RIP Amber

Sadly, after an initial improvement, Amber's condition worsened. Sunday morning saw her just sitting on the nest box. I had to go out that day, so I moved Maud to an adjacent run - for a while she was the only chicken in the large 10 chicken eglu cube! I wondered about dosing Amber up with metacam, but I didn't really want to disturb her as she was quite peaceful. When I returned, she had died in the same position so I think she was just drifting off.

These two photos were taken earlier this year, when she was her usual friendly, hale and hearty self. I'm sure her decline derived from that very first virus which I noted on 3rd January. Amazing how fast they go downhill.

Peritonitis

After my last post, Amber's condition deteriorated. Her abdomen became distended and hard and she was standing around with her legs apart looking hunched. Also her comb was looking bluish so I booked an appointment with the vet last night.

The vet removed 1ltr of fluid from Amber's abdomen. He said it was starting to impede her breathing (which was why her comb was showing a bluish tinge - something I wasn't aware of). She was immediately more perky! He said there was more there but he didn't want to risk removing too much.

He thought it was most likely peritonitis, although it could be tumour or cardiac but difficult to tell without running expensive tests. He prescribed baytril twice daily and metacam once daily. I dosed her with both upon arriving home in the evening and by the next morning she looked so much better. I have to treat her for 10 days. So far so good. The vet said that her body should absorb any further liquid as she recovered. Once treated with Baytril I've been told that her eggs are no longer suitable for human consumption.The vet did say I could use tylan since I already had a stock, but when I specifically asked which was better to treat peritonitis if that was indeed what she had, he said Baytril. I'd rather have a healthy hen and throw away the eggs than risk using a less suitable antibiotic so I went with that. Also, I had treated her with Tylan in November for her suspected Myco, so I wasn't sure it would be good to go again with the same anti-biotic.

I do hope this clears it up completely. Chicken keeping is a journey of discovery. I find the Omlet forums very good and helpful for sharing experiences and advice - and the advice I got very rapidly when I described Amber's symptoms was to take her to the vet as she possibly had peritonitis. It can also get expensive but if you do decide to keep animals of any sort, it is really important to care for them properly, whatever that costs.

Wormed ready for winter

This weekend I made a start on winter preparations, moving the pink and green eglus onto the patio. It is still relatively mild (7C to 10C) so I'm not to worried, but I'd like to have them ready to move into before the cold really hits. I had to completely wash the pink eglu as it had been in the WIR with the bantams and got really, REALLY dusty.

I have one run out ready to attach to one eglu. I will set up the other eglu as well, but I'm debating about moving the eglu cube onto the patio. Having 5 bantams in one eglu with a 2M run seems a little tight, whereas having the two medium hybrids, Amber and Maud, in an eglu with a 2M tunnel would work, and then having the 2 bantam wyandottes, Buffy and Vera, together with the tiny bantam silkies, Lulu and Velvet and the event tinier bantam frizzle, Lyra together in the larger cube seems rather nicer. The cube does wheel around very easily so I may do this all next weekend.

I started worming them today - 7 days worth of Flubenvet. I mixed 12g in with 4Kg of feed and followed advice I'd seen on one of the forums. I mixed the first cupful of feed with a small amount of olive oil to ensure that the flubenvet powder would stick. I then mixed handfuls of dry pellets with the oily ones. The oiliness (and flubenvet) spread evenly throughout. Once I'd mixed up about 1kg of this mixture, I reversed the process, mixing the flubenvet pellets in with the untreated ones until I had 4kg of fully mixed worming pellets.

I also read on the Omlet forums that working chooks can improve their condition. Mine are looking a little pale (apart from the two black skinned ones). Amber has recently had some mycoplasma infection which I successfully treated with tylan. She is no longer snuffling or having clicky breathing, but she does look under the weather and they all have pale combs.

I think some chicken spice and maybe a bit of tonic in the water may be in order.

Amber, Clicky Breathing and mucus around the eyes

Crouched down watching & chatting to my hens just before shutting them up tonight, I spotted Amber's (amber star) cheeks were going concave each time she breathed in, and bulging out when she breathed out. There was a slight click between breaths, and occasionally, a few bubbles would appear in the inner corner of one or other eye.

