i somehow acquired 2 runaways and i have questions. please help

[pollipazzi]

I’m sorry your girls are giving you trouble, but it looks like they’re doing better now!

I can only catch 2 of my 4 birds, so I understand the frustration. I can’t imagine hanging onto a slippery hen!

they really haven't been much trouble. i cause my own trouble. lol!
i do wish they didn't have mites though.

it is so frustrating when you can't catch them to help them! it's almost better that they are broody with mites because they don't move

 

[RoyalChick]

hey guys! just checkin in.
in case anyone wanted an update...
it's been weird.
as soon as the run was built, like the very next day, louise broke her nail, and was bleeding all over the place. i was trying to throw corn starch at her foot but she was having none of that and was running away, leaving a blood trail behind her.
i tried to get her to let me help her and she would not.
so i ran out looking for a wound spray for her. maybe i could sneak up on her and spray her foot.
after 4 different shops i found something, but by the time i got home, the broken part fell off and the bleeding had stopped. she wouldn't let me touch her. or spray her.
i kept an eye and luckily she seemed ok.

but.

she went in the coop the next day and wasn't coming out. i figured it has to hurt and maybe she's just recuperating.
she was coming out for eating and drinking and pooping.
kept an eye on her foot. one foot looked weird and fat. not the broken nail foot. the other foot. it has looked like that for a while. maybe it was the way she stands on it, i thought. or maybe she just has a fat foot.
a couple days go by and i get my last egg. lol! she's broody! and now thelma is broody too. i don't have a broody jail or the heart to do it. (i know some people disagree with this, but it felt like it was the right way to go for them with all of the recent big changes)
i have been taking them out a few times a day so they can
eat drink poop.
TAKING them out!
i pick them up!
even louise!

i'd been giving them a look over while they are out to see everything is ok.
but it wasn't.

both have scaly mites.

(i am blaming the food stealing sparrows, who now have their own feeder out the front of the house. they are always on it. maybe even sleeping in there. )

picking the chickens up and putting them on the ground is much different than picking them up and putting vaseline on their legs!
i watched videos on how to hold them properly and i put my big girl pants on and i have been doing it!
i still tremble every time, but i am being consistent.
and nobody has pecked me to death.
or at all!

the chickens seem to be growing on the husband and he was asking about introducing a couple more! this is a shocking surprise!
i think a guy at his work has chickens and has been explaining things to him in guyspeak, so it's sinking in.
but there would need to be adjustments made for space.
maybe they will have bantams at the farm show in august.
hopefully everything will be normal by then!

as far as the legs go, they are looking a bit better after a little over a week of vaseline, but they do have some spots on their legs now where it looks bare. no scales at all. and sort of pink and smooth.
is this normal? i do see them preening and they are picking around the scales. are they just easily coming off? i have pics.

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i ended up doubling up the hwc on the run about halfway up because of occasional fox and cat appearances at night. and my worrying head.
nobody is getting in there now. not that they could before, but, you know. just in case.

hopefully they will stop being broody soon.
they are staying out a bit longer and are eating a bit more.
they haven't even had a chance to really check out the new run. but they must like it because now when i have them out and it starts to rain, they seem almost offended and go running back in. it is dry in there. i am so glad we did a solid roof.

i think that's the full update. it's mostly been like i have chicken statues, other than the occasional crisis.

how are you guys?

Sounds like you are now a fully qualified chickeneer!
I have never dealt with scaly leg mites but I have been told the scales fall off and then eventually new ones grow. So probably that is what is happening.
None of mine let me pick them up unless they are broody. But nighttime is your friend. Headlamp wit a. Res light and you will see a bit better than they do and you can usually wrangle them under your arm to access whatever part you need to.
I am excited that you may get more!!

 

[pollipazzi]

Sounds like you are now a fully qualified chickeneer!
I have never dealt with scaly leg mites but I have been told the scales fall off and then eventually new ones grow. So probably that is what is happening.
None of mine let me pick them up unless they are broody. But nighttime is your friend. Headlamp wit a. Res light and you will see a bit better than they do and you can usually wrangle them under your arm to access whatever part you need to.
I am excited that you may get more!!

yeah. i was reading, but it wasn't clear if they fall off now or when they molt their feathers too.
it hasn't been getting dark here until after 10pm! so i have been going out at duskish... like 9:45. i can still see a good bit and they are sleepy. they go to sleep way earlier even when not broody. they dusk to dawn thing doesn't apply to them. lol!

it seems that the bare parts of the legs are pretty sensitive. poor things. it doesn't stop them from going in the pots though!

i have been looking, but bantams aren't so easy to find. and regular chickens are gigantic!

