What did you do with your flock today?

[kurby22]

Oh no! That's such sad news about Sia going missing. I'm so sorry. Hopefully she has just gone off to brood and will re-appear in a few weeks with chicks in tow

When Sylv was alive, he'd have 4 standard hens and two bantams squashed into his coop with him (only really suitable for 4 bantams max) and no-one in the big coop (easily big enough for 8 standard hens). Silly birds!

Your birds are all so beautiful!

Yeah she’s a savvier Silkie than I give her credit…but it’s hard to believe she’s still alive at this point :-( She was so pretty :-(

 

[Smokerbill]

Olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil are all fine to use in a pinch. Hopefully she's o.k.

I think she's ok. Since all mine look pretty much alike (to my eye, anyway) I wasn't exactly sure which one it was after she was out of the nest and mixing with the others.

Yesterday afternoon I watched them for probably an hour looking for one showing signs of being egg bound. All were eating and acting normally, but there was one who's tail feathers were drooped down. That's the one I suspected of having trouble laying. No more eggs were laid through the rest of the day yesterday.

This morning at 5AM, there was one good egg in a nest, and a soft shell egg membrane under the roost. At 9AM there were 5 good eggs in the nest boxes, and a crushed eggshell, held together by the membrane laying under the roosting branch. I'm not sure how it got crushed. Maybe it crushed inside the pullet, then was passed out?

But all the pullets seem fine, are active and energetic, and I don't see one with a drooping tail now. Their butts all look clean, dry and fluffy. I'll keep watching for problems, but I think that if one was eggbound, it isn't anymore.

 

[ChicksnMore]

It’s really awesome you have Ferdy to keep Sylv with you in spirit! I wish I had a Nohope son to be with me now. I miss him :-(

I haven’t figured out the lavender (silver) gene yet. When two silvers mate the babies die or are born with major issues that generally cause early death or blindness. My theory is that it must be either attached to a male chromosome somehow, or the females just rarely ever make it to hatch because there’s some other stuff that compromised genetically in the females when they have the silver gene. It’s interesting and also annoying when you love the color but don’t need anymore boys!

That's in the quail? That sounds like an unpleasant gene to work with. There's a super short leg gene in chickens something like that. How those chickens were used as sentries during war is fascinating and funny. I read about it and instantly wanted some of those goofy chickens...until I read about the side effects. Must be beautiful boy quail though.

Yeah she’s a savvier Silkie than I give her credit…but it’s hard to believe she’s still alive at this point :-( She was so pretty :-(

I'm so sorry about Sia.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I think she's ok. Since all mine look pretty much alike (to my eye, anyway) I wasn't exactly sure which one it was after she was out of the nest and mixing with the others.

Yesterday afternoon I watched them for probably an hour looking for one showing signs of being egg bound. All were eating and acting normally, but there was one who's tail feathers were drooped down. That's the one I suspected of having trouble laying. No more eggs were laid through the rest of the day yesterday.

This morning at 5AM, there was one good egg in a nest, and a soft shell egg membrane under the roost. At 9AM there were 5 good eggs in the nest boxes, and a crushed eggshell, held together by the membrane laying under the roosting branch. I'm not sure how it got crushed. Maybe it crushed inside the pullet, then was passed out?

But all the pullets seem fine, are active and energetic, and I don't see one with a drooping tail now. Their butts all look clean, dry and fluffy. I'll keep watching for problems, but I think that if one was eggbound, it isn't anymore.

Sounds like you're doing a great job carrying for all your lovelies

 

[Smokerbill]

Thanks @ChicksnMore !

Here's a picture of the crushed eggshell that was under the roost this morning. The way it's broken, being totally crushed from all sides, makes me think that it collapsed inside the chicken, then was expelled.

If it dropped intact and broke when it hit the woodchips, even if chickens pecked on it, I don't think it would be crushed all the way around, but still all in one piece. That's my theory, anyway.

Hopefully all the shards of shell stuck to the membrane and passed out.

 

[Smokerbill]

I put up a simple crushed eggshell dispenser for the pullets. I screwed it down to the board between oyster shell and grit boxes. I mixed some oyster shell in with the eggshells. Yogurt containers come in handy! Glad I save them all.



I used another yogurt tub to freeze ice blocks that I remove and put in the waterers. The pullets have always shared a single auto-fill cup waterer with no problem. Today I added a second one, one chilled with ice and the other with just fresh, cold water.

