I Built A Bridge!

[Pooman]

sounds nasty Teila, sounds like u have it under control now though. Ive had leg mites before. Pyrethum fixed em up, not sure what u have though. Mine were the red legs hanging out on the perches.... A few soakings over a few days and all good.

I did have random mites in my brooder once (did i tell you the story how i almost killed 20 of them... ?) but pyrethum fixed them too

Now, i have some photos... Ill upload on the next post..

 

[Pooman]

This is the main coop feeding frenzy. Some roosters have been removed to their sparrow proof grow out area. (Looking west)

Same area... Differnt angle. (Looking north)

Still main coop (looking east), the new rooster coops. These are built into the back of that shed there. Keeps em dark and quiet at night (thankyou chicken god). On the right is the extended area for my roosters to grow out in. The hens stay outside as they need to learn to use the feeder. Most of the roosters wont... And they are bullies. Thats Molly in the bottom left. She still vaguely looks after her little ones. But doesnt seem to care if they get pecked, whereas a few weeks ago she would smash anyone getting close...

Mmm same pic as before... Should mention there are 4 slots, Strpey has the far left. Rocky is wedged in the second slot. 3 rd slot not done yet, and the 4th has the massive extension on the side. Also note worthy, sparrow proof... First time.... No other bides have managed to get in.. Yay

Lol more of the same...

This is the hospital in the main coop. Being used for chicks out of the brooder. Just this morning i put them there, they are 1.5 and 2.5 weeks old. Ive seen some dust bathing and a lot of jumping around. Brooder is done for now. Been cleaning it out today

Here we have Barney (the barnevelder) and Violet and Rose (light sussex) that we bought from auction a while back. Barney is the boss...

Another coop... Has had many names. In the second photo u can see it, behind Blacky, a bit to the left. These are the scaredy chickens (got traumatised by a friends kid playing with them... Lesson learnt there) but they are getting better and dont freak out as much now

And Norma..... Still broody, she is so funny will run over to me and puff up like a fluff ball.... She is living with Barney and co, until she comes of the brood... I find it quite helpful to switch their areas when they go broody... If you want to break them.

 

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

Thank you all, once again, for your kind words and support; Bambrook Bantams has certainly had more than it’s fair share of dramas of late.

We had a pretty good year but then everything seems to have hit at once!

Liz rats would be no fun also!

IC great news on your boys!

TG adorable pics!

Pooman love all the pics. That is a lot of chickens … I have my hands full with four at the moment!

Trips out to the coop yesterday afternoon and this morning turned up ZERO nasties so it looks like I am definitely winning the war. I am still going to strip down the coop again today and give it another thorough cleaning and one of the breeders on the Aussie thread put me onto a product called ‘Success’ which is a plant bug spray which can safely be used on the coop, so I am off to get some this morning.

Going to scrub the coop with soap and water, empty the nest boxes completely, spray everything with ‘Success’ and then put it back together again with new pest resistant straw and Pestene in the nest boxes.

In other news, Blondie has it in her little chicken head that she is going to be broody again … I don’t think so sunshine!

And, just to keep me on my toes, Cilla has had sour crop for two days!!!
Anyways, the yoghurt seems to be doing the trick and she is much better today. The last couple of days I had been able to get her to regurgitate fluid but nothing this morning so hopefully she is turning the corner. She is perky and I am not too concerned at this stage, will just keep up the treatment and a very close eye on her.

She did, however, lay her first egg yesterday post broody battle ... that war waged for 7 weeks! Probably would have been shorter if I had given her eggs lol

No other news and right now I don’t think I would be able to cope with anything else!

Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to scrub I go

 

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

So, the coop got a thorough cleaning yesterday, took most of the day. All the floor sections and nest boxes were removed, everything (inside and out) got washed down with soap and water, dried in the sun, drenched with ‘Success’ and more drying in the sun; clean, pest resistant straw in the nest boxes etc. A thorough checking of chickens revealed no nasties. I did see a couple of nasties during the clean up which were dispatched without mercy.

