Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

RacyRed

Syman, Cabbage and flower are a pair of beauties!

Just reporting back on the impacted crop girl. I gave her warm olive oil from a dropper and gently massaged her crop and fed her some live yoghurt with crushed garlic. It has done the trick and she is fine now.

Syman

My girls have spent their first 24hrs in their new home. Not quite as big as they were used to but that hasn't fazed them. They had another hour in the garden when DD came home from school then wandered back into their coop without any prompting which i think is a good sign.

Opened up at 6 this morning, they still seem quite happy. so all in all we are doing OK.

ionahenor2

One of my hens is poorly. I think she has sterile Peritonitis. She is waddling like a duck and has a swollen abdoman. She hasn't laid for about 5 weeks now. She is on antibiotics given to me by a friend who keeps chickens but she doesn't seem to be improving. Has anyone experience of this?

Gigervamp

ionahenor2 wrote: »

One of my hens is poorly. I think she has sterile Peritonitis. She is waddling like a duck and has a swollen abdoman. She hasn't laid for about 5 weeks now. She is on antibiotics given to me by a friend who keeps chickens but she doesn't seem to be improving. Has anyone experience of this?

Not yet, but from what I've read, the outcome is never good.

Syman

I would like to thank all the posters in this thread for helping me make up my mind to take the plunge and "adopt" our chickens.

DD is very keen to help out at the moment. was beside herself when i let her get the egg freshly laid by flower this morning, Cabbage is not laying right now. Been sitting watching them mooch about for that last couple of hours and threw out a fistful of cornflakes in the grass for then to forage around for.

So thanks again to all

MandM90

Syman wrote: »

here they are. having a good old nose around.

They are so gorgeous, Syman! I one day hope to have chickens too as we don't buy supermarket eggs for ethical reasons but DW is worried I'm going to turn our small place into a farm :rotfl:

BitterAndTwisted

You may not turn your small place into a farm but I suspect you could spend most of your time/waste it just watching them and being entertained. It sounds better than the telly from my friends' experience with theirs. And they're keeping hens in their suburban back-garden in Croydon. The eggs are fantastic.

Eliza_2

Can anyone recommend a supplier of a simple-ish moveable ark? I have a hen house within a big run - all home made - but want to move them around the garden during the summer and completely blitz the house and run and leave it empty for a while - I have a suspicion I might have rats up there so want to get rid of them too.

Ideally I'd like a moveable ark (triangular shaped one)but with the house part raised off the ground. I've seen one but it was far too expensive and I've never bought from a chicken house supplier before so don't know which are reliable or any good. I haven't the time, energy or will to make one so happy to buy.

Has anyone any suggestions please? I have 3 silkie bantams so it only needs to be small. They are also free to roam wherever they like during the day but I do like to have a run to shut them in for safety on occasion or if I'm out for any length of time.

Thank you

Liz

RacyRed

Eliza, I've not seen any of the triangular ones with runs underneath except for the Flyte so Fancy one, here

However, I have one of these and they are not too bad for the price. They can be moved quite easily by 2 people. I've put extra chicken wire as a skirt on mine to keep the rats and mice out.

Silkies! Gorgeous little things what colour have you got?

Eliza_2

Thanks RAcyRed for the recommendations. The Flyte houses are lovely but incredibly expensive and as I already have a perfectly good house I only really wanted something small for the summer. Yours looks good value, the problem is there's only one of me to move it so I think I'll need to keep looking. If I'm not lucky I'll go back and look at yours, for the price it looks pretty good.

I have a white silkie, a dark gingery one (who is stupidly tame and gets in the way all the time), and a goldie coloured one. I did have a beautiful lavender which unfortunately died not long after I got them. I've had silkie bantams on and off since the mid 1970s and think they're the greatest. The only problem is that they can be broody for months (as my ginger one at the moment). They don't lay many eggs but plenty for one person.

Thanks again for your response.

Liz