UK Member Please Say HI

[nikkihinton90]

Hi just popping in to say hi! I got 4 ex-caged hens on Sunday and feeling a bit overwhelmed as they appear to all be really terrified of people coming near them and really really hate being picked up. Am I doing it wrong? I get them from behind and hold their wings in (or try my best to). they squawk like nobodies business and wriggle like hell to get away. They also peck anything that comes too near including hands and feet
I now have one chicken hiding under the coop refusing to move and just pecking you if you try to budge it and it won't go in the coop for the night on it's own :/

 

[timon]

Hi just popping in to say hi! I got 4 ex-caged hens on Sunday and feeling a bit overwhelmed as they appear to all be really terrified of people coming near them and really really hate being picked up. Am I doing it wrong? I get them from behind and hold their wings in (or try my best to). they squawk like nobodies business and wriggle like hell to get away. They also peck anything that comes too near including hands and feet
I now have one chicken hiding under the coop refusing to move and just pecking you if you try to budge it and it won't go in the coop for the night on it's own :/

Sounds like you've got a challenge on your hands !
My ex caged hens got used to life after a while, but they still don't like being picked up.
I kept them in the run and coop for a week before I let them out, and they now put themselves to bed... though I wish they knew what the perches were for. Still - after 2 months of putting them on a perch each night they couldn't be bothered to do it themselves and prefer to nestle down in the straw.

 

[jerseynew]

Hi just popping in to say hi! I got 4 ex-caged hens on Sunday and feeling a bit overwhelmed as they appear to all be really terrified of people coming near them and really really hate being picked up. Am I doing it wrong? I get them from behind and hold their wings in (or try my best to). they squawk like nobodies business and wriggle like hell to get away. They also peck anything that comes too near including hands and feet
I now have one chicken hiding under the coop refusing to move and just pecking you if you try to budge it and it won't go in the coop for the night on it's own :/

Poor wee things

Try some raisins, grapes or boiled eggs to tempt them to take from u. I am trying to train my unruly roo at the mo and these are thing he will actually come over and take from me.....he is still unruly tho! Threatening him with the soup pot doesn't work either! Good luck and keep us posted

 

[nikkihinton90]

Mine don't use the perches either!!! They all try and cram in the 1 nesting box!! :/
Thanks for the treat tips. 3 of them are getting used to life and I might let them out the run on sunday for a bit to wander round garden. 4th chicken is getting picked on and just not understanding how to chicken. Hopefully she will perk up with time.
They now understand the feeder and drinker which is good. Only had one egg since the first day (monday when I got 4) so hopefully some soon!

 

[jerseynew]

Thankyou I'm going to be a state once lockdown starts!

How is lockdown going?

 

[newchickmama91]

How is lockdown going?

Haven't started yet they go in Saturday I'm so worried about them though I'm pretty sure one has died but I will put it in anyway and hope for the best

 

[lizziehux]

Sorry I've been away for so long guys. But Oscar went into hospital so his photo standing up looking into the incubators is the last time we will see him like that x He's alive and thank God not paralysed now, but the little fellow has months of phyisio and hydro therapy, and drugs that would silence a rave!
It was a disc ruptured and bleeding into his spine slowly paralysing him. But Dick Whites Newmarket sorted him out.
And the chicky-chicks are doing extremely well. Thank Goodness!
Love the photos of the chicks, keep them coming!! xx

 

[henmadlady]

Hello from Somerset.
Hobby breeder of araucana,welsumer and copper maran

[/IMG]

 

[newchickmama91]

Sorry I've been away for so long guys. But Oscar went into hospital so his photo standing up looking into the incubators is the last time we will see him like that x He's alive and thank God not paralysed now, but the little fellow has months of phyisio and hydro therapy, and drugs that would silence a rave!
It was a disc ruptured and bleeding into his spine slowly paralysing him. But Dick Whites Newmarket sorted him out.
And the chicky-chicks are doing extremely well. Thank Goodness!
Love the photos of the chicks, keep them coming!! xx

Aww how sad

is he a jack Russell? I expect the chicks are nearly grown up now feels like ages ago they hatched! Xx

 

[rebrascora]

Well I'm feeling pretty sad as it looks like Vippy is not going to make it. She has got herself impacted again and this time I've caught her too late and she is too weak to bounce back. I've just completed surgery and removed another great wad of fibrous material from her crop, and whilst she is still alive JUST, there really is no hope. Her eyes are shut and there is a tiny movement of feathers to indicate that she is still breathing. She is totally emaciated under all those feathers having been starved because her system was blocked and I am kicking myself that I didn't spot it sooner. I had a fox attack last week and I've had to keep them all in since then and with there being several lavender pekins in that pen like her and most of them are broody and plopped down in the nest boxes, I didn't realise she was amongst them and she wasn't broody, but weak and impacted.

I'm not sure how I could have kept her with any quality of life without access to anything fibrous and she seems to have a death wish in that respect. The first time I put her back in the pen after the last sugery, she had a piece of straw down her neck within a minute. I thought it was boredom becuase of being kept in for the bird flu restrictions and she would be fine once she was outside but this time a lot of the material I removed is green, whereas last time it was straw/hay. I've spent an hour doing the surgery with her cradled in my lap because Ian was at work and unable to help and it was too urgent to wait, but looks like it has been in vain. The surgery went quite well, so I feel like it wasn't just a fluke that I had such success the first time and I did it with her in a more upright position so no problems with her aspirating vomit. She's just too weak to recover. I'm really gutted

.

Just looked across at her and she has passed.

My poor little sweet heart., Vippy. If only I had caught it sooner!