Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Cheery_Daff

We don't have electric fencing, but our run is extremely sturdy. We've never had more than 6, a manageable number I think!

The vet has been again for a che k up for Bessie. She brought the scanner, and I am delighted to report that Bessie has no fluid in her abdomen, so didn't need draining. Less delighted to report that she has to continue her tablets until this course has run out, and also that today will cost us around £300 😮



If you've never seen a chicken having an ultrasound on a dining room table, well, I am happy to be able to fill that gap in your experience 😂😂

Anyway. I've been rooting around on the Defra web page and found out that as of today, racing pigeons are allowed to fly free for an hour a day. Not entirely sure why, but let's hope our own ladies won't be far behind!

edwink

I too am delighted that Bessie didn't have fluid to drain today. And, yes that has added to my experience now, great picture, thank you. She looks as though she was being a good girl for the vet as looks perfectly still, bless her. Ouch, to the cost for you though.  I suppose continuing on her tablets is just to make sure she is getting the best treatment when they are trying to find out what is happening with her. I am sure you are much more confident giving her the tablets now. I was scared stiff when we arrived home from the vets with our first lot of prescribed tablets, thinking how the hell am I going to get this into her but we managed albeit slowly at first with shaky hands 🤣🤣🤣  We've even done injections here at home so I guess our vets must trust us now.  To be honest we have a good relationship with our vets (is relationship the right word? and she does have hens herself which is good to know especially after the very first ever vet we took one of our ducks to, never again that's all I'll add to that vet. He said, "you can not have a duck with one leg".  And, to think we paid £55 to be told that bit of useless information.  She recovered slowly but was left with a slight limp which never stopped her from getting to the food bowl first every time. 

Fingers crossed Bessie is back to her old self soon. bless her.

Edwink x

Cheery_Daff

I think relationship is the right word, yes! It's important to trust your vet, and for them to trust you. You're very brave doing injections at home, I'm impressed. Yes, tablets are hard at first but we actually find them pretty easy now, although not pleasant.

Our first local vet was OK for the first few things, then Bessie swelled up like a water balloon and they said 'there's something wrong, but I don't know what it is, she'll probably die' 🙄 Thanks, I could have told you that! Fortunately we found our current vet, they drained quite a bit of fluid and gave her an implant, and she's still with us 2 years later (she would have died at the time though - hens don't have diaphragms so fluid in the abdomen will squash their lungs 🙄

Anyway. My friend goes to a different relatively local vet who has their own chickens, and is happy with them. We might have to start going there, although they don't have the range of specialist equipment. Can't keep up this level of spending though! 🙈

starnac

Morning all. Our ladies have all settled in nicely although the wind took down the roof of the run twice! We have now replaced it with a polytunnel that sits inside the run for now. I really hope the restrictions are lifted soon as I don't like looking out of my office window and not being able to see them! 

On the positive side they were undercover when we had a big hail storm so I was pleased about that. 

We got 5 ladies and they were in much better condition than I expected. They have some bald patches but on the whole they look decent. I gave the kids free range to name them and they are struggling! DD has named the one that kept hiding in the coop Aurora (sleeping beauty) as she was always last one out and first one back in. There are two very nosy ones. They go around in a pair and seem to be investigating everything. They also broke the box they were in on the car ride home so that they could poke their heads out to see. I've nicknamed those two the neighbourhood watch! They would definitely be twitching their net curtains if they had any!

DS told me that he never realised "how cool chickens are until we got them" which is nice to hear. One of his teachers grew up on a farm and has been getting daily chicken updates from DS apparently! It just makes me happy to see the kids as excited as I am about them. 

Cheery_Daff

Aw, how lovely Starnac 🥰🥰🥰 Ours have had gang identities as well as their own names. The original ones were 'the original chickens' (although obviously they didn't get that name til later). Then we had the 3 Classic Beakios (our favourites - Bessie is the final one). The Imposters came next - young and scared, and the Classic ones were VERY annoyed at their arrival. Now we have The Troublemakers - our latest batch of rescues who seem to cause trouble wherever they go, knocking things over and generally causing mischief 😂

Love the idea of the neighbourhood watch 😂 We have a Cleaning Supervisor, who always goes into the hen house while I'm cleaning to inspect it 😂 And we have nightly updates on the Chicken Bus (how they are arranged in the hen house at night) 😂

I'm sure your children will come up with excellent names as they find out their personalities. I wanted to name ours after either old ladies or orange things (Pumpkin, Cornflake) 😂 Mr Cheery vetoed Cornflake 😂 (but he named one of ours Beaky so what does he know??)

starnac

DD wanted to wait to see their personalities develop before naming them. I was really surprised by how mature that was. She later admitted that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to tell which was which and would be upset if she called them by the wrong name! We've had them almost a week now and she can definitely tell which is which so they just need names now. 

