Wrinkled yellow neck growth & broken toes

[CutestChickenFarmer]

All of them! How awful. I'm so very sorry.

Susan

 

[MarylandChick]

I really wish non-animal people were more understanding. My husband and I have found our friends and family to be completely careless when we told them about the death of all our chickens. Most made fun of us or broaght it up over and over again like we're some kind of crazy couple just for having ever owned pet chickens.

Call us crazy but we loved our chickens. We named them, took pictures of them, played with them everyday. We even moved our Aderondak chairs facing the coop so after work we could come home and sit together watching their crazy antics. They were so friendly. Climbing on us, following us, and so on. They were never loud but boy is it quiet now that they are gone.

Tomarrow my husband is getting us new chicks because even though we would rather puit it off we know that the older and stranger they are by winter the better. We are only getting breeds that looking nothing like our old chickens. He also wants to have a rooster this time. He thinks it'll be more protective and louder then the Gunieas in the event something tries to get them. Lots of people we know are very anti-rooster. They say that no matter what the rooster will be violent against us and then hens. I'm not sure what to think. I suspect it all depends on the rooster and how it's raised.

Cleaning up the coop is soooo depressing. Feathers are just everywhere. The very sight of them make me imagine the aweful violence that must have transpired. A fox or my neighbors dog burrowed into the coop at took every single chicken. Around the edge of the coop we had cinderblocks for extra security but we had moved them from one spot for some dumb reason.

We plan on taking apart the old coop and setting up a new one in a different location. We are debating a concrete flooring to the run area. I'm thinking of maybe digging up the ground, laying chicken wire and then putting the dirt back so that when the new wire sides go up in can connect to the burried wire fence thus enclosing the birds all around. I wish we could find a used shed or coop instead of buying or building a new one ourselves but I have looked everywhere and had no luck. The chicks won't be old enough for a while so we have time though.


BTW - the vet unknowingly called and asked about taking pictures of the chicken with the odd neck growth for Jones Hopkins University. I guess it must have been even odder then I thought for a poultry vet to have so much interest in it. The only thing I have found that looks similiar to it is Elephantitus which obviously is impossable. It was very yellow thick extreamly wrinkeled yellow skin with broken feather shoots poking out. It sat on the skin like a scab but was perminant and growing but caused the bird no discomfort. There were no mites or signs that it was a sort of allergy.

 

[chrissieg]

"What does not break us makes us strong".
Although you must be pretty near breaking - I did'nt realise this thread had such a sad ending....... new chicks will be the best way to fill the space left - you will be able to watch them grow and DO get a cockerel to grow up with them!

 

[dlhunicorn]

...I love birds...little cage birds...raptors (owls and such)... the wild birds... however there is nothing, absolutely nothing in the bird world to compare to a chicken for sheer social and entertainment value (I have completely gone off the idea of ever keeping a cage bird again as I can let my chickens loose and they will stay because they want to

which is so very much more gratifying than a canary constantly flitting about trying its best to get out and away)

....We plan on taking apart the old coop and setting up a new one in a different location. We are debating a concrete flooring to the run area...

I have my coop and run paved and fenced and roofed (though my birds have free access to the yard during the daytime)... you would never have to worry about a snake or rat or such digging up and under into your coop and pen with a cement flooring and paved run (the pavers they use for sidewalks is what I have>>>and you can clean / sterilize it properly too)... never a problem with mud or gunk in winter and the roof keeps it all dry.
I can't imagine life without chickens ... I am glad to hear you have not given up... as far as the rooster goes...I have three and I absolutely luv my boys... there are some breeds I suppose that many will advise you to stay away from but it is truly a bit of "the luck of the draw" so to speak and how you manage him... mine are absolute doll babies.​