The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

THOUGHTS, PLEASE!

How long do y'all think I should wait before offering a dust container to Miss Grey? It seems counter-intuitive to have her dusting with wounds... ??

 

[armorfirelady]

THOUGHTS, PLEASE!

How long do y'all think I should wait before offering a dust container to Miss Grey? It seems counter-intuitive to have her dusting with wounds... ??

Hmm good question. I guess go with your gut. I am guessing if she was in the wild she would dust bath when she needs to.

 

[Leahs Mom]

A friend got me a chicken tractor this spring.

I just now moved it out to the "death corner". The wheels are whirley-gigs. I figure I'll move it around a bit out there. Can't hurt.





For perspective - the chicken house is to the right. They have to go all the way back to where the chicken tractor is by the gate to go around that to run over to their run gate.


That plastic footstool is a hawk hide. I think Miss Gray got under one of those and it likely saved her life. I have 4 of them out in the open places. Her feathers were all around one of those.

 

[MargaretYakoda]

Would it be OK to sprinkle a bit of corn starch on her as a sort of convalesent dust bath?

 

[armorfirelady]

A friend got me a chicken tractor this spring.

Love your chicken tractor.

Ive been trying to come up with ways to make smaller hawk hide outs. A neighbor had a pine tree branch go down. My son dragged it over to our house & I think I am going to cut the limbs off, drill holes thru the branches and tie 3 or 4 together for a place they can go in for shade or to hide. I really do not want to make more little building & this is a good way to use free stuff. Our leaves on the trees are slow budding this year so they don't have a lot of shade now.

(I promise to take pictures Leahs Mom

)

 

[amenfarm]

Would it be OK to sprinkle a bit of corn starch on her as a sort of convalescent dust bath?

While I agree she will dust bathe if she needs to, I would wait to put in anything in until the wound closes or scabs over. Just because her instincts say to dust bathe, keeping out a infection may make a tremendous difference in her recovery. We have been treating a minor keel bone wound on my English black orpington,along with her losing a eye, 1st time we've used the vetericyn spray , great results.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Oh...I guess I should have explained that there are wooded areas over to the left of those photos where they can get under bushes, etc. The hawk hide foot stool thingies are in the open places between the woods and the run where they have to traverse open skies.


Here's one of the kiddos standing on top of the hawk hide. It does double duty

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
I do lean toward not giving her dust for awhile...

 

[aoxa]

Aoxa, I have been keeping my boy locked up until about 4:00 pm to give the girls some peace from him. That's why he wasn't out yesterday. I did just go and let him out now. Working from the home computer today and keeping my ears and eyes open.

Sorry, I have missed so much. Did he inflict the wounds on Miss Grey?

One of our Pennies was inside our house for a good 4 weeks. She had the most terrible wound on her neck. Nearly went right through her crop.. We didn't think she would make it, but she did. A full recovery. It was insane the wound. I wish I had of taken pics the first day. I'd say a good two inches all around her neck save a 1/2 an inch in the front. She lost a lot of blood and will not grow back feathers on her neck. It's been at least 6 weeks now. If she was going to grow them back, I'd figure it wouldn't be long after the scar tissue formed before it started.. nothing. She is naked lol. She fits in with the NN girls really well









Some pictures during her recovery.

 

[Jewelwing]

HARDEN off

LOL, that reminds me of a friend who sent me a photo of something gross her dog had thrown up. The text said she though it might be part of a parachute. I thought that was a little odd (who has parachutes lying around for their dog to eat & then vomit up?), but who knows? I just couldn't make it into parachute parts, though (looked more like a little stomach & intestines to me). She ended up taking it to her vet, who confirmed that it was rabbit entrails. Then she saw what she'd originally written, and told me that her phone had auto-corrected "parasite" into "parachute!"

THOUGHTS, PLEASE!

How long do y'all think I should wait before offering a dust container to Miss Grey? It seems counter-intuitive to have her dusting with wounds... ??

I'd wait until there's no more oozing or wet stuff for the dust to stick to.