The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:

Quote: I agree not to trim anything. I've even seen some birds that had black wattles end up pinking up and becoming normal again in the spring.

 

[Leahs Mom]

MORE FROSTBITE CHRONICLES

"Mister" on 1-1-2014 21F. today after having 40F weather last week.

It may be hard to tell from photos, but these are looking like they are doing well. So far dry, and looking like there is "life" even in the dark parts of the wattles. To refresh: He got his wattles into some wet feed when I changed the my feed set-up. Had never gotten in the feed before; I changed the feed back to the way it was before.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Last spring one of my EEs, Charlie's Sister, was COMPLETELY bare backed on the area that is just above the tail - almost half her back bare to the skin. It was so bare that I was concerned about sunburn...and it looked dry too. This was presumably from the rooster.


This is Charlie's Sister today. When molt time came, she grew in new feathers after having been completely bare back there from June - October!









ETA: No apron applied...thought I thought about it!

 

[Kassaundra]

Last spring one of my EEs, Charlie's Sister, was COMPLETELY bare backed on the area that is just above the tail - almost half her back bare to the skin. It was so bare that I was concerned about sunburn...and it looked dry too. This was presumably from the rooster.


This is Charlie's Sister today. When molt time came, she grew in new feathers after having been completely bare back there from June - October!









ETA: No apron applied...thought I thought about it!

I put an apron on one bare girl one time, but it wouldn't stay on, so I just gave up on the idea.

 

[aoxa]

Okay so I tested my eggs and took pictures when I got home. Here are the results:

Eggs tested:


Starting from the right to the left:

#1 EE pullet:

This girl

Green egg - white inside
I did peel back the membrane on the side photographed.

Egg #2: Red Sex Link


one of my Pennies...


Nice medium brown on the outside, white on the inside.

Egg #3 - from one of my regular EEs.

pullets look mostly like this. Little variance. I have one full white girl, but she is not laying yet.


That's totally blue through and through.

Egg #4 - lighter blue from my Naked Neck girls. They have white leghorn in them as well as many other things. I am not sure how their eggs are pure blue, but there isn't even a hint of green.




One of these girls


Egg is blue through and through, but lighter than the last EE egg.

Egg #5 is from another EE like egg #3

Possible EE who laid it.

Through and through.

I didn't peel back the membrane here. You can see it's through and through even with the membrane still attached.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I put an apron on one bare girl one time, but it wouldn't stay on, so I just gave up on the idea.

Did her feathers come back in after molt?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Aoxa - thanks for the photos. This egg discussion is interesting.

 

[lalaland]

Well, I get another award for bad chicken keeper.

Went out to give a late afternoon feeding because it is cold and Seaquist hopped up on me and I noticed some blood spots on her feathers - not her blood. So I looked around and discovered poor Angelina.

Angelina is the skittish icelandic with the scalped comb from chickhood, blind in one eye and misformed wing. She had a bloody scalp wound and as soon as I picked her up, Amelia jumped up on my arm and started pecking at the blood. So I put her in the brooder cage, cleaned up the blood and when trying to keep her in the brooder, accidentally closed the door on her toe. It is getting dark and I couldn't see that her toe was in the way. SHe didn't make a sound, and I didn't realize what happened until after I had put nustock on her comb and cleaned the bloodclot off her nostril - picked her up and fed her meal worms and saw this pool of blood.

Finally figured out it was her toe. It had stopped bleeding, poor baby. My headlamp went out, and I decided to leave her be in the brooder, she wanted out badly but I don't want the others to pick on her and there was still alot of activity in the coop - not everyone was roosting yet.

What the heck am I going to do with her tomorrow? I don't know what happened, maybe a rooster grabbed her and tore her scalp/whats left of her comb. I leave for work in the dark, so can't observe....
- I don't have a way to give her water in the brooder cage , it will freeze.
- bad planning, the dog kennel is snowed in - inside the shed and not accessible, so I have no where to put her in the house.
So...
- I could put her on her roost in the dark in the morning and hope for the best during the day

To make matters worse, with the rooster hormones kicking in, Buster is getting more intolerant of Booster and tried to keep him out of the coop tonight. I just happened to be home at the right time to see it. I should have planned better - gotten electric to the little coop so the water wouldn't freeze, then I could put Booster and a few hens in there. Yikes!

I think I have some bluekote....but how to keep it out of her eyes is a mystery.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Last spring one of my EEs, Charlie's Sister, was COMPLETELY bare backed on the area that is just above the tail - almost half her back bare to the skin. It was so bare that I was concerned about sunburn...and it looked dry too. This was presumably from the rooster.


This is Charlie's Sister today. When molt time came, she grew in new feathers after having been completely bare back there from June - October!



ETA: No apron applied...thought I thought about it!

Our Silver Laced Wyandottes all went bare backed some time summer before last ... too many cockerels around at a critical time for that breed's juvenile molts, I think ... ??? And they stayed bare all through the first winter, all through their second summer, and then lost many of the rest of their feathers this fall during our "bad molt." I cannot tell you how pleased I was when they started growing feathers. A few representatives from other breeds also had the bareback issue, but seeing so many birds from one breed have the same ugly problem kinda put me off the breed.

They do seem to molt by breed ...

 

[aoxa]

Well, I get another award for bad chicken keeper.

Went out to give a late afternoon feeding because it is cold and Seaquist hopped up on me and I noticed some blood spots on her feathers - not her blood. So I looked around and discovered poor Angelina.

Angelina is the skittish icelandic with the scalped comb from chickhood, blind in one eye and misformed wing. She had a bloody scalp wound and as soon as I picked her up, Amelia jumped up on my arm and started pecking at the blood. So I put her in the brooder cage, cleaned up the blood and when trying to keep her in the brooder, accidentally closed the door on her toe. It is getting dark and I couldn't see that her toe was in the way. SHe didn't make a sound, and I didn't realize what happened until after I had put nustock on her comb and cleaned the bloodclot off her nostril - picked her up and fed her meal worms and saw this pool of blood.

Finally figured out it was her toe. It had stopped bleeding, poor baby. My headlamp went out, and I decided to leave her be in the brooder, she wanted out badly but I don't want the others to pick on her and there was still alot of activity in the coop - not everyone was roosting yet.

What the heck am I going to do with her tomorrow? I don't know what happened, maybe a rooster grabbed her and tore her scalp/whats left of her comb. I leave for work in the dark, so can't observe....
- I don't have a way to give her water in the brooder cage , it will freeze.
- bad planning, the dog kennel is snowed in - inside the shed and not accessible, so I have no where to put her in the house.
So...
- I could put her on her roost in the dark in the morning and hope for the best during the day

To make matters worse, with the rooster hormones kicking in, Buster is getting more intolerant of Booster and tried to keep him out of the coop tonight. I just happened to be home at the right time to see it. I should have planned better - gotten electric to the little coop so the water wouldn't freeze, then I could put Booster and a few hens in there. Yikes!

I think I have some bluekote....but how to keep it out of her eyes is a mystery.

Cover the blood with Blue Kote.

Put a rag over her eyes and spray.

I've had quite a few bloody combs from mating roosters. They can bleed like crazy. I usually just leave them be, because I've never had any issues with them trying to eat one another because of it. If you feel more comfortable - disguise it.