Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

Pleased to hear it went well edwink :j You sieve the soil for your girls' dustbaths?? You are committed indeed! Mine had to find and create their own dustbaths and I have no involvement at all!

Well, so much for all going well here. My study is now a chicken hospital again (although not in as dramatic a way as last time). Bessie didn't emerge from the hen house this morning - I left her while I went for my usual walk round the fields in case she was just trying to lay (although at that point she wasn't in the nest box - but the new ones haven't quite got the hang of that anyway yet).

Came back and she was sat in the nest box, so I went inside for a cuppa. Half an hour later I went back out - and she was still sat in the nest box. Let me stroke her and didn't look remotely well

Put her in a basket and have brought her inside to keep an eye on her - the room is nice and warm, she's in a picnic basket (!) with food and water, but can easily get out if she wants to. Keep popping in to check - I did see her having a drink which is a start, but otherwise she's just sitting there.

Pah, it's just too much of an emotional rollercoaster this chicken keeping business Anything I can do other than just keep her warm and dry (it's !!!!ing down outside today) and give her food and water? Can't see anything specifically wrong with her - she does seem to have a bit of a bare patch on her back but they're all a bit scruffy and it might be just that it doesn't show when she stands up? Or one of the others has had a peck before I let them out this morning??

edwink

Cheery, its possible that one of the others has had go at her, that's my guess at the moment. She may just be sulking and feeling upset about it. As long as she is eating and drinking ok that's the main worry. Is she standing ok? Will she walk about if you put her on the floor? Not limping or anything? See what she does if you take her out of the basket.

Don't get too disheartened Cheery it is always a little difficult when introducing new hens to the flock as it upsets the pecking order. Hence in a way why I was a little reluctant to take in the two I just have. What with my health and our poor friend that I have posted about, I thought do I really want to be supervising standing outside in the rain. Hubby was keener that I was with this rehoming. I was looking to let my last two old'uns see the rest of their lives out here and then straight away get another maybe 15 ex-batts as didn't want my little man to be on his own. They do get a little acquainted on the journey here which always helps I think. Doesn't really stop any biff bangs as I call them but I do find it lessens them.

Just keep her quiet today and keep an eye on her. If she is eating and drinking ok and can walk try and get here back out with the others asap otherwise they could turn on her and then you are back to your good old cuppa and supervising again. You are doing everything you should, honest. I know it is disheartening to see this as we all want to have a happy, happy flock. I get upset when these things happen, its only natural Cheery.

Just out of interest how many eggs have you got from them today opposed to other days. I ask because wondering if she is maybe trying to lay and can't. Is she sitting there calm and looks comfortable?.

Don't worry I will keep popping on here throughout the day ok, your not on your own .... Sorry just realised the time. Only just put my laptop on so a bit late to respond. Hope you are ok.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Thanks edwink

I think it's an issue with her crop - I've been chatting with a friend up the road who has had hens for a few months longer than me and she's had similar issues.

Initially she was suspecting poor Bessie was egg bound from what I'd said, so suggested I put her in the bath and gave her a bit of a massage. When I did that, it became apparent that her crop was like a water balloon :eek:

She'd not eaten anything all morning, but had drunk a lot of water, far more than I'd expect.

Didn't seem to mind being in the bath so we stayed there for a bit, giving her crop a gentle rub to maybe loosen it a bit (although it was squishy rather than hard)

Read somewhere to keep her off food if that's what the problem was, and as she hadn't eaten anything anyway I took the food bowl away and just left her with water.

I've been checking her all day and the swelling does seem to have gone down quite a bit, but if she's still not right tomorrow I'll ring the vet.

Still, she does seem marginally brighter, looking up when we go in and last time I tried to feel her crop she tried to wriggle away which she hadn't done all day. She settled down to sleep a while ago so I'll see how it feels tomorrow.

Rusty and Beaky have been adventuring today :j made their way down to the house! Sadly it's been raining and they were soaked :rotfl: ended up shutting them all back in the run (except Bessie) - Mr Cheery's fortifications mean it's pretty sheltered and dry in there.

So we'll see. It's really windy here and the lights are flickering on and off so if the power goes out I'll be transferring Bessie into a different room - she's got the only room with an open fireplace in :rotfl:

Cheery_Daff

Meant to say, Mr cheery let Beaky & Rusty into the house earlier as they followed him back from the garage and were looking a bit bedraggled. I opened the door to the room with Bessie in and they came in to say hello. Took her out of the basket and she just stood there, rubbed beaks with Beaky and had a small wander but really just a couple of steps, so hopefully they won't have forgotten her.

The other two still haven't got the hang of going into the coop, so we're still having to go out when it's almost dark and just plonk them in - and then when we look after a few minutes they've usually just sat down where we've put them, right inside the door.

Hope they learn to go to bed eventually! Might leave it til it's properly dark tomorrow and see if they've gone.

