Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

babyblade41 wrote: »

My last lot were totally featherless with open sores so lots of purple spray

Good to mention the purple spray, thank you. This is used as an anti pecking spray and is used on any sore spots, especially if a hen has any red areas. The trouble is hens will peck anything that is red so if another hen has a red sore it is typical for another hen to peck at it and therefore cause her distress. So a product such as this, that doesn't cost a fortune, is well worth keeping in their medicine box in case you ever need it as it is an antiseptic and in our experience is well worth the money and it definitely works.

https://www.omlet.co.uk/shop/chicken_keeping/anti_pek_and_healing/2768/lincoln_purple_spray_-_250ml/

Edwink

Pyxis

Do they peck at their combs and wattles?

Cheery_Daff

New ladies are here :j :j :j

Maud and Mildred are curious but not too impressed :rotfl: Maud is doing a LOT of vocal posturing and clearly intends to be in charge.

Mildred has taken herself off to bed now but Maud is still patrolling - she's mostly quit the loud objecting clucking and is just staring one of the newcomers down through the fence :rotfl:

New ladies were a bit fidgety in the car but once we put them in the run one headed straight for the food, and the other two immediately discovered scratching round on the ground and dust bathing :j like within 5 minutes :j

They're not in tooo bad shape, although the volunteers were having to clip the nails of each hen as they put them in a carrier as they were almost bent back on themselves they were so long :eek:

One has quite a bare back, another quite a bare chest, and the third is quite a lot bigger than the other two so we should be able to tell them apart for now at least. One has quite a crossed beak too.

Mr Cheery won't decide on names yet. He's decided Mildred and Maud really hate the new ones and is just lavishing them with treats and attention and telling me off for spending too much time with the new ladies

I'm sure it'll all work out. Wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, most inconvenient! But Mr Cheery is here, they have separate areas of the run, and all have access to food and water so...

Cheery_Daff

Maud's in the house now, standing just inside the door looking out in a menacing fashion.. :eek:

Clearly I'm going to have to sit here til it actually goes dark.

(But as a side note, isn't it lovely that it's almost 6pm and not properly dark yet?) :j

Cheery_Daff

Right.

Mildred and Maud were quiet for about 20 minutes, and new ladies were pathering about & seemed to be looking for somewhere to perch so I took a risk & put them all in the house.

Bit of fussing later... The three new ones clearly like to perch, whereas Mildred & Maud have always slept in the nest box. One of them had clearly tried to perch on the board between the two nest boxes which I hadn't secured in place properly and it had fallen over...

Opened the door, there's Maud looking quiet bewildered. Shooed a new lady out of Maud's favoured spot, put Maud back in next to Mildred, and have been sat out here in the dark waiting for them all to settle down and stop fidgeting :rotfl:

Almost pitch black here and and I've not heard a peep for the last five minutes so I'm going to assume all is well... Will come back out at dawn to separate them again! And hope there's been no midnight squabbling...

Pyxis

Oh Cheery, I think you are well and truly addicted! :T :T :T

What lucky hens!

Fancy coming from a horrible battery farm to somewhere where a hoomin bean will sit in the almost dark for ages, to make sure they are ok on their first night.
:A

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

Oh Cheery, I think you are well and truly addicted! :T :T :T

What lucky hens!

Fancy coming from a horrible battery farm to somewhere where a hoomin bean will sit in the almost dark for ages, to make sure they are ok on their first night.
:A

Yup I agree Cheery is addicted already and a natural with them :A and yes those are the lucky ones.

Well done Cheery x

Edwink

edwink

Pyxis wrote: »

Do they peck at their combs and wattles?

Good question Pyxis. Not through my experience they don't. If they flight at anytime often you will see one with a slight cut/bleed to their comb probably from a nail injury but not just actual pecking of a comb. We've had only a few over the years with a cut comb so I just make sure it is clean and dap some Vaseline on it which stops it bleeding and soothes it if it is sore for them.

My lovely man Cockerel gets sticky food on his wattles and I've seen many a time where one of the hens will stand right next to him and peck the little bits of food off of it and bless him he just stands there quietly. Also seen many times hens that have some sticky food around their beak and another hen carefully pecking it off. Like a couple of pieces of sweetcorn or a bit of mash potato. I say good girls nice to see you help keep each other clean because you know your mum won't tolerate dirty hens in this house :rotfl:

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Pyxis wrote: »

Oh Cheery, I think you are well and truly addicted! :T :T :T

What lucky hens!

Fancy coming from a horrible battery farm to somewhere where a hoomin bean will sit in the almost dark for ages, to make sure they are ok on their first night.
:A

And two stupid humans will get up literally at the crack of dawn to make sure there's no pre-breakfast squabbling :rotfl: :rotfl:

Now sat supervising breakfast, which I don't mind as I have my own cuppa and there is the most glorious sunrise (the hens have a lovely view of the sunrise from their run, much better than from our house :rotfl: )

All seemed fine overnight :j three eggs this morning, one of them very soft shelled and one of the new ladies pecked a hole in it as we were shooing them out.

Everyone's now quietly eating breakfast in their own separate areas (although Maud is still crowing from time to time, and now Mildred has started too)

Going to sit in here til it's light enough to let the elder ones out to free range, and in the meantime enjoy the twittering (when I can hear it over Maud and Mildred) :rotfl:

Clearly I'm not cut out to be an actual farmer - can you imagine if I had 300 hens?! Or even just 20! :rotfl: :rotfl:

Pyxis

I suppose with 300, though, they are just a blurry flock, and you wouldn't get emotionally attached.


Wouldn't like to try counting 300, though! :eek: