Topic of the Week - Keeping the flock safe from mishaps, injuries, etc.

[Teila]

I love the Topics of the Week! Such a great idea and I have learnt so much from previous topics; thank you for running them and thank you to all who contribute.

First up I wanted to say I am so sorry to read of the tragic losses some of you have shared

Everyone probably is already aware of this but I see that it has not been mentioned yet so I will include it.

Be aware of what you are wearing around your chickens. Any clothing or shoes with something shiny attached that a chicken could easily peck off and possibly choke on; we all know how quick they are when something catches their eye

Plain shoes and T-shirts are always worn around my flock, no tempting baubles.

Be aware of the hanging risk. I have not experienced this but have read of a few who have come home to find chickens hanging by their foot from a slatted chair or similar slatted high beams etc.

 

[N F C]

I love the Topics of the Week! Such a great idea and I have learnt so much from previous topics; thank you for running them and thank you to all who contribute.

First up I wanted to say I am so sorry to read of the tragic losses some of you have shared

Everyone probably is already aware of this but I see that it has not been mentioned yet so I will include it.

Be aware of what you are wearing around your chickens. Any clothing or shoes with something shiny attached that a chicken could easily peck off and possibly choke on; we all know how quick they are when something catches their eye

Plain shoes and T-shirts are always worn around my flock, no tempting baubles.

Be aware of the hanging risk. I have not experienced this but have read of a few who have come home to find chickens hanging by their foot from a slatted chair or similar slatted high beams etc.

Good tips! I've read of people losing diamond earrings and such around their birds. That can be an expensive lesson, to the person and the bird.

 

[Beekissed]

Many long term poultry keepers can share stories of their birds getting themselves in trouble, or injured or killed by mishaps which could've been easily prevented. Things like upturned buckets and bowls trapping birds, chicks accidentally drowning in water dishes, birds ingesting staples, small nails, etc left in the run or coop after repairs or improvements were made… This week I'd like to hear you all's thoughts on keeping the flock safe. For new chicken owners and old, what safety tips have you got share?



For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

I free range all the time, so there's just no way to remove all supposed hazards out there, especially on old homesteads and farms. My best advice is to keep a clean place...keep things picked up and neat, no junk piles of this or that clutter piled here and there around their range or living areas. Provide good space in the coop for mounting up to and dismounting from the roosts. Try to keep nails pounded in, fencing rounded off. Provide good space for their living and manage the flock so as to prevent excess stress and fighting that leads to injuries.

Keep watering places shallow and wide rather than deep...there's always that one or even a few stupid juvenile birds that try to drink out of the dog's bucket and fall in and drown. I keep the communal watering place wide and shallow and up off the ground.

Frostbite is the most frequent injury I see on this site and it's highly preventable...especially when it's frostbitten toes and feet. Chickens roosts with their warm breasts and feathers over their feet, no matter if it's a round or flat roost, so if one is showing up with frostbitten toes and feet on chickens this is a management problem. Even severely frostbitten combs and wattles are a management problem if one doesn't live where it is subzero temps all winter long.

To prevent this injury, it comes down to warm and dry footing in the coop, watering situations that do not create excess moisture in the bedding and /or soil around the waterer and also set at such a height that the birds are not dragging wattles in the water when they drink, providing a run that isn't muddy and wet all the time, good and positional ventilation in the coop, making sure all birds are on the roosts each night and that there is adequate space on the roosts for all birds. Dry, healthy birds don't get frostbite in regular winter weather, so if your chickens are getting frostbit so badly that limbs are falling off, it's time to make huge changes in flock management. That should never happen.

 

[azygous]

Anecdotes are a great learning tool. That's why these Topics of the Week are so effective. We can learn from others sad mistakes without having to go there ourselves.

Here's one that took me by surprise and resulted in the death of one young pullet and a week later, nearly caused the death of a second. Compost piles.

A lot of chicken keepers are also gardeners and have compost piles where we dispose of chicken poop, garden cuttings, over-ripe fruits and veggies, etc. Our chickens adore scratching and digging in these piles to get the many bugs that reside in them. My big mistake was not to regularly dig and turn the material, thinking the chickens were doing it for me. In fact, for years, my sloth didn't result in anything bad, but it was entirely because the climatic conditions worked in my favor.

Then last winter, my area experienced higher winter temps along with excessive precipitation. At the same time, I had a lot of stored apples and squash rot and I disposed of them in the compost pile. I thought I was being careful by digging them under so the chickens couldn't get to them and eat them as they were decomposing, but I underestimated the excavating prowess of Cream Legbars.

What I now know is that botulism spores are present everywhere, and under the proper conditions of warm temps and heavy moisture, they can develop into a toxin called Clostridium perfringens. My Legbar pullets had dug down deep into the compost and had discovered the rotting fruit and had themselves a feast, unknown to me until they suddenly took sick. The symptoms are extreme lethargy, almost to the point of catatonia. Death can occur very quickly if not treated with an antibiotic as soon as the symptoms show.

To prevent this, compost piles need to be thoroughly turned on a regular basis to prevent the anaerobic (lack of oxygen) conditions that allow botulism spores to develop into toxic Clostridium. Or fence the compost pile so chickens can't access it.

 

[casportpony]

I thought that botulimn came from Clostridium botulinum, of which there are types A, B, C, D, E, F, G
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_botulinum

Source: https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/chapter_38.pdf


Edited to add this:

And these:
Overview of Botulism in Poultry: Botulism: Merck Veterinary Manual

www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/.../botulism/overview_of_botulism_in_poultry.html

Botulism is an intoxication that results from ingestion of preformed exotoxin of ... There is concern that endangered avian species may be at risk of extinction ...
Botulism: Clostridial Diseases: Merck Veterinary Manual

www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/generalized_conditions/clostridial.../botulism.html

Botulism is a rapidly fatal motor paralysis caused by ingestion of the toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum types A-G. The spore-forming anaerobic organism ...

 

[Blooie]

I have lost two chickens due to owner stupidity. <sigh> The first was our Easter Egger, Pearly-girl, and hers was not a quick and painless end, I'm sorry to say. The warnings that have been posted here about making sure bits of wire are found and picked up are spot on. While I was stumbling around blindly treating her for every upper respiratory thing I could think of, she was slowly dying of a bit of metal she'd gotten lodged. We barely found it when we opened her up after she died...it was so small but it had punctured her throat and the spot was horribly inflamed.
The second was our Silkie Q-Tip. I propped a piece of wood against the run while I ran into the garage to get a small piece of chain. The plan was to suspend the bit of plywood at a steep angle above the water bucket to keep them from parking their hineys up there. I had my phone in my back pocket, my sister called (she's been extremely ill for sometime) so I got sidetracked. When I went back out, the plywood was down and Q-Tip was under it with an obviously broken neck.

I start all my chicks under Mama Heating Pad outside in the run, and I don't use open waterers. I have an ice cream bucket with vertical nipples, and as soon as I see that they can successfully trip the mechanism I switch them to horizontal nipples. Open waterers scare the pee-wadding out of me.

I also had Dumb Daphne the Flock Complainer disappear on me one day. Spent hours looking for her. Goofy girl was in the coop the whole time, wedged on the floor stuffed between the wall and a plastic nest box. She'd kicked up so much litter that she was practically invisible. <sigh> Not a sound....but she was really stuck. Ken had to move the box over to get her out. Yep, chickens don't back up.

Seems to me that for every hazard we find and remove, they'll find two more to take their places. The adult, intelligent side of me says, "Be pro-active instead of reactive." The eye-rolling-what-did-they-get-into-now side of me says, "Stoopid chickens are born looking for a way to die."

 

[azygous]

Casportpony - I am not a scientist, so I am probably technically wrong. But whatever type Clostridium lurks in compost piles made my pullets very sick. I can't say for certain which one it was that killed the one pullet, but I did trace the problem to a compost pile that was in a dire anaerobic state, and the pullets had been eating the material they had dug up prior to becoming deathly ill within one week of each other.

Suffice to say, compost piles can be a source of danger to chickens and I wanted to call attention to that fact. Thanks for providing clariifying information.

 

[casportpony]

Casportpony - I am not a scientist, so I am probably technically wrong. But whatever type Clostridium lurks in compost piles made my pullets very sick. I can't say for certain which one it was that killed the one pullet, but I did trace the problem to a compost pile that was in a dire anaerobic state, and the pullets had been eating the material they had dug up prior to becoming deathly ill within one week of each other.

Suffice to say, compost piles can be a source of danger to chickens and I wanted to call attention to that fact. Thanks for providing clariifying information.

Sorry, hope you didn't think I was being mean, I just lack the skills to write better,

, and sorry for your loss.

It is Clostridium botulinum that lurks in compost piles, and it can be a very serious problem. One of the necropsy newsletters I read reported that Clostridium botulinum A was found in the liver of a a chicken submitted. That flock lost 14 of 16, and the compost pile was the cause.

Your warning about compost piles is a very good one!

 

[casportpony]

We keep one of these magnets around for when we drop screws and nails.

They're only $10 at Home Depot
http://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-Telescopic-Magnetic-Pick-Up-Tool-95212/202103569

 

[Blooie]

Yep, we got one of those too, but too late to help Pearl. It's come in handy more times than I can count!