Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I see I didn't fully answer your question. That's the problem when you read and try to answer at work.
The spray is called poultry aid. It's for wounds and such. It looks like it's called a different name now - heal excel. I have used vetrycin in the past. I've only soaked her in warm water so far. And soaked her well enough with the poultry spray.
I know all the information regarding blu-kote and the controversy surrounding it.
I just checked and it looks better. There was no scab to scrape off. I double checked for pests. I probably haven't been as proactive with it as I should be. I'm thinking its age issues with the 2 I've been having difficulties with. I also think that SweatPea must have eaten something she shouldn't have or some other issue that would only affect her.

Oh, I'd never heard of heal excel, but it looks like pretty good stuff! The only other thing I would think to add to a soak is epsom salts, but I'm not sure how much if at all they would help in this scenario, honestly. Glad to hear it's starting to look better! That's a good indicator that it's not from the other birds pecking her at least, as it likely wouldn't improve without adjustments to the flock's space if that were the case. Did your Polish boy maybe have spurs or sharp claws that he could have caught her with while trying to breed her? That's the only other thing I can think of to have caused it, unless you know for sure it happened after he left.

Yeah, I guess that is the only real controversy with Blu-kote. I had a few people messaging me about it when I still had it listed in my first aid kit article, so I finally removed it. I had stopped using it by that point except occasionally as a marker to tell birds apart, so it was just easier for me to take it down entirely rather than try to add a warning or something.

Age really does cause a lot of issues in chickens from my experience. Arthritis and other mobility issues, balance issues, metabolism issues, etc. It stinks because of course we want to help our birds feel better, but sometimes all you can really do is give them supportive care until it's their time.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

You know what... It has occurred to me that I never took the 5-week pictures of the babies last weekend! With everything else going on, it just totally slipped my mind! I'll have to make sure to get that done this weekend for their 6-week update!

It's supposed to be sunny and clear this weekend, so a good time to take pictures of them and maybe some of the older birds as well. I've been thinking about starting a thread for the silkied Cochins specifically, just to talk about them more specifically, my projects with them, and maybe spread word about their existence a bit more, so I'll need some good pictures of Pete and his group now that they're more mature! I also need to expand their pen out a bit while the weather is clearer. What they're in is bare minimum enough space for them, but of course I always like to give my birds as much space as possible.

Also, ugh, I've done it. I've put Russell up for sale. I'm still struggling with putting Murphy up, though, as I'm a little more attached to him.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I checked her tonight and it's looking much better. There was only a small scab. This time, I checked the vent a little better. I'm always hesitant to do too much there.
The "wound" isn't a wound, it's just the way the vent is made as the other side was the same shape. Lol. But, there was a little bit of pus (or some sort of gunk) there and I wiped that out. Looked at it and now, it's all clean. I only sprayed the poultry aid tonight.
She hasn't laid any eggs for over a week. I don't expect much from her. She can just chicken for the rest of her life. There are only 2 of us here and we have plenty of eggs.

Speaking of eggs, how's Dandelion?

Oh and I totally understand about the BK.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Haha, I definitely understand the hesitance to spend much time at that end of the chicken! Glad she seems to be improving!

Dandy, shoot, I haven't posted about her in a while, either, have I? She's doing great, actually! No prolapse in over 2 weeks now and I've started getting her used to the outside again. I've been torn about what to do with her, honestly, because if she'd in with Gus and those girls, I run the risk of hatching her eggs and potentially ending up with more birds with this issue or who may pass on the issue. But, if she's in the main flock and prolapses again, man, that will get ugly really fast. So for the time being, she's spending her afternoons closed off in the run with the massive group of broodies that I currently have.

Yes, broody season is in full swing! Right now, I have my last Silkie hen Marka, three of the four Silkie-Cochin mixes, two of the silkied Red Cochin bantams, Flury Floofins the large fowl Cochin, and Reinette the Wheaten Marans in the broody buster, plus Callette the Dorking, Vivienne the Black Marans, and Glutty, the last of the Silkie-Cochin mixes, coming out of their broody spells and still clucking and grumbling. My favorite!


