ScarletAndColonel
Chirping
- Jun 6, 2017
- 21
- 21
- 50
I have a good-sized flock of layers with a few cockerels for protection since they are pastured. The flock was all hatched on the same day so they're all the same age, and the males' adolescence has been tough on the girls. Their techniques with the ladies could use some help, I'm hoping they improve with time. One of my gold-laced wyandottes was injured in a mating chase a few weeks ago. I happened to be feeding and watering the flock when it happened and saw that she couldn't stand up afterwards and seemed to be in shock. Immediately I separated her from the flock and have kept her in a crate inside our building since then. She perked up that night after a while and eventually I decided she had a broken toe. She couldn't put weight on the foot and I could see what looked like a bone break in one of the toes. She has a personal fan (LOL, no need for her to be uncomfortable) and is kept indoors in low light, with a door being kept open so she can see and hear the outdoors. She laid an egg after 2 days in there but hasn't laid one since. (Which I am fine with, we are not hurting for eggs.) For the first week I limited her activity because she kept trying to stand and walk on that foot, but clearly wasn't able to and I didn't want her to hurt herself any more.
Since then whenever I have worked in the building or in the yard and could leave the dogs in the house I have opened her crate and let her do as she wishes. She usually forages some, does a little scratching and digging, mostly just sits and enjoys being outside. She's able to stand and can distribute her weight evenly between the 2 feet, her gait is a slow and tentative one but it's only been a few weeks so maybe that isn't bad. She definitely isn't ready to be re-introduced to the flock yet, she needs to be able to walk better first before putting the crate with the flock to get used to each other again.
She's 7 months old now, as are all of that flock. She isn't broody, which is good, but I do worry about her being lonely. At first we had some of the excess cockerels nearby in a "bull pen" so she could hear them and not feel isolated, but in preparation for a new batch of broiler chicks we got rid of those extras so she currently doesn't have chickens anywhere near the building. The broiler chicks will be arriving this week and they will be kept in a tractor of their own in the same building she is in, actually right next to where she is crated.
My first question is if I should consider putting her in the tractor with the chicks? I don't need her to raise them, I will care for them just like I've cared for our previous batches of chicks, but would it ease her loneliness at being separated from her flock? She isn't showing signs of mourning the separation-- she is eating, drinking, she talks to me-- but she has to miss her peeps. She would have more room to walk around in the tractor with them (as opposed to the crate she is in right now, which lets her stand but she can only take a few steps in) and maybe having the chicks around would help her work on her gait?
She was injured Aug 1st so I'm also starting to wonder if she hurt something else, maybe in her hip?, since she is so tentative in her walk. To be fair she hasn't had a lot of opportunity to practice since she has been crated, but in the times when I've let her loose to roam she mostly sits anyway. A bit of scratching and digging and foraging, but mostly sitting. 2nd question: Is it too soon for her gait to be better than the slow shuffle it is?
As I've typed this I've started to think that I could just give her her own tractor until the broiler chicks need it after a week or 2. That way she would have plenty of room to practice walking and yet be protected from anything she could otherwise get into inside the building. Once the chicks are big enough that they need to be divided between multiple tractors, hopefully she will have improved and can start being put near her flock, with the goal being re-integration. 3rd question: If she gets her own tractor, is there a better medium to put on the floor than pine shavings? It seems like that uneven of a walking surface might be too difficult with a recently broken toe and needing to work on her walk.
I'm attaching a pic of her.
She's a sweet girl. I spent a lot of time with the flock from day 1 when they arrived as 1-day old chicks so they are used to me but the gold-laced wyandottes (there are 5 of them) tended to be stand-offish from the beginning. Now she wants to sit on my lap, which is what she did after I sat down to take this picture.
Since then whenever I have worked in the building or in the yard and could leave the dogs in the house I have opened her crate and let her do as she wishes. She usually forages some, does a little scratching and digging, mostly just sits and enjoys being outside. She's able to stand and can distribute her weight evenly between the 2 feet, her gait is a slow and tentative one but it's only been a few weeks so maybe that isn't bad. She definitely isn't ready to be re-introduced to the flock yet, she needs to be able to walk better first before putting the crate with the flock to get used to each other again.
She's 7 months old now, as are all of that flock. She isn't broody, which is good, but I do worry about her being lonely. At first we had some of the excess cockerels nearby in a "bull pen" so she could hear them and not feel isolated, but in preparation for a new batch of broiler chicks we got rid of those extras so she currently doesn't have chickens anywhere near the building. The broiler chicks will be arriving this week and they will be kept in a tractor of their own in the same building she is in, actually right next to where she is crated.
My first question is if I should consider putting her in the tractor with the chicks? I don't need her to raise them, I will care for them just like I've cared for our previous batches of chicks, but would it ease her loneliness at being separated from her flock? She isn't showing signs of mourning the separation-- she is eating, drinking, she talks to me-- but she has to miss her peeps. She would have more room to walk around in the tractor with them (as opposed to the crate she is in right now, which lets her stand but she can only take a few steps in) and maybe having the chicks around would help her work on her gait?
She was injured Aug 1st so I'm also starting to wonder if she hurt something else, maybe in her hip?, since she is so tentative in her walk. To be fair she hasn't had a lot of opportunity to practice since she has been crated, but in the times when I've let her loose to roam she mostly sits anyway. A bit of scratching and digging and foraging, but mostly sitting. 2nd question: Is it too soon for her gait to be better than the slow shuffle it is?
As I've typed this I've started to think that I could just give her her own tractor until the broiler chicks need it after a week or 2. That way she would have plenty of room to practice walking and yet be protected from anything she could otherwise get into inside the building. Once the chicks are big enough that they need to be divided between multiple tractors, hopefully she will have improved and can start being put near her flock, with the goal being re-integration. 3rd question: If she gets her own tractor, is there a better medium to put on the floor than pine shavings? It seems like that uneven of a walking surface might be too difficult with a recently broken toe and needing to work on her walk.
I'm attaching a pic of her.
She's a sweet girl. I spent a lot of time with the flock from day 1 when they arrived as 1-day old chicks so they are used to me but the gold-laced wyandottes (there are 5 of them) tended to be stand-offish from the beginning. Now she wants to sit on my lap, which is what she did after I sat down to take this picture.
my forehead:: D'oh! I have indeed broken a toe but never splinted it so it never occurred to me to splint hers! Is it too late now that it's been 3 weeks? 