I would suspect some sort of cold virus, but her nostrils are completely clear - no discharge or snot and she seems otherwise absolutely fine.

I have had hens for 8 years, and have had snotty chickens that have recovered after a few days. I've never noticed this cheek movement and bubbly eyes before.

I have some Tylan so I'm going to give amber a 7 day course.

Winter plans 2014

I am now down to 7 hens. The two big hens, Maud and Amber, live in the splendid Pink Omlet cube that Fleur gave me when her last hen was eaten by a fox. The remaining 5 bantams, Lulu (white bantam silkie), Velvet (black bantam silkie), Lyra (grey bantam frizzle), Buffy (buff bantam wyandotte) and Vera (gold laced bantam wyandotte) all live in the red eglu attached to the 2m walk-in-run. I plan to move them all out onto the patio for the start of the winter while I level up their large area and put down fresh wood chip for them. Then I may be able to move them back again over winder provided the weather isn't too bad. Nice to have enough eglus to have summer and winter quarters. I currently have a green, pink and red eglu. I have a green rablu that I can convert into an eglu (as I did the red rablu) and a large pink cube together with a 2m WIR and extensions for the cube run up to 2m. It will be garden space that I am missing.

Agatha RIP

So sad. This morning I went out to check my happy hens, only to discover my beautiful Agatha sitting outside the eglu dead. She looked quite peaceful, just sitting there with her beak resting on the mesh as her head had I suppose, dropped forward as she drifted away. Animals do tend to go outside to die for some reason. Maybe they feel a bit peaky and fancy some fresh air. Anyway, she must have passed away gazing up at the sky and looked to be in no pain at all.

Such as shock. She can only have been about 3 1/2 years old and last time I saw her alive looked perky, red comb and wattles and trotting around happily with all the othersI wonder if bantams or wyandottes have a short lifespan. She was my favourite to look at - to me the sliver laced variety is the prettiest.

I'll try to hold off getting any replacements until spring. After all, I still have 7 hens. Deeply upsetting though :(

Storm on the way - Battening down the hatches

Or in my case, strapping every bit of sunshade/windbreak/rain cover on my runs.

Can't have my hens getting wet - the silkies aren't waterproof!

Nutmeg RIP

Sadly today nutmeg finally died. She had been getting progressively worse and at the weekend we had to move the big chickens into the small eglu and the little chickens into the eglu cube because Nutmeg couldn't make it up the steps into the cube any more,her balance had gone,

She still pottered around but looked a bit hunched and uncomfortable. 

I gave her a large dose of meta am on some grapes. She really enjoyed this but even thought I'd cut them very small ahe had trouble swallowing them, I think the lumps must have affected her throat. She had also got very thin by now. At one point she toppled over and we thought she'd died, but she got up and carried on eating the grapes.

We expected her to have died overnight but she didn't.

Today she wandered out but didn't move much. She was a lot worse. She seemed to sunbathe a bit then I couldn't see her at all. I found what looked like her corpse under a bush by the fence but when I went to pick her up she twitched and lifted her head. She wasn't far off so I moved her to a cool shady spot and she was dead within the hour

I probably could have taken her to the vet sooner to have her out down, but each day she seemed to be eating and drinking up until the end and I always found myself asking "Would she really be happier dead?" And thinking that the answer was no.

Nutmeg more lumpy

It is now June and Nutmeg is still with us. Of late, her lumps have got worse, and I notice that she twitches her head a little more than the other chickens as thought they irritate her. Her comb is paler and although she seems happy with the others, I sense that it won't be long. Still, she is a good age and has had a good life. 

Eglu cube fits in a Citroen Picasso

I acquired an eglu cube from a friend whose chickens has sadly perished from a fox attack one morning after she had let them out. Cube and 1m run fitted in my car as shown with room to spare.

Arriving home I unloaded the car and I then jetwashed the cube before reassembling it.

Here it is all assembled. It was very easy with the help of the online instruction PDF. Here it is ready to br rolled onto the chicken enclosure. 

