What did you do with your flock today?

[Nomadicus]

I learned something today about how dumb white leghorn roosters can be. Technically still a cockerel. A young Foghorn that has the run of the place saw that I had turned the Dark Cornish out that are a month older and much larger and decided those cute pullets out to be his. Well the Dark Cornish cockerel objected and sent him back to where he came from in short order. 2 of the 8 Dark Cornish girls have gone broody and are on eggs. I know that some are older than the others so as soon as mama hen gives the nest up with her chicks I'll take the rest of the eggs to an incubator and try and hatch the ones that have not been set on long enough to hatch. So far the fertility rate of the Dark Cornish eggs has been very good.

 

[Smokerbill]

There's a lot of good heritage breeds out there. I'm hoping my hamburgs will be that for me. Good layers but not production level, and smaller eggs so easier on the hens.

My landrace dwarfs might end up my forever breed. They'd be excellent layers if only they didn't go broody all the time .

The dwarfs are crazy broodys and the hamburgs aren't supposed to go broody. I'm not sure which breed I'll settle on, but broody tendencies might matter to you too down the road.

It would be cool to have a hen hatch eggs and raise some chicks, but I'd have to buy fertile eggs. I tried having roosters, and it didn't work out for me. They were worse than an alarm clock because I couldn't figure out how to set them to go off at the time I wanted to wake up.

 

[Shetland lover]

Thanks Valerie. After a while I felt up to trying to find the reason and did a necropsy. I think I came up with a couple of possibilities on what the cause of death was.

First things I looked at were the condition of the comb and wattles, and they looked perfectly fine. Eyes looked good, and the skin was in good shape. No signs of external parasites. The crop was still pretty full from yesterday, though, and felt kind of mushy/grainy, which I would guess is normal.

Inside the beak/mouth looked good. It smelled a little sour, but I'm guessing that would be expected from a chicken that had been dead overnight. There was quite a bit of muscle tissue on the breast bone and the rest of the body, and she felt heavy so she wasn't malnourished.

Looking inside the body there was quite a bit of fat around the vent area, but very little internally around the organs, so I think she may have been a little overweight, but not by much.

I found a single roundworm about two inches long inside, the only internal parasite I found. There were a lot of small chunks of safety glass in the gizzard, and most of it had rounded edges. I don't think that was a problem.

Liver and heart looked healthy on the exterior, as did the intestines. There was one egg that was full size but hadn't been coated with calcium, and another soft one about 1/3 that size in the oviduct.

Two things I found were suspicious.

There were some blood clots in the body cavity, near the heart I think. Maybe a sign of infection or heart problem?

And there was a wadded up softshell from a egg that evidently broke inside her at some time, and may have caused an infection. I don't think I cut into the oviduct so I'm not sure how it got into the body cavity.

There has always been one of my chickens that layed softshell eggs every once in a while, and I suspect that she's the one that died. I guess that's what can happen when chickens are bred to lay lots of eggs.

Edited to add:

I just remembered that even though there was food in the crop and in the gizzard (with the rounded chunks of glass), the intestines were completely empty. I don't know if that means anything, but it does seem strange.

Edit #2:

It's possible the blood clots were near the liver, so I read up on Fatty Liver Hemorrhagic Syndrome. The following article says that it can cause sudden death, but the comb is pale from internal blood loss. The comb of my chicken was still bright red and plump, and the liver didn't look yellowish, so I don't think that was the cause.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...e/fatty-liver-hemorrhagic-syndrome-in-poultry

I'm so sorry for your loss ❤

 

[Shetland lover]

I brought in my favorite little pullet, Violet, and just looked her over real good. She’s such a sweetie

She is beautiful

 

[Shetland lover]

I have one bucket with 4 nipples, have had up to 16 chickens sharing it. The lower in the pecking order just wait their turn.
Being that the bucket is in the secure coop area, I also have another container out in the big area when they are outside, along with open shallow containers in the summer, which I have to fill daily. Have seen the rooster immerse his head underwater.

Some of my girls will duck their heads under if they spot something tasty in the water but Ferdy is so precious, he won't get his wattles wet! He stands about half a mile off the waterer and leans as far over as he can. He hasn't quite worked out that his wattles are attached to his face so it doesn't matter how far away he stands, they are still going to get wet

 

[Shetland lover]

I am going to be getting a blue quail Watermaal boy next weekend when I go to the show! I’m super excited to see if I can make some beebies! The Watermaal Club is trying to get blue quail accepted as an SOP variety by the ABA, so I figured I could help some with that by showing at some qualifying meets next year maybe! I’m not a huge fan of the quail pattern, but I needed to get some good quality birds to get the trifed comb introduced into my project birds I have black, white and cuckoo pullets that have bad combs…so I’m hoping to infuse some good genes eventually! I like their colors—especially the cuckoo! I’m guessing these new quail hens are from the Greenfire line, which is at least a decent start!


