The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

Your friendly reminder to rinse your grains Aoxa

Went out today to fluff the coop hay and in the run. Seems Sophie is laying again. To bad it was in the run and it froze & cracked. I normally check the run at night just in case an egg is in there but didn't last night

I brought it in the house. It will make a nice snack for the girls Thursday. That's 2 frozen cracked eggs this week. But at least there are 3 girls laying now

my egg customers are happy I have eggs again. If it was me I would of waited till the temps were over freezing lol

Awhh man, I'm at work now :/

I got lazy and added water. The grains are fermenting now LOL

I can't rinse the fodder, and there are a lot of fruit flies around it, but no mold.. is this okay, or no?

 

[Jewelwing]

Well, I just lost Ethel. Now I'm down to eight chickens.

She actually made it through the night (after I spent over an hour getting her out from under the coop to put her inside it with the heat lamp and the other chickens). But this morning while everyone else was outside picking around the leaves, Ethel was on the floor of the coop (although she had flown up to the roost last night, giving me hope), with her head down in the chips and breathing hard, eyes closed. I brought her inside since she wasn't with the rest of the flock anyway, and put her in a dog crate lined with pine shavings. I squirted some vitamin water in her beak (she wasn't interested when I put her beak in a bowl of water), and in between gasps she did swallow. Then she popped out an egg as I put her back into the kennel.

After I dropped my son off at school, I stopped at Rural King to look for antibiotics. The only thing I could find that looked halfway reasonable was LA-200 (a tetracycline), so I bought it and injected 1cc into her pectoral muscle. Then I tried giving her more vitamin water, but she didn't swallow it. She died very shortly after that, so I don't know if it would have worked or not.

It sucks!

What should I do with her now? I don't want to feed her to the other chickens, not knowing why she died, and we can't eat her (she was a pet, after all!). Should I leave her in the woods for the coyotes (I can take her pretty far away from the house & coop)? Or should I try to bury her?

Also, probably not eat the egg she laid this morning or feed it to the others, right?

 

[delisha]

Well, I just lost Ethel. Now I'm down to eight chickens.

She actually made it through the night (after I spent over an hour getting her out from under the coop to put her inside it with the heat lamp and the other chickens). But this morning while everyone else was outside picking around the leaves, Ethel was on the floor of the coop (although she had flown up to the roost last night, giving me hope), with her head down in the chips and breathing hard, eyes closed. I brought her inside since she wasn't with the rest of the flock anyway, and put her in a dog crate lined with pine shavings. I squirted some vitamin water in her beak (she wasn't interested when I put her beak in a bowl of water), and in between gasps she did swallow. Then she popped out an egg as I put her back into the kennel.

After I dropped my son off at school, I stopped at Rural King to look for antibiotics. The only thing I could find that looked halfway reasonable was LA-200 (a tetracycline), so I bought it and injected 1cc into her pectoral muscle. Then I tried giving her more vitamin water, but she didn't swallow it. She died very shortly after that, so I don't know if it would have worked or not.

It sucks!

What should I do with her now? I don't want to feed her to the other chickens, not knowing why she died, and we can't eat her (she was a pet, after all!). Should I leave her in the woods for the coyotes (I can take her pretty far away from the house & coop)? Or should I try to bury her?

Also, probably not eat the egg she laid this morning or feed it to the others, right?

since you have no idea why she died or if she carries disease you need to burn her remains. Do not feed wild animals..it encourages them to come closer to look for live food..

 

[cubalaya]

or bury deeply

 

[CourtsCacklers]

Well, I just lost Ethel.  Now I'm down to eight chickens.

She actually made it through the night (after I spent over an hour getting her out from under the coop to put her inside it with the heat lamp and the other chickens).  But this morning while everyone else was outside picking around the leaves, Ethel was on the floor of the coop (although she had flown up to the roost last night, giving me hope), with her head down in the chips and breathing hard, eyes closed.  I brought her inside since she wasn't with the rest of the flock anyway, and put her in a dog crate lined with pine shavings.  I squirted some vitamin water in her beak (she wasn't interested when I put her beak in a bowl of water), and in between gasps she did swallow.  Then she popped out an egg as I put her back into the kennel.

After I dropped my son off at school, I stopped at Rural King to look for antibiotics.  The only thing I could find that looked halfway reasonable was LA-200 (a tetracycline), so I bought it and injected 1cc into her pectoral muscle. Then I tried giving her more vitamin water, but she didn't swallow it. She died very shortly after that, so I don't know if it would have worked or not.

It sucks!

What should I do with her now?  I don't want to feed her to the other chickens, not knowing why she died, and we can't eat her (she was a pet, after all!).  Should I leave her in the woods for the coyotes (I can take her pretty far away from the house & coop)?  Or should I try to bury her?

Also, probably not eat the egg she laid this morning or feed it to the others, right?

I am so sorry to hear this..... what a bummer..... I would probably bury her deeply (or burn her as well!)

 

[cpegram]

X2 so sorry

 

[aaggjg]

Awhh man, I'm at work now :/

I got lazy and added water. The grains are fermenting now LOL

I can't rinse the fodder, and there are a lot of fruit flies around it, but no mold.. is this okay, or no?

Yes as long as there is no mold you are fine....

My Fruit Flies are OUT OF CONTROL ... Anybody have a sure fire fruit fly trap?? My vinegar w/ funnel bottle not catching a thing!!! THEY ARE OUT OF CONTROL!!!

 

[aaggjg]

since you have no idea why she died or if she carries disease you need to burn her remains. Do not feed wild animals..it encourages them to come closer to look for live food..

Sorry about your loss .... I agree with Delisha if you feed wild animals it encourages them to look for more close by!!

 

[RedRidge]

If we know there is no disease we don't bother to burn or bury. Takes less than 12 hrs for an entire adult sheep to be gone around here - everything but the clean skull... I can't even dig that fast. Had a freak accident a few years ago and a ewe got killed - broken back. I took her to bury her at 6 pm but it was dark so left her and went back the next morning and all I had left was will and a skull.
Maremma won't left predators close. Easier to feed the big cats and coyotes.

 

[Jewelwing]

Thanks to everyone for your replies.

I agree that burying her is the best bet, but not sure I can do that. The ground is pretty frozen!! I could probably take her to our vet in town, though - they send their losses for group cremation. That's probably the way to go. The vet is a friend of mine, and I need to talk her into doing surgery on my daughter's rat ASAP anyway (DD found a couple lumps on her "baby" last night and is pretty freaked out - she wants to pay for histopath to know whether they're malignant or benign). Hard times for animals here the past couple of days!

Looking closer at the egg Ethel laid today just before she died, it looks like it has dried egg yolk bits on the shell. She plopped it out onto the floor as I was putting her back into the dog crate, so I know it didn't roll in anything - what's on it came from inside her. Anything else that could be besides dried egg yolk?

Would that likely indicate her cause of death? I guess I should do a necropsy to see what I can see. I guess I'll do it out in the garage. It's just so cold!! But I don't want to do it in the house. I have no idea what I'm looking for, though.


Here's the dried yellow stuff on her egg: