Keeping hens and ducks chat.

edwink

Hi

Found this online, have a look at the 2 images on there of Tapeworm segments. You can obviously see the chicken poop closeup at home whereas I am only seeing it in the picture you posted.  I did a closeup of your pic and some look slightly elongated and not round although I might be wrong. 

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/worm-type-🪱.1498624/

Hope that is some help.

Edwink

edwink

Hi

Just found this on the British Hen Welfare Trust website.  It has pictures of Roundworm, Tapeworm, and Gapreworm on it. You will need to scroll down the article to see the 3 pictures. They are very clear pictures so you might be able to identify something from there. If you click on any of the three pictures they will enlarge.

https://www.bhwt.org.uk/hen-health/health-problems/worms/

Hope that helps

Edwink 

Cheery_Daff

Do let us know what your lab results come back with Rebekah. Ours have never (as far as I know!) had worms, so I have no experience. Our westgate labs test came back clear (they didn't have symptoms, I was just checking before giving flubenvet, which I then didn't bother to do).

Urgh, I am getting fed up of the avian flu today 🙄It's so sunny, and a picture reminder popped up from 3 years ago today with our hens out in the garden enjoying a dust bath 😕 I mean, they're fine in the run, it's sheltered and spacious and safe in there, but I do miss seeing them pottering about the garden and letting them in the house!

Last year's release date was 1st April wasn't it? But then we went in a couple of weeks earlier this year... and I know there is a 14 week limit for (I think) 'free range' egg laying hens to be shut in before they have to be labelled as indoor... so fingers crossed it's safe enough at that point (mid March?) and we can let them out.

Let mine out of the hen house this morning in my dressing gown, and Budgie ran between my legs, got a bit daunted by my dressing gown hanging over my boots, and then ducked and ran under it 😂 proper made me giggle, funny little thing

edwink

Cheery_Daff said: Let mine out of the hen house this morning in my dressing gown, and Budgie ran between my legs, got a bit daunted by my dressing gown hanging over my boots, and then ducked and ran under it 😂 proper made me giggle, funny little thing

🤣🤣🤣🤣  I can just imagine you doing that Cheery 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Just typical Cheery.

I have to ask, would you still let them out in your dressing gown and boots if you had close neighbours? I reckon you would if you could get away with it 🤣 I can just see this lunatic of a woman dashing out of her back door half asleep, knocking all and sundry over, sprinting in her boots to the run, letting them out, and dashing back indoors again.  That's only if you don't take your cuppa out there though 🤣

I haven't had a cuppa with my girls for a while now because it has been too blooming cold here. Roll on Spring I say!

I do understand your frustration regarding the ongoing Avian vain Flu issue.  My girls no longer try to dash out of their run as soon as I open the door. Just as well really as the other day I nearly went in their run head first as I tripped whilst stepping out of the disinfectant boot dip in the doorway. It was my fault because when I cleaned the containers out and refilled them last week I left the handle facing the run and it was this handle that I caught my welly boot on, so flying in there I went but managed to gain my balance, thankfully otherwise I would have landed on the ground with the hens 🤣 I can see the funny side of it now though. That has taught me a valuable lesson that's for sure.

I'm going to do a bit of digging later and see If I can find any updates on Avian flu.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

I like to read these weekly outbreak reports:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/avian-influenza-bird-flu-in-europe 

They're rather detailed so not for everyone, but I find them fascinating, especially seeing how they change each week. This week's says there's still a high risk, but most of our wintering birds are here now so the risk won't increase, which can only be a good thing. Only two confirmed captive poultry outbreaks in Feb so far - 23 in Nov, 44 in Dec, 15 in Jan, so things definitely slowing down, thank goodness. 

Cheery_Daff

Oh! And I imagine I probably would still go out in my dressing gown - I'm not much of an early riser if I can help it these days 😂😂 I have occasionally met someone on the footpath which runs down our drive, but not often enough to stop me doing it 😂😂

Glittering_M

Hi all,
I hope you are keeping well.

I've still not moved and so haven't got my chickens yet but I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time looking at coops.

I house sat for my friend who has one of the Omlet ones and I really liked the pull out trays and the fact you can open the door to let them out and get the eggs without going in the run. I didn't like having to bend down and get the food and water from the cage though. I am not sure if you can get stand up runs from there that you can connect straight to the coop but the 1.5m or so one is really annoying in my mind. I know Omlet do big stand up runs which I like the look of but I think I'd have to have the coop in the run so I lose some of the benefits I mentioned. I would feel safer with the coop being fully enclosed by the run though. I don't like the Omlet price though! 

