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This is my beautiful Beatha.
She is right @ the bottom of the pecking order.
With her sister Mhari in broody jail I have been rounding Beatha up with Medh, who is only too happy to comply, & confining them together for the night. All 3 girls have been doing better for less competition & a more peaceful existence.
Medh takes herself to the small coop. She is top of the 3 & she likes it. It is good for her to have that confidence. Mhari is just a cranky broody but Beatha usually makes it into the large coop & I have to coral her & transfer her over. It can take a bit of doing. I like to get her @ dinner time so I know she gets a nice peaceful feed & peaceful time before roosting but she hates being caught though is pretty placid once I've got her. I've been using that time to get her used to my touch & was just scratching her head when I felt this huge lump! I thought she'd been injured & wondered how I'd missed my girls being that vicious but it wasn't a pecking injury. It was a tick! Another one! So I brought her inside for black ointment, tick removal & some electroyted water. Thank goodness she didn't freak out the way Wrold did. She was very easy to treat. The tick was a huge paralysis tick & I would never in a million years have actually seen it!
I've given everyone the once over but I wish they'd stay in the run instead of scrub bashing through my yard, which has all sorts of wild life passing through sharing these nasty little critturs!
As an aside, apropos of our discussion on @BY Bob's thread, I'm wondering if some of my early losses weren't due to tick poisoning or even a spider or possibly even a snake that I never saw? I am so paranoid now but it's not possible to check every feather on every girl every day. Beatha is one lucky little hen!
She is right @ the bottom of the pecking order.
With her sister Mhari in broody jail I have been rounding Beatha up with Medh, who is only too happy to comply, & confining them together for the night. All 3 girls have been doing better for less competition & a more peaceful existence.
Medh takes herself to the small coop. She is top of the 3 & she likes it. It is good for her to have that confidence. Mhari is just a cranky broody but Beatha usually makes it into the large coop & I have to coral her & transfer her over. It can take a bit of doing. I like to get her @ dinner time so I know she gets a nice peaceful feed & peaceful time before roosting but she hates being caught though is pretty placid once I've got her. I've been using that time to get her used to my touch & was just scratching her head when I felt this huge lump! I thought she'd been injured & wondered how I'd missed my girls being that vicious but it wasn't a pecking injury. It was a tick! Another one! So I brought her inside for black ointment, tick removal & some electroyted water. Thank goodness she didn't freak out the way Wrold did. She was very easy to treat. The tick was a huge paralysis tick & I would never in a million years have actually seen it!
I've given everyone the once over but I wish they'd stay in the run instead of scrub bashing through my yard, which has all sorts of wild life passing through sharing these nasty little critturs!
As an aside, apropos of our discussion on @BY Bob's thread, I'm wondering if some of my early losses weren't due to tick poisoning or even a spider or possibly even a snake that I never saw? I am so paranoid now but it's not possible to check every feather on every girl every day. Beatha is one lucky little hen!
I don't need any help with headaches!! I'm going to try again today.
those things are so creepy, Todd tends to get them in his armpits and unless he's getting a tummy rub we don't often see them 
have a wonderful day 
