people with house chickens

[Nuggetirl]

Has anyone found that keeping chickens indoors is bad for their lungs? One of my girls has been sniffling a little lately and I'm not sure if it's just because they've been inside.

It could be what you have them on. I never have a problem, but I buy large flake pine shavings that have very little dust. I would think maybe your bedding is dusty? Or, if they are diapered and no caged I have no idea.

 

[PBGGG]

When Finn was in the house he used to sneeze every day for about an hour then stop. I think he just got into some dust or got something up his nose.

 

[duckncover]

I did order the diaper for Frizzle from Louise's Country Closet and it doesn't fit right. Her wings aren't big enough to hold the straps up or something. I'm going to try to beg my mom to make one based on the "chickenmom" video and hope it turns out better.

 

[PBGGG]

I did order the diaper for Frizzle from Louise's Country Closet and it doesn't fit right. Her wings aren't big enough to hold the straps up or something. I'm going to try to beg my mom to make one based on the "chickenmom" video and hope it turns out better.

That's what happened to Finn when he wore his LCC diaper. The straps kept falling off of him. For him, chickendiapers.com was always the perfect fit.

 

[Sylvester017]

Has anyone found that keeping chickens indoors is bad for their lungs? One of my girls has been sniffling a little lately and I'm not sure if it's just because they've been inside.

Chickens are prone to respiratory issues - dust baths, lice powder treatments, coop ammonia odors, carpeting, DE, baking soda, or even powdered vitamins in the feed, etc, can distress their breathing or cause sniffles - which is why I use liquid organic OMRI Poultry Protector for lice/mite treatments instead of powdered products and liquid Poly-Vi-Sol no iron for occasional vitamin supplementation. We had two Leghorns notorious for sneezing for an hour after taking their dust baths. If they sneezed for more than an hour than we figured it was something more serious but it usually stopped within an hour.

Since respiratory issues can also be a bacterial infection I would not hesitate to take a hen to my vet if she doesn't improve within 24 hours. If it is something serious a chicken's health will quickly deteriorate if not diagnosed in the first 24 hours. I don't believe in 2nd guessing diagnosis with my hens. If their behavior is odd and doesn't improve in 24 hours off to the vet for us! I had an extremely wheezing Silkie last year and we took her to the vet at the first available appt. She had contracted a respiratory bacterial infection. The other hens were fine but she managed to sound like she was on death's door with whatever it was she contracted - we sat up all night taking turns holding her because we thought she was dying - well, she might've if we hadn't taken her to the vet in the morning.

 

[Sylvester017]

I did order the diaper for Frizzle from Louise's Country Closet and it doesn't fit right. Her wings aren't big enough to hold the straps up or something. I'm going to try to beg my mom to make one based on the "chickenmom" video and hope it turns out better.

If your Mom is handy at sewing she might be able to sew up or gather up the straps to fit more snugly on your Frizzle. Keep playing with the Louise diaper. If you think the slack is in the overall length of the diaper a quick fold over of the extra fabric stitched down by machine might help the fit. Use safety pins to tuck and gather the diaper to find where the adjustment would work best - either in the length of the diaper or pinning the straps lower or higher on the back - and then do the final stitching when it fits right. That's what I kept doing with my chickenmom pattern until it fit our Silkie - our Silkie went through quite a fitting day until I got the pattern right! On chickenmom's diaper pattern I had to use elastic across the poop pouch top because it was too loose and not catching the poop every time so the elastic made the opening a bit more snug to fit around my Silkie's fluffy butt. How the diaper looks is less important than having it comfortable enough for your Frizzle to walk yet snug enough to catch the poops. Once I didn't quite cover the vent and she carried runny poop on the outside of the poop pouch but it stayed there anyway! Had to change her into the 2nd diaper and made sure her vent was covered!

 

[Sylvester017]

Pancake is funny, she will hop up into her brooder which is an old fish tank because I keep shavings in their for her to play in/dust bath in. Then forget she can get out, and I have to go rescue her. She'll be walking along the long side calling out like she is stuck She is also been extra clingy, I think because of her age. It is like she knows she is at that age when mommy would push her away. Or past time. She has been extra cuddly and been trying to groom me lots. I have also noticed on her tail feathers she has a little brown, making her look like she has lacing.

Chicken juveniles attach themselves to brooder companions for friends. She's choosing you as her roosting buddy.

 

[duckncover]

If your Mom is handy at sewing she might be able to sew up or gather up the straps to fit more snugly on your Frizzle. Keep playing with the Louise diaper. If you think the slack is in the overall length of the diaper a quick fold over of the extra fabric stitched down by machine might help the fit. Use safety pins to tuck and gather the diaper to find where the adjustment would work best - either in the length of the diaper or pinning the straps lower or higher on the back - and then do the final stitching when it fits right. That's what I kept doing with my chickenmom pattern until it fit our Silkie - our Silkie went through quite a fitting day until I got the pattern right! On chickenmom's diaper pattern I had to use elastic across the poop pouch top because it was too loose and not catching the poop every time so the elastic made the opening a bit more snug to fit around my Silkie's fluffy butt. How the diaper looks is less important than having it comfortable enough for your Frizzle to walk yet snug enough to catch the poops. Once I didn't quite cover the vent and she carried runny poop on the outside of the poop pouch but it stayed there anyway! Had to change her into the 2nd diaper and made sure her vent was covered!

Either me or her will have to work on it. I think the problem is the straps are too long. It seems like an easy fix, like it was meant to be able to be altered. She can wiggle out of it. I think it would also help if there was a bar of fabric going across her back to keep the straps in place. The pouch seems like it's a good size but my chicken is odd, Her wings are small and don't have many good feathers on them, just the shafts, and her tail is very tiny and not a long to hold something in place. But I can make it work when I have the time.

 

[Sylvester017]

Either me or her will have to work on it. I think the problem is the straps are too long. It seems like an easy fix, like it was meant to be able to be altered. She can wiggle out of it. I think it would also help if there was a bar of fabric going across her back to keep the straps in place. The pouch seems like it's a good size but my chicken is odd, Her wings are small and don't have many good feathers on them, just the shafts, and her tail is very tiny and not a long to hold something in place. But I can make it work when I have the time.

My Silkie was a wiggler and kept pushing the diaper away with her feet every time we measured the diaper on her. What a challenge! Once we got the diaper on she would work at pulling it off with her 5 toes feet so having slack anywhere in the diaper will cause the chicken to get it off eventually - the trick is to get it snug enough for the chicken toes not to be able to catch the fabric but not so snug that it's uncomfortable or too tight. I made 3 diapers for 3 different sized breeds and it was a challenge with all of them to get a good fit. I've compared notes with others and sometimes its lucky to get an instant exact fit but most say they have to play with the diaper to get it to fit their chicken so your problem is a common one.

With all the chicken breeds we figured where the best fit of the elastic straps was on their back and used a large safety pin to hold the two straps close together so they wouldn't slip off the shoulder wings. Our Silkie was so little that one very large safety pin fit to grab the whole length of the straps on her back. We never pinned crosswise on the straps but let the pin follow the length of the two straps when pinned together. We opted to use safety pins to hold the straps because velcro is murder on soft rabbit-fur Silkies. Ameraucanas have hard feathers but softer than Leghorns so we used safety pins with the Ameraucana - I was surprised at how much soft downy feathering an Ameraucana has on their body along with their fluffy muffs and beards.

If you think your chicken feathers are difficult to work with you should try working with a Silkie that has nothing but rabbit fur for feathers and no firm hard feathers! We were lucky the soft Silkie tail was at least dense enough to hold the back of the diaper secure over the vent. It was the underside of her diaper that she kept getting her toes stuck trying to pull off the contraption. She eventually got used to it but if she doesn't wear it for a while and we put it back on she'll walk backwards again - so my DH grasps the pinned straps on her back to gently force her to walk forwards for about 30-60 seconds for her to get the idea again.

We baby shampoo'd and blow dried only her butt every night before setting her to roost in her pen to let her skin "air out" overnight. If the blow dryer is a comfortable temperature chickens seem to like air ruffling through their feathers. Even our spookiest Leghorns didn't mind the noise of the blow dryer once they felt the air blowing in their feathers. If our Silkie is in the kitchen now she'll tap on the floor fan to let us know she wants it turned on so she can sit in front of it! After 3 months of wearing a diaper she started to lose some feathers from the diaper chafing but at that point she was ready to integrate into the main flock and didn't need a diaper again.

 

[MaddiesMum]

My little white silkie Elsie, barely 5 months old laid her first egg today! I am so unbelievably proud of her! This is my first egg as a chicken mom, so I am ecstatic!