I kind of believe what the Rent-a-coop says in their literature about the auto fill cups, that the water is deep enough in the cups that it helps cool chickens when their wattles dip into the water.

 

[Shetland lover]

My husband didn’t really have much of a choice…I just came home with them after seeing my friend. I never do that. I ALWAYS talk to him first. A little back story. I took my roosters and some chicks to a swap meet. Well my friend went to this one and her daughter was selling them. Well her daughter didn’t sell one. I felt so bad. But then she bought another one. So they asked if i had an extra box. So i gave her one and my friend was like “wanna triad these bunnies for the box”. Uummm, no the box is a gift . The only reason I didn’t take them then or buy them from her daughter was because she said they were meat rabbits and she couldn’t process them. Well what made her think i could?? No way could i EVER process a bunny. Well, i never owned bunnies before so I didn’t realize it wasn’t like a broad breasted turkey or your meat chickens, where if they get to a certain age, they get too big and can’t survive. Little did I realize she just couldn’t keep them because of all the others she has.

Anyway my friend was like “you want the bunnies?”
Me: no….
Friend: here let me get you some feed in a bag, oh and some bedding.
Me: Sarah…
Friend (Sarah lol): you can keep the kennel too until you can get them something.
Me: fine but you are going to have to deal with my husband if he says no .

But he loves them too so there wasn’t a problem.

And no, there isn’t a problem with house chickens, ducks, etc. I would but with the dogs they would have to be in kennels. Well either the dogs or the animals. Momma dog will be ok. I’m just not sure about the babies. They will be a year old in November and are just still rambunctious. Momma wasn’t like them at this age.

Good grief! I can't believe they're nearly a year already!!!!
I think we need updated photos

I've been railroaded into taking in pets too - good job I'm a sucker for fur, feathers and scales so I don't really mind

 

[Shetland lover]

I just love that this little girl doesn’t run from me. I had no intention of keeping one more hen but another hen never hurts. Might help my boys not kill each other next year. I believe my other single hatch baby is also a girl. I don’t think I will keep her though. I will have 5 hens as it is. Plus my silver pair and my East Indie trio.

Aww, she's too adorable
I really want ducks!

 

[kurby22]

That's in the quail? That sounds like an unpleasant gene to work with. There's a super short leg gene in chickens something like that. How those chickens were used as sentries during war is fascinating and funny. I read about it and instantly wanted some of those goofy chickens...until I read about the side effects. Must be beautiful boy quail though.

I'm so sorry about Sia.

Yeah, it’s a difficult gene! They call them silvers but it acts like the lavender in diluting all colors but white. It definitely carries weird issues with it! But they are beautiful! This is one of my boys when he was young

Thanks, I’m really perplexed about her going missing :-( I just don’t understand how she could go missing like she never existed! No signs at all…

I also had one of the new baby chicks disappear. There’s literally no way it got out, they are shut inside the Cube nest box and there are no outlets and no chance for predators to get access either. So I’m thinking it may have died and was cannibalized?? It’s my best guess! I need to move them to a bigger brooder now that they’re all a week old…the lavender babies did not hatch with strong constitutions it seems :-( I have lost three of the 4 that hatched and the ones that died in the shell were lavenders too. I have one lavender left and the white one…and the rest are black or mottled. I know it’s for the best, but it still makes me sad :-(

 

[Shetland lover]

It’s really awesome you have Ferdy to keep Sylv with you in spirit! I wish I had a Nohope son to be with me now. I miss him :-(

I haven’t figured out the lavender (silver) gene yet. When two silvers mate the babies die or are born with major issues that generally cause early death or blindness. My theory is that it must be either attached to a male chromosome somehow, or the females just rarely ever make it to hatch because there’s some other stuff that compromised genetically in the females when they have the silver gene. It’s interesting and also annoying when you love the color but don’t need anymore boys!

I wish you had one of Nohope's boys too. It is a real comfort and does make it easier to cope with the loss. Strangely, I also find it oddly comforting that Ferdy hatched the day Sylv died, almost like he left me a gift. Can be a bit spooky when Ferdy gets angry and shouts "ning, ning, ning" at the top of his voice - exactly like his dad and a noise I've never heard another chicken make...

The way the lavender gene works in quail sounds a bit like Lavender Foal Syndrome in Arabian horses. Do both parents have to carry lavender?