A joke was made by family that we name them Korma or Nugget but we quickly vetoed that idea. DS is pretty sensitive and I do not want him to feel bad about eating chicken when it is one of the few things he will actually eat. DH and I are both vegetarians so would have no issues with him wanting to give up meat but I would rather it be his decision because he actually wants to, not because he feels that he should iyswim?

Cheery_Daff

That makes sense starnac! 

And bless DD not being sure she could tell them apart 😊 I bet she'll be able to tell them apart from a quick glance out of the window soon enough- we certainly can, and we can tell them apart by the little noises they make too. Love our beaky friends 😊😊

Had the second invoice from the vets today though and it had best be the last one 🙈 Bessie has cost £959 in the last two weeks and we have both agreed this is utterly ridiculous and stops here 😱😱 To be fair, it would have been half that without the home visits because of the vet being in a bird flu zone, but we do also just have to draw a line at blood tests, scans etc too now I think.

The local farmer offered to get us some of the same antibiotics from his vet, and having seen that ours has charged us almost £40 for a week's worth of tablets, think we might have to take him up on it 😮

MysteryMe

Glittering_M said:

Starnac that is so exciting! I'm so happy for you.


I am looking at runs now. I realise I don't need a run to fill the whole space I had originally ear marked (about 7mx10m) as we only want a few (3/4) and they'll be able to free range some of the time (when allowed). Now thinking around 6x4m.

Ideally I want a metal framed run as I'm guessing the maintenance will be less and they will last longer. Is this right?

Something like this

https://thechickenhousecompany.co.uk/collections/38mm-metal-runs/products/metal-chicken-duck-run-6m-x-3m-cc011

Or 

http://hollywaterhens.co.uk/about-us/hen-houses-chicken-coops/

But the wire looks a bit thin and from my understanding you still have to build it yourself to a point as the wire comes in a frame. So I'm wondering if it is possible to buy a frame and a heavier wire. I'm keen for it to have a sloping roof if possible.

I'm also reluctant to cut a hole in the wire if I want the coop outside the run as that is another potential entry point. Although I'm also conscious the coop will take up space in the run and any advantage to having it outside is lost.

Still no closer on deciding on a coop. I saw some different ones yesterday that are advertised by Kate Humble, which looked nice but looked like they had wood inside but it might have just been the colour of the plastic. Can't remember the name.

I'm not very good at making decisions and when there are lives and a lot of money at stake I want to get it right.

http://www.avifabs.co.uk/manufacture     

I've had custom made large cages for birds made by the above. The quality was excellent. They are really helpful to deal with and a well established business. I see they will manufacture chicken runs. I don't know how they compare price wise though.

edwink

starnac said:

Morning all. Our ladies have all settled in nicely although the wind took down the roof of the run twice! We have now replaced it with a polytunnel that sits inside the run for now. I really hope the restrictions are lifted soon as I don't like looking out of my office window and not being able to see them!  On the positive side they were undercover when we had a big hail storm so I was pleased about that. 

We got 5 ladies and they were in much better condition than I expected. They have some bald patches but on the whole they look decent. I gave the kids free range to name them and they are struggling! DD has named the one that kept hiding in the coop Aurora (sleeping beauty) as she was always last one out and first one back in. There are two very nosy ones. They go around in a pair and seem to be investigating everything. They also broke the box they were in on the car ride home so that they could poke their heads out to see. I've nicknamed those two the neighbourhood watch! They would definitely be twitching their net curtains if they had any!

DS told me that he never realised "how cool chickens are until we got them" which is nice to hear. One of his teachers grew up on a farm and has been getting daily chicken updates from DS apparently! It just makes me happy to see the kids as excited as I am about them. 

Hi Starnac

So glad your girls have settled in nicely, that's always good to know. I hope the restrictions are lifted soon too because hens have been in lockdown longer this time and I actually prefer seeing mine out and about getting up to all sorts of mischief 🤣🤣🤣 Mine are proper hooligans 🤣🤣🤣

Aww, bless your little ones struggling with names for them.  How lovely they are so involved with your hen keeping.  Looks like the two hens you have that are the nosy ones will be the top hens, that's my guess anyway. 

Glad to have you onboard on our feathered-friendly thread.

Edwink x

RebekahR

Talk to me about a sitting chicken. My head hen isn't herself. Just sitting down everywhere. She will get up of you go up to her but sit down when you've gone. Not broody as she's in the enclosure not the nest box. I've checked her crop and it feels empty except some corn she ate. I gave them some to see if she would eat and she came running for it too. She's also passed an egg as there were 3 in the nesting box so she's not impacted. They have recently been wormed. I'm outta ideas! She likes a little sit down sometimes but this is to excess. She's been down most of the last 2 hours.