Stupidly enough Bessie did actually manage it last night so the others may have eventually followed but it's all been disrupted now!

edwink

Cheery, so at least you know that it has nothing to do with a poorly leg or anything to do with her limbs, so that's a good start.

Just so you know for future reference, if you get a hen that can't lay her egg you can hold her gently over a bowl of hot steaming water, obviously you will need to be very careful and make sure she is held securely. The steam from the hot water with help soften and relax her muscles allowing the egg to be laid. Always worth knowing these basic things as it prepares you for them should this sort of problem arise in the future.

Yes keep her off of food and keep an eye on her crop like you are doing. She wouldn't be drinking at all if her crop was totally full up so its not full to bursting, if you understand what I mean. Hopefully it should go down but at the moment it is probably making her feel a bit squeezy being so full and that is why she was just sitting an not moving around. Glad she had contact with the others as that keeps her in the loop with them. Her trying to wriggle away is a slight sign that she herself is feeling a bit better. When they are quite poorly or feeling down you can do almost anything with them but when they start to feel better "its like ok, ok I'm fine stop picking me up will you.

Aww bless her heart poor little hen and so soon for you with them being new and something like this is happening. Try not to worry too much as you have done all you can right now and that's what you have to say to yourself. It may well go down by the morning, bless her.

With crops it can be a number of things, with some things more simpler than others. You may remember I had an ex-batt who arrived with a compacted crop and it was rock hard like a blooming golf ball. Just observed them all when we arrived back with them all and noticed she was very skinny and then realised she wasn't eating so had to find out why obviously. But, luckily for me and her I found the problem and over a couple of weeks I helped her with it and later she just flourished so much so that I could not tell her apart from all the others although she was probably half the size when she arrived. This little hen arrived with my very first ever batch of rescue hens, bless her.

Hope you get on ok with her tomorrow. I'll be on here throughout the day ok?. Take care

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Edwink, you're so generous with your time and information :kisses3: love MSE :j :j

Bless your poor little hen. Rusty is a lot smaller than our others so hoping she doesn't have similar issues. She's eating plenty though and is rather featherless so suspect she's just been rather picked on was happily wandering about on her own today though just like Hermione used to do

Out of curiosity i did have a feel of both Rusty and Beaky's crops when taking them back to the run earlier, never actually had cause to feel one before so wasn't really sure if Bessie's was unusual or of i was just over reacting but theirs were both substantially smaller in the afternoon than here was first thing in the morning. Similar texture though so hoping here's will have just gone down overnight, fingers crossed.

My it's windy tonight! Don't know whether to feel more sorry for Bessie on her own in our unfamiliar house with the wind whistling through the chimney, or the others outside in the hen house! :eek:

edwink

Cheery, The hens crops will always be full at night before going to bed and in the morning almost if not empty and throughout the day they eat and fill the crop back up again. It will feel a little hard but not almost totally solid. If you pick up a hen in the morning the crop will be quite soft and empty.

With the hen I had the compacted crop, it was rock solid. There was no room for movement in it at all and felt so hard and gritty. It was like a blooming golf ball as so compact, so her food wasn't leaving her crop and going through her digestive tract, so she lost weight and wasn't getting any nutrition as she should have been.

Maybe when you have a spare moment one morning, pick one of your girls up as soon as they come out and just feel their crop and then do the same at bedtime. The skin is quite thin around the crop especially when full, this won't hurt them so don't worry, just do it quite gently. This will help you to familiarise yourself with what a full and empty crop will actually feel like to touch. Will be just smaller than a golf ball when full and not rock solid. They digest their food at night and that is when they do most of their droppings as you will no doubt have seen when letting them out every morning. Messy b*ggers!

Hope that information will be of help to you.

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Thanks edwink

Bessie is up and out of her basket of her own accord :j Several droppings overnight, and a large wobbly jelly egg too. Poor thing.

Had a feel of her crop, feels a bit golf ball like to me but nowhere near giant water balloon status it was yesterday :eek:

Will have a feel of Mildred and Maud's when I let them out as a comparison.

She does seem brighter this morning and ate a bit of food out of my hand. Clearly been wandering around before I got up as there's bits of poo on the floor :rotfl:

I'm going to keep an eye on her for a bit this morning, then take her out to the run if all seems well while the door's open so they can all mingle & free range together.

Working at home today and Mr Cheery's here too so we can keep a watchful eye.

Cheery_Daff

Right, Bessie was adventuring around the kitchen and making a noise when I came back from my walk, so I tempted her outside (she followed willingly) and took her up to the run with the other ladies. They're all out roaming about now :j although the new ladies don't roam far. Except Rusty, who is channelling Hermione (who was bottom of the old pecking order and frequently used to happily wander off on her own). Rusty's made it down to near the house by herself so she got extra treats

Picked up a load of reduced strawberries this morning :money: so the ladies have had some - although I have to say they didn't show the amount of enthusiasm I expected so I'll be saving the rest for me :rotfl: Pesky creatures.

