What did you do with your flock today?

[SkyAJK]

Hopefully things will settle soon. It can take a few months though, if no one wants to step up. Someone will eventually.
We get nothing like the temperatures you have to deal with in the UK but I have the water poop issue too in summer. Gladys is particularly affected. I cover hers with sand or rinse them away asap but the flies still mob them.
Gladys is black so she probably gets hot quicker than everyone else. Pru is a black mottled Pekin but doesn't seem to suffer the same. I wonder if bantams cope better with heat?

Might be rubbed some mint leaf on Gladys might help? A different smell? My flock hate flies and they tried to eat them in mid air. :-(

I am in Australia. It is very hot here today 33degree and it has already started, I just hope for some wind to ease down those flies.

My Pekin and Japanese bantams have black feather, they just open their mouths to breath, I dip them in water for a minute to keep them cool. I also hose their run. I trim my pekin under feather and her feather near the tail. I find them have difficult coping with the heat.

 

[SkyAJK]

Yes, hope everyone had a lovely, peaceful time ❤

Thank you. I hope a leader step up soon. I thought we saw a leader, but it was not,she is not taking up that vacant position. They are fighting each other so I just hope soon merging a good leader.

 

[SkyAJK]

Happy Holidays all!!
Piko disappeared on the 20th and i was sick to death. Total PTSD from Forest disappearing without a trace. I was up late nights and early mornings calling, shaking treats, listening. Nothing till Christmas Eve at 11pm. She made her way in her time. The relief from the guilt, worry and sadness was overwhelming and the best gift I could have ever been given. After eating like a small horse and getting nose frisked by Giz...View attachment 4014838View attachment 4014840
She is attached like white on rice and hasn't stopped purring. I ordered GPS tags on the 21st.

After the happy reunion we had some super sad news this morning. I found our Elliot in distress and unresponsive. I think he had a stroke or heartattack because of the fireworks. I was just putting my foot down yesterday with my husband, TELLING HIM, I was going to take Elliott up the mountain early and have my son keep him till my A-hole neighbors stopped blowing up fireworks. It upset Elliott so much. Anywho, we lost our healthy 12 year old pup to what I am certain was stroke or heartattack. We stayed with him till the end, never able to take him to the vet. I think he waited for us to find him so her could say goodbye. My husband is devastated. View attachment 4014843
Before this, I went off on another cat feeding adventure. DH and I rode our duelsports to Polihale to check out a huge swell. The one the Eddie Aikau was running on. I spotted cats begging humans for food and water, and I had both on my bike as it set up for my feedings.View attachment 4014845View attachment 4014847View attachment 4014846View attachment 4014848
It is a long tuff drive by car but I am setting up a posse to feed and trap and relocate them to a colony close by so we can feed and water daily.
It is also a fun ride on the bike so I'll will take 2 feeds till we can trap.

This year has been a big year of heartbreak and loss for me. Forest, Elliott, Princess Peaches and Lady Ruby. It has also been a great year of learning and fortitude. I have low expectations for the next couple of years for a few reasons.... but I plan to stay tough and move forward.

More progress on the run fence means we are days away from finishing and my chickens coming home.View attachment 4014850View attachment 4014849
One more post to go, then side railings, fencing material back up, shade cloth, then clean coops one more time, and then chickens!!!! Can't wait to put that nesting material in the nest boxes!!!

Somewhere inbetween, ima gunna need to transfer 24 cats up to Koke'e, and then back down, lol.View attachment 4014853

I am sorry about your Elliot. He had 12 wonderful years with your family. We get reminder on the tv about new year firework and how to manage that with our dear animals. 1 of my dogs just shake himself endlessly, tongue stick out and his eyes look very wild.

Great news that your cat came back. When I read about your cat, I thought of my mom. There was a nice cat came to her house and stayed a few days. It wore a collar with the owner phone number on it. Sometime it came and it smelled beautiful, mom told me the owner must love this cat very much.

Your chickens will ove their new home.

 

[SkyAJK]

We have the same issue here with antibiotics and I do the same - hoard any I can get. I occasionally get lucky searching eBay but they're not appearing on there as often as they once did. If I have any friends going abroad, I always ask them if they can get me antibiotics - India is good for this and perfectly legal (as far as I know) to bring back a couple of packets for personal use.

The things we do for our chickens! Hoard antibiotic Like you I ask around also.

 

[TropicalBabies]

It can be hard to spot. My friend's male cat had struvite stones which caused a blockage and it was only the fact my friend has OCD that allowed him to spot something was wrong. He is obsessed with cleaning the litter tray several times daily and suddenly realised there had been no wee in it for 2 days. His kitty had been behaving absolutely normally other than not peeing.
My Elliot has idiopathic cystitis. He's suffered from it for 7 years and it's only through experience of seeing absolutely minute changes in his behaviour (I'm certain no one else would spot them) that we've learned to pre-empt his attacks. The first few times, he was pretty distressed before we got him to the vets. Cats can be very hard to read sometimes and when we are distracted by life, it can be even harder.
You know Forest better than anyone in the world so your suspicions are probably near the mark.

