Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Syman

Well, it's now full steam ahead. just bought one of these. This is to house the 2 chickens that we are retiring from our school due to the 5 new chicks arriving.

Shortie

Wow what a weekend.

So on Saturday between the children's part at the farm, and a rather crowded house for a bbq in the evening, I went and got my chooks.

I promptly [STRIKE]wasted[/STRIKE] spent today watching them, handling a couple of them etc :rotfl:

Last night I put them one by one into their coop from the run as I figured they had no idea what the ladder was (or the coop even??). They weren't too bad to handle once curiosity got the better of them and they wondered where their comrades disappeared to.. This morning I open the coop door and sat for yonks enticing them down with their food trough until they got the idea and came down in a fair flurry (one deciding my arm was a convenient ladder and strutted from the ladder to my arm and then the floor, hehe.

They've been out and about today a fair bit, we've had 7 eggs from 8 of them but I realise this'll be my lot now until they settle

In terms of other pets with the birds - my 2 dogs vary from cool / unfussed, to boardering over excited around them so we're building them a bigger dog proof pen they can free range around when we're at home. The cat? well........completely unfussed. He sat and fell alseep on my lap while I sat with the birds, and which point one decided to use me as a stepping stone down from a ledge it was on (yep I waited for the pooh down my back or the pecked face, thankfully neither came :rotfl:) she slid ungracefully down my front and landed on the cat's head. I covered the cat's head for fear of a misplaces claw in it's eye, the bird wandered off and the cat bearly lifted it's head.

All 8 ladies are from the new enriched cage system, but are rather bald. I was given the option of feathers or none but I opted for 'girls with no knickers' as I had forewarned the children what to possibly expect. They seem fairly happy and healthy, a few fiesty pops at me from two of the girls but it's not put my off picking them up anyway to put them to bed. Hopefully they'll settle with us in time, it's very early days for them still obviously

I have got a couple of things to keep an eye on - one came out of the coop this morning with a broken claw which seems to have healed nicely already but I need to keep and eye on it, and another lady that I wonder how well she's going to stay for me - she has a golf ball sized lump at the bottom of her neck. OH and I picked her up earlier and had a feel, it's soft - I just managed to sit down and google it and it sounds like impacted crop. I'm back in work tomorrow but I have natural yoghurt in the fridge so will start with that and ask my Dad to get me some white maggots and pop a bowl in tomorrow for me, give that a go for a few days and see what happens. I'll do the holding upside down and massage thing if I really need to but I'm hoping to not put her off me for life *quite* so soon, lol.

This bird worries me a bit though - besides the impacted crop lump, I've noticed it twice slowly flop sideways as it goes to fall asleep standing on one leg.... both times it's rebalanced itself and just walked off a bit surprised looking, and I'm worried there's something wrong - will have to keep an eye for a few days. But that said she's otherwise dandy - really red behind, but eating walking, scratching away just like the others. If it wasn't for the lump on her neck I wouldn't be thinking anything of her (as it were) as I only noticed the flopping over as I've been keeping a close eye on her...


OOOOhh and I've read this evening not to use supermarket apple cider vinegar - is this true? It's what I've been using :eek:

Gigervamp

The supermarket ACV is pasteurised so all the friendly yeasts and stuff will have been killed off by the process. You can buy big bottles of ACV at farm supply places (we got ours from Scats) or online. Here's one online retailer. We bought a 5 litre bottle and it's lasting us ages. It probably works out cheaper than the supermarket stuff in the long run too.

poohbear59

It is lovely to read about more new people with chooks. You seem to be finding out how fascinating they are. I can spend hours watching mine.

I don't know if I said before that one of our hens has turned out to be a boy he is a beauty and despite saying we would never have another he seems very quiet so hopefully won't be upsetting the neighbours. He is a faverolle and very gentle and tame. The girls make him eat last.

Gigervamp

Faverolles are lovely.

Our wyandotte is broody atm. Some of the other girls insist on laying in the nestbox that she's in, so we have to keep turfing her out to get at the eggs. I'm tempted to give her some eggs to hatch, but I don't know what we'd do with any resulting boys. We already have 5 and neither myself or my husband want to have to dispatch any.

jem2

we'v had to say goodbye to one of our hens this weekend, she had decided she wanted to be a cockral!!!! she spent everyday for the last week squarking!!!! my husband didnt believe me wen i said she was being so loud and annoying but after spending 3 hours in the garden with her shreaking on saturday he phoned his mate to come take her away!!! we have a backgarden that is joined to 5 others so im sure the neighbours will have been complainin about her!!! she has gone to a small holding up the road in the middle of no where so she can make as much noise as she likes!!! he brought us one of his hens in return so we'v still got 3, but the new one is still scared and very skittish. im sure she'l settle in soon. she laid us an egg yesterday so she cant be that upset with her new home.

Shortie

So, I ended up off with a sick LO today so got to see the chooks a bit more. They got their maggots, including the lumpy crop one. OH will do the same for me tomorrow as he's home so fingers crossed the lump will go down. I gave them natural yoghurt this morning mixed with some pellets too.

Bless, we have two really characteristic ones at the mo - 'Gracie' that I lifted out of the coop yesterday as she wouldn't budge from it, and I held her for quite a while and she seems to quite like being picked up still, and was snozeing within 3-4 mins in my arms this morning, lazy moo! And another that has been at my feet when I've been over with them and talks away. At first I thought it was threatening until I was in the run clearing out a soft shelled egg and she came to an inch of my face. I didn't want to back away so I brace myself for being pecked and to 'buck' loudly back to show my dominance, but instead she snuggled into my neck / chest. Aaawwww, bless....

But, how on earth do you all remember which bird is which? Even with varing amounts of baldness, I'm forgetting who is who, lol

It was nice to see them in a routine today though - they came out of the coop when I opened it this morning of their own accord, I only found one egg out of the nest box and randomly on the floor, I spotted a couple having a dust bath in the earth outside of the run, and only two weren't in the run at dusk, and after they were locked in only one settled for the night in the run and not coop (I picked her up and popped her in as it's chilly, especially for a 'no knickers' girl

I suspect they'll be miffed that they're restricted to their run tomorrow until OH has caught up on his sleep from his night shift

Oh and my goodness... the amount of poo to pick, lol. Still, it'll be good for plant food!

Shortie

OOOh and the bird that was flopping to the side - it seems to be a theme amoung the birds and they do it when they're wanting to sunbathe... they 'flump' to the floor sideways and stretch out! I presume this is normal... Put me in mind of how I feel when I get home from work :rotfl:

Gigervamp

Yeah, when they sunbathe, they flop to one side and often stretch out one wing and one leg.

You'll need to compost the poo for about a year! Like horse manure, it's too strong to start with and can scorch your plants if put on straight away.

We still have problems working out which of our warrens and black rocks are which. You can get coloured leg rings which we've thought about getting.

Cute about the snuggling!

crimson.addict

Gigervamp wrote: »

We still have problems working out which of our warrens and black rocks are which. You can get coloured leg rings which we've thought about getting.

Cute about the snuggling!

my mum uses coloured leg rings on the parrots she hand rears so she can tell them apart in the beginning. Eventually i think you get used to their personality and will know which is which by how they behave