Keeping hens and ducks chat.

jim-jim wrote: »

Morning everyone, I went to collect the eggs yesterday 5 from 6 chucks. And I pulled one up from the straw, still a bit damp. Came out from the shed in a shed for a bit more day light. Oh my word, the 'wet ' egg had blood on it and it was huge :eek: So for the first time ever I have weighed the eggs, normal eggs average 55g. This monster was 98g :eek: poor chuck ouch. What is the biggest egg you have had?

Oh poor little hen with obviously a sore bottom, bless her. xx

I have never actually weighed any of our eggs. I know some on here have so hopefully you will be able to compare egg weights with them. At the moment with ours they are quite small but we do get the odd large one so I will weigh it then.

Edwink

Hi Orangecrush

I think you are doing all you can by trying to keep those hens apart. Not sure what to suggest regarding the hens eye but for now I would just make sure it is kept clean all the time to ward off infection. Just keep a very close eye on it and make sure she is eating and drinking ok. When our last batch of rescue hens were brought to our house one of them had a marble sized lump to the side of her head right by her eye. It looked awful but she was still eating and drinking ok and mixing in with the others so I wasn't overly concerned. The bump slowly went down but I still kept checking to make sure it was clean especially as it was right near to her eye. My guess was that she banged it on the journey to ours, bless her.

ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) is thought to be a mild Antibiotic so definitely worth a try. We always add that to our hens water during the winter months when their little bodies struggle more due to the much colder weather.

With regards to hens one of my favourites and one breed that has lasted the longest with us is the Bluebell hen. They are the fluffiest too with beautiful bluey grey feathers with lots of little fluffy feathers around their bottoms. When she moults it really doesn't notice that much because she is so fluffy. The one I have here is 6 years old now and has outlasted the other 7 we purchased at the same time (not Bluebells but other breeds). So personally I would definitely get another of those again when/if we decide to purchase instead of having rescued hens. Hope that is some help to you.

Please let us all know how your little hens is getting on.

Edwink

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Got ourselves a poorly hen here.
She wont stand up, her wing is hanging low on one side.... been 2 days now. no other signs of distress, shes eating and drinking fine. I dont think she's broody but I think she must have injured herself, shes keeping her toes curled all the time, she wont splay them. I'm at a bit of a loss as none of the toes or leg seem damaged - and you can move them and she doesn't fuss or act out as if there's pain....

The only thing you can really do as Ali-t has suggested already is to bring her indoors with you for some tlc. If the others notice that she is possibly injured they could start to pick on her. All you can really do is to make sure she continues to eat and drink and keep her as comfortable as you can.

I would have thought if she was injured you would have got some resistance from her or a tiny little yelp or something. But, as this did not happen when you checked her it does look a little unlikely that she is injured in anyway.

Have you checked her vent to see if all is good there? No blood or anything or dirty/mucky? Have you felt around her tummy and vent area? Is it possible she has tried to lay an egg but hasn't been able to lay it fully? Always best to check to make sure everything is ok for her in that region.

Sorry I have only just seen your post and replied to you but had family visiting today and didn't get a chance until now to switch my laptop on.

Please let us know how she is tomorrow if you get the chance.

Edwink

CAFCGirl wrote: »

I think she must have been egg bound!
I feel rather dreadful for not having picked up on it sooner. She seemed fine in herself, was eating and drinking, just wouldnt support her own weight and kept her toes curled. Her comb and wattle were still a nice blushed pink....

Her back end seems a little mucky (not badly) today, but id put that down to her having been sat in the same spot for days so effectively just sitting 'in it'. I'm going to bring her in for a bath shortly so clean her up, and hopefully she'll continue to improve.

Hi CAFCGirl

So glad she is improving that's great.

Please don't be hard on yourself regarding not knowing what was happening with her. Remember all of us, yes all of us have had to learn about what is happening with our hens mostly by experience. We can read as much as we like about hens and their ailments/health before we bring some home and not take in all we have read. We are really not supposed to know it all, honestly we are not. I had to start somewhere too! When my very first rescue hen died after being with us for only 6 months I remember ringing up the rehoming lady in tears saying I could have done more and why has she gone to hen heaven so quickly. It was this lady that reassured me and said even she had to learn by experience too and that these rescue hens often die prematurely and that I had done nothing wrong whatsoever.

Best thing you can do for her now as a responsible hen keeper like you are is to keep a very close eye on her to make sure she is still improving. When you bring her in for a bottom/feather wash today have a good feel around her vent area and underneath to get a idea what she feels like. This will give you confidence if the same happens to her again because you will be able to pick her up and see if she feels differently to how you remember she felt underneath whilst cleaning her up. Hope that makes sense.

You are right in the fact as she was sitting around her bottom will get mucky as she is sitting in it and the best you can do for her is to clean her up as it would be too much for her to clean once she gets over this.

As I said we have all had to learn mostly by experience and this is the reason I started this thread several years ago. I was still learning by experience myself then and I wanted to be able to help others along, learn more myself and also share hen/duck stories to make it fun too. So please don't beat yourself up about it. Chin up your ickle feathered friends wouldn't want to see their mum sad would they?

Take care

Edwink