Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Old_Git

my friend has three hens .
I call then christmas dinner

edwink

Better_Days wrote: »

My friendliest ex-bat is poorly.
She's got some diarrhoea and is quieter than usual. I've separated her from the other hens given her some poultry drops and pro-biotics. Hopefully some TLC will do the trick. Poor Jemima

Hi Betterdays

Glad you have separated Jemima from the others as it is always the best thing to do as soon as you notice that something is not quite right.

You have done all you can for the time being so well done on looking after her so well. Hopefully she will make a full recovery. Maybe she has eaten something that has upset her tummy. You could try a little charcoal which you can get for poultry if you think she has an upset tummy. I give that to mine if I suspect that.

Please let us know how she gets on. I know it is always a worrying time. I hate it if any of mine are poorly.

Bless little Jemima.

Edwink x

Better_Days

edwink wrote: »

Hi Betterdays

Glad you have separated Jemima from the others as it is always the best thing to do as soon as you notice that something is not quite right.

You have done all you can for the time being so well done on looking after her so well. Hopefully she will make a full recovery. Maybe she has eaten something that has upset her tummy. You could try a little charcoal which you can get for poultry if you think she has an upset tummy. I give that to mine if I suspect that.

Please let us know how she gets on. I know it is always a worrying time. I hate it if any of mine are poorly.

Bless little Jemima.

Edwink x

Thanks Edwink :A

Jemima is a little better this afternoon, but still not well. She's had a wash, we blow dried her knickers with a hairdryer :eek: so she wouldn't get cold, and we've also given her some more poultry drops.

She's taken it all very well, and hasn't got too stressed, just chuckling away quietly to herself.

Some of her droppings are more normal now so I think we are making progress.

Hoping she's on the mend now.

Not tried charcoal, is it powder you put in the food?

edwink

Better_Days wrote: »

Thanks Edwink :A Jemima is a little better this afternoon, but still not well. She's had a wash, we blow dried her knickers with a hairdryer :eek: so she wouldn't get cold, and we've also given her some more poultry drops. She's taken it all very well, and hasn't got too stressed, just chuckling away quietly to herself. Some of her droppings are more normal now so I think we are making progress.
Hoping she's on the mend now.

Not tried charcoal, is it powder you put in the food?

Hi again Betterdays

Good news!! It seems as if Jemima is on the mend. Fingers crossed.

The Charcoal is tallish clear plastic tub with a blue lid. It is charcoal granules they pick up and eat like little pieces of grit. It is called Crushed Charcoal and is a digestive aid made by Happy Pet. It is used for hyperacidity and absorbs toxins. You can get it off their website. I think it is actually made for caged birds like Budgies but I have given some to my girls on several occasions and it has certainly helped them when they have an upset tummy. You can just sprinkle some on their food or just give them a few pieces at a time by leaving it in front of them loose. If they are really poorly and do not want to eat I leave some bits floating around in their water for them to pick up when drinking. Always worth having something like that in their medicine cupboard I feel.

Have you noticed how their medicine cupboard grows over the years?

Keep us posted please. Thanks

Edwink x

Better_Days

Hi Edwink

Thanks for the tip re the charcoal, seems like you can buy it from quite a few places, so it should be easy to get some.

Know what you mean regarding the medicine cupboard. The animals have loads more meds that the humans in our house. Our old dog, before she was pts in June, was on 7 different meds/supplements. Bless her.

ali-t

Hope jemima is on the mend.

our hens dont seem to have got the drop in egg production memo - for the first time ever, every hen laid an egg and we got 10 eggs. Such clever girls.

Dizzy_Ditzy

My egg production is definitely down. We've gone from 5/5 to 3/5. Doesn't seem much but we definitely notice it

We have kept the bully hen inside the little coop today as she was being truly horrible to one of the others in particular. The bullied one is as happy as larry, so much more laid back

We topped up the hen first aid kits today with some anti peck spray, purple wound spray and some apple cider vinegar :beer:

And I gave them all some pumpkin. They love it they were 2 for £3 in asda and the two will last about two weeks I reckon they seemed to prefer the flesh over the seeds and didn't like me hanging the bits up, instead they wanted the bits in a tray on the floor :rotfl:

Better_Days

I find anti peck spray does work well, and bullying tends to sort itself out in the long run, as long as they have enough space. It's horrible to see though, I found a broom to be quite useful in separating the hens if things got nasty.

Jemima is still turning her beak up at spaghetti and sweetcorn, but is currently tucking into chopped grapes purchased by Mr BD this afternoon especially for her. ;);)

She seemed a little better this afternoon when we cleaned her up and gave her poultry drops, but her crop was nearly empty. Hopefully the grapes will stimulate her appetite.

ali-t

Help - I've got vermin issues!


I have 2 sets of vermin issues related to the chooks that appear to have worsened since the fields have been cut and the animals have become homeless. We keep the bags of layers pellets, grain, bedding, grit etc in the garage and we have noticed tears in bags but thought it was as a result of dragging them from the car to the garage etc. Yesterday I spotted a hole in the top of a new bag of layers pellets and mice poo all over it so have ordered metal dustbins to keep the food in but is there anything else I can do to discourage them?


The other issue is that something (and its friends) has been burrowing from the garden into the hen enclosure. there are holes beside the fence posts that you can see through to the enclosure and a couple of small (not as big as some of the rats round here) holes that are like burrows. I am guessing they are coming through for the food which we have in runs attached to the coops within the larger enclosure and the runs and coops are locked at night.


Any idea how to discourage them and if there are any health considerations for either us or the chooks. We always wear gloves when cleaning them out and wipe the eggs before putting them in boxes as they tend to be quite muddy just now.

edwink

Hi Ali-t

Well done on the metal bins for the feed. That is exactly what have for our feed as it definitely keeps the rodents out. As to the bags of feed the only thing you can really do is raise the bags off the ground by putting them on a table or something and then lay traps for the mice.

With regards to the problem with rodents and your hens enclosure I would say the best thing you can do is put your girls feed in to one of those hanging feeders so it will swing. Your girls will be able to feed from it but the rodents will not be able to reach the food anymore if you hang it high enough.

As to the holes around the coop boundary. Can I ask what size the holes are in the chicken wire you have? The reason I ask is that I can not understand why a rodent would be digging underneath and getting through that way rather than just squeezing through the wire. (which they can easily do).

You could dig a trench around the coop, lay bricks and cement them in at some point. But for the time being fill the holes back up and try and make the boundary as secure as possible. If you have any bricks you could just lay them around the boundary for the time being or even some old paving slabs. Also you could leave some bait around the boundary as long as your hens don't have access to it through the wire. We all know most hens will eat anything put in front of them.

When we built our coop we cemented the chicken wire in to the ground and filled the hole up with bricks and rubble then cemented over the top. We still get rodents burrowing in a few areas. They can elongate their bodies in to tiny thin shapes as their bone structure stretches. That's the way they can get through the tiniest of holes.

I hope that is some help to you Ali-t. I really feel for you because we get the same problem quite often and they are a blooming pest and extremely hard to get rid of.

Edwink x