Surviving Minnesota!

[lvie]

So I am not completely caught up but gotta go get some stuff done. I miss you when I am too busy to participate. The good-humor bantering back and forth is priceless and brings many smiles. Yet, when one of us has chicken stress and needs to figure it out - we are all there and learning from each other. Thanks chickeners!

 

[duluthralphie]

Interesting Ivie....

I have seen an occasional wry neck in adults, but can never figure the cause.

I have a teen EE that developed a wry neck in the last week. I noticed her the other day. She could still walk but her head was doing the "exorcism" thing, looking straight backwards.

I decided to put her down Sunday night. I did not have a gas chamber her size and being lazy and just wanting it done, I used a paper feed sack, thinking the wax liner would keep the ether in long enough to do the job. I rolled the end shut and set a weight on it after filling the bag with ether...



NOW for the confession and learning portion of today's post...

A paper feed sack does not work to keep ether in. When I came out yesterday morning the bird was on the ground outside the bag stumbling around like a drunkard....

I was forced to make a decent gas chamber and do the job twice....What a loser I felt like....


I gave my House Chick "Heidi" away yesterday, I held her a bit and reassured her she was going to a nice place.....Then the woman took her from me and left, she says Heidi might become a house chicken again because she is so friendly. You lost out on the chance to own her EJB!

 

[lvie]

Its a physical condition caused by lack of vitamins - mainly vitamin E. She seems to be hanging in there. IF she were a chick she would be done in already. My luck with Wry Neck in chicks has not been successful But being she is a SS and full grown I will give it a honest shot and hopefully be successful. Putting the vitamins and electrolytes in the water diligently. Which is timely as I had cleaned the waterers in the other coops yesterday and added supplements to the clean water.

 

[BantyChooks]

Its a physical condition caused by lack of vitamins - mainly vitamin E. She seems to be hanging in there. IF she were a chick she would be done in already. My luck with Wry Neck in chicks has not been successful But being she is a SS and full grown I will give it a honest shot and hopefully be successful. Putting the vitamins and electrolytes in the water diligently. Which is timely as I had cleaned the waterers in the other coops yesterday and added supplements to the clean water.

Injuries can also cause it.

 

[lvie]

Ahh . . . very interesting. So a quick update and back to working. She is recovering remarkably. Sitting up although her neck - which was completely upside down is more upright - wobbally - but she is holding it up. I put her outside on the coop but outside of it and while I cleaned the coop some of her henny friends jumped up to visit. She is eating good, drinking good. Lottsa protein. Vitamins E with selenium crushed and put in a spring water and poly vi sol and VetRx - all in minute amounts. I mixed all that in with a leftover vegetable water from last nights dinner. Scrammbled eggs this morning while I held her head up. Lottsa rest. I am very pleased with how she is responding.

 

[Momof3plustwins]

Hello all!

We are very busy around here. SO, update on my hatching situation. I made my little cage and put in the bucket nesting boxes only to have no one want to go in them. I suppose they are too new and it will take time. I should have done this much sooner. So, now looking for advice on hens who sit in nesting boxes that are off the ground and hatch chicks. I am worried the chicks will fall out and get hurt. I am hoping to help the mama hen to the floor once they are hatched. There are 3 eggs altogether under her and one started to hatch this morning. We are leaving Thursday morning for our houseboat trip on Rainy Lake so I will have to have my MIL and kids who will be home or at least around home to do chores and such check and watch them. I am hoping she will choose to raise her chicks in the bucket nests on the ground. SIGH! It never seems to turn out as simple as you think. If all goes well as there was movement in all 9 chicken eggs yet I should hatch out 4 Rhode Island Reds and 5 Cuckoo Marans. The one hatching now is a Cuckoo Maran also as well as the other 2 eggs under her but I am not sure if they will hatch or not. They might be a couple days behind this little one. In which case I can just put them under one of the other 4 broody hens. Yes I have at least 5 right now! Two that refuse to sit in separate boxes insist on sitting in the same box together. A little bantam mix and a large fowl barnyard mix. Weirdest combination ever. They have 3 eggs under them. Between the 5 hens they should be able to raise 12 chicks one would think.

 

[holm25]

Momofmany I forgot to post on here that there was a wolverine spotted up by where we hunt! So about 20 minutes from you.

 

[Momof3plustwins]

We have many bear sightings near our house. So far it is has stayed away from our yard. Yeti barks all night so I am sure that helps. It looks to be a lone male black bear. I can say there is much of any riff raf that comes into our yard with that mammoth of a dog around.

 

[duluthralphie]

MomofMillions.... Have you ever had any luck when two hens share a nest? I find they seem to kill the birds with their fighting to be the "Mother"..

 

[ejb3810]

Careful regarding Black Bears. I know many believe them to be harmless and frightened of humans, but that is not always the case. Just recently a 16 year old boy who was competing in a running race in Alaska was attacked and killed by a Black Bear.
My Great Grandfather was killed and partially eaten by a bear near Barnum, Mn.