Three proper eggs this morning (two in the hen house, one in the bush), plus Bessie's wobbly jelly egg, which had blood on the outside :eek: so I'll keep an eye on her. She does seem ok though, her and Beaky had scratched out a bit more of the grass behind the run last time I was out there and were scratching around happily (they'll be less happy now it's started raining again... but their run is very sheltered!)

Hope all your feathery pals are good this morning :j

edwink

Aww that's good news Cherry, so glad she is getting back to normal. Sounds as if she is definitely on the mend :j

Not a brilliant day here and only just managed to switch laptop on for the first time as had a bit of a drama to attend to this morning and most of the afternoon in fact. Will tell you about that after I have told you about my poorly duck.

Was sitting at the kitchen table having a cuppa late afternoon and noticed one of our Cayuga ducks was acting a bit strange, well a lot actually. Both of us shot outside to go and help her and her neck was bent over and she was shaking. Hubby, not long home from work thank goodness, managed to get hold of her and we both managed to calm her down. She almost went limp once I had hold of her, so I sat with her on my lap for a couple of minutes holding on to her loosely to see if she would struggle but she didn't but her heart was going ten to the dozen. We brought her indoors and I sat with her on the kitchen mat whilst hubby put all the others to bed as it was starting to get dark. I quite honestly thought she was going to die on me. I covered her up to keep her warm as her breathing became very shallow whilst hubby got a box and cut out the front so we could put her in it somewhere quiet. She was almost lifeless as she wasn't moving on her own at all when we put her in the box. We have been sitting downstairs with her all evening and talking to her as she knows our voices, just hoping to reassure her more than anything. Just didn't want her to be scared being in a strange place and not with the others. Over the past hour I have managed to get her to drink something by putting her beak in some water with some poultry tonic in it and she has now managed to stand up for a while so obviously feels a little better than earlier. So its looking much better for her now, thankfully, although we still do not know what is wrong with her. Its appears that she has had some sort of stroke but we can't be sure at this stage. Hubby is downstairs keeping an eye on her and I am hoping that she will sleep now as we have made the kitchen as dark as possible by just having the hall light on only and we will see how she is in the morning. Never easy when one of them is poorly and this one is really quite poorly, bless her.

Other news, first thing this morning I found out that our soak-a-way was blocked, hubby at work so I had to make a start on trying to get that sorted. I managed to clear the blockage with shoving a hose pipe down the main pipe and twisting it round and round and pushing it up and down. Cleared a load of stuff like leaves and what not out and my poor little hands were frozen and covered in dirty, dirty soak-a-way water, yuk!. Ended up with 2 full buckets of water and sludge from the gully leading to the soak-a-way as it wasn't draining as it should have been, so the water and debris just sat there stagnating. I also cleaned out the filtering system we installed which is the first stage of filtering anything which comes from the kitchen sink, washing machine and the dishwasher. So that's all fresh and clean and both sides of the gully leading to the soak-a-way have been scrubbed with a broom, so that's all clean too. What a blooming job that was but for us and the way we have set things up here is to keep our utility bills down as low as possible and having a soak-a-way, therefore, as we do not need the use of our mains drain we pay very little for sewage waste. In fact we only pay 14% for sewage. We are metered and as a rule if you use, say for example 100 litres, you are charged for 90 litres of sewage because that is what they base their calculations on for sewage waste. So basically 90% of the water you take from the mains, but as said we only pay 14% for sewage waste and that is only for our loo flushing only because kitchen waste water goes in to the soak-a-way and bath/shower water and rainwater that comes off of our roof goes in to the rainwater harvesting tanks for loo flushing. So not only do we pay a considerable amount less for sewage we also use a lot less water as our metered water is only used for showering, cooking, washing machine, dishwasher and the kettle. All our girls only drink rainwater and have never had tap water ever. Anyway enough of my waffle, that was a good job done today and I'm so glad it is out of the way and not a problem now.

Whilst on the subject of utility bills I thought I'd mention that our electric bill is now £7.50 per month , yes honest it is. I recently sorted the MSE collective switch with Eon for their 2 year fixed rate tariff. We were with Eon anyway but the standing charge on this new tariff is nearly half of what we were paying before. Obviously we have solar panels, as per my signature, which makes a huge difference but previous to the recent switch we paid £12 per month by DD every month but after our yearly account review we were always sent a refund as should really only have been paying £10 but as the difference was only £2 I thought I'd leave it until a better tariff came along to change the DD. We have opted to pay £9 a month just in case we use any unexpected extra electric just to make sure we don't end up owing Eon any money because we would hate to be in arrears with them.

It really is the good life here as gas was turned off nearly 10 years ago and all cooking and heating is by wood/logs so no gas bill at all. So although I'm sad about my little duck tonight I would like to end my waffling with a good life smiley face

Will update on my poor little Cayuga duck as a when I know more

Edwink