Keeping hens and ducks chat.

beautiful_ravens

Could be sinuses then.
Ive no idea if she has a hot comb or beak. Ill see if I can find out.
At the moment she is ok, just had a slight swelling last week but gone away now. Its quite hard to get a good look at it, because when its swollen, she looks at us from the other eye, so her head is always turned away!

Thanks Edwink.

Pyxis

I like your username, beautiful_ravens!

I like ravens!

edwink

Edwink x

Pyxis

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

That is so cute Pyxis :dance:

Martyn1981

Hiya Edwink, exchanged small pressies with some friends yesterday, and they gave us some fresh eggs from their small brood (3 hens I think).

Any suggestions for a small, possibly silly pressie for hens/hen keepers this time of year?

Also, any advice on keeping hens warm as we approach the coldest months. They seem to know what they are doing (I certainly don't) but offered to ask for help and advice for them just in case.

PS Happy Xmas.

edwink

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Hiya Edwink, exchanged small pressies with some friends yesterday, and they gave us some fresh eggs from their small brood (3 hens I think).
Any suggestions for a small, possibly silly pressie for hens/hen keepers this time of year?
Also, any advice on keeping hens warm as we approach the coldest months. They seem to know what they are doing (I certainly don't) but offered to ask for help and advice for them just in case. PS Happy Xmas.

Merry Christmas to you too Martyn1981

A really nice gift for hens could be something like this

https://www.littlefieldsfarm.com/natures-grub-mega-pecker-poultry-pecking-block?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv7ipz6Gl2AIV5xXTCh3IYwGyEAQYAiABEgJz6_D_BwE

With regards to keeping the hens warm they could cover their hen house with something that would insulate it over the colder months. We have surrounded ours with thick sheets of polystyrene and tied it down with bungee straps. Even throwing an old blanket over the top of their girls hut would help. Please remind them that they must not block any air vents if they do any of the above.

HTH and thank you so much for posting.

Edwink

Beckyy

A handful of corn or some porridge in the afternoon is always nice for them.

Merry Christmas everyone!

As well as battling scaly leg mite one of the new hens also appears to have Mycoplasma - she has a very swollen sinus and bubbling of the eye. We're off to the vets on Wednesday as they've been shut for the holidays. Whilst I believe it can be treated with antibiotics the infection never goes away and can flare up with dips in the immune system, it is also highly contagious so my main concern is the rest of the hens. I'm contemplating whether having her PTS may be the kindest option as I would really struggle to deal with this in all of the hens, especially on top of the scaly leg mite. I will see what the vet says this week.

I'm sorely regretting buying the new hens now, I wish I had waited until the spring and gone back to the breeders I've previously used. I've rarely had any health problems in my flock until I introduced these girls! Hindsight is a beautiful thing!



EDIT: Just read your post beautiful_ravens. Sounds like we have a similar thing going on!

edwink

Beckyy wrote: »

A handful of corn or some porridge in the afternoon is always nice for them.

As well as battling scaly leg mite one of the new hens also appears to have Mycoplasma - she has a very swollen sinus and bubbling of the eye. I will see what the vet says this week.

I'm sorely regretting buying the new hens now, I wish I had waited until the spring and gone back to the breeders I've previously used. I've rarely had any health problems in my flock until I introduced these girls! Hindsight is a beautiful thing!



EDIT: Just read your post beautiful_ravens. Sounds like we have a similar thing going on!

Becky it certainly does sound as though your hen has the same condition as Beautiful-ravens hen has I know from personal experience that this is a very, very difficult condition to treat . Please do let us know what your vet suggests is best for her.

We bought some hens after having ex batts for a number of years as we thought it would be nice to have different breeds/colours for a change. We regret that decision too because we think we brought blooming red mite in with those hens. Well we certainly didn't have the red mite problem before they came anyway.

Edwink

Tiglath

What is a reasonable number of chickens to start with? We're moving to a smallholding next month with an acre of land including 3 spacious chicken runs (and a pigrun). We're thinking 5 or so rescues in one of the runs - is that a good number to put together? I appreciate they'll be strangers to each other, and we're busy learning our chicken lore before we take that step, so we want to start small until we become more confident. We may put geese in the orchard as the current owner has 7 or 8 which seem perfectly happy in amongst the fruit trees. Anyone keep geese?