My denial was helping me through. I'm still drifting in a d out of it as it is my happy place

 

[TropicalBabies]

That is just so sad. I have had a lot of cats over the years, and I miss each one when I lose them. I still miss them. They are the most amazing of animals. I lost one to a rattle snake bite I think. I can't be sure. I saw him near a pile of fire wood and saw a rattle snake there at the same time. Max, the cat, was acting fine, but we were quite busy dispatching the rattle snake. During the commotion Max wandered off. We never saw him again;; never found his body. He was perhaps my favorite cat, but I might be able to say that about each one. I could still describe the personalities of each cat I ever had.

What you do, in rescuing kitties and finding them homes, is simply amazing.

sister from another mister.
It is hard for me to find words sometimes. You said it well.

 

[SkyAJK]

I just witnessed my big Plymouth Rock hen - Apple jumped on my Golden laced Wyandotte and did a mating like a rooster does. I separated Apple from the rest of the flock as I just don't know what does this mean or what to do with this new situation.

Apple is the biggest hen in my flock and a bully. Only my old timer Isa Brown and Silver laced Wyandotte able to tell Apple off. The rooster knew she was not nice so pecked her off often, he did not do that the rest of his flock. His pecks did not cause her injury, she just back off.

We no longer have a rooster in our flock. We don't want the bully to take up the leadership role.

Apple is a bully, eat like a pig and does not lay egg. She seems to have some sort issues, she often make that drag on distress sound as if she wants to tell the world of her sadness. She likes human better than her flock.

 

[SkyAJK]

I often wake up in the morning thinking about what to do with my Apple girl. How can I change the situation of her behaviour and her sadness. She came to me at 1.5 year old and the person that sold her told me stated Apple was not nice to the flock, this person only got her for 2 weeks. I am not experience with chicken dynamic so still took her home. Apple has been with us for around 1+ year now, we used to have a rooster so it was not much of an issue then. Apple is here with us to her last breath naturally. I just need to find out what to do with her now that she is escalating to jumping on her flock mates.

 

[ValerieJ]

I often wake up in the morning thinking about what to do with my Apple girl. How can I change the situation of her behaviour and her sadness. She came to me at 1.5 year old and the person that sold her told me stated Apple was not nice to the flock, this person only got her for 2 weeks. I am not experience with chicken dynamic so still took her home. Apple has been with us for around 1+ year now, we used to have a rooster so it was not much of an issue then. Apple is here with us to her last breath naturally. I just need to find out what to do with her now that she is escalating to jumping on her flock mates.

So sorry to hear you are having such trouble with Apple. When I had an aggressive hen, I took her out of the flock for a while and the dynamics in the flock adjusted to her absence. I didn't have a rooster at the time to keep the peace either. She and the one hen, her sister, whom she liked, lived separately in their own coop and run for a few months. When I eventually combined the flocks again, they all got along just fine, although Lucy, the aggressive hen, and Ethel her sister and friend, always went back to their own coop to lay their eggs and sleep after that. There was a doorway between the two runs that they could run back and forth through.

Not sure this is a solution that would work for anyone else. We are fortunate to have a lot of space for chickens and can easily separate them when we need too. Others might have other ideas of how to separate her out, even for a few days, to see if then someone else will step up to the leadership role. Then after that, the new leader may keep it even when Apple rejoins them. I think the separation needs to happen with all the hens being in sight of each other.

Well, that's my two cents worth, and that might be too much to ask for it.

I do hope you find a solution for your flock. I love that you are committed to her and willing to work with her so she can live out her natural life span. I'm that way too.

 

[Shetland lover]

Might be rubbed some mint leaf on Gladys might help? A different smell? My flock hate flies and they tried to eat them in mid air. :-(

I am in Australia. It is very hot here today 33degree and it has already started, I just hope for some wind to ease down those flies.

My Pekin and Japanese bantams have black feather, they just open their mouths to breath, I dip them in water for a minute to keep them cool. I also hose their run. I trim my pekin under feather and her feather near the tail. I find them have difficult coping with the heat.

That's a great idea - if she will allow me! She hates being picked up so I only do it when I really have to. I do put mint in the nesting herbs I make for their coops.
My ex-battery hen, Connie, used to be so quick she could snatch flies out of the air. She loved a fat, juicy bluebottle
It's a rare summer we have temps that high. When we do, I put up a shade cloth and fill a child's paddling pool for the chickens and our cats. I also put a fan on the floor of the kitchen so they can come indoors to take a break from the heat.