About a week ago, a coworker told me about a flock of tiny chickens that had been dumped on the property across from her house. Here in VT the weather is now freezing, there is snow on the ground, and there was no way those chickens were going to make it through the winter on their own. She asked if I would take them. I said if she could catch them I would. I gave her some chicken feed, which she used to lure them into a crate, and on Tuesday she handed them off to me.
They turned out to be a flock of OEGBs, and there were seven in all, five hens and two roosters. It seems I have two wheaten hens, one blue wheaten hen, one red quill/ginger red hen, and one porcelain hen. The roosters appear to be either BBR or wheaten (I'm leaning toward wheaten as that would make sense given the hens and they seem to have orange/gold in their hackles and saddles).
Upon getting them, it was apparent that they all have a bad case of scaly leg mites. Their nails were also all overgrown and starting to curl as if they were never allowed on ground to scratch and wear them down. Strangely, they also all have bands, so my guess is they are dumped breeding group that the 'breeder' was done with and instead of bothering to try to find them a good home or culling them opted to just dump and leave to die.
So they're currently living in a rabbit hutch, which is not ideal, but is all I have to keep them in. They are in quarantine on the other side of the property away from the rest of my flocks. Treatment on the leg mites has begun in the form of Ivermectin pour on being applied to them. As a bonus this will also worm them. Nails have had to be clipped since they were in such bad shape. Here are some pictures of them all:
One rooster had spurs that were so unkempt and overgrown that they were about to grow back into his legs, so that was dealt with as well. Here is a before and after shot of that:
I'll probably keep this thread updated on their progress. Hopefully they don't have any diseases that will require me to cull them to keep my other birds safe, but only time will tell. If they come through winter well I will build them their own coop.
They turned out to be a flock of OEGBs, and there were seven in all, five hens and two roosters. It seems I have two wheaten hens, one blue wheaten hen, one red quill/ginger red hen, and one porcelain hen. The roosters appear to be either BBR or wheaten (I'm leaning toward wheaten as that would make sense given the hens and they seem to have orange/gold in their hackles and saddles).
Upon getting them, it was apparent that they all have a bad case of scaly leg mites. Their nails were also all overgrown and starting to curl as if they were never allowed on ground to scratch and wear them down. Strangely, they also all have bands, so my guess is they are dumped breeding group that the 'breeder' was done with and instead of bothering to try to find them a good home or culling them opted to just dump and leave to die.
So they're currently living in a rabbit hutch, which is not ideal, but is all I have to keep them in. They are in quarantine on the other side of the property away from the rest of my flocks. Treatment on the leg mites has begun in the form of Ivermectin pour on being applied to them. As a bonus this will also worm them. Nails have had to be clipped since they were in such bad shape. Here are some pictures of them all:
One rooster had spurs that were so unkempt and overgrown that they were about to grow back into his legs, so that was dealt with as well. Here is a before and after shot of that:
I'll probably keep this thread updated on their progress. Hopefully they don't have any diseases that will require me to cull them to keep my other birds safe, but only time will tell. If they come through winter well I will build them their own coop.