Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Thriftkitten

Tried to scroll back.... not sure who digger was, but sorry to hear he has passed. xx sending hugs x

ionahenor2 wrote: »

lovely Thrift.

On a sad note little Digger died tonight.

Gigervamp

Iona, sorry to hear about Digger. Sweet dreams Digger.

Thriftkitten, lovely pics!

ionahenor2

Doesn't rain but pours!!!

Lettie is limping today. On closer inspection she seems to have torn her claw (not sure how). I've washed the foot.sprayed it with antiseptic and she is in the sick bay (kitchen under construction) on newspaper not soil. Is there anything else I can do?

How are the cuties Thriftkitten? Can you tell their sex by the colour?

How is Duckypoos Giger?

Thriftkitten

1 day old and nosey as ever!!!

Thriftkitten

The shy one hiding behind the chick crumb..... Mummy teaching them.

Thriftkitten

As expected the egg that stopped developing still hadn't hatched and mum was still hesitant to come off it, so thought it would be better to dispose of it and then she may come out of the nest to let the chicks roam around the hutch and show them how to eat and drink..... worked a treat and she had the biggest poo in the nest after they were all down and eating, managed to clear out the nesting area much to her disgust, chicks were running everywhere and mum got quite flustered trying to get them back under her, so just shut the hutch door and let her round them up as she was getting herself too worked up with me gawking and cooing.:p

Thriftkitten

Hoping Lettie will be ok, at least she is out of the dirt and will give the claw time to heal, When we got Marj our broody I noticed she had a bloody nail and it healed very quick,
Chicks are fine, toooo cute and this broody business is very addictive, although I will say this is one of the longest 3 weeks I can remember in a long time.... only other time I felt it drag like this was when I was nesting and cleaning everything in sight with only a few weeks to go hahahah!!!!
Felt like a lifetime those last couple of weeks.
Chicks eating ok, 1 is very shy and dosent come out often from under mum but the other 3 are nosey ones, I had no idea you could tell the sex by colour.... A complete novice sorry.

ionahenor2 wrote: »

Doesn't rain but pours!!!

Lettie is limping today. On closer inspection she seems to have torn her claw (not sure how). I've washed the foot.sprayed it with antiseptic and she is in the sick bay (kitchen under construction) on newspaper not soil. Is there anything else I can do?

How are the cuties Thriftkitten? Can you tell their sex by the colour?

How is Duckypoos Giger?

Gigervamp

Thriftkitten, sexing by colour you can do with some breeds. Cream legbars are one such autosexing breed, the males are a fawn colour and the females have dark stripes on their heads. There is some information about it here. I don't think the sablepoots are an autosexing breed.

Iona, I think you've done all you can. Just make sure she keeps her foot clean for a day or so until the wound starts healing up.

Someone asked if we named Duckypoos after Duckula. (Sorry, don't remember who it was now) Although it wasn't intentional, we are big fans of Duckula, so it was probably subconcious!

I'm pretty sure she is a girl now, especially after having to stop Jerry our drake from trying to have his way with her a couple of times!

She's back to sleeping with the new marans and tends to hang out with them during the day. I love the sound she makes when we put some corn in her little pond. As she hoovers it up, she sounds so excited, it's so funny!

Videos here.

HeatherintheHills

ionahenor2 wrote: »

lovely Thrift.

On a sad note little Digger died tonight.

Just read this, I'm so sorry Iona sleep peacefully little Digger. How is Lettie today?

Giger, I'm so relieved Duckypoos is a girl. :j

Thriftkitten, how are those gorgeous chicks today?

I'm an idiot. I took on some hens I'd never seen before and am now dealing with gapeworm, scaly leg mite, 2 cases of bumblefoot, all on the same girls, and one of them has a cloudy eye, so probably blind. And before you ask, no, I didn't get the chance to isolate them because they were put over the fence into the free range area with the rest of the flock when I wasn't there.

On a happier note, I gave my tiny bantam girl a warm bath and blow dry today, she LOVED it :j

Gigervamp

Heather, I'm always surprised at how well chooks take to being bathed and blowdried! Point the hairdrier at the cats and they scarper, but the chooks just stand there. I think they must like the warmth.

We've had to treat scaley leg. Why is it always the girls who are hard to catch that get it? We've contemplated getting a large fishing net at times!