At this stage I am fairly confident that while I have probably not eradicated all nasties (can anyone confidently say they have no nasties in the coop?) I have certainly got things to a stage that close inspection of coop and chickens is returning Zero visible enemy. Definitely not letting my guard down as that is one week from H#$% that I do not want to go through again!

Still battling Cilla’s bout of sour crop (Day 3). I am frequently massaging her crop and getting her to regurg fluid. She is getting natural yoghurt and has access to grit and ACV with mother. She is still pretty perky but her crop did not empty again overnight.

Does anyone have any suggestions of something else I could be doing for her?

 

[lizgarf]

Still battling Cilla’s bout of sour crop (Day 3). I am frequently massaging her crop and getting her to regurg fluid. She is getting natural yoghurt and has access to grit and ACV with mother. She is still pretty perky but her crop did not empty again overnight.

Does anyone have any suggestions of something else I could be doing for her?

Teila, I have read that ACV is bad for sour crop, because it is just adding to the acidity. See: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html
I have no personal experience with it, however.

Beautiful babies, TG! Excited to see them grow!

In other news, yesterday, my neighbors delivered Frankie to the lady who's giving him to her neighbor. They said she was very sweet and had a present for me! I haven't heard from her directly though, which is a little odd, so I just sent her a note.

OK, back to work. Good thing my flock is now settled at a relatively easy and stable 10 hens and one cute little adolescent roo!

 

[tommysgirl]

Good morning Bridge Club

Still battling Cilla’s bout of sour crop (Day 3). I am frequently massaging her crop and getting her to regurg fluid. She is getting natural yoghurt and has access to grit and ACV with mother. She is still pretty perky but her crop did not empty again overnight.

Does anyone have any suggestions of something else I could be doing for her?

Monistat...check out this thread https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/630307/sour-crop-cured-with-monistat

I used it with Della back in the day and it worked. Good Luck!!!

 

[ItalyChickie]

Baby Pics !!!!! The weather has been WET so I have kept these guys confined to the coop for the most part but yesterday they got out for the first time.

Julie the feather duster and the crew!




Finally a profile of my girl Julie. She is such a cutie but doesn't photograph at all well. She is doing a good job as mommy even without Gracie. When I was taking these pics she did her best to stay between me and the bublets. I got a couple of nice ones of her backside

She does however seem to prefer hunkering down on the babies right next to the coop door instead of in the nest box. I have to put them in there at night. It has been cold and wet and it seems like the spot by the door might get too chilly. Anyway...I feel like I did when I forced my son to wear a jacket in fourth grade. He asked me why it was so important to me that he wear a jacket....I sputtered and paused and had to admit it was because I didn't want teachers and parents thinking I was the sort of mom who sent my kid to school without a jacket because it would reflect badly upon me.

Awww TG they are adorable, and I love Julie the feather duster, too!!!

Lol at that jacket analogy! I wonder if our chickens sometimes do what we want just to stop us nagging, the way kids do with parents (and then talk about it behind our backs).

Good morning Bridge Club

So, the coop got a thorough cleaning yesterday, took most of the day. All the floor sections and nest boxes were removed, everything (inside and out) got washed down with soap and water, dried in the sun, drenched with ‘Success’ and more drying in the sun; clean, pest resistant straw in the nest boxes etc. A thorough checking of chickens revealed no nasties. I did see a couple of nasties during the clean up which were dispatched without mercy.

At this stage I am fairly confident that while I have probably not eradicated all nasties (can anyone confidently say they have no nasties in the coop?) I have certainly got things to a stage that close inspection of coop and chickens is returning Zero visible enemy. Definitely not letting my guard down as that is one week from H#$% that I do not want to go through again!

Still battling Cilla’s bout of sour crop (Day 3). I am frequently massaging her crop and getting her to regurg fluid. She is getting natural yoghurt and has access to grit and ACV with mother. She is still pretty perky but her crop did not empty again overnight.

Does anyone have any suggestions of something else I could be doing for her?

Yay Teila, it sounds like you did win that war!!! Of course, we always knew you would!

I'm sorry, I also have no experience with sour crop, except for reading some posts here and there... I also read opposing views on ACV, so I really don't know...

Teila, I have read that ACV is bad for sour crop, because it is just adding to the acidity. See: http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/04/answers-from-chicken-vet-on-impacted.html
I have no personal experience with it, however.

Beautiful babies, TG! Excited to see them grow!

In other news, yesterday, my neighbors delivered Frankie to the lady who's giving him to her neighbor. They said she was very sweet and had a present for me! I haven't heard from her directly though, which is a little odd, so I just sent her a note.

OK, back to work. Good thing my flock is now settled at a relatively easy and stable 10 hens and one cute little adolescent roo!

Yay for Frankie's new home, and the new flock numbers - sounds perfect!

I have no news of note, but I do have a couple of pics to share.

 

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

Thank you for the tips regarding Cilla. She is much better today. While her crop did not completely empty overnight it has definitely reduced in size and not pendulous. She is even more perky and chatty. About time we had some good news from BB.

Liz sorry to hear you are going to have a nerdy holiday season. What a relief it must be to have a relatively stable flock again. I am definitely sticking with just the four for a while .. we all need time to settle after all the upheaval of late.

IC aaaaw, adorable and so much colour!

Today is day one of my two weeks leave … I didn’t realise how much I needed a holiday until I booked one! Today is scheduled as housework day so that I do not have to worry about it on Christmas and Boxing Day. Tomorrow is shopping day and then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I have no intention of leaving the property!

As mentioned, Cilla is much better today and Blondie is still having an attempt at being broody; I don’t think so!!!!

One of the posters on the Aussie Thread mentioned that she is also sworn off hatches for a while. She scored a ratio of three pullets out of eleven! Any thoughts of giving in to Blondie are easily wiped just thinking about trying to rehome roosters. Add the recent infestation and sour crop and I have no intentions of upsetting the status quo. A couple of weeks at home, quietly spending time with the gals, drama free, sounds ideal.

As always, Christmas this year is just the 3 of us with the furries, featheries and finned; just how we like it. I have a Cherry Pie and Pumpkin Pie to bake and also a Trifle to make. Joel is in charge of the Turkey!

And, to finish .... Dusty has developed a liking for yogurt dipped meal worms!

 

[lizgarf]

Hi team,
I just had to share this incredibly sweet note I got just now from the lady who helped rehome Frankie:

Good evening Liz- If a rooster could say, "wow, I'm in paradise", then he would. We waited to drop him off until this morning due to weather and time. He hung out with me last nite...what an absolute sweetheart! You raised an amazing Roo. Wane and Gerry loved him. They held him for awhile then walked him to the coop. Immediately he strutted around and quickly introduced himself. Within 15 minutes he mounted their favorite most docile hen. Frankie crowed and crowed as though he were singing. Little did he know that beyond the 4 hens that came out to greet him, 6 were still in the hen house. What a horny lil man man he is... We all giggled and watched ith delight. Gerry said to start counting 21 days because I'm sure that early next year Frankie will be a daddy. Got bless you for rescuing him from such a head injury. Your love for I'm shows thru his amazing personality. I didn't take pics because I was more concerned about the transition issue. It went beautifully! Thank you again and to Courtney and Eric,,,your right, cute couple award! Merry Christmas Liz and your an Angel on Earth. Oh and I'm glad to have proved my hubby wrong. He actually was of tremendous help and support and said, honey you did good!

That is all the holiday cheer I need this year! Woohoo!
Now, back to work. sigh.

 

[Teila]

Aaaaw Liz that is beautiful! I am so happy for you and Frankie