Keeping hens and ducks chat.

Better_Days · 7 March 2016 at 8:32AM

Hope you enjoyed your first duck egg of the year Edwink.

Brrrr it's chilly here with snow flurries. Girls not impressed but I have given them some greens that my lovely neighbour kindly bought round for them yesterday. They fling the greens around to try and get bits of the leaves off. The brighter hens stand on the stalk and peck at the leaves.

No more 100g eggs but we are getting 3/5 and 4/5 regularly which is enough to keep us and our neighbour in eggs. And she bought us round some eccles cakes yesterday. We are spoilt!

edwink · 7 March 2016 at 9:47AM

We got another duck egg today. yay!! The other ducks have not started laying YET. Just the Aylesbury at the moment.

Better Days - your neighbour sounds lovely. Wish ours would bring round Eccles Cakes. Mind you we were given some left over plum crumble for the girls. They really enjoyed some of that each.

Getting around 10-15 eggs a day from the rescue girls. So glad it is not 26 cos I wouldn't know what to do with them all. We sell our surplus eggs to our regular egg customers to pay for our girls feed so I am sure we could sell some more if needed really. There is only so many we can eat.

Had egg and homemade chips the other day. Best meal of the week and very cheap too.

Have a good day everyone.

Edwink x

smallholding_antics · 7 March 2016 at 10:50AM

I think we're on 4 a day from the new girls, which is 100%. I say think as the kids bring them in and forget to tell me how many, then I will find some outside where they've put them whilst they play and forgot to bring them in or they gets used and no one took any notice! That's my tribe for you!

No goose eggs yet - I feel like I am waiting for a newborn to arrive!

Pig Palace is coming along nicely. 50% fencing is up

edwink · 8 March 2016 at 9:58PM

15 eggs from 26 hens today. Looks like the new rescue girls are feeling better and healthier now which is great for them. When they first arrived they looked a bit depressed and unloved. Now they are running up and down the garden like loonies. I am so happy that they are now happy. Some of them are becoming really friendly too which is nice or is it the treats I go up the garden with that is making them so friendly :rotfl:

How is everyone else and their hens, ducks and geese? All well I hope.

Dizzy - how is everything at home now? Are you managing to get sorted out since those awful floods you had?

Edwink

skipton · 10 March 2016 at 11:16PM

7/8 eggs today. Yesterday had a hardish softie (means I could pick it up quite easily) The shell was so thin that I could leave fingerprints in it.
I have 2 stoats or weasels today for the first time ever. One was by the house and the other was up in the wood near the girls gate. Do you think they would kill the chickens? My neighbour had his killed by mink. It got into his hen house through a tiny hole and killed the lot. I've just watched a few utube clips showing rabbits and birds being killed. HELP any ideas.

edwink · 10 March 2016 at 11:58PM

skipton wrote: »

7/8 eggs today. Yesterday had a hardish softie (means I could pick it up quite easily) The shell was so thin that I could leave fingerprints in it.
I have 2 stoats or weasels today for the first time ever. One was by the house and the other was up in the wood near the girls gate. Do you think they would kill the chickens? My neighbour had his killed by mink. It got into his hen house through a tiny hole and killed the lot. I've just watched a few utube clips showing rabbits and birds being killed. HELP any ideas.

Hi Skipton

I would suggest that you check every morning and evening all around the boundaries where your girls are just to make sure nothing is trying to burrow under anything. As a rule a male Stoat will kill anything even if it is bigger than him. A female Stoat will normally go for mice and things that are smaller than her.

Until you find out exactly what it is just keep checking all the boundaries for signs of soil movement, disturbed grass, flattened weeds or whatever. Basically any signs that something is trying to get to your girls in any way.

One way which will deter foxes is male urine as in human urine. That will keep the foxes away especially the males. They are very territorial and if male urine is smelt anywhere around the girls boundaries as a rule they will just go someone else because they would not want to be in another males territory. You can also soak a towel in male urine and hang that on a nearby fence or put it over the hen house roof. I am not sure if Stoats would be as territorial as foxes but you could try something like that as it may keep whatever it is away from your girls.