I found the cutest coop from Henlay - I can't seem to share the link. It seems very expensive for the size though as it's advertised chicken size is 6 so I'm taking that to be 4 in reality. I'm also unsure if it has pull out trays. I think I found it cheaper not going direct but I'm not sure if delivery was included. I'm in love with the colours, the chicken on the top and the egg shaped door! Can someone please talk me out of it! I'm so indecisive but I'm conscious it is a lot of money so I want to get it right first time. 

I'll be wanting 4 chickens (ex batts) initially but as everyone says I'll be planning enough space in, just in case!

Should have added I'll want a raised one to make it easier on my back to clean and muck out.

edwink

Glittering_M said:Hi all, I hope you are keeping well. I've still not moved and so haven't got my chickens yet but I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time looking at coops.

I house sat for my friend who has one of the Omlet ones and I really liked the pull out trays and the fact you can open the door to let them out and get the eggs without going in the run. I didn't like having to bend down and get the food and water from the cage though. I am not sure if you can get stand up runs from there that you can connect straight to the coop but the 1.5m or so one is really annoying in my mind. I know Omlet do big stand up runs which I like the look of but I think I'd have to have the coop in the run so I lose some of the benefits I mentioned. I would feel safer with the coop being fully enclosed by the run though. I don't like the Omlet price though! 

I found the cutest coop from Henlay - I can't seem to share the link. It seems very expensive for the size though as it's advertised chicken size is 6 so I'm taking that to be 4 in reality. I'm also unsure if it has pull out trays. I think I found it cheaper not going direct but I'm not sure if delivery was included. I'm in love with the colours, the chicken on the top and the egg shaped door! Can someone please talk me out of it! I'm so indecisive but I'm conscious it is a lot of money so I want to get it right first time. 

I'll be wanting 4 chickens (ex batts) initially but as everyone says I'll be planning enough space in, just in case!

Should have added I'll want a raised one to make it easier on my back to clean and muck out.

Hi Glittering

It is a bit of a minefield when you first start off because there are so many chicken houses (hotels🤣) on the market and yes definitely some are pretty expensive and some are eyewatering expensive too.  I am glad that you have already said that a house that the manufacturer claims will house six hens will in fact only house four. I've seen some terribly pokey little houses before and it really annoys me about the claims they make. Hens do like to snuggle up in the winter so there will be some spare space in there but over the warmer months they do spread out a bit to keep themselves cooler.  So buying a house that states six hens for only four hens is an excellent idea, 

I'll nip off in a minute and try and find the Henlay picture and put the link on here. You can not post links at the moment because you are fairly new to the mse forum.  I think you need to have posted so many posts before you can post links if that makes sense. I am sure Cheery will be able to throw a light on this subject for us as she has been on these boards longer than I have. 

I have had a read about the coop and it doesn't mention a pullout tray or anything so not sure how it would be cleaned properly and the nesting box appears rather small especially if 2 or 3 hens want to lay at the same time. It is good that the nesting box is lockable. It's very expensive although it is pretty maintenance free once it has been assembled and you can paint them.  The delivery from this site is £50 which seems quite a lot of money. Oh dear, I hope I haven't talked you into it because it is a large amount of money for something of that size. I think you will need to shop around as prices do vary quite a bit sometimes.  It is lovely though and I like the egg shaped door too.

Is this the one?

https://featherandegg.co.uk/products/recycled-plastic-luxury-chicken-coop  

Edwink 

Glittering_M

Hi @edwink

Yes that is the one, thanks for sharing the link and explaining why I can't post. That's where I've seen it cheapest or you can order directly from the Henlays site. The site you cited is Essex based so I think I could pick it up and it would be cheaper than getting it delivered. It's very cute particularly in some of the colour schemes on the Henlays site but possibly not as practical.

Without the pull out trays I'm guessing you'd just have to pull everything out to clean? 

I think the only plastic one I've seen with pull out trays are the Green Frog ones. 

I'm so indecisive and it is a lot of money so I just want to find a house and run that I love and is practical. Unfortunately a lot of the runs I've seen aren't very nice. I just want to do everything I can to make sure the chickens are happy and safe but without costing the earth.

Cheery_Daff

Aw, that's a pretty coop indeed! 

I'm probably not the best person to comment on coops 🙄 We built our hen house from an old door 😂 and I have to squat down to clean it out. It's not exactly jet washable, but is sturdy and cosy and has done us for 3.5 years now and (touch wood) despite being wood (although mostly painted) we've never had mites (touch wood again...)

I pick poo out each day with a rubber glove, then once a week rake the bedding out with a car windscreen ice scraper and give it a bit of a squirt and wipe before adding plenty of bedding and loads of diatomaceous earth. Probably not perfect but does us for now. Wouldn't say no to something I could clean while standing up mind you!