Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

MandM90 · 13 October 2014 at 8:07AM

I should be getting them today but my bank thought the payment looked suspicious and rejected it without alerting me(!) I paid again on Friday, just hoping it wasn't too late!

We were thinking of calling these two Phyllis and Betty after our grandmothers

so far we have Patricia, Jemima and Lily.

MandM90 · 13 October 2014 at 8:08AM

I should be getting them today but my bank thought the payment looked suspicious and rejected it without alerting me(!) I paid again on Friday, just hoping it wasn't too late!

We were thinking of calling these two Phyllis and Betty after our grandmothers

so far we have Patricia, Jemima and Lily.

I hope someone comes along soon to sort out this board. I'm still trying to find my mealplan :mad:

raven83 · 13 October 2014 at 3:10PM

Well I am new to all this, had always wanted chickens and last week finally got 2 lovely hens (not sure on the breed but one has some lovely markings) Anyways, I can see this is going to be addictive, I am already planning more! Which ones do people recommend? My chickens haven't laid yet because they had not long had babies? I am feeding them those layer pellets.:o

Basically am looking for advice really from other fellow hen-tastic people:T:rotfl:

MandM90 · 13 October 2014 at 3:20PM

We got our first egg today :j

The two hens have moved in, the Eglu cube is assembled and looks fantastic. Happy happy!!

edwink · 14 October 2014 at 12:44AM

MandM90 wrote: »

We got our first egg today :j

The two hens have moved in, the Eglu cube is assembled and looks fantastic. Happy happy!!

It is wonderful getting your first egg. Just a word of warning if you decide to keep it as I did. I kept in on my shelf in my kitchen, 2 years later it exploded. Seriously it did. The smell in the kitchen was so awful. Maybe keep it for a while or try and seal it with something to stop it exploding!!

Nothing better than a fried egg sarnie with your own fresh eggs!!!

Enjoy your new hens!!

Edwink

MandM90 · 14 October 2014 at 10:13AM

edwink wrote: »

I is wonderful getting your first egg. Just a word of warning if you decide to keep it as I did. I kept in on my shelf in my kitchen, 2 years later it exploded. Seriously it did. The smell in the kitchen was so awful. Maybe keep it for a while or try and seal it with something to stop it exploding!!

Nothing better than a fried egg sarnie with your own fresh eggs!!!

Enjoy your new hens!!

Edwink

I heeded your warning and instead had the egg on top of some lovely sunflower seed bread for breakfast!

They are currently establishing a new pecking order which looks a bit brutal. Hopefully it'll settle down soon. I'll post a gratuitous chicken photo on here later

skipton · 14 October 2014 at 11:45AM

I discovered this American site while looking for help with a poorly egg bound moulting chicken. I'm about to give one of my girls an epsom salts bath. Not sure who will be the most wet.

http://hencam.com/faq/the-spa-treatment/

This lady has a live webcam in her chicken yard plus some interesting blog articles and super photos.

edwink · 19 October 2014 at 11:40AM

Hi

I really don't know where else to post this. I have tried looking through the forum and I can not see where to do it.

Briefly I have an Aylesbury duck that had bumble foot. (She is free range). She had this for a couple of weeks and as it would not clear up with Iodine and keeping in thoroughly clean I took her to the vets.

The vet said that all I had done was right for her. She said the duck needed antibiotics as it had become infected. After a week on antibiotics and her staying indoors the Bumble foot cleared up and we took her back outside with the others. When she was first outside (Friday) she was sitting round a lot but I put this down to tiredness and though she would pick up in a couple of days. I watched her walk yesterday and she was very slow on her feet. I thought maybe she had been sitting down too long and had got a bit stiff so I just kept an eye on her.

Today when I went to get them all out, the others came out but she just sat in the door way. So I thought maybe her foot had got sore again or maybe it had not healed as well as we thought but most certainly the bumble foot had cleared up as the limp had gone right down. It certainly looked fine when we took her back outside the day before. After sitting in the door way for a minute she got up and started to walk down the ramp from her house, she was fine but just a little unsteady. Still she managed it and walked a little towards their outdoor gate. Then she sat down again, then up again and out of the gate. I was just getting the hens out when I saw her get up again and walk very badly towards the pond which is near to her duck house. She had to balance herself with her wings this time and started to struggle. I got her to her as quickly as I could. By the time I got to there to help she was just getting herself in to the pond and starting swimming and ducking herself and genuinely having a lovely time with the others. To look at her you would not have thought that there was anything wrong with her. I stayed at the pond for a while to make sure she ate her breakfast, which she did. So I know her appetite is good. She is still in the pond at the moment as she does tend to spend quite a lot of time in there anyway.

