What did you do with your flock today?

[ChicksnMore]

Happy New Year! Fun to wake up to quite.. and my tribe!View attachment 4018674Manono is also a scrambled egg chick, or actually a messed up settings chick. She had a TON of problems but has managed to outsurvive a lot of her healthier flockmates.View attachment 4018689Another keen observation i made is how this simple 4' something fence is keeping my girls in. Yet, at home our fence is going to be 5' ++ and fancy. It suddenly struck me as ridiculous. Oh well, it is pretty and the project makes DH happy, I am sure.View attachment 4018678
I have not made any mad dash plan to head down yet. My brain and bones aren't ready yet. It is quiet and cool with a misty rain and my kitties are chilling, Giz on my lap. Fosters seem OK with their camp out too, but sure will be happy to make it home and out of these cramped cages.View attachment 4018685
I'm sure there will be residual fireworks for another day or so...

As long as DH is ok, son is OK, animals are ok, I may try and overstay my welcome.

I hope you do get to overstay! What a wonderful world.
Its good to hear how Manono's doing. I'll have to come up with a better winter living arrangement for Biscotti. Maybe in time she'll adjust to temperature changes. I'm awfully fond of that little girl.

 

[ChicksnMore]

That's exactly what it sounds like but apparently chicken 'asthma' is not the same as asthma in mammals. What is known as chicken asthma is actually a range of bacterial and viral respiratory infections. My vet friend actually asked the lead vetinary surgeon for birds at the Royal Zoological Society if chickens suffer from asthma and she said 'no', not in the way we understand it. She did say that some parrots and parrotlets suffer from hypersensitivity disease, which causes asthma-like symptoms. The birds affected sound exactly like Stan and have a hypersensitivity to things like dust, pollen and mould. We've come to the conclusion that Stan could have a chicken form of this. I'm working on eliminating any possible environmental causes but with no discernable effect. So far, I've tried changing his bedding from dust extracted straw to hemp. I no longer use diatomacious earth at all - on any of my birds or in their various dust baths and coops. I check for mold almost obssessively (as I've noticed he's worse after cold, rainy days), made sure coop ventilation is excellent and I'm damping down any dusty areas. Apparently pesticides can be an issue too so I'm looking for an alternative to ivermectin for him. I don't know what else to try at the moment.

If anyone can find an answer, I'm sure it's you

 

[ChicksnMore]

Beetle is home and approves of the coop and run improvements. Also, approves of freeranging and bugs... and cracked corn. View attachment 4019336View attachment 4019350
Nice to see Beetle butt and hear his crow. Makes things feel more happy and home-ish He is sparring with a feral roo and losing, but im keeping my ears open and backing his play so he wins his territory.

DH is doing some more tinkering and hopefully we will be able to pull some fence this eve. Anxious to get the girls down. I was able to grab a bunch of eggs while up Koke'e. Been buying for months so this is a real treat! Man, those yolks just stood up and were a beautiful dark yellow. Looking forward to being a chicken farmer again.View attachment 4019364

Beetle...

 

[ChicksnMore]

Gave the clan their evening treats, had hens jumping on me for some petting and easy access to the treats.

I just love these ones that jump up! I have a banty roo that wants to be a parrot...such a doll baby .

 

[ChicksnMore]

Having a quiet day here. Did my daily shelter and rescue groups check for my baby. Breaks my heart to see the number of found dogs coming into the shelters daily.

I have little Blue beside me just chilling, and in a moment we'll head outside for the daily yard and chicken care. Blues learned to walk on a leash now, so she gets her first experience in a chicken coop. My beautiful old Iri will join us in there to model good behavior.

 

[PopoMyers]

It's good to hear things are mostly good.
I had Ferdy, Pru AND Clara suffering with bumblefoot at the same time in November. Ferdy's was not bad so I just kept an eye on his and cleaned his foot with antiseptic daily for a week. It soon disappeared. Clara had bumble on both feet with some redness so she had hers thoroughly cleaned and corn plasters stuck on them before bandaging. Any tips on bandaging feathered feet as I suck at it?
Pru had a really nasty bumble on her left foot and the beginnings of one on her right foot. The left foot required minor surgery and a course of antibiotics. Neither girl was at all happy with me.
I couldn't understand how they all had it at the same time until I noticed them scratching up a bag of rose prunings full of thorns.
Keep a close eye on your girl as I'm sure you know bumble can cause bone infection and eventually kill if untreated. It's such hard work when they won't allow you to pick them up easily, though. Gladys only gets a monthly foot inspection because of this. Everyone else is weekly.
Penelope had a huge moult before she started laying so maybe it's not that strange your pullets are moulting - although 4 out of 13 sounds a lot.
So glad you're not having predator problems now. And sorry for your losses.
Holidays were good. Back at work tomorrow- ugh! How were yours?
Happy New Year!

Replying from bed. Might as well get the once a year illness over with. What a way to start 2025. Hubby got sick on Sunday, then me on Wednesday, our son somewhere in between. This flu is a doozy. The achiness is abating, though my diaphragm hurts from coughing, and my back hurts probably from being immobile. On the upside at least.
The bumble seems to have shrunken, but I will get a better look at it soon. She is the chicken who comes whenever I'm doing things in the coop, so I can at least look. Catching her is another story.
As for bandaging, I've never had to do feathered feet, but I use a piece of duct tape to secure the end. I just followed the YouTube video.
Before I got sick, gave the girls pumpkin, leftover decor from my neighbor. I got the seeds.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Putting on the last gate latch
Tomorrow is clean up.

Hopefully Sunday I can bring Beetles girls home. ♡♡♡♡

...my goodness look at that beak!!

 

[ValerieJ]

Putting on the last gate latch
Tomorrow is clean up.View attachment 4020195
Hopefully Sunday I can bring Beetles girls home. ♡♡♡♡View attachment 4020208View attachment 4020253View attachment 4020254
...my goodness look at that beak!!

It all looks great! And very fancy. That will work for your fancy rooster and his girls.

 

[Shetland lover]

I was just wondering if over crowding could be an issue now that the peacekeeper is no longer. Wondering if you could put in swings or tables or even a head of cabbage to distract the ladies from being so darn grumpy. It does seem strange that they are being so mean to each other for so long even after taking the bully out. They will sort it eventually but it is a shame they are being so unpleasant. chickens...

Good idea!

 

[Shetland lover]

Aww thanks! Maggie just grew back the feathers on her head and she is feeling much more confident. here she was bald:
View attachment 4019897

Your boy Stanley sounds hilarious! I can just picture him sticking his head out and going, “nope.” My birds usually turn up their beaks at snow too. I don’t understand pictures of people’s flocks wading through 6-inch snow.

Aww, poor girl! Just makes me want to cuddle her even more.
Stanley is an oddbod for sure! He's terrified by anything that's royal purple in colour, for example. He's home-bred so I can't put it down to a traumatic incident in his past.
Just yesterday, I put comb and wattle protector on my roos as it was in the minus figures. Ferdy, his dad, just sat in my arms and let me slather it on. Then he got on my shoulder for extra fusses. Stan let me put the gunk on him but he was obviously unhappy. I put him down and offered him a handful of live mealworms for being a good roo. He threw a tantrum by scattering them all out of my hand, swiping his beak side to side until every single one was on the floor. He also gave me a few sly nips while he was doing it. He then stalked off, grumbling to himself