Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Well done Cheery you are doing really well after what you had to witness with your poor hens. Nice you have buried the two hens near the fruit trees especially as they liked it in that area. And yes you certainly can grieve for them as most do with all pets. After all they are pets and they reward us hen keepers with lovely fresh eggs as a thank you for looking after them. I cry when I lose mine too cheery x

Glad the two in your study are doing ok, early days but you wait and see by the weekend you will see a difference in them. Good job with the Meal Worms as in my experience hens never refuse them as they love them so much, so always keep a few handy in a jar somewhere so if you ever have a poorly hen they will come in very useful.

We don't have a study but I have an arty studio room upstairs so our girls when poorly get brought in to our kitchen as it is really big. Our poorly hens or if they are just really old and go quiet outside spend time in our kitchen. Over our time with hens we have had 4 house hens that became permanent residents indoors with us. Just old and quite frail ones that started to maybe get knocked a bit by the others. They are no trouble and just follow me about when I'm in there. We have a wooden bar support under our large kitchen table and they perch on that overnight when sleeping. As soon as they perch on there in the evening I flatten a few squares of kitchen roll and slip it under the bar because hens poo mostly at night. So I don't come down in the morning to a messy floor, just take used kitchen roll away, wash that area of floor and do the same each night. They spend most of the day by the stove in the winter or spend time in our garden area in the summer where they can still see the other girls but not get knocked over. I am sure it gives you peace of mind right now that they are safe indoors with you especially if that Stoat is hanging about around yours.

Yours will be ok cheery they just need a bit of time to loose their nervousness over what they witnessed. Bless them.

((((HUGS)))) x

Edwink

babyblade41

Pyxis wrote: »

Would they be interested in chocolate?

Is it harmful to hens, or are they allowed take a tiny bit as a treat?


Not toffee though, as it might stick their beaks together!

Definitely toxic for most animals.

Yghurt is a nice treat and mine adore pasta and sweetcorn with sardines on top !!

Cheery_Daff

Ha, that's very specific babyblade! :rotfl:

Ours are eating more enthusiastically which is lovely to see. I was a bit worried about their eyesight as they were placing their feet very delicately yesterday almost like they couldn't see where they were going, but today I held out a handful of mixed corn and pellets and the pair of them managed to very deftly pick out only the corn and leave the pellets so clearly they can see perfectly well :rotfl: little tykes :rotfl:

Going to see how they get on over the weekend and maybe take them outside (supervised) for a little while to see how they get on.

They've been in the house before and are normally very curious and a bit of a menace trying to get in and under things so I don't think they're just daunted by being in a new place. But maybe being outside will encourage them to peck and scratch rather than just standing there?

At the minute they only seem to eat or move when we're with them - I've peeked round the door several times a day and they're just standing round, whereas when we're there they'll eat out of our hands. Wonder if they feel safer with someone 'looking out' for predators? Or just happier in a larger flock?

Not going outside til this vile wind and rain clears though - this is NOT good weather for either a chicken or a person!

Pyxis

Would a model of bird of prey help to keep stoats away, or would that merely frighten the hens as well?

Cheery_Daff

No idea pyxis - but it got them overnight so it'd have to be a glow in the dark one :rotfl: :rotfl:

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

No idea pyxis - but it got them overnight so it'd have to be a glow in the dark one :rotfl: :rotfl:

Maybe something with glowing eyes! Eyes the size of a tiger!

Hey! That reminds me! Lion dung! That might act as a stoat/fox deterrent! Big predator scent, etc.

You can get dried lion dung online. I got it once as a cat deterrent, and it did seem to work. Trouble is, you have to renew it after rain, so there is a cost involved, but it might serve in the short term, or at least until normal stoat prey becomes more plentiful in the spring.

edwink

Just a thought Cheery get Mr Cheery to pee in a bottle or some other container and tip it around the outside of their enclosure. Doing that is the same as an animal scent marking their territory and would deter another male from going near their enclosure. Maybe tip some more around other areas too near to where your hens are as that would give added security for them. Only thing is as you have nasty weather at the moment it will wash it all away and you will need to keep replacing it.