On the topic of wanting to hatch, last night was day 7 for the shipped eggs and day 6 for two of the eggs from Gus's flock, so I candled all of them to check progress and mark their air cells. We're looking pretty good for shipped eggs! Just 4 of 29 were completely clear, so either could have been unfertilized or died so early that they didn't leave an obvious blood ring. 5 were blood rings and 5 look kinda iffy, but the remaining 15 are definitely still growing, 9 silkied BBS Cochin bantams and 6 Chocolate and Chocolate Cuckoo Cochin bantams!! And, both of the Gus eggs are still growing strong, too! I can't wait to see all these babies!!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

That's good news for Dandelion and the incubator eggs.
My Google reminder just showed up - today was Freckles hatch day and tomorrow was SweetPea's. Bittersweet. Ugh.
Maybe someday I'll get another polish or 2. But, for now my flock has good space and I'm content.
Of course, I've got a pen I bought when it was on sale. It's still in the box. My intention was to separate my runner ducks because they get picked on quite a bit when my muscovy are broody. But, now they get have a lot of extra space without the 2 drakes.
I think it would be great space for a few extra chickens.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That's good news for Dandelion and the incubator eggs.
My Google reminder just showed up - today was Freckles hatch day and tomorrow was SweetPea's. Bittersweet. Ugh.
Maybe someday I'll get another polish or 2. But, for now my flock has good space and I'm content.

Of course, I've got a pen I bought when it was on sale. It's still in the box. My intention was to separate my runner ducks because they get picked on quite a bit when my muscovy are broody. But, now they get have a lot of extra space without the 2 drakes.
I think it would be great space for a few extra chickens.

Haha, sounds like chicken math in the works! You'll have to know if you do end up filling that space and with what.



On the subtraction side of chicken math, I've already gotten someone interested in Russell, so he may be heading to a new home soon! I guess people like bantam Cochins more than they like English Orpingtons around here. Still nothing for those three boys, and I've even dropped their price again. I really should look into other avenues for selling them, I suppose.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

How big is a bantam cochin rooster?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Not terribly big, let me see if I can find a picture or two.

Roscoe is on the larger end for a bantam Cochin, but here he is in my hand so you can see he's still not very big.

Here's Pete with my hand on his back, too. He's more the size I would expect of a proper bantam Cochin male, if a bit on the small side, but he's still got a little bit of filling out to do before he's what I would consider his full size.

And messing with his wattles because I can't help myself...

Anyway, I don't know if that helps that much with picturing their size, but they are definitely small in stature compared to large fowl chickens, both hens and roosters. I'll see if I can get one of them to pose next to a soda can or something when I take pictures today.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here's Pete next to your average, 12 fl. oz. soda can. He was not thrilled to be there and wouldn't really pose, so I tried to get a few angles to more accurately show his size.

I have more pictures of the birds as well, just getting them cropped! I'll post them as soon as they're all ready!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Okay, here are some 6-week-old babies! I guess I didn't take very many pictures of them after all, but they were busily digging around in their new (to them) pen, and I was having to bend over a fence to get these pictures because it's a pain in the butt to actually get in there with them.

And some of Pete's flock! I haven't taken pictures of these guys since they were youngins! They're all grown up and real chickens now.

My man Pete:

A few of the girls, starting with Harley:

Juniper:

Washburne:

A close-up of Bella:

Some group shots. First is Coco and Juni, with Bella sneaking in the corner. Coco's little head tilt is too cute

Wash and Juni showing off their fluff butts You can almost tell that Wash is Blue and not Black like Juni in this picture!

And even more fluff butt featuring Pete, Wash, Juni, and Harley at the back right. Pete had found something for them and they all came over to see what.