Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Hope everyone is ok and their feathered friend too.

Sad news here is that we lost one of our hens during the night.  She had slowed down quite a bit as have some of the others but yesterday noticed she wasn't bothered about going back to the coop very quickly with the others for her supper.  They normally come running like mad when I call them to go in but she just walked slowly and stopped, then walked some more and stopped again so I decided it was best for her to spend the night away from the others, so put her on fresh bedding in the small hospital hut on her own.  When we opened up this morning we found that she had gone in her sleep in the night. bless her. So I was pleased that we separated her from the others last night in case she was too frail and fell off the perches.  That's always been a concern of mine I must admit. I know some hens can and do go down hill pretty quickly but that's the second one that has literately gone within 36 hours of showing signs of being frail or poorly. 

These ex-battery hens never reach proper old age as they become old well before their time, bless them. I always do my best for them and give them a good free-range home here and that's all I can do really. At least they have been out of their hen lockdown for a while now so she managed to spend time foraging and sunbathing before she went. 

Edwink x

Karmacat

Oh edwink, I'm sorry to hear this.  You *know* you gave her a good life - I'm sure in spite of hen lockdown - and of course yes, she had sun and dust after lockdown too.  The word that keeps coming up for me is "gentle" - she was treated gently by you, and she went gently, quietly.  Hope you and your OH are okay.

Cheery_Daff

Aw edwink, so sorry to hear that xxx how very sad. As you say, you gave her a good life, and I'm so pleased she got some sunbathing time xxx

I never quite know what to do about taking them away overnight. Our hen house is small, with just one perch, and most of our hens sleep in the nest boxes most of the time anyway (although two were on the perch tonight). We've only had one go peacefully her sleep, Maud. She was old and frail, and we feared it might be her last night, but she's not long lost her great old pal Mildred so we weren't entirely convinced she wasn't just sad. She snuggled up in the nest box next to Rusty and we found her there in the morning 😢

We are so touched by their little beaky presence, aren't we? So hard not to feel sad for each and every one lost 😢 But you're right, we give them the best life before they go, which has got to count for something xx

edwink

Thank you so much KC and Cheery, I always find it hard when I lose one of my girls 😥  Gentle is a lovely word to use KC, I must remember that. You are so right Cheery that we are touched by their presence, that's for sure.

It is often difficult to know if to move them away from the others or not.  I've done this in the past only for a hen to pick up again so have had to stay around to make sure the others were ok with her being introduced back in with them. Hens can be a bit naughty at times and will pick on one that has been separated from them all, but not always.  It is getting the balance right with these little girls which is not always possible. 

Luckily for us, we have Hoppys duck run right next door to the hen enclosure so if we have a quiet frail hen we divide Hoppys run into 2 areas.  Therefore, the quiet hen has space of her own but she is never on her own as the others are close by but can't get to her to pick on her especially if she is frail. We were kindly given a small wooden dog kennel which is big enough for at least 4 hens just for overnight sleeping. Of course, being a dog kennel it has an opening at the front and its roof can be taken off so it can be cleaned out easily.  If they are really quite poorly they always come to live indoors with us so they have us close by especially during the night.  I must remember to put a pic on here of the little kennel we have, it's a sweet little thing. 

Edwink x

edwink

Hi all

Good gracious, this heat is barmy right now and I have some grumpy hens on my hands here.  My rescue girls are getting on a bit now having been with me since October 2019 they are all over 3 years old. bless 'em. I know that isn't old for a hen but rescue girls do as a rule have shorter lives. I have told them that there is plenty of places with shade around here but they insist on following me about in this heat in the hope of getting a treat or two or three or four, daft things they are.  I know I have mentioned this before but being south facing it does get jolly hot especially down by the house. 

Lettuces and all veg growing really well right now so lots of nice healthy green stuff for the girls for their lunch, which I know they do enjoy because the whole lot is demolished by them in about 15 mins flat, better than it wilting and going to waste though. I often break lettuces up and put them in a couple of their water containers so they can help themselves when they want it.  Hoppy mostly has chopped cucumber in a bowl which she loves, bless her.

It feels just as hot tonight as in the daytime today so I can foresee yet another rough night with hardly any sleep coming on. Last night was dreadful and then in the middle of the night, the blooming fox was about as we could hear it barking up in the woods.  That is a worry at the moment but if we feel or hear it is getting too close we get up, get dressed and make our presence known out there. Just trying to let it know that we are about too hoping to keep it away from our girls. 

Hope everyone is keeping well.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Oop, I was convinced I'd replied to this but apparently not! 

Gosh it's warm. We've been leaving the door open so the hens can come in the house as they please, it's a bit cooler in here. They've been spending a lot of time in the dust baths, sometimes just sitting in the cool ground in the shade. 

We've also been leaving the door to the coop open (inside the secure run of course). Bunty in particular seems to be suffering, keep seeing her with her beak open, and when I went to check tonight she was in the coop ny the door, but with beak open and wings a bit lifted.

