Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

LAM2011

hi, any advice? I think one of my hens is crop bound. Her crop looks really full and she keeps standing with her mouth open. She appears to be eating but every now and again she will spit something out. At first I thought it was her beak and had a good look - tried to look inside but she got very aggitated.

ljonski

If the crop is hard, then you will need to massage it and hopefully , you will hear a gurgling sound. Inject her with olive oil through the beakand keep massaging during the day. Live mealworms or maggots are good at eating away any residue.

LAM2011

ljonski wrote: »

If the crop is hard, then you will need to massage it and hopefully , you will hear a gurgling sound. Inject her with olive oil through the beakand keep massaging during the day. Live mealworms or maggots are good at eating away any residue.

Thanks so much. Will go get some olive oil at lunch time and try tonight.

ljonski

Make sure that you push the syringe right in and not half heartedly. You could try her on live yougurt and I here apple sauce or mashed up layer pellets

Jenny_Wren_3

Hi all!

My hen house has been struck by redmite. I've tried Jeyes Fluid, DE and red mite killer but can't get rid of the dratted things. I have been left thinking that the only way forward is with a plastic house but I don't know which one. The doodle house max looks nice but i'm worried that its too small (I have 4 chooks and would like 2 more), not keen on the design of the green frog and the eglu cube is eye-wateringly expensive! Do any of you have a plastic house and can bombard me with advice please!

jennyjelly

Hi, complete newbie here so I'd be grateful for a bit of advice.

I picked up my 4 beautiful POL girls yesterday and they seem to be settling in really well, but I have slight concerns about 2 of them for different reasons.

Firstly, while the Warren, the Light Sussex and the Speckly seem very happy and are scratching and eating, the Bluebell is spending all her time in the back corner of the run just standing on one leg and not interacting or showing any interest, though she is eating and drinking and is perfectly capable of getting out of the way when we try to catch her! I'm assuming she is just taking a little longer to adjust than the others, who seem to have adjusted remarkably quickly considering they only arrived home yesterday lunchtime. The breeder said allow 10 days for them to settle, so I'm not too worried yet, just want a bit of reassurance if I'm honest!

My second worry is the Warren. She has been debeaked (didn't realise this until I watched her trying to pick up corn yesterday afternoon, although DH says the breeder did mention it) - the bottom part is a good 1/2 cm longer and she seems to be at such a disadvantage and I'm wondering if her top beak will eventually grow? If not, would it be advisable to trim the bottom to match, or would that make her even more uncomfortable?

Thanks for reading, hope you can advise!

JJ

Mojisola

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver wrote: »

Methinks befriending a butcher good idea. Butcher kills them, plucks them and then as your birds you can get em hung for 28 days so proper meat. Hmmm
:beer:

Not many butchers are registered for slaughtering so that may not work.

ljonski

My hen house has been struck by redmite. I've tried Jeyes Fluid, DE and red mite killer but can't get rid of the dratted things. I have been left thinking that the only way forward is with a plastic house but I don't know which one. The doodle house max looks nice but i'm worried that its too small (I have 4 chooks and would like 2 more), not keen on the design of the green frog and the eglu cube is eye-wateringly expensive! Do any of you have a plastic house and can bombard me with advice please!

Red mite are the zombies of the chicken world. No matter how many you kill they just keep coming back...

You need to treat any wooden fenceing that you have . If you can you need to dismantle the whole hen house bit by bit as the crevices in the wood are where the red mite hang out.

I have 4 in a cupboard on bricks that i have recently strengthened. the chooks are happy there and as there are no nooks and crannies and i have smeared any holes with vaseline.
Someone here even has them living in a wheelie bin ! Hth
http://www.downthelane.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5920&start=210

Gigervamp

Thanks for posting that link ljonski, it's very inspiring. We've got 4 coops atm, but we know we'll need more and seeing the pictures of coops that people have built themselves or adapted from other things is very helpful.

Jenny_Wren_3

ljonski wrote: »

You need to treat any wooden fenceing that you have . If you can you need to dismantle the whole hen house bit by bit as the crevices in the wood are where the red mite hang out.

Unfortunately I can't dismantle the house as its tongue and groove and falling apart in places. It is separated from the fence as its in the greenhouse (with the glass taken out of the front and sides) but the back against the fence still has the glass in as we couldn't get to it to take that out!