Yes, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind Fall…I have a ton of things to do but today is the first day in FOREVER that we have zero plans to be somewhere so I’m really enjoying just doing nothing Gonna do a bunch of winterizing the coops and runs tomorrow instead of today! So right now I’m sitting and watching football while Ruby’s Vaseline treatment soaks into his dry cracked feet!

I had to share my contribution to our Thanksgiving yesterday. Isn’t he a cute Turkey??

I love it! Such a cutie What is the neck made from?

I've been winterizing our coops and run too. Putting some more wind breaks up today after grocery shopping. It's 1°C here this morning and set to get colder.

Funny coincidence! Ferdy has a very dry comb at the moment so he sat on my shoulder with it slathered in rosehip and sea buckthorn oil last night. He managed to stain himself, my face and white top bright orange. Think I'll be going back to Bria (it has the texture of Vaseline but it's plant based, no petroleum).

Your new Watermaals are gorgeous. With their 'not quite right' combs they remind me of miniature Shetlands or Cream Legbars. Good luck with breeding some baby bubs, can't wait to see the results! You know I have to satisfy my chick lust vicariously through you guys

 

[Shetland lover]

I cooked some brown rice for the birds
They love it
View attachment 3690790

My boys and girls love rice too. And cous cous. And Clara's absolute favourite, pretend worms i.e. spaghetti. She runs after the individual noodles if I pull them along the floor and crackles dementedly when she pounces on it.

 

[Shetland lover]

Well Hop is still hanging in there. I tried a sling today and it also put too much pressure on that inside foot. He naturally rolls away from it now and lays on his good foot side or stands when he can. At this point I'm not sure I did him any favors keeping him alive.
But, the holidays are over, so on Monday I'll see if I can find the right person to ask at the vet department at the UoA. If I don't decide it'd be kinder to put him down before then. I think he has pain on that buried foot side now...think it started when I tried leaving him out of his bouncing bowl. He wasn't out of the bowl long but the flesh over that foot reddened and he changed how he supports himself. His appetites slowly decreasing since and his eyes are starting to look tired. He does start to look/eat better here and there though. I'll make up my mind to put him down and he'll lunge at the food suddenly, make eye contact and chirrup. He hasn't actually given up yet, but Im guessing he will if he is in pain.

He did so good for a while I was really hopeful.
View attachment 3690938

Aww, that's such sad news. You'll do the right thing by him, whatever you decide. Hopefully he can hang on til Monday and someone will be able to give you some professional advice. Sending you bothand keeping everything .

 

[ChicksnMore]

Which one was the crazy eyed one? Ruby or the cheese ball?

I’m happy to share my Watermaal adventures! They are just the tiniest little ones! Here are a couple new pics! Wish I could sleep as soundly as Monica does!

Such fluffy faces! Seriously cute girls.

Must have been Ruby...I've never seen a face like that!

 

[Shetland lover]

I was beginning to get worried about one of my little ones that hatched today. I chicked on it a few minutes ago and finally it is standing upright instead of laying on its back paddling air with its feet. It just took him a little longer to get enough strength in his legs to stand on them. I thing I counted 9 hatched and 4 more pipped. It's been a slow process this time. Tomorrow I have to pull the first ones that hatched and place them in a brooder. They had had hatched when I got up yesterday morning and I want to get some feed and water in them before the yolk is all gone.

Glad to hear the little one is doing better!
Just been reading some research on post-hatch chicks and the effects of the myth that the egg yolk sustains the newly hatched chick for up to 72 hours. The difference in mortality rates between chicks immediately offered food and water after hatching and recovery is sizable. It also appears expecting them to subsist on the residual yolk has a large impact on immunity etc. so it's great you get them eating as soon as possible.

1. Wang, J., Hu, H., Xu, Y., Wang, D., Jiang, L., Li, K., Wang, Y., and Zhan, X., “Effects of posthatch feed deprivation on residual yolk absorption, macronutrients synthesis, and organ development in broiler chicks.” Poultry Science, v. 99, no. 11., 2020a, 5587-5597.

I've also noticed Pru has her chicks eating the same day they hatch. Mom knows best - usually!