I'm Such An Idiot! Please Help!

[Kathy Golla]

Well, I think a loud noise one time would beat be

You are correct. I always worry about the worst case scenario though...therapist says it's called "catastrophic thinking". I just can't help it. I love my chickens so much.

You just need some years under your belt. I’m starting to get there at year almost 3. With chickens you have to develop a thick skin over time.

 

[AmyJane725]

I think you'll be fine.
Honest, if you didn't feel it in her crop she probably didn't consume it. I say this because I've been able to feel individual crumbles in a bird's crop when palpating.

You're probably right. I felt all around her right breast area and I didn't feel anything in her crop, which worried me a bit since it was bedtime, but maybe she ate earlier in the day. I couldn't feel a screw. I'm sure it's just in the shavings somewhere. It's so hard to see anything in them. Plus the screw is denser than the wood so it probably sank basically immediately. I'm gonna metal detect the crap out of my coop until I find it. I won't be able to relax until I do.

 

[CindyinSD]

A stronger magnet (the kind mounted on a stick, like a broom handle) would be easier and also available at your local lumberyard/DIY construction-type store. I’m very careful with dropping screws, etc. anywhere because tires, feet, birds... If one gets away and I can’t find it, the pick-up magnet always does the trick.

The crop is a very thin membranous sac. If there was a screw in it you would certainly have felt and probably even seen its shape. A one inch screw doesn’t sound big, but it seriously is. I’m not sure I could get it down. I honestly wouldn’t worry except to retrieve that screw you dropped.

 

[AmyJane725]

I want one of those electromagnets that you power up and all the nearby metal stuff flys through the air and sticks to it.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

I want one of those electromagnets that you power up and all the nearby metal stuff flys through the air and sticks to it.

May I suggest the model sold by ACME.....

 

[AmyJane725]

May I suggest the model sold by ACME.....

 

[Roo5]

Chickens can make you worry, when I first started It seemed like something was wrong every week!

 

[AmyJane725]

Just to give everyone an update: I FOUND THE SCREW!!!

 

[Lizzy733]

Chickens are quite...flighty. A very big noise emanates from the detector when metal is detected. My birds don’t like to be within 10 feet of the detector, let alone 1 inch away! The detector should pick up the screw if it’s in the pen. Be careful it will also pick up any kind of nail used in the coop, welded wire, hardware cloth and galvanized feeders/waterers.

I wish my birds were even the least bit flighty to sounds - I have to shoo them when my hubby's out with the lawnmower. Seriously, if I bring noisy power tools around my girls, they come running to get a better look.

 

[AmyJane725]

Yeah, mine aren’t scared of the drill. Weren’t scared of the metal detector either.