The New Flock 2021: Back to Basics

[1muttsfan]

So talky!

 

[speckledhen]

So talky!

They certainly are chatterboxes! They're just loud all-round. Here is a story for you:

 

[1muttsfan]

I saw my chickens get hold of a mouse one time, poor little thing lasted about 3 seconds and was shredded

 

[speckledhen]

If that mouse ran through the bantam Cochin/EE pen, they'd all hide on the roost, clutching their figurtive skirts around them. The BRs are all business with small rodents. And snakes. And lizards. And frogs. And they'll forage until it gets dark unless I round them up.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

If that mouse ran through the bantam Cochin/EE pen, they'd all hide on the roost, clutching their figurtive skirts around them

that's perfect

 

[speckledhen]

My EE hen, Rayna, was acting strangely the same day I found Zara out of it. The Dirty Dozen had been outside for their session and I called them back inside. All came except Rayna, but that in itself is not unusual. She was just outside the door and I went to get her because she sometimes likes me to pick her up and carry her inside. She was in an odd crouched position just outside the door, frozen. When I spoke to her, she acted dazed somehow, looked like those hens do when they stroke out.
When I picked her up, she was almost limp. I talked to her and petted her and when I placed her on the floor in her pen where the entire group was eating plain yogurt from a bowl, she just stood sort of crouched down similar to the way I found her. I was about to go back in and pick her up to check her closer when she began walking in slow motion around the group ignoring the snack, and walked head-first into the bottom nest and lay down facing the back wall. I left her to rest and when I went back a couple of hours later, she was still there. Then, still there at roost time and I left her. The next morning, she was standing around almost like normal, but was back in the nest later that day and no egg from her.
Rayna, Shelby and Layla are turning 5 years old in a couple of weeks, not old by any means, but I've already lost three of the EE hens from the same group--Ripley, Scarlett and Juliette. Not the best longevity from the hatchery gals most of the time. Rayna is so beautiful with her patchwork brown and blue feathers, perfect for camouflage in oak leaves that blanket much of our property, and she's the calmest one of the bunch. I'd have ten of her if I could. Adding a picture of Camo Chicken.

 

[speckledhen]

I added a photo of Rayna in the oak leaves to the previous post. She seems better since then, but still not as energetic. Zara has taken to getting on the bottom roost shelf now, abandoning her nest on the floor in the corner. It's been pretty hot the last few days so maybe it's just cooler to get up there, even though it's hard for her to jump any height because of her stiff legs.

 

[1muttsfan]

You don't think they could have eaten anything outside? Mushroom, toxic plant,?

 

[speckledhen]

You don't think they could have eaten anything outside? Mushroom, toxic plant,?

I honestly don't know, or know what they would have eaten out there unless they've been chowing down inside the fenced compost pile (pine shavings and poop only, no food other than whatever chicken feed might have been dropped in the pen here or there). They both free range, but Zara has not been outside the pen much lately, chooses to stay in the perimeter of it while Rayna will eat stuff all over the place. Zara seems much better at the moment and Rayna just keeps going to the nest when Shelby lays her egg, but no eggs from Rayna for spending so much time in a nest.