Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

All these things I never knew about mealworms! but yes, you definitely don't want them turning into weevils, eek! 

Just spoke to the vet about Maud - he reckons it sounds like she is just sad  Said to see how she goes for a couple of days, try to tempt her with anything tasty we can find, and give them a ring in a few days if she's not any better. She did have a bit of a lie in this morning (but she's never been an early riser), and she's now out pottering in the sunshine with the others which is good. 

Pyxis

Cheery_Daff said:

All these things I never knew about mealworms! but yes, you definitely don't want them turning into weevils, eek! 

Just spoke to the vet about Maud - he reckons it sounds like she is just sad  Said to see how she goes for a couple of days, try to tempt her with anything tasty we can find, and give them a ring in a few days if she's not any better. She did have a bit of a lie in this morning (but she's never been an early riser), and she's now out pottering in the sunshine with the others which is good. 

That sounds hopeful.

Pottering is good.



ps. Pyxis......Queen of the Mealworms! 😂😂

edwink

We've had a busy day outside with our girls today. We have thoroughly cleaned both hotels out and disinfected both floors so they smell nice and fresh now. They don't stay like that for long that's for sure.  Also thoroughly washed out the hens 3 feed troughs, Hoppy's feed bowl, and all the indoor and outdoor water containers.  Mr Edwink made some new nighttime perches for the hens so that allows us to completely change them as and when needed as we thoroughly clean the old ones and just put them to one side until we need to change them again. They have 3 sets now but it is good to have spares as we never know when the wood will be dropped off here that we know we can use as perches.  We usually use baton type wood and Mr Edwink shaves off the edges to round them off a bit and obviously cuts them to size. Glad he has sorted that out actually because with the lockdown right now we are not getting any recycled wood dropped off and he could have easily cut them up for something else before we needed another lot of perches again.

Talking of baton wood and perches, I actually saved up quite a lot of baton to make perches out of and I put them down the side of the house so they wouldn't be used for anything else.  Imagine my horror when I asked Mr Edwink if he would make some more perches and he replies that he will do as soon as we have some baton dropped off.  Then I say, there is a bucket full down the side of the house use them and he replies oh I cut all those up to use as kindling some time ago.  Men eh? Ha Ha Ha.

All hens ok thankfully, still have a few with missing back feathers but besides that, they are flourishing I'm pleased to say.  They certainly know where the food/treat store is that's for sure, bless 'em. They are all pretty tame now except for a few nervous skittish ones but they still come running up to me when it is treat time so they are not too nervous of me, thankfully. Or is that what they call cupboard love?  (was going to nip off and look for the "Roll on the floor laughing" emoji but having lost this post once already I dare not do anything until it has been posted. 

Littlen in the family is making good progress from Coronavirus now. Thank you for your best wishes everyone.  

Take care

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Glad to hear about your tiny relative edwink, what a worry that must have been for you all xxx

Also glad your hens are making good progress! Such a lot of work you've put in! 

All fine here, Maud is slowly picking up. She was never sprightly but she's hanging round with the others more now, and eating, thank goodness. We always make sure she gets special treats that the others don't steal. I've just been and tucked them in, and they're all tucked up together, bless em. 

Ours are funny with perches. They have one along the length of their house, an old broom handle. There are two nest boxes in there, separated by a thin piece of plywood, and often one of them is perching on top of that, which I always think must be most uncomfortable! Tonight we had two in one nest box, one in the other, and one on the ply between. Sometimes we get two in one nest box, and two on the perch behind them, all facing the front and looking for all the world like they're on a bus 😂 that's how we refer to tucking them in now - 'shall we go and check on the chicken bus dear?' 😂

Pyxis

Do hens like carrots? 🥕🥕🥕🥕

There seems to be a nationwide inundation of  said orangey taproot at the moment!
(Well, three or four people on MSE at any rate!)

edwink

Pyxis said:

Do hens like carrots? 🥕🥕🥕🥕

There seems to be a nationwide inundation of  said orangey taproot at the moment!
(Well, three or four people on MSE at any rate!)

Hens will eat carrots if they feel like it but only if they are cooked otherwise they are too hard for them to eat.  Fussy lot!

Edwink x

edwink

I'm so glad that Maud is ok Cheery.  I know that hens do become sad and withdrawn but once they settle they normally will mix with others again.  

Which of them is the top hen now? 

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Well we always worked on the assumption that Maud was in charge, but didn't like getting her beak dirty, so Mildred acted as henchman and did all the pecking for her... I've never seen Maud peck another chicken in the whole time she's been here, and I've never seen anyone peck her. She seems to just float serenely over any idea of the pecking order ♥️ 

But out of the other three, Beaky has definitely made a bid for the top. She was always the most pecky of the newer ladies, right from the start, and in the last couple of weeks she's been going out if her way to unnecessarily (in my opinion) peck Rusty & Bessie for no reason, just like Mildred used to do right at the start.

Rusty & Bessie have kind of become pals and are acting like a pair of pesky teenage nuisances at the minute, and Beaky has definitely become a bit more grown up and is hanging round with Maud a bit more (but still mostly with the other two). 

So a little bit of a shift for Beaky but otherwise no major upheavals thank goodness...

Cheery_Daff

I'm sorry to say Maud is still not right, and is getting worse  She's barely eating anything - I've seen her have a few beakfuls of food over the last couple of days but that's it, and she weighs almost nothing, far less than the others. Her comb is really quite pale now, and she's walking slowly. I don't know whether she's got the same thing Mildred has, or whether she's just become weak and frail from being sad and not eating

I made her some mash with some oats in earlier - she ate some yesterday, and I cracked an egg on top this afternoon to tempt her, and she did eat some of that. Going to bring her inside and give her another bit of egg, anything to get her to eat.

I think we'll ring the vets tomorrow and see if they'll look at her and just check there's nothing we can do, but right now it's not looking good.

edwink

Cheery_Daff said:

I'm sorry to say Maud is still not right, and is getting worse  She's barely eating anything - I've seen her have a few beakfuls of food over the last couple of days but that's it, and she weighs almost nothing, far less than the others. Her comb is really quite pale now, and she's walking slowly. I don't know whether she's got the same thing Mildred has, or whether she's just become weak and frail from being sad and not eating

I made her some mash with some oats in earlier - she ate some yesterday, and I cracked an egg on top this afternoon to tempt her, and she did eat some of that. Going to bring her inside and give her another bit of egg, anything to get her to eat.

I think we'll ring the vets tomorrow and see if they'll look at her and just check there's nothing we can do, but right now it's not looking good.

As a rule, they can and do get sad and might go off their food for a while and go quiet and not mix with the others. It does appear that she is wanting to eat because she has eaten some of what you have given her.  You could try her on some scrambled eggs because hens normally love that.  It definitely does not sound right if she weighs next to nothing.  Some of my hens over the past have lost some weight as they have got older but weighing almost nothing doesn't seem right at all. 

As she is one of your first girls, how old roughly would she be now?  I know I have said this before on here but as a rule, sadly they only live between 18 months to 2 years after rescue.  As she was a BHWT hen she would have been around 18 months old when she retired with you. 

I do hope she will be ok Cheery.

Edwink x