 

[pollipazzi]

sorry about all the typos! i'm having technical difficulties. and typoitis.

 

[BDutch]

yeah. i was reading, but it wasn't clear if they fall off now or when they molt their feathers too.
it hasn't been getting dark here until after 10pm! so i have been going out at duskish... like 9:45. i can still see a good bit and they are sleepy. they go to sleep way earlier even when not broody. they dusk to dawn thing doesn't apply to them. lol!

it seems that the bare parts of the legs are pretty sensitive. poor things. it doesn't stop them from going in the pots though!

i have been looking, but bantams aren't so easy to find. and regular chickens are gigantic!

Maybe it’s easier to buy hatchery eggs ?

If you try to contact a breeder in advance and if you have an address, you can lay 4-5 fake eggs in the nestbox. See if one of your bantams gets broody , sits for a few days on a row.
If she does, collect the eggs (better than mail) mark the eggs and after 24 h rest change te fake eggs for the real ones.
What to expect: If you buy eggs you have a few that won’t grow, a few female and a few male. Think in advance what you can/want to do with them.

I do this ^^ whenever I want more chickens. Least chance of bringing sicknesses into your flock.

 

[pollipazzi]

Maybe it’s easier to buy hatchery eggs ?

If you try to contact a breeder in advance and if you have an address, you can lay 4-5 fake eggs in the nestbox. See if one of your bantams gets broody , sits for a few days on a row.
If she does, collect the eggs (better than mail) mark the eggs and after 24 h rest change te fake eggs for the real ones.
What to expect: If you buy eggs you have a few that won’t grow, a few female and a few male. Think in advance what you can/want to do with them.

I do this ^^ whenever I want more chickens. Least chance of bringing sicknesses into your flock.

i agree with this! and i also even think day old chicks or young enough could be a good idea for people.
but i really can't have roosters where i live. i don't have a clue what to do with them if they turned out to be roosters, and i know it would break my heart if i couldn't find a place for them. and likely, i probably couldn't.
when i've been looking, i see so many postings and ads about roosters looking for a new home. i don't even know any chicken people who could take them.

we went to a poultry sale a couple weeks ago just to see what it was like and what to expect. there was a kid. maybe 12-13, with a tiny goat in a trailer and a little cage with one tiny bantam rooster.
he was such a beautiful little rooster! so i was talking to the kid and he said the tiny rooster was the only one left. they sold all the others.
it was really hard to walk away from that tiny rooster, and i thought about him for days! lol! i am a sucker. it's best that i don't know who that kid was or where he came from because i would have probably been knocking on his door a couple of days later.

 

[BDutch]

This is why our neighbours have a mini pig.

They went to the vet with their cat and encountered a girl there who had a sweet pinkish present for her b’day.
She couldn’t keep the mini-pig in their city home and asked if anyone knew someone who could keep a mini pig.

My neighbour is a softy and took the cute pink surprise home.

I am lucky my neighbours tolerate a cockerel temporary . But I can’t keep any either. Sometimes they leave a week after I put an add on our online ‘market-place’. Sometimes it takes 3 months.
But until now they all went to a place were he was welcome to stay.
A good add can make the difference. A few went to people who had commercial hybrids to guard (alarm) their hens. A few were standard breed and were bought to breed with/ have a life with hens of the same breed.

 

[pollipazzi]

omg. i would have SO many mini pigs!

you must know some chicken people? it's probably easier if you have connections, or know a guy that knows a guy. but from what i remember you saying, there seems to be other people with chickens near you.

i know a couple people who have cows. but that doesn't do me any good.

it's a little strange that we are pretty much surrounded by farms, and i never see chickens! can't even find feed other than red mills layer feed. maybe, somewhere, they might have chick feed. but it's almost like there's no such thing as chickens.

maybe i should start going to the farms miles away that have a sign on the road "farm fresh eggs" and make friends? (and buy eggs! we haven't had eggs in weeks! )

 

[pollipazzi]

oops. i didn't hit reply to you, @BDutch . i am really malfunctioning today!