I suppose I now need to see what she is like when she gets out of the pond. I looked on another forum and as it turns out there was someone on there that had the same problem (not with Bumble foot first though). Apparently this was down to electrolytes and the person got some poultry tonic. So I will try that for a start, just in case. I know she did not eat much when indoors so maybe that has something to do with it. I am really not sure but I think it is worth a go!!

Just wanted to post this hoping that someone maybe able to help in any way. Of course I can and will take her back to the vets should she need to go. It is just the travelling in the car that she really does not like at all!!!

Thanks in advance for any help!!! I am really worried!! I think I will have to bring her back in doors in case she gets trodden on by any other the others.

UPDATE:- Ruby duck is now back indoors with me. I have managed to have a look at her leg. She can move it ok and the Bumble foot has certainly gone down. However, her leg is hot so I suspect she still has some infection left. Best thing I can do is keep her quite for a couple of days to see how she is. Rubies vet has a drop in clinic on a Tuesday morning so if it does not settle with her resting it completely I will take her to the vets them. She will probably be put on more antibiotic with complete rest again. Bless here she has been so good. Mind you today she is rather snappy. Bless her!! She has some clean water with some poultry tonic in, so I will just keep her quiet for a bit.

Edwink x

Habibiboo · 20 October 2014 at 4:17PM

:wave:

Hi, this might sound a bit mad but I wondered if any of you had experience of fireworks causing hens to be stressed and possibly stop laying.

I have 5 hens - 2 old girls (one still lays most days, the other has been confusing free ranging with free loading for a while now)! :rotfl:

Then in June we got 3 new girls, ex-batts who are approximately 18 months old now. They have all laid at least an egg every other day, most days, including the day we got them. So, since June our average has been approx 3 eggs per day.

For the last week there has been quite a big celebration in our town. There were a few random fireworks going off in the neighbourhood Thursday and Friday evenings. On Saturday fireworks were going off from approx 5 pm until about 11.30 pm, including a big, loud display quite close to us which lasted approximately 30 mins. The hens were all cooped up safe in their house from about 6 pm.

I stayed at home to tend to my large dog who tries to fit herself under a small coffee table every time fireworks go off.

The thing is, since the fireworks started on Thursday night I have only had 3 eggs (one a day Friday, Sun and today), which I'm 99% sure have been laid by my hardy old Bessie. I can't think of anything else notable to have caused my little new 3 to stop laying all of a sudden and all together. They are quite chipper in themselves and eating, drinking and mucking about as usual, literally the only 'problem' is that the eggs have stopped and the only change in their routine is that it gets dark earlier (and light later) and these dratted noisy nights. I've seen one of them (Edna) still going to the nest boxes but no action.

Edited to add: in fact one of the, has just come out of a moult and re-started laying approx one week before they all stopped, so I know at least one of them isn't going into a moult and therefore not laying!

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If anyone has any thoughts or experience of this, I'd appreciate any advice, especially as firework night has yet to arrive! x

edwink · 30 October 2014 at 1:41AM

edwink wrote: »

Hi

I really don't know where else to post this. I have tried looking through the forum and I can not see where to do it.

Briefly I have an Aylesbury duck that had bumble foot. (She is free range). She had this for a couple of weeks and as it would not clear up with Iodine and keeping in thoroughly clean I took her to the vets.

UPDATE ON RUBY (AYLESBURY DUCK)

My little Ruby is BETTER!!! I took her back to the vets and the vet gave her another antibiotic injection and I was given 3 more injections to bring home to give to Ruby every 3 days.

Today Ruby was back outside playing with her friends. So all is well again. We let her walk outside on the lawn for a couple of days for a couple of hours at a time to allow her to stretch her legs and have some fresh air. She was walking fine so decided after her last injection today she was able to go back out with the others. She had no limp at all and the temperature of her leg was fine. She was also more like her old self and not so grumpy.

GOOD RESULT FOR RUBY - AND ME A HAPPY MUMMY!!!

Edwink x

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Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

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