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Sorry about your chick.
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The fox attack was heart breaking but as you say it's nature. It's the dog attacks that are more difficult to forgive and I've had a few of those too. Thankfully none recently.

I live in a village on the Durham/Northumberland border. My hens are right in the centre of the village and free range with my horses and I live on the outskirts.
I started with a trio of exchequer leghorns 2 years ago and then, what our US cousins call "Chicken Math" took over. I'm not entirely sure how many I have at the moment but there are now more barnyard mutts than pure breeds including the leghorns, legbars, welsummers, marans, a RIR, a Blue Haze and little Frances and Tasha of course who is the araucana cross and my favourite, quirky little broody mutt. There are 6 of her adult daughters by the legbar cock, so they all lay blue/green eggs, and one of them raised 8 chicks last summer, four of which are pullets just approaching point of lay, five wellie and marans cross pullets which came into lay last month. 3 lay brown, one green and one olive with speckles and then far too many cockerels in the bachelor pad awaiting me plucking up the courage to deal with them! Oh and I just acquired 2 light sussex from my neighbour who has lost patience with their lack of production and wanted them culled, so they are on last chance with me...... it's fair to say this whole chicken lark has got well out of hand and I'm still plotting which eggs I want to hatch as soon as I have a broody!..... Just as well I don't have an incubator!!!

Bet you wish you hadn't asked now!
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Morning Bab,
On the contrary, I caught the chicken bug a while ago and being animal mad it's good to be in contact with like minded people. Good luck with all your cockerels, I had two hatched with blackie and kept telling myself they'd make good boxing day or new years day dinner. I was wrong, couldn't bring myself to give them the chop, so they went to auction end of January and surprisingly made a good price.

As for the hatching.... No chicks yet!
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the first time boody has left her nest, I recon mazie may snatched her eggs so she's now sitting on 15 eggs. I checked her this morning and not a one has hatched YET. She is an experienced mum and with past broods has disregarded any non viable eggs. Moving her this morning, giving her chance of food etc, she purposely ran straight back to the nest so I'm still hopeful, I'm trusting her instincts. Hope alls well with you.

Regards
Ann.
 
Thanks for the update. Animal instincts are much better than ours and whilst trusting them doesn't always come easy to us, it often pays off if we can step back and refrain from interfering. Mother nature never fails to amaze me!

I have already processed some cockerels, and some of my neighbours hens too, but it really doesn't come easy to me and I have to be in the right frame of mind. I have Marek's disease in my flock, and whilst it is pretty much under control at the moment and thankfully a mild strain, I wouldn't feel comfortable taking them to auction where I may end up spreading it. Raising lots of chicks and having lots of cockerels (I currently have 18!!) makes it easier to not get attached to individuals unless they have exceptional temperaments....in which case they are probably keepers anyway.

Continuing to keep my fingers crossed for your hatch

Barbara
 
Hi, I've read over seas mail which mentions this disease. What are the symptoms? And how is it spread? I've noticed Ginge has leg mites so I'll be treating her tomoz.

I agree with having to be in the right frame of mind, not an easy task but a necessary one.

Been on a ramble with my dog, Penny this afternoon. Was chilly but very satisfying being in the sun and listening to the birdsongs. Me thinks they know spring is close.

Although the forecast is for a cold snap over the weekend.
 
Marek's is a viral disease which affects young chickens usually between 8 weeks and 20weeks. It's a herpes type virus that attacks the nervous system and there are many different symptoms but one of the most common is asymmetric paralysis, usually a leg or a wing, so the bird suddenly starts limping or has a dropped wing, or a twisted neck. Sometimes paralysis spreads and sometimes it gets spontaneously better but returns weeks or months later. Immune system is depressed, so birds often succumb to secondary infections but the virus also causes tumours and wasting much like cancer. Some birds die quite suddenly and others deteriorate over weeks or months even. I had a pullet the year before that had an attack in October and was lying on her side in classic Marek's splits posture unable to get up and a few days later you could hardly tell she had been ill. 3 months later she had a second attack and was nest bound for nearly 3 months but she was prepared to fight it, so I gave her supportive care and she eventually improved to the point that she could free range with the flock and lay eggs but was always gimpy. Sadly she was one of the ones I lost to the fox.

There is currently no recognised treatment for Marek's and it is an extremely contagious and widespread virus, so keep your fingers crossed it doesn't find it's way to your flock. I've lost a few birds to it but others on this forum have lost whole hatches, one young bird after the next, which is really heart breaking.

Yes, glorious day here today too. Hens were straight down to my manure heap after breakfast. It's in a corner of the paddock that gets the morning sun and they were having a whale of a time scratching through it and generally making a mess, as they love to do. And then a nice dust bath in the dirt under the tree next to it... My girls know how to live! Some of my bees were flying this afternoon too, which was good to see.

I don't mind the cold as long as it's not miserable and wet. A good frost is healthy at this time of year and infinitely better than trudging through mud like we've had for the past few months.

Any sign/sound of life under that broody this evening?
 
Hi All,

No signs of any youngsters YET, still hoping!!! Mum still runs back to the nest after having an enforced break.
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I've had Mazie-May long enough now to trust her judgement and she still complains strongly when I go to move her off the nest, bless her. So I'm still waiting.
 
I wouldn't move her off the nest at this stage. Think of it like lock down in the incubator. As long as she has food and water within reach and the option to get off if she wants to, it's best to leave her to decide what's best. Even if she poops in the nest, it's not a huge problem. My first broody set herself a clutch of 14 eggs and hatched all 14 healthy chicks even though she has an "accident" in the nest..... in fact I did even wonder if it was deliberate to increase the humidity for the hatch...... instinct is amazing and if you think about it, how else is she going to make the atmosphere more moist.

My animals are slowly trying to teach me not to be offended when my "Victorian" ideals of cleanliness are breached! We are becoming too conditioned to the idea that we need to live in a sterile environment to be healthy, when in fact the opposite is almost true.
..... anyway, I digress....

Keeping my fingers crossed that all hope is not lost, but it might be approaching the time to do a float test to see if there is any movement. What day are we on and is there any sound from them?
 

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