What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

Sorry for not replying sooner. It only took one week for her to be healed, and I put her back in the run. She immediately flew over to the flock, which were grouped eating treats. She is doing well, and these white lehgorns like to dirt bathe, so are no longer white. New white feathers are growing in, but won't be white for long, with the dampness and rainy weather, although the sun is out today.
Did general worming treatment yesterday. I made a gruel of sorts and mixed the albendazole in with it. Too hard to catch any of them to dose individually. I have one black hen who is molting and seems a bit under the weather. Maybe the worming will help. It will be in the single digits (C) this weekend. How goes it with you?

So glad to hear your girl is all better! My lot are due a worming too but I tend to use ivermectin spot-on and then paraquatzel for gape and tapeworm a week after. Just find it easier to individually dose them. Haven't done it yet as they're still moulting and ivermectin has been implicated in poor feathering if applied duing moulting.
We're having a single digit cold snap too at the moment. Lots of snow yesterday, which didn't settle as it's rained for a week beforehand. Stan had his usual hatred of the white stuff and trapped the girls in the run. Posie, one of the new chicks from June, has decided to go broody in November. She has turned into a mini T Rex and is assaulting anything that comes within striking distance. She is currently trying to hatch a blueberry.

 

[MaeM]

So... this is Benjamin. I'm taking care of him until his rescuers find a new home for him. He was being neglected.

I just noticed his waddles are weird. Do you think he was born like this or something happened to him?

Btw, he's lovely. At times, I want to keep him, but I'm not sure I can get him a flock...

 

[Shetland lover]

View attachment 4258970

So... this is Benjamin. I'm taking care of him until his rescuers find a new home for him. He was being neglected.

I just noticed his waddles are weird. Do you think he was born like this or something happened to him?

Btw, he's lovely. At times, I want to keep him, but I'm not sure I can get him a flock...

He's so handsome! And will be an asset to anyone with that sweet nature
I'd suggest his wattles are like that through injury. My big Swedish Flower roo lost parts of his wattles through Gladys ripping chunks off through the weld mesh separating them. She was horrid to him when they were being introduced and he never once retaliated, just accepted whatever she did.

 

[Cloverfluff]

Well...more of a tomorrow thing, but I bought an acorn squash to replace the pumpkin I've had sitting out for them to munch on. Oh yeah, and some broccoli, kale, and ...something else sprouts. Thought they might like the greens with most of the grass dying back for winter.

 

[Shetland lover]

Well...more of a tomorrow thing, but I bought an acorn squash to replace the pumpkin I've had sitting out for them to munch on. Oh yeah, and some broccoli, kale, and ...something else sprouts. Thought they might like the greens with most of the grass dying back for winter.

I'm sure they will! And it's a great way to keep them all engaged and hentertained.
My girls and boys are spoilt rotten and incredibly picky about their fruit and veg as a result. They won't touch carrots, apples, savoy or red cabbages and brussel sprouts but go crazy for chinese leaf, kale, iceberg lettuce etc. They all love grapes, redcurrants, cherries and fresh figs. I had an ex-battery hen that LOVED lemons and my bantam cochin roo, Stan, loves bananas and coconut. All of them agree that sprouted seeds are one of their favourite winter treats though.

 

[MaeM]

Today I'm working on teaching Benjamin to go back to his coop and not try to spend the night on the ladder

 

[gullinkambe]

Today I opened up the pen between my two chicken flocks! On the one side I have 7 1-year-old Icelandics and one mix hen, and on the other side some 5-month-old wyandottes, 3 pullets and one cockerel.
They've seen each other through wire for months.

Some snapshots:
Young Boy trying his luck with the new gals

Retreat, retreat! New gals are not friendly!

He stood his ground in the coop!


It seemed to go quite ok. The old gals were more interested in combing the ground for scraps.

 

[Jenbirdee]

Just kind of hung out

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Same as usual. In the afternoons, when everyone is done laying, we pick them up one by one and relocate them from the shaded pens and runs into unshaded pens so they can enjoy the sunshine. The unshaded pens have softer dirt to scratch and dust bathe in. Right now because of the recent rain there's also some grass for them to nibble on which is a rare treat.

The flock is split into three groups due to bullying. We'd like to try to combine two of the groups so we also use these pens as "getting to know you" time. They're right next to each other only separated by hardware cloth, so they can get familiar but can't peck or fight.

This way we can also observe how they tolerate each other. We're still seeing some standoffs, staring, attempts at chest bumping, etc., but we're been doing this for several weeks and for the most part now they just ignore each other.