Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

Sad news, we had to have Rusty put to sleep today. She'd lost a lot of weight just since Monday, her crop wasn't emptying, we knew she had a bit of a lump up her vent, and it's now started getting bigger, and her droppings were all liquid with a bit of blood in when we were at the vets.

Trying to console ourselves that she's in the great dust baths in the sky with our other old dear departed beakios, but it's a sad, sad day.

edwink

Cheery_Daff said:

Sad news, we had to have Rusty put to sleep today. She'd lost a lot of weight just since Monday, her crop wasn't emptying, we knew she had a bit of a lump up her vent, and it's now started getting bigger, and her droppings were all liquid with a bit of blood in when we were at the vets.

Trying to console ourselves that she's in the great dust baths in the sky with our other old dear departed beakios, but it's a sad, sad day.

Aww, Cheery how sad for you and Mr Cheery and your other hens.  Always remember that you gave her the very best life possible and that she was a much loved hen, bless her.  It's always hard when we lose one, isn't it? she lived to a good age for a rescue girl like a lot of mine do but it is still hard I know because they are pets and not just chickens that we have rescued. 

Try not to be too sad and celebrate her life this evening.  Take it easy both of you x 

Edwink x

MysteryMe

Sorry to read about Rusty. She had a lovely life.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks both xxx qe still miss her, of course. She was a right character 😊

I've increased our booking for the British Hen Welfare Trust rescue on Saturday from 2 to 3, which will give us 6 in total. Two days to go! I hope our existing hens aren't too annoyed, and will bond more closely against the common enemy... 🙄

Today's palaver has been giving Bonnie a bath 🙄 She laid a few soft shelled eggs a few weeks ago, and had antibiotics, and seemed fine, but her bum had gotten VERY dirty, not sure whether because of the soft eggs or runny poo or what. Anyway, given that it wasn't clearing we decided to wash it off this morning. 

Glad we did, it was worse than we thought, with several solid lumps of poo 😱

Took us a while, and she wasn't exactly enjoying it... but Mr Cheery held her while I softened and massaged it all out of her feathers, and now she's had a treat and is looking perfectly cheerful drying off in the living room. 

I hope this is the end of it now, and whatever she does now will just slide off her clean feathers as usual. At least this will make it easier to keep an eye on what's happening.

edwink

SADLY BIRD FLU IS IN THE NEWS AGAIN

There have been several outbreaks during November in various locations. It has sadly affected swans too.

I've had trouble getting the links on here this week so I'll give today's one a go to see if it works. I'll add the other links after if it does. (I dropped my laptop on the floor a while ago whilst the lid was open, so now the only way the screen lights up is if I "wedge" a wooden dowel in the gap between the screen and the keyboard. Once I get the dowel in place I can not under any circumstances close the lid. This week the wooden dowel shot out of where I had jammed it and it almost hit me in the head. Today I have finally managed to get the dowel back in the gap and, fingers crossed it stays there for a while at least otherwise I'll be without my laptop again.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-59276779 

Great that worked this time. I'll add some other links below.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-59258705

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59251059

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-59208230

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-59176808

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59127164

Edwink

Cheery_Daff

Thanks for those links edwink. Half of all the swans in Stratford have died?? That sounds very drastic! 

What a disease. We are all prepared with our new chicken run extension of course, but NOT looking forward to having to shut everyone in. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen, but I imagine it will 🙄

We collected our new ladies yesterday. I have no idea if the timing was right, but it's done now. Just over a week since we lost Rusty, but if we'd left it til the next rehoming day, we likely would have been in bird flu housing restrictions, so either we'd have not been able to rescue any til the spring, meaning just a little flock of 3 through the winter, or we would have had to introduce them while they were all shut in every day. 

Anyway,the new ladies are in a separated off bit of the run, and so far the existing ladies have shown literally no interest, except for Bunty who came out for a little curious peek. We didn't get back til 3.30 though so they were really getting ready for bed.

We left them til after dark, then threw them all into the chicken house together. Just been out to separate them again, and found the new ones all mixed in with the old ones. Which is good! Except Bessie was by the door, and a new one in the nest box where she usually sleeps, so Mr Cheery is now concerned that she's been booted out 🙄

Hey ho. We'll see what happens today. For now, the new ones are safely in their separate enclosure (which has a cosy nest box) the older ones have the freedom of the rest of the run (and can go back to bed if they want), Mr Cheery has gone back to bed, and I'm going to make a cuppa and curl up on the sofa. I'll go and investigate once it's got light enough to let the existing ones out to free range and we'll play it by ear...

Cheery_Daff

Evening hen friends 😊

Thought I'd posted in here, but obviously I just wrote on my own diary thread.

When we went back outside on Sunday morning, Poppy (one of the new ladies) wasn't looking good 🙄 She could stand, but when she put any weight on one leg, she just fell forewards 🙄

We feared the worst... but a post on a hen group led to many people saying they'd had the same things with rescues... We were advised to stick her in a separate crate, but in the run - so she was separate from the others (with food and water right under her beak) but still could see and interact with them.