I was talking to my sister who said she has a pet cooling mat for her dog (who won't use it, so she uses it herself 😂 ). I might get one tomorrow and put it in part of the coop. In the meantime I've filled a couple of tupperware tubs with ice and put them at the back of the coop, hoping they'll cool the air a little 🙄

Hope this weather breaks soon - I like the sunshine but this is ridiculous, everyone's uncomfortable and it's completely impossible to do anything!

Karmacat

Agreed, I feel so sorry for the furry/ feathered animals.  It's bad enough with plain skin for the heat to radiate from 

edwink

Hi all

I hope you are all keeping well and your feathered friends too. 

To be honest I am so glad that the weather has changed somewhat because I find I really struggle in really hot weather. I just wish it would rain properly now as it is still quite humid here, plus some of the water butts are now empty 🤔 We had to water the greenhouses fully twice a day as they are mostly in full sun where we recently moved them too, not complaining because everything growing in them has literally doubled in size and we now we have plenty of cucumbers for Hoppy and the hens.  Nothing is more comical than watching hens run in all directions with a chunk of cucumber sticking out of their beaks as if to say this bit is mine 🤣

There has been a lot of dust bathing going on this past couple of weeks with holes appearing everywhere.  I don't mind where they have their dust baths as long as they have them because it keeps them clean and free of mites, bless 'em. 


Cheery how are your girls? Is your little hen feeling better after her antibiotics? I do hope so. I like the idea of putting containers of ice in their hut to help them keep cool.  The heat was crazy last week. wasn't it?  Being south facing here was almost impossible to get anything done outside it was just so hot. We have circular holes the size of golf balls drilled out of the wood in their huts two-thirds of the way up to give ventilation in there and also have a wire grid on one side which is permanently open. The golf ball sized holes have little shutters on them that we close during the colder months, they allow a bit of air to flow through their hut and seem to do the job. The little shutter is a square piece of wood that is screwed on with just one screw but not screwed in tight, that way we can swivel it round so we can open and shut the airflow off if needed. They seem to work really well.

Take care all

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

Oops, sorry edwink, I meant to come back and reply and then didn't, I do apologise! 

Your swivel air holes sound great, just the thing. I think we'll be adding more ventilation at some point, but it's fine for now. 

We're off to the vets again today. A combination of elderly rescue chickens all getting older at the same time, and Mr Cheery being paranoid I think 🙄 This time it's Bessie - he thinks she's breathing heavily and a bit gurgly. I'm not sure... but always best to get things checked out. It's his birthday today and we'll be spending some of it on a trip to the vets 🙄

Rusty is doing ok, she's the one who had antibiotics last time. She's going back for a check up a week on Monday, she's got a 'fleshy lump' that they're not sure is scar tissue or a tumour so we're keeping an eye on it 🙄

I was hoping to get away for a night this week and had provisionally booked my local friend to check on the chickens, but I think if we've got one on medication Mr Cheery won't be keen on going away... 🙄

We're going to get some more rescues at some point. Four is feeling like a bit of a precarious number, especially with 2 of them being about 4 years old now. There's a rescue day this Saturday but we're out for the day, and also it feels a little bit soon after Beaky. I wanted to wait til the builders have been, as they're all going to have to be shut in the run every day while they're here and it didn't seem fair to throw in some new ones, but that'll likely take us to October. We'll see when the next rehoming days are after these ones.

And how many to get?? Wisdom says you should always get more new ones than you've got 😮 but that would take us to nine, and that's far too many 😮 Three seems an appropriate number (in case anything happens to one of them, then they're not on their own) but that still gives us seven, which seems like a lot... we've not had more than six before (but that was two gangs of three, all in together but not particularly integrating)

We'll see...

Do yours mix together edwink? I mean ours all live together, and hang out together, but they definitely default to two sets of two given the chance (the older rescues and the young ones). Same happened with our last lot. I wonder whether new ones ever properly make friends with the existing ones??

orangecrush

Hello everyone! 

It's been a long time since I posted.  We've had a busy spring and summer.

The renovations on the new house took a long time - and are still not finished! - after we faced lots of hiccups.  As a result we only just got the back garden sorted for the new chicken house and they moved in this weekend.  It looks great, but they are not too chuffed with the ladder I bought them... they look horrified at the idea of climbing to get their snacks.  Some bribery is needed! 

The heat wave here was terrible - everyone was miserable.  Thankfully we are heading towards autumn, and I am expecting a baby in a few weeks so there will be lots more time at home. 

The chickens both stopped laying during the heatwave, and are now moulting so I'm not sure we'll get any more eggs this year! 

Sorry to hear about your loss Edwink, it is sad   You give all your ladies a wonderful life though, she will have been so happy with you. 

Cheery I hope Rusty is ok, it's so worrying when they aren't themselves!

I will post some photos of the new enclosure soon.