Keeping hens and ducks chat.

CAFCGirl · 20 February 2017 at 8:44AM

Mine have been fighting

Well I think one of them is bullying the others. Broken wing feathers, spots of blood, lots of smaller feathers littering the run floor.
Is it boredom that causes that? Any suggestions?

edwink · 20 February 2017 at 11:18AM

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Mine have been fighting
Well I think one of them is bullying the others. Broken wing feathers, spots of blood, lots of smaller feathers littering the run floor.
Is it boredom that causes that? Any suggestions?

Hi

You will always get one who is top hen in the bunch. I would say yes they are probably bored. Have you tried hanging corn on the cob from their run roof or broccoli, cabbage or bits of cauliflower. Another thing you can do is get a small empty water bottle and drill holes in it. Fill it half full with dried corn seeds so it rattles. Put in on the run floor and when you do shake it a little until some of the corn comes out so they get the idea there is something nice in there for them. Having a top hen I would put several of these bottles in there so top hen gets one and the others can play with the other one.

Hard to know what to suggest besides the above without knowing what your run is like. Can you explain what is like and I might have some other ideas for you. If yours has a low roof it might be difficult to hang things from it for example so could you give me some idea of size/height, just roughly will do?

Edwink

CAFCGirl · 20 February 2017 at 12:31PM

Thanks Edwink

They have an old walk in polytunnel which is about 2 m wide, by 3m long, which then has an extra 1m section connection to their coop whch has a 'mini run' underneath is.
The polytunnel is half height so about 1m high and the extra section is about 70cm high.
They had a whole cabbage to play with yesterday and apples on garlands the day before. The worst of it seemed to happen same day as the apples. I put 4 in so everyone had one.

Theyve been having pellets and then corn and greens later in the day. Theres also a peck block in there with them but they dont seem too concerned by that. Theres hanging CD's too. Maybe tonight I need to go in there and shift everything about to new positions. They have my sons old garden table and bench to perch on/investigate from higher. They had a whole bag of straw tipped in to claw about in too about a week ago.....

My poor little Nugget and Dipper look like they've been beaten up. Stew seems to have escaped (and is the bigger of all of them) and just potters about all day.... Naughty Chicken Pie!

edwink · 20 February 2017 at 2:28PM

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Thanks Edwink They have an old walk in polytunnel which is about 2 m wide, by 3m long, which then has an extra 1m section connection to their coop whch has a 'mini run' underneath is.
The polytunnel is half height so about 1m high and the extra section is about 70cm high.
They had a whole cabbage to play with yesterday and apples on garlands the day before. The worst of it seemed to happen same day as the apples. I put 4 in so everyone had one.
Theyve been having pellets and then corn and greens later in the day. Theres also a peck block in there with them but they dont seem too concerned by that. Theres hanging CD's too. Maybe tonight I need to go in there and shift everything about to new positions. They have my sons old garden table and bench to perch on/investigate from higher. They had a whole bag of straw tipped in to claw about in too about a week ago.....
My poor little Nugget and Dipper look like they've been beaten up. Stew seems to have escaped (and is the bigger of all of them) and just potters about all day.... Naughty Chicken Pie!

Maybe some hanging corn on the cob might help and hanging greens. Just make sure they are hung in different areas of the coop. Also small water bottles with holes drilled in with dried corn in them, that could add interest for them maybe. I know my girls love them as I am constantly filling theirs up again

Your coop size is plenty big enough for 4 of them. Maybe no more apples for them if that is causing them to fight. If their fighting is trying to establish a new pecking order it will settle down.

Please let us know how it is all going. Fingers crossed changing it all around will do the trick.

Edwink

CAFCGirl · 21 February 2017 at 9:07AM

Oh I dont think it was the apples that caused it. Just that I noticed the damage to 2 of them on the same day I'd put the apples in, but I'm pretty sure it was there before the apples went in.

edwink · 21 February 2017 at 8:12PM

Latest I have seen on the Avian Flu. Mainly talking about large scale farmers labelling their eggs as free-range or not etc. etc.

I am a little confused about my ducks and their pond not being fenced after reading this. The article mentions that ponds should be fenced once ducks are allowed out but there is no mention of back garden ducks in this article only commercial. I know some of you have ducks so does anyone have any thoughts on this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39037406

Edwink

rhosynbach · 21 February 2017 at 8:47PM

sorry to sound daft but do we have different rules in England and Wales then, as that seems really daft that we have to keep them in but over the border can go out from 28th feb we also have forms to fill in . the information being put out is not actually very clear.

edwink · 21 February 2017 at 10:46PM

rhosynbach wrote: »

sorry to sound daft but do we have different rules in England and Wales then, as that seems really daft that we have to keep them in but over the border can go out from 28th feb we also have forms to fill in . the information being put out is not actually very clear.

I agree it is not all that clear! I checked on the map from the link I posted in post 1021. From the top of the page to the 3rd paragraph down there is an interactive map which is highlighted that you can use to check to see what is happening where you live. From what I can see not all of wales has the ban extended all though I could be wrong as the map is a little difficult to follow if you don't know the area you are looking at. The same goes for England with its many areas which have an extended ban.

Others were chatting on this thread the other day about the boundary in their area being a river and those on one side the free-range ban ends on 28th Feb and those on the other side of the river still have to keep their poultry in.

Edwink

Dizzy_Ditzy · 22 February 2017 at 9:33PM

I need hen help please

One of my girls was acting weird this evening. Very sluggish and not interested in corn. She laid an egg in the run, stood up and kind of barked. She then ran into the corner and the others were pecking at her back end. She was bleeding. I quickly separated her from the rest of them and she went into the nest box. I shut it all up while I sorted out the broody cage and a box, I was gone for no more than 10 minutes. I went in to get her and shed laid a soft egg. Two eggs within 15 minutes!

I brought her home and cleaned her up and she's sleeping at the mo. I can't tell whether she's prolapsed or not.

Have any of you had anything like this before?

StarShapedPeg · 22 February 2017 at 9:48PM

Hi Dizzy
Had something very similar, my little bantam was acting very strange, this was about a year ago, tired and disinterested and refusing to move off her perch. I popped her in a dry box when I realised she was leaking from her bottom, within an hour she'd laid two soft shelled eggs and was back on her feet within a couple of hours. I gave her some heat when she was sleeping just to do something to be honest, pretty sure it didn't make any difference though. Thankfully she was fine.
My first thought that she'd prolapsed though.
I hope your girl gets better. x

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