Hope that is of some help. Please keep posting and let us know what is happening. Others on here might have some ideas for you too.

Edwink x

Dizzy_Ditzy · 12 March 2016 at 10:34AM

I don't have anything else to add other than the man wee suggestion.

We're coming up to a year since we got our girls! A year and we've managed to keep them all alive! For their "birthday" we're building them an extension so we can let them out to free range while we are there. It's been turfed and grass seeded and they'll be out on Easter Sunday :j they've got working week to contend with before that though. I'm not sure who hates worming week more - us because we can't give them extra treats or them because they're not getting extra treats! That'll start next weekend.

We've been getting between 3 and 5 eggs a day

I'll try and post a few pics sometime this weekend

Beckyy · 13 March 2016 at 12:58PM

I've only just come across this thread!

We have 6 hens, 2 hybrids from our original flock, a rescue grumpy old light Sussex and 3 younger hybrids.

Has anybody had experience of crop impaction with their hens?

One of our younger hybrids had an impacted crop a couple of months ago. Massaging, olive oil etc. didn't shift it and she had to have it surgically emptied by the vets in the end with regular liquid paraffin for quite a few days after. She's doing fine now however her crop never fully empties anymore. It isn't impacted as it was before, so I believe it's muscle damage/very slow digestion.

Interest to hear if anybody else has experienced similar? It's something our other hens have never had a problem with.

edwink · 13 March 2016 at 8:57PM

Beckyy wrote: »

Has anybody had experience of crop impaction with their hens?
One of our younger hybrids had an impacted crop a couple of months ago. Massaging, olive oil etc. didn't shift it and she had to have it surgically emptied by the vets in the end with regular liquid paraffin for quite a few days after. She's doing fine now however her crop never fully empties anymore. It isn't impacted as it was before, so I believe it's muscle damage/very slow digestion.
Interest to hear if anybody else has experienced similar? It's something our other hens have never had a problem with.

Hi Becky and welcome to our hen, duck and geese friendly thread. Lots of useful and friendly poultry keepers on this thread so you have come to the right place for any help and support.

I actually had a rescue hen that arrived with a compacted crop. Poor little skinny thing she was so underweight and without her feathers. she looked dreadful to be honest. I went down the olive oil route with her for almost 3 weeks. Three times a day I would sit her on my lap with a small bowl of pellets soaked in olive oil. Luckily for me she loved it and just used to drink the olive oil. Whilst she was drinking it I used to massage her crop very gently at first so I did not put her off of sitting on my lap. After a week or so I massaged her cropped harder and harder and gradually felt movement in it. The final week it got softer and softer so I was able to move the contents about quite a bit. Early one morning just after I let them all out she came running over like she always did and jumped on my lap. I actually cried because her crop was empty. Finally at last it was empty as it should be first thing in the morning. I let her feed on my lap still for a while but with more pellets and less olive oil. Finally she was able to just eat the pellets and her crop would empty properly. I picked her up from time to time for a cuddle and to check that her crop was ok and thankfully she never had the problem again. She lived until she was four and a half years old which is good for a rescue girl. I put her long life down to all that olive oil. Bless her.

I am wondering if the surgery has weakened her crop muscles and it is now working albeit very slowly. Would you be able to put some olive oil in some of her food to help it along a bit? You could maybe soak some pellets overnight and give it to all your hens the next morning. It is not going to do any of them any harm and might help your hen with the slow moving crop. I think I would try that maybe.

I hope to see you on the thread with all your hen news.

Thanks for posting

Edwink x

Beckyy · 13 March 2016 at 9:59PM

Thanks for the reply Edwink, what a fantastic story about your rescue hen! Looking forward to reading through the thread

We'd only had this poor girly just over a month when the problem started so she's not very keen on being handled now after being put through so much, bless her.

The olive oil soaked pellets is a great idea! As you say it might do everyone the world of good. I do think the surgery must have had an impact on the strength of her crop and muscles, I'm just concerned that if it isn't ever emptying fully she's at risk of sour crop or some other infection eventually. She's still seems to be eating and laying well otherwise so hopefully in time with a little help it will improve.

Keeping hens and ducks chat.

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