Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Pyxis

Are you sure it was animals and not someone helping themselves while you were away?

I would expect to see some detritus on the ground if it were squirrels and rats, even if only discarded stones.

Plus there must have been a lot of squitty squirrels and rats if they ate that many plums! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:



Seriously, though, what a pain.:(:(:(
I never buy plums from shops as they either hard and never ripen, or tasteless.
I'd love to know someone with a decent plum tree!

Cheery_Daff

Gosh edwink, how vexing about your plums! :eek: A similar thing happened to us with our gooseberry bush - I only realised it was there a while after we'd moved, and a week later when I went to check whether they were ripe they were all gone!! Birds suspected in my case and they've had a bit of a tough year so I didn't resent it (much...) Will be netting the damn thing next year though!

We've managed to create our shelter at the back of our run, so they still have an outdoor area with plenty of sunlight too. Ultimately we want a roof over the whole thing but somehow that keeps not happening... largely because it will take two of us to get on and I'm at work all the blithering time at the minute, most inconvenient!!

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

Are you sure it was animals and not someone helping themselves while you were away?

I would expect to see some detritus on the ground if it were squirrels and rats, even if only discarded stones.

Plus there must have been a lot of squitty squirrels and rats if they ate that many plums! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Seriously, though, what a pain.:(:(:(
I never buy plums from shops as they either hard and never ripen, or tasteless.
I'd love to know someone with a decent plum tree!

Only a few stones on the ground, around 20 or so. We often see the squirrels shoot away from the plum tree when going up to see our feathered friends, so they definitely had some of them for sure. The rats, well this lot anyway have made themselves a home under the feed store next to the plum tree but they can't get to the feed because we put the store on a concrete base so we are guessing they helped themselves to some too. The person who looked after our hens has their own plum tree and even offered us some before we went away as they had too many for themselves, so they are out of the picture. The tree is not visible at all from the Common at the back plus we have very high fencing and netting everywhere.

So that leaves us puzzled. Suggestions on a post card please everyone!!:rotfl:

Edwink

edwink

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Gosh edwink, how vexing about your plums! :eek: A similar thing happened to us with our gooseberry bush - I only realised it was there a while after we'd moved, and a week later when I went to check whether they were ripe they were all gone!! Birds suspected in my case and they've had a bit of a tough year so I didn't resent it (much...) Will be netting the damn thing next year though!

:rotfl:

Not laughing that you lost all your Gooseberries but that you said you didn't resent it (much).... :rotfl:

How annoying, yes I would net it next year too! You can't beat a homemade Gooseberry crumble. Talking of crumble we made 2 apple crumbles tonight for the freezer. For the topping we added some crushed pumpkin seeds which gives the topping a crunchy texture. Will keep one for when our hen sitter comes to supper and the other will have as a treat one evening with ice cream. Yum!! yum!! yum!!

Edwink

edwink

Good new here in that my little man appears to be mite free now:j. Still early days with his Ivermectin treatment but couldn't see any creeping about on him this afternoon which we are thrilled about:j. Gave him a dusting again whilst checking in case we might have missed the odd one crawling about, just to be on the safe side. He had his second dose today and last one is next week.

So all in all good EXCEPT he has somehow hurt his leg . Notice he was sitting down a lot yesterday and thought he was probably having a tired off day so just observed him throughout the day but he was the same today and we noticed him having a little trouble with his left leg. Have done a thorough check for things like Bumble Foot or to see if he had anything in the pads of his feet like a splinter but couldn't see anything wrong. I checked his legs over and nothing seems broken or swollen and both legs feel the same temperature and it doesn't feel at all hot. We are guessing that he has jumped off of something and landed a bit awkward, which is quite common with hens. So now it is just a waiting game with the mites and also his poorly leg. He is eating very well so that is one less thing to worry about. Will just keep an extra eye on him throughout the week and see if there is any improvement and take it from there.

BUMBLE FOOT.... Is a pressure sore, scab or a plug on the foot. The plug/lump can sometimes fall off and have yellow pus, blood or a white discharge inside. We have had this twice over the years and managed to clear it up fully without the need to visit our vets. Just need to remove all the pus (YUK!!) and keep the wound very clean. We also use a medication called *Betadine* which is Povidone-Iodine anti-septic solution. It is used for wounds, burns or cuts. The solution is a deep purple colour so will dye the wound and stop them pecking at it as it will no longer be red. The purple colour is not permanent and will wear off. Remember that all hens/Cockerels will peck anything that is red on themselves and each other, which will obviously irritate a sore or wound. On recommendation we purchased this through eBay from an international seller as really expensive from the UK sellers on there. We have used this product quite a lot over the years and always have a spare bottle handy just in case. It is sold in small bottles of about 30ml for £4.99 and will last ages as you only need to use a few drops at a time. If you do decide to ever buy any of this medication you should be able to identify it easily as comes in a little yellow plastic bottle with a yellow box.

Bless his heart, what with the mites and now this. It is a lot for him to deal with but we are doing all we can to make sure he is ok.

How is everyone else getting on?. Lots of porridge treats for your girls I hope:). Mine go mad for porridge and even little man does with his poor leg:).

Will update on my little mans progress.

Edwink

Pyxis

I love the idea of them having porridge.

Better not introduce them to pecan granola! :rotfl:
Porridge is a lot cheaper!



Edit
OOH, chickens on the One Show at the moment!
One is a strange one.... a Polish chicken with an Afro hairdo! :rotfl:






A bit like this one!

edwink

I would love some of these





or maybe some of these





and maybe even this one as it reminds me of my hair when I wake up in the morning - OMG look at that face! I do wonder if this one can actually see anything with all those feathers.






Why don't we have a funny looking hen week on here? Might be a bit of fun! Anyone else like to join in??

Edwink

Pyxis

Does anyone remember Tribbles, from the first Star Trek series? (I think they may have featured once in Star Trek TNG too)..............

edwink

Quick post from me today as in the middle of getting supper ready. Homemade Goulash with rice tonight which is so tasty.

Our little mans leg/limp is doing much better now. He still has a slight limp with it but we saw him running around today which was lovely to see. So he is definitely going in the right direction. Plus he is still mite free which is really good too.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Some of those hair dos (hen dos??) are really quite impressive!!

Glad your fella is still mite free edwink :j

We're still getting mostly 4 eggs a day from our four girls :j I do thin they're starting to moult now though - Hermione & Luna are going rather bald, Mildred has lots of little white stick feathers on the back of her neck, and everyone other than Hermione is looking incredibly scruffy in the petticoat department (they were pretty bad before but worse now)

Don't like to see them like this but they still seem pretty happy. They've been experimenting with their wings this week, fluttering inelegantly over obstacles, jumping onto the bench next to me and one of the even ended up flapping half way up the door in a fit of overexubrance this morning while I was fiddling with the catch to let them out of the run :eek: :rotfl:

Hermione sneezed this morning - never heard one do that before :rotfl: it was really loud and sounded just like a human sneeze!