Just another Crazy Chicken Lady :D

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Therliana

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Hey Everyone, My name's Shaz from Australia and I joined the Crazy Chicken Craze about 2 years ago and initially not by choice. My bosses at the time had a flock of chickens and one of them a Golden Laced Polish Chicken was killing the other chickens so they were going to leave it out of the coop that night and let the foxes get it. It was more then I could bare so bought her home to partner with the announcement "I kinda need a chicken coop, and I kinda need it now". God love him he set about making a little coop for her immediately and she was safe. We found a Polish name for her that suited her "so called" aggressive nature I was told she had, Henrieta, Polish meaing "Ruler of an enclosure". Needless to say she wasn't aggressive and followed us around like a little puppy and many a time I nearly chopped her head off while I was gardening because she'd get between the spade and the garden. As all you chicken people know "Mum only digs up the garden for me to have all these tasty worms". We eventually got her a little playmate an Araucana called Samantha Seuss so that we could have green eggs and ham. and they became inseperable, we lost our little puppy in Henrieta but spent hours in the backyard watching their little antics..... Needless to say I was HOOKED!!!

Hubby set about making them a bigger, permanent coop. Family and friends came around for a weekend working bee and pitched in. Sadly my vindictive Ex decided to come in the middle of the night and steal my Henrieta (They are now under lock and key with security camera's on their coop).

The coop looked massive with only Samantha now, so we got a Wyandotte we named Bella (Because she was a fair cow of a thing attacking us every chance she got and Bella means War) and we got two 4 week old silkies called Poppy and Raquel/Rocky. Both Silkie's turned out to be boys so Poppy and Rocky it became. Earlier this year we got 3 black Polish that we named Cruella, Priscilla and Matilda but 2 days later Bella hatched 4 little bubby's, 2 boys and 2 girls but we lost one girl to causes unknown about a month later.

We've had to take Poppy and Samantha to the vet, Poppy was put down due to renal failure, Samantha they were unsure what was wrong with her but she wasn't responding to treatments and refused to eat or drink so was put to sleep as well, and we found homes for our other 2 roosters.

Up until this we haven't had any problems in our flock, but now I've turned into a typical mother hen doing nothing but worrying and being frantic about everything. I've spent the past couple of years buying books and checking out forums like this and researching everything I can find but now I'm quite worried about my girls getting sick (I'm worse then a hypochondriac haha)

As I type this now Bella is sitting on about 30 (YES you read that right 30 eggs) which she wont let us anywhere near. The minute one of the others lays an egg she gets quite creative about how she can get it from their nest into hers so she can hoard them. One hatched about 5 hours ago and my partner removed a dead baby a few hours ago but Bella wont let us back near her without drawing blood so we're leaving her be for now ;)

I've been reading this forum as one of my major go to's, but I'm looking forward to getting more involved in the group :D
 
Chickens are birds and are prone to all kinds of illnesses. Just be sure to keep the coop clean as well as food and water bowls. Make sure they are getting plenty of feed suited for them and try not to give too many snacks. Avoid salt as they dehydrate very easily and try not to overdo snacks. I know it's hard to say no sometimes (it is for me anyway). With proper diet and clean quarters they should do fairly well, but I worry too much also. I'm constantly checking them over and worrying, and I've been lucky so far.
 
You're not wrong we were certainly thrust into it, now though I couldn't imagine life without them (and lets face it my kitchen would look pretty boring without all the newly added chicken adornments haha).

As for Henrieta, I shudder to think what he did with her, he was upset that our son had a pet Rabbit and loved spending time here with his rabbit. So my son's rabbit Snowy and Henrieta both went missing on the same night, when my son returned to his fathers next his dad said to him "how's your rabbit and your mother's favourite chook going?". Dead give away it was him but we couldn't prove it and have no idea what he's done with them, and it makes me feel ill when I wonder about it.
 
Thanks wvchics, I have OCD so I keep their coop ridiculously clean, water gets changed and refilled daily. I usually use natural products for cleaning their coops, I steep orange peels in white vinegar and use that. However Poppy had red mites and the vet said that because he was sick he wouldn't of been taking care of himself and that also because they free range and we feed them treats etc in our back yard the sparrows and other wild birds it attracts also bring in mites/lice etc. She prescribed some Ivermectin for the flock and I've now started using coopex in their coop which actually has very little wood in it anyway. I'm now tossing up the idea of garlic or ACV or both, but still doing research on this. Also looking into a dedicated dust bath in their coop with some DE in it, so many opinions out there so I'm still looking into it all but I did find a home made ACV recipe that I'm considering making for them because I've read the "mother" is very beneficial for them.

We're feeding them Layer pellets for the most part but we add in meat meal for protein and Livamol for minerals and vitamins and all that extra goodness. They get poultry mix first thing in the morning for brekkie. We do give treats but nothing I would put as excessive and it's usually pumpkin seeds and healthy fruit and veggies. Summer we do go a little nuts with treats, frozen corn cobs, peas, watermelon, tomatoes etc... Anything to help them fight the heat. We have a misting system around their coop and put out bottles of frozen water all day long but they seem to love the frozen treats.
 
Oh, that's so ignorant. Intentionally hurting his own child to get at you. I keep mine locked up too, because you never know about people anymore. I'm so glad that didn't stop you from keeping chickens. They really are amazing creatures.
 
Therliana said:
Thanks wvchics, I have OCD so I keep their coop ridiculously clean, water gets changed and refilled daily. I usually use natural products for cleaning their coops, I steep orange peels in white vinegar and use that. However Poppy had red mites and the vet said that because he was sick he wouldn't of been taking care of himself and that also because they free range and we feed them treats etc in our back yard the sparrows and other wild birds it attracts also bring in mites/lice etc. She prescribed some Ivermectin for the flock and I've now started using coopex in their coop which actually has very little wood in it anyway. I'm now tossing up the idea of garlic or ACV or both, but still doing research on this. Also looking into a dedicated dust bath in their coop with some DE in it, so many opinions out there so I'm still looking into it all but I did find a home made ACV recipe that I'm considering making for them because I've read the "mother" is very beneficial for them.

We're feeding them Layer pellets for the most part but we add in meat meal for protein and Livamol for minerals and vitamins and all that extra goodness. They get poultry mix first thing in the morning for brekkie. We do give treats but nothing I would put as excessive and it's usually pumpkin seeds and healthy fruit and veggies. Summer we do go a little nuts with treats, frozen corn cobs, peas, watermelon, tomatoes etc... Anything to help them fight the heat. We have a misting system around their coop and put out bottles of frozen water all day long but they seem to love the frozen treats.
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You're welcome. You sound just like me lol. I have OCD also. But it definitely doesn't sound like it's anything you have done wrong. I'd say you just had a run of bad luck. I'm sure you'll have better luck in the future. Another tip someone told me for cold winter nights (maybe you have heard it before but. . .) my grandma said to give them a warm mash in the morning after a cold night. I thought that was a great idea as it gets pretty cold in the winter here
 
I was only reading 2 nights ago about warm mash for chickens for breakfast and put it on my list of things to research. I just haven't got around to it yet. I'm currently trying to find information on how to hatch Bella's babies. Like I said she's literally been hoarding eggs. When I let the girls out this morning there was 4 newly laid eggs, by the time I got their brekkie and went back she's smuggled them into her nest. We're going to let her go tomorrow to hatch what she can, wait until she decides to leave the nest and then we'll candle the rest and try to save what we can. We sadly don't have an incubator and can't get one delivered within the next few days and we don't even know what days the eggs are in their incubation process. So I'm trying to figure out what to do with the eggs when she decides to leave them so I put Mash on my list of things to do but I've read a lot about it and also cayenne pepper.
 
Yeah she said they just used whatever they had around the house. I was wondering when you said she was still adding eggs, lol. How long has she been sitting on them. I know people sometimes make their own incubator. It's a lot more hands on, but it might work in a pinch until you can get one. I know there are threads on incubation on here. I'm sure someone could tell you what you need to make one if necessary.
 

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