INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Another point for first aid kits! Not an emergency this time, though. I noticed a Guinea hen with an overgrown beak this evening. I keep pet nail trimmers in my kit for trimming beaks and nails. And it once again was easy to find, so I was able to send someone for it rather than track mud through the house. The Guinea girl is unhappy and 'buckwheat'ing away, but at least she can eat properly now.



I also cleaned Cubby's pen this morning and made it a bit bigger. She, of course, hated it, but begrudgingly settled down in there. I took her outside for a spin and she had a few spats with some of the younger, more spry girls. She managed to hold her own, but I could tell she wore herself out very quickly with it. Had to break it up and catch her to bring her back in.

I have my suspicions that I may know what her problem is aside from her old age. I'm suspecting that she has gotten weak and lost so much weight because she doesn't want to eat the pellets I switched the flock to a couple months ago. I thought she had been eating, but as it turns out, I found the majority of her food buried under the shavings in her pen when I cleaned it out. :/ So I took some fresh pellets and broke them down in the food processor, not quite to crumbles but to smaller pellets, to see if that encourages her to change her tastes. If this doesn't work, I guess we'll be investing in small bags of crumbles just for her. The things we do for these birds.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

This is my lone bantam call duck that hatched today.

Oh, what a darling!! Do you know what color it is?

Love the other pictures as well, but the baby ducky just melts my heart. Those moderns are wicked as always with the legs, and I love Bielies, such a great breed.

 

[Thriftymom6]

It's a grey call. They are so friendly. I have my pair in with a pair of bantam Phoenix chickens and that rooster is supper confrontational with all other chickens but the duck. I am getting ready to set some more. I'm excited.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Did you have to assist the hatch at all? I had just one hatch last August and I had to help her out. I suspect she actually internally pipped with her foot rather than her beak, because she was malpositioned in the egg and her head was away from the air cell. That was from shipped eggs, though, so I don't know if that had something to do with it.

Hope your next hatch goes well! e

 

[Thriftymom6]

No it zipped fast. I was surprised. Although I had to help both of the last two bantam orphingtons hatch I think the changes in temps and humidity throw things off.

 

[Acornewell]

@Thriftymom6

SO CUTE!!! Did you hatch the Chocolate Bantams?
The duck is so cute too!




So a lot of chicken things going on around here. We just got 4 Silkies. They are all around a year and a half. It has been more work than I had hoped it would be...I saw an ad on craigslist for a Roo and Hen White Silkie Bantams...I wasnt going to go even look at them because I am trying to find a Cochin Rooster for my Cochin gals, not silkies. Anyways...once I got there the Rooster had a crooked beak and the bottom part of his beak was broken (of course they failed to mention this in my inquiries, I was told their daughter just wanted to show larger birds, not bantams?

). They had told me that he got into the large egg laying birds coop and they beat him up pretty badly, so now his beak has healed incorrectly. Of course I had to rescue him. We named him Wookie. We got him home and he was INFESTED with lice. I bathed him in pyrethrin soap and dusted him...I also clipped the part of his beak that was just hanging there and about to fall off...and I clipped the top shorter.He seems to be able to eat much better, and has been opening up his beak, not like a yawn but more like stretching his jaw. Here is a before and after photo.



I also got the female, which I named Snookie. I also gave her a bath because she was paired with Wookie, I also dusted her. I like to bathe new birds anyways...It gives me a chance to look them over. Well glad I did because Snookie had a bunch or sores on her foot. It looks like she had an injury on her toe which sliced it in half...It healed wrong and now looks like she had two toes. I almost feel like this little girl couldn't show these birds so they just stuck them in a pen and sold them instead of trying to take care of them. Anyways...the first night I just soaked her feet and scraped the scabs off, the little sores look SO much better. Except one of the scabs on the bottom looked like bumblefoot but I wanted to do more research on it. I put some triple antibiotic ointment on her feet and wrapped them with sterile gauze and vet wrap since it was so late. When I checked yesterday it looked better, but it did have some pus under where I scraped the scab off, so I did some more research, I ended up cutting out the sore on the bottom of her foot. I NEVER want to have to do that again. I still feel so bad for having to do it, I feel like a horrible person cutting a hole in her foot. I hope that I got all the infection out. Here is what the sore looked like.




Wookie and Snooki are SUPER sweet! They can stay here!!!

I am considering taking the other 2 birds back to the girl...They were in her "show birds" coop, so they I am sure will get better attention. Any thoughts? I am terrible at making any decisions. They have no issues...I just didn't expect the other two to be so much work. They both checked out fine for now. The rooster is a Blue Splash, I think. And the Hen is a White skinned Silkie?!? Super friendly. Here is a picture of the Rooster.

 

[ChickCrazed]

For bumblefoot, I did not do the surgery on my girl and instead did the Tricide-Neo foot soak. There is a thread on BYC about this option. It was super low stress and not at all painful for me or the bird. I just can't stand the thought of cutting into a sore infected foot on an awake animal.

As for the silkies, if you can't keep two I would re-home rather than send them back to a place they were not being cared for. Clearly those people have no business owning animals. And I have never heard of a cross beak being from an injury. It is something that they are born with and I think they were just trying to get you to take him. I personally wouldn't breed him because you never know if it is a genetic issue that will be passed on.

 

[birdman55]

morning everyone....nice and cold out today at a warm zero degrees .....I think I might bring out the shorts....lol

 

[racinchickins]

Is anyone else noticing an uptake in egg production? I was down to just one or two a day, and the last 5 days have averaged six a day. There were 8 eggs in the nest boxes yesterday! Looks like some of the vacationers are back on the job. Just a few dozen more that need to get with the program......

 

[Acornewell]

Quote: Hey ChickCrazed! I wish I would have not even looked on Craigslist! It has gotten me into trouble with pets. However we did just move to an old Farmhouse c.1851 and have some land...mainly because I wanted more birds.

I do think his beak was injured...he is missing a part on the bottom. I did some research on it and it is possible to be caused from an injury!

Any chance you need a Rooster? LOL