You can also hang one of Mr Cheery's t-shirts or some other type of top that he has worn for a while as that would have male scent on it too. You could drape that over their hotel which would give them added night time security. Also any old rags that have been soaked in male urine and placed on top or hung from the sides of their enclosure will do the job. As said all these safety measures will need constant replacing if it rains as it will wash the male scent away.

Stoats are very territorial like foxes and will scent mark their territory all over the place so to be sure they leave your hens alone in future you will have to make the best effort you can to scent mark with Mr Cheery's urine as much as you can and everywhere you can think of. Leave a few buckets of urine around the place too. Hopefully then the blooming thing will take note and go hunting somewhere else for food. The trouble with stoats is even if they have enough food they will still keep killing anything they can get hold of that they can manage size wise. It appears that this stoat only wanted to kill and not take what he sees as food with him/her as there is no way he/she would of been able to take a chicken and get back out through that one inch gap with it. They just injure, draw blood and kill.

I honestly think that scent marking is the way to go with this and hopefully he/she will get the message that it is another males territory and to buzz off out of it.

That's what I would do Cheery and I would start doing it as soon as possible even before the hens go back outside again. Hope that helps.

(((HUGS)))

Edwink x

CAFCGirl

Hello to all, skin and feathers

Been a while since I popped in. Well since Chicken Pie went off, leaving me with Dipper and Nugget - the lower ranking peckers.

Since it's only the two of them, they grown and bulked out and are now both quite plump little lafies . They had a small moult this year but have come back strong. I'm also still averaging 1 egg a day which is where we were at with 4 of them! They seem quite content between them and roost next to each other in the nest box.

Love and meal worms to all

Cheery_Daff

Hi CAFCGirl :hello: sorry to hear about Chicken Pie Glad the other two are doing well though :j

Our ladies are still slowly on the mend - very slowly. Although I did notice what appears to be a roundworm in one of their droppings this morning :eek: :eek: Been giving them Verm-x monthly but clearly that's not enough - they've been spending more time in the run lately because of the snow so perhaps there's been a build up of worm eggs in the ground that they wouldn't normally get because they're out free ranging more?

Whatever it is, we're now going for Flubenvet treatment (not cheap, is it!?)

Also going to start getting them back to a better diet. These last few days we've been tempting them with whatever they'll take to try to get them to eat SOMETHING - but obviously they're doing what I'd do in that situation and basically eating only the chicken equivalent of smarties :eek:

So as of tomorrow, back to the normal routine of no-treats-til-you've-eaten-your-breakfast :eek: No point giving them medicated food if they're going to ignore it!

I've been hoping it would be enough to just keep poop scooping while they're inside rather than doing a full bedding change but clearly not. Yawn.

Started to think about increasing the flock again... On the one hand I feel like I'm just bringing them here to their death :eek: But we've got quarter inch mesh on order and will cover the entire run including the top, and the entire hen house, so hopefully they should at least be safe at night... (although obviously still the same risk of a fox getting them while free ranging).

On the other hand, I get the impression they'd be happier with more than two in their little flock... But there's a fine line isn't there? Doesn't seem fair to introduce new ones when they're already so distressed BHWT have a collection date in a couple of weeks so I'd hope they'd be a bit better (and back living outside!) by then..

Cheery_Daff

Right - spoke to the nice lady on the BHWT advice line and they normally advise waiting a month after a predator attack before rehoming more hens. However, they have a rehoming date at the end of Feb so we're going for that - it'll be three weeks then, and they don't have another local date planned soon, so this will save them staying on their own for too long.

No-treats-before-breakfast routine has started. They just looked at breakfast with disdain :rotfl: However when I held it out in my hand they ate it all :rotfl: Making a rod for my own back there!

So three more ladies joining us at the end of next week :j :j Admit I'm quite daunted - what if these ones get killed too?? :eek:

These are ex-caged ladies so are likely to be in rather a worse state than the current ones (who'd been barn hens - not outside, but at least not in a cage). Awful to think of them in there at the minute, bless the little things

Mr Cheery is in charge of naming these ones, since I named the last lot I don't think he's going for witches this time :rotfl: