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I always love those first of many precious little gifts they give me. While I collect eggs I'm always talking to them thanking for all the hard work to make the pretty little gifts for me. But those first ones often not full size or perfect but no less precious. I had one that was perfectly round and about halfway between a normal marble and a shooter. It was just as precious to me as a grade large from my big girls.
 
Thanks! Unfortunately on the same day I also figured out my chickens have... drum roll please... cecal worms! So now we’re out buying some SafeGuard dewormer (fenbendazole)...

Coming back to this post several hours later, and the chickens have got their first gallon of deworming solution: 3cc/gal, 10% suspension. Now they can’t free range for 3 days, so the challenge is to keep them entertained... so far we’ve repurposed a colorful cat toy with balls that make noise when they move, and I squashed the stem of a grape vine in between the crease of the poop boards so it hangs down in the run. The chickens have to jump to grab the grapes. Every few hours I’ve gone in and scattered scratch. They do not care. They want only to be OUT. So much growling and grumbling! Makes me feel guilty but health comes first.

Someone did the egg song this morning so I jumped out of bed and went to go check... only to be largely disappointed by finding no new eggs. Liar!! I suspect Clementine will be our next layer... her pubic bones are farther apart than Goose’s. I know what you’re thinking... she must be the one who laid! But Goose was doing the crouching behavior, egg song, and making nests/adjusting the egg before Clem, so my bet is actually on Goose.

Also bought some pelleted pine bedding today and gonna test it out once this rain and these worms clear up. Of course it has to rain when I’m trying to deworm. Of course. Should be a sunny weekend though. Anyone have any experience with it?
 
we used during the rainy weather in a muddy run we built for our "piggies" the cornishx chickens the wife gets when the farm supply store is practically giving them away to get the lil stinkers out of the store and away from their feed trough. it was a real muddy mess the pellets helped till we could get them processed. Feel for ya on the worms. in spring we had a big bought of coccidiosis killed a bunch of my new babies I drove down to pick up in april. I was/am pretty sad I didn't recognize it in them sooner and get the corid to them. Lost all my silkies (black) and all but one of my black cochins. lost a couple each of my mille fluer and porcelin d'uccles to. it was bad lost a small number of my big birds to but not nearly as many. I have switched to sand on the floors and poop boards and broders in the new chicken house I have for my banties. wish I had never tried anything else. it is so quick clean and efficient to keep clean and the odors are practically non existent and if it rains and gets damp and the smell starts up a few handsfuls of the stall dri stuff knocks it right back out. Love IT!!
 
Aw, thank you Fatimetta! Your kindness truly made me smile. Right now we have six girls and one unsure— Chickie Minaj. She’s the boss hen... or we at least hope she’s a hen, because if she isn’t we have to get rid of her. We aren’t really supposed to have chickens because our township is... well, strict, to put it lightly. She chases around Clementine mostly, but when she does she often tries to mount her. They’re only 4.5 months. If you looked at Chickie, I’m sure you’d say, oh for sure that’s a boy. But she’s got no spur growth, no curly tail feathers, and tiny wattles. So I’m keeping on hoping she’s a she. We all love her. She’s very much a coop dictator but for all her nitpicking she’s never caused serious injury. She’s surprisingly much more benevolent when they’re in their run, which is admittedly too small for all seven. Not to worry, we’re gonna be building an expansion this weekend that should double the size and enable them to fly! Princess Laya flies like there’s no tomorrow. I’m quite tall and she still can lift off from the ground, fly above my head, and then go perhaps 15-20 feet before landing. It’s insane. We jokingly attribute her flying ability to her absurd feather pants.

Jsr, so sorry about the losses! However, once fall comes around we’re actually planning on using sand in the run! Our spring and summer seasons are so ghastly wet, their run floods constantly, and pine shavings just aren’t cutting it. I want to use pelleted bedding in the coop, but the problem is nesting... Goose laid another egg today right next to her first one (she announced it so loudly all of us charged outside. She almost immediately shut up when we got out there) and because she was so noisy about it we were able to feel it still warm. I love when eggs are warm from being freshly laid or sat on, something about it makes me so happy. Anyway, nesting. Goose is very fond of constant renovations to her new nesting area, and I know thats common behavior. I want the coop cleanings to be easier (pine shavings are driving me nuts) but I also don’t want to discourage laying by not having any fun material to create nests with. Any thoughts, anyone?

The girls are so good at making me feel so guilty... as soon as we ran out to see if Goose was making a false alarm (she had been doing the egg song a couple weeks before she laid her first) or not, they all startling growling and grumbling, following us around the edges of their run and begging to go outside. No little ladies! You must be dewormed! I’m so sorry!

When we were checking out the new egg, Princess Laya ran up into the coop and tried to hop out through the open door. Ohh, Princess. :rolleyes:
 
Congrats on the first egg, Sean! Hope Chickie Minaj turns out to be a hen but if not you’ll have more space for your run. As for bedding, I’m not sure and have wondered that myself. I’ve heard the soiled or fallen shavings can be used as compost or fertilizer for your plants if you end up having to stick to them.

Sorry about the losses, jsr5. I wondered how the little black cuties were getting on. At least you still have the black Cochin hen and d’Uccles.
 
bantamsrmyfav said:
Congrats on the first egg, Sean! Hope Chickie Minaj turns out to be a hen but if not you’ll have more space for your run. As for bedding, I’m not sure and have wondered that myself.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Unfortunately my mom said no to roosters, and as we’re kind of doing an undercover operation as it is we don’t want any more potential noise. I’ll keep everyone posted (haha) on how the pelleted bedding experiment goes
 

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