What did you do with your flock today?

[MaeM]

Trust a chicken to do it's best to embarrass their owners! When I took Stan to the allotment recently, he 'introduced ' himself to the new neighbours by humping their chihuahua puppy. Poor thing was traumatised for life, I think
Seriously, though, is Callia o.k.?

Yeah, I mean, she has a tumor-like thing on her thigh. But we're positive that it is not cancerous as it grew after an injury.

I never knew what happened. One day, about two years ago, I grabbed her and found a huge gash under her wing.

At the time, I took her to a vet who should've stitched her up and didn't, so maybe this pouch-shaped wound healed improperly, and now, she probably has an abscess or a granuloma (a type of tumor that could've grown in response to foreign material lodged into the wound).

But her current vet wants to be sure what it is before he touches it, so he took a sample of her tissue and we're waiting for the biopsy results to know how to proceed.

I'm honestly more worried about the fact that I'll probably have to take her back to the vet if we want to remove this tumor, and she's a very skittish hen, so she's really had a bad time during her previous vet visit.

I took her in a box but she fought the hell out of herself to get out of it, so I took her in my arms, and she was panting and got this explosive diarrhea. Stress truly hit her hard.

 

[fuzzi]

This afternoon I took a photo of Zacchaeus, the cockerel I am keeping, and noticed his leg ring looked a little tight.

So I headed back outside at dusk with a pair of wire cutters and a new green zip-tie. I was able to locate Zach without my headlamp, he's smaller than the other boys. You would have thought I was butchering him, the noise he made! After I replaced the ring I turned him rightside up but made him stay on my lap until he stopped struggling. When I put him back on the roost the blue ring boy reached over and bit me!

It didn't hurt, but I will be glad when the four go to the auction, Saturday. Things should be calmer...

 

[Happy hen lover]

Well stole eggs from broody girl. 1 eaten egg! (3rd day in a row) I went to give them treats and found jar I keep boss in,
was chewed on and a gob of shells chewed up! So now there's a sticky trap. ...... I hope it's not one of my hens!! Guess I'll see tomorrow .

 

[Happy hen lover]

Well it worked!! a little mouse stuck. And bonus a small possum was just hanging out in front of coop!
DH shot it with bird shot! We live in town so never have seen one here before today! Might have been attracted by chickens smell and then was eating mulberries? ! I love my HC all you told me to use everywhere

 

[fuzzi]

I once found a young possum hanged in bird netting I'd placed over my chicken run. It was not a pretty sight. I use hardware cloth now. We live next to the woods, and while we have coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums in abundance, the only predators I have dispatched are venomous snakes. I even have removed and released rat snakes who found a chink in the hoop coop "armor". They serve a purpose, so I let them be.

 

[PopoMyers]

I spoke to my vet friend from the course I did. He's coming over next weekend on his day off to examine Stan, see if he can spot the problem.

I'm o.k., thanks. My back is seriously playing up right now - which isn't the best timing given how much needs doing round here but, hey, that's life. How are you doing?

It is definitely not hot here. In fact, we're experiencing our first semi-warm, dry spell in at least a month. It has been so wet, I'm surprised the chickens haven't evolved webbed feet!
I'm not good with heat, I don't know how you cope with it. 105° sounds like the fires of Hell to me! We hit those sort of temps for a couple of weeks 2 years ago and I had wringing wet sheets over the coop and run to provide somewhere cooler and shady for everyone. I went out at one point to find Gladys and Connie stood up to their bellies in our garden 'pond' (it's not much bigger than a half barrel) . I don't know how you deal with those temps every year, hats off to you!

Wet sheets, another great idea for cooling them off.

 

[PopoMyers]

Aaaaaaaaaa! Cuteness overload!

Your coop came out pretty!

Weathers the same here....in the 100's already off and on. Took me 30 some years to adjust to the heat and I still dream of cool, wet, green places...lol.

Come up this way for cool, wet, green, or go see @Shetland lover

 

[PopoMyers]

They're the most adorable pieces of purrfection! I'm truly blessed getting to share my life with them... they're best friends and buddies together. Never met such vocal babies...they follow me around and yowl for attention View attachment 3853723View attachment 3853724

Thailand must have been a pleasure! I've always wanted to see their floating boat market! That's hot and humid there...I gotta say I prefer dry heat!

I've never seen cats with such spots. Cute as ever!

 

[PopoMyers]

Question. When you give your chickens grapes, do you cut them up? I have some small grapes, maybe 1/2" diameter. Are they small enough as is?

They will eat any grape, any size. No cutting necessary.

 

[PopoMyers]

This time a leghorn pullet was hanging in the same spot in the netting. Not moving, I thought the worst, but she was alive. DH helped get her unstuck. I took that area of netting away. I think they wanted to get up in the tree, and got stuck coming down. She just had a couple abrasions, one behind her comb, and on her leg.