Not very MSE, as we ended up buying a large dog crate... But at least that will make vet trips slightly less of a faff.

Anyway, yesterday she started standing up, and moved a little in pursuit of a grape...

Today I was at work, but Mr Cheery said she was standing and shouting when he opened them up this morning, so he opened the door... and she just marched out and started hanging round with the other new ladies 😂😂 

So it looks like a very happy ending! 😊

Not mixed old and new yet, although they can see each other through the separating fence. Old ones just seem to be wholesale ignoring the new ones... 😂 Might try to let them all in together for an hour near bedtime tomorrow...

thriftwizard

Hi everyone! I usually hang around in Old Style but wander over here from time to time - gardener, allotmenteer and poultry-keeper in a small town near the south coast. Unfortunately rather close to the latest bird 'flu outbreak... We have 7 big girls (3 Lohmann Browns, 3 Cream Legbars and an ancient Speckledy who hasn't laid an egg for about 5 years) and 4 Pekin bantams, and we've been keeping chickens here for 18 years. We still have three 20-something offspring living at home, two of them avid bakers, so we go through eggs rather fast! The big girls live in a purpose-built run, 2m x 6m, but the bantams, being feather-legged, usually have the run of the garden & just roost in their coop at night. Now it looks like chicken lockdown time is here again...

Last winter, and during the previous bird 'flu outbreak, the bantams were in a 3m x 2m "polytunnel" - originally bought from The Range, in a panic - with a new cover bought last year that actually had mesh windows, unlike the original cover. But the humidity in there was worryingly high and the top was always full of gnats, not to mention the fact it took up most of the rest of our smallish garden. So this year I've constructed a "tunnel" for them from poly-pipe, small-gauge chicken wire and bits of the old polytunnel cover, all cunningly held together with cable ties, and all of which were already hanging about here or at the allotment, doing nothing much in particular. The "cover", such as it is, doesn't reach the ground, so that air can flow through, but it's quite sheltered & strongly attached so it shouldn't blow away. I've piled leaves up inside for them to scuff about & dig in, provided a few logs and things for them to clamber on & attempt to fly off - Pekins love to flutter around when the wind is blowing, and sometimes get all of 60cm off the ground - what else could I put in there to keep them entertained, when they're used to having the run of the place? Any ideas? It's not high enough to hang things for them to jump for - just high enough for us to crawl in if we need to.

edwink

thriftwizard said:Last winter, and during the previous bird 'flu outbreak, the bantams were in a 3m x 2m "polytunnel" - originally bought from The Range, in a panic - with a new cover bought last year that actually had mesh windows, unlike the original cover. But the humidity in there was worryingly high and the top was always full of gnats, not to mention the fact it took up most of the rest of our smallish garden. So this year I've constructed a "tunnel" for them from poly-pipe, small-gauge chicken wire and bits of the old polytunnel cover, all cunningly held together with cable ties, and all of which were already hanging about here or at the allotment, doing nothing much in particular. The "cover", such as it is, doesn't reach the ground, so that air can flow through, but it's quite sheltered & strongly attached so it shouldn't blow away. I've piled leaves up inside for them to scuff about & dig in, provided a few logs and things for them to clamber on & attempt to fly off - Pekins love to flutter around when the wind is blowing, and sometimes get all of 60cm off the ground - what else could I put in there to keep them entertained, when they're used to having the run of the place? Any ideas? It's not high enough to hang things for them to jump for - just high enough for us to crawl in if we need to.

Hi thriftwizard

Lovely to see you on our feathered friends thread.

Sounds like you have been busy getting ready for the potential dreaded hen lockdown. I like the way you have constructed an undercover shelter for them and with ventilation too.  Definitely sounds as though that should do the trick for them and keep them safe.

For ideas to keep them busy could you put something together that they could dustbath in? We have a dustbath in our run and it certainly keeps them occupied.  We made ours by screwing some wood together at the ends and originally we lined it with tarpaulin but found that they were shredding it so in the end we took the tarpaulin away and just left the soil there. You could use something like a cat litter tray or a deep sided veg growing tray and just add soil to it with a little kiln-dried sand. Over the past, we've added leftover purchased compost to the soil in ours, just sieved it a bit and it was fine, it soon dries out.

I'll get my thinking cap on and see if I can think of anything else that would keep them busy. 

Edwink x

edwink

Hi Cheery

Sorry, I missed your post earlier in the week, oops! how on earth did I do that?.

Glad Poppy is ok now, bless her, always a worry with new girls though isn't it?. Looks like the dog crate was so useful to her which is good. We have a dog crate here too which is so handy if we need to separate any of ours. 

I hope getting them together with your older girls goes ok.  I'm always on hand like you are initially just to make sure. Please do let us know how it goes.

Have you named the other 2 new hens you now have?.  Love the name Poppy, that's lovely. 

Edwink x