Hello.
We have 10 chickens that free range in our yard. Our coop is 5’x6’, two long roost bars and a 13’ run. With that said, the girls don’t sleep in the coop, they prefer the roost bar I have under the coop and on the top of our lean-too roof.
We did have a small case of bumble foot, caught it and upgraded the diameter of all roost bars. Did a little diy bandaid (which the hen did not mind) and eventually it healed up and never spread.
Our top hen, Butter (leader of the flock) was very broody in the summer at one point and was constantly in one of the nesting boxes. We would just take her out and eventually she would go back.
Around August we found a mite on a hens foot and in doing some research, we found diatomaceous earth was good to throw in the run, coop and nesting boxes while removing a lot of the wood chips (forget the name but the common wood stuff for coops). What we did not realize was when you use diatomaceous earth, we must ventilate the area. We realized this 2 days after and within those 2 days, Butter was still broody.
She eventually developed a dry sneeze.
We quarantined her for a week and were doing a daily water with apple cider vinegar and added yogurt to her diet.
By week 2, we were giving her a 10-15min sauna in the bathtub, allowing her to inhale the humidity to hopefully help her respiratory issue.
None of it seemed to help so we took her to a Vet. They checked her out and we explained the error on our part and they eventually did a “physical test” and determined her healthy with no mucus or anything they could identify as being a sick bird. Her tail stands tall, she has an appetite, asserts her dominance over the flock and has run off squirrels, a crow and the mean black & white looking blue jays.
Here we are a few months later, after the Vet visit, we reintroduced her to the flock, where she rightfully claimed her role as top hen. She is molting (along with all the birds) and her new feathers and pin feathers are coming in for winter and snow.
If it were not for her sneezing, which has gotten more chronic in the cold mornings, you’d never know something is wrong with her.
Is there anything we can do to help Butter out? It breaks our heart to hear her every morning sneezing. I’d say it’s in spurts and when she does, it’s about a sneeze every 3 seconds. By mid day she is still sneezing but it’s down to like 1 sneeze every 20min or so.
We have Golden Laced, patridge, splash Brahmas and some regular sized olive egger, Easter egger and a rainbow hen.
The Brahmas get biweekly baths as their booty tends to get pooh and we don’t like the look. We are proactive in keeping the hens. My stories are more for a reader to see we are new at chicken keeping but we are also active in their wellbeing.
Pic of the coop I built last year. It’s done great and we love to see them roosting on the roost bars under the coop
We have 10 chickens that free range in our yard. Our coop is 5’x6’, two long roost bars and a 13’ run. With that said, the girls don’t sleep in the coop, they prefer the roost bar I have under the coop and on the top of our lean-too roof.
We did have a small case of bumble foot, caught it and upgraded the diameter of all roost bars. Did a little diy bandaid (which the hen did not mind) and eventually it healed up and never spread.
Our top hen, Butter (leader of the flock) was very broody in the summer at one point and was constantly in one of the nesting boxes. We would just take her out and eventually she would go back.
Around August we found a mite on a hens foot and in doing some research, we found diatomaceous earth was good to throw in the run, coop and nesting boxes while removing a lot of the wood chips (forget the name but the common wood stuff for coops). What we did not realize was when you use diatomaceous earth, we must ventilate the area. We realized this 2 days after and within those 2 days, Butter was still broody.
She eventually developed a dry sneeze.
We quarantined her for a week and were doing a daily water with apple cider vinegar and added yogurt to her diet.
By week 2, we were giving her a 10-15min sauna in the bathtub, allowing her to inhale the humidity to hopefully help her respiratory issue.
None of it seemed to help so we took her to a Vet. They checked her out and we explained the error on our part and they eventually did a “physical test” and determined her healthy with no mucus or anything they could identify as being a sick bird. Her tail stands tall, she has an appetite, asserts her dominance over the flock and has run off squirrels, a crow and the mean black & white looking blue jays.
Here we are a few months later, after the Vet visit, we reintroduced her to the flock, where she rightfully claimed her role as top hen. She is molting (along with all the birds) and her new feathers and pin feathers are coming in for winter and snow.
If it were not for her sneezing, which has gotten more chronic in the cold mornings, you’d never know something is wrong with her.
Is there anything we can do to help Butter out? It breaks our heart to hear her every morning sneezing. I’d say it’s in spurts and when she does, it’s about a sneeze every 3 seconds. By mid day she is still sneezing but it’s down to like 1 sneeze every 20min or so.
We have Golden Laced, patridge, splash Brahmas and some regular sized olive egger, Easter egger and a rainbow hen.
The Brahmas get biweekly baths as their booty tends to get pooh and we don’t like the look. We are proactive in keeping the hens. My stories are more for a reader to see we are new at chicken keeping but we are also active in their wellbeing.
Pic of the coop I built last year. It’s done great and we love to see them roosting on the roost bars under the coop
