide it out. Heres a picture from while I was building the coop that shows the door open.

 

[Shezadandy]

Thanks for the colorful diagram! I should have enough wood scraps lying around to make that. If not, lumber is fairly cheap. Also if you weren't aware, the left side has a door on the bottom that opens up, so that would make it really easy to open and slide it out. Heres a picture from while I was building the coop that shows the door open.

View attachment 1960568

That is a really neat design! I'm going to do a couple smaller coops in the next year or so for the "special" birds, and/or hens I want to only mate with a specific rooster for setting eggs. I love the accessibility from multiple sides and the height off the ground. And you're absolutely right, that's the perfect access for the board, and won't take much stooping over to clean. Hopefully it cuts the shavings bill down. Generally I like to have the board about 6 inches in both directions for the boards on the edge- then if someone is goofy and likes to face in (i.e. facing the opening behind the roost) - their poop will still hit the board instead of the floor.

 

[Shezadandy]

Thanks for the colorful diagram! I should have enough wood scraps lying around to make that. If not, lumber is fairly cheap. Also if you weren't aware, the left side has a door on the bottom that opens up, so that would make it really easy to open and slide it out. Heres a picture from while I was building the coop that shows the door open.

View attachment 1960568

Because that area behind the roost bars open up, I wouldn't attach anything to that back wall section. Instead, I would put a 2x4", 4" side facing out in between your wall supports on both sides …

Then I would screw joist hangers ( https://www.homedepot.com/p/Simpson...ace-Mount-Joist-Hanger-for-2x4-LU24/203302252) into that 2x4 so you can easily run supports for under the plywood the full length --- AND still be able to easily remove those supports for cleaning and whatever other purpose. (just don't put the nail in, leave it loose in the joist hanger) That's probably the fastest, simplest and safest way to go.

 

[JoeInPA]

That is a really neat design! I'm going to do a couple smaller coops in the next year or so for the "special" birds, and/or hens I want to only mate with a specific rooster for setting eggs. I love the accessibility from multiple sides and the height off the ground. And you're absolutely right, that's the perfect access for the board, and won't take much stooping over to clean. Hopefully it cuts the shavings bill down. Generally I like to have the board about 6 inches in both directions for the boards on the edge- then if someone is goofy and likes to face in (i.e. facing the opening behind the roost) - their poop will still hit the board instead of the floor.

Thanks, the coop works very well for the number of birds I have. Ventilation and ease of cleaning was a priority when I was thinking up the design and so far it's been great on both fronts. If I had any more birds it'd probably need to be a little bigger, maybe a full 4'x8', but the 4x5' floor plan has worked fine.

My run is the only thing I'm really not happy with. I built it in haste because I had growing birds and nowhere to put them except a rubbermaid bin, but the run only took a day or two to build and a day to paint and fence in. I think in the spring time I will probably rebuild the run and maybe expand a little.

 

[aart]

I won't lie, I totally fell asleep around 5:30 (I am wiped!)

BTDT

Glad to see that other door...I was wondering if you could reach a bird on the roost.
Would probably be a bit acrobatic, but it could be done if necessary.

 

[JoeInPA]

Here's another little video of her exiting the coop this morning. You can see she is using that foot for balance but she still isn't putting weight on it. She flew down the ramp instead if walking down it.

It doesn't appear any birds used the waterer or food inside the coop. They didn't use it before which is why I initially took it out. The waterer was just barely frozen this morning (I expected it would be).

The poop board that I just threw on top of the shavings last night definitely did its job. If there was any question about whether these chickens have healthy digestive systems, I don't think we have to worry, .

I'm going to set out some oyster shells for the first time today, should I set them in the coop or in the run where the food is? I keep the grit in run currently.