Nutmeg - defies the path lab with her lumps

First I took Nutmeg to my local vet who prescribed Tylan (antibiotic) as I expected. When this had no effect, we then added metacam (anti-inflamatory) but still no change. I decided I would have to seek out a poultry specialist and went to The Scott Veterinary Clinic who have a nice vet, Natalie, who specialises in exotic animals. I hadn't realised that chickens were classed as exotic but its rather nice.

She had a good feel and observed that some of the lumps were quite fleshy. She didn't think it was respiratory - so she took samples from each of the four lumps and sent them to the path lab.

Took longer than expected to get back to me because the path lab were so stumped they did the tests twice. There is "reactive lymphocites" in each of the four samples, but different ones. We discussed at length, but I decided that since Nutmeg is very happy in herself - she is even still laying eggs occasionally, and since she is already nearly 6 which is a good age for a chicken, I'm going to leave her and see how things go. If she deteriorates fast (as may happen) and is in distress I'll take her to be put to sleep. If she dies overnight, which may also happen, I've also promised to take her corpse along because the vet and the path lab are really keen to do a post-mortem to find out what this mysterious problem is.

Of course she could just recover :)

You never know.

Nutmeg - still no change

Phoned the Vet friday as no change in Nutmeg (other than a slightly runny bottom which is probably due to the antibiotic). The vet had spoken to her vet pal who was a poultry specialist in Nottingham who said she used Aivlosin and also that Metacam (anti-inflammatory) might help.

I'm getting concerned that in addition to the bulging face, Nutmeg has a distinct lump on the top left of her head and also down on the left side of her neck.

I'm now giving 3 more days Tylan plus metacam. So far (day 2) there has still been no change. May need to research Aivlosin.

Nutmeg's swollen face worsens

Really quite worried about Nutmeg. Her face is swollen on both sides, but unevenly. There seems to be a bump on top of her head, to her left side and she also appears to have a slight bump on the left side of her neck (from her perspective, if looking at her front on it is to the right).

I took her to the vet on Friday 7th. I don't have a poultry specialist vet and my vet practice had just, this week, been taken over by a new couple of vets. What the vet said matched what I'd read. Poss Myco and prescribed Tylan.

However today is day 4 and still no improvement. What could it be?

Excuse for more chicken pics 😊

I love letting my chickens out at the weekend as I clean their runs. I've been experimenting with different groupings since I still don't dare leave my newbies with Maud Nutmeg and Amber in case they do them damage since they are even tinier than my beautiful Wyandottes. So I just let them wreck my garden, awe bless

Spot 9 chickens 😃🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

Washing my chicken

I decided today to wash my white Silkie. When I collected them, the garden they lived in had got really muddy and as the two Silkies had the run of the garden, they were already quite grubby. I knew I'd need to wash them and had read up a bit on it. It is really important to blow dry them especially if, as now, it is cold and wintery.

Chicken Washing Station

So, I prepared everything in advance. I put a little bit of soapy water in the kitchen sink, cleared the draining board and prepared an additional bowl of clear warm water for rincing. I also got the chicken towel ready.


First I stood Lulu on the draining board and tried to sponge the mud off her head. It worked to some extent but the feathers still looked brown. I then tried using a toothbrush (as advised) to clean her legs. The toothbrush worked really well at getting mud off the feathers. I stood her in the bowl of water and she didn't care for that very much and flapped a bit. I took her out and decided to lay her on her back so I could wash around the vent, feet and tail which were all very grubby.

Having laid her on her back with her head under my left arm, she seemed fairly calm although I could see her breathing was fairly fast. I gently washed away at the mud and poop stuck to her feathers. The toothbrush (soft) helped quite a bit here especially with the lumps. However once wet, the feathers still looked brown. I think I could probably have cleaned them up better with more soap, but I didn't want to get her too wet as I wasn't sure how easy it would be to dry her with the hair drier.

Chicken drying station

Having done as much as I could to her under carriage, I then stood her up and worked a little on her beard, under her chin. I had another go at her head and noticed that the feathers were quite cold. Her damp head had cooled off whilst I was working on her underneath so I decided now was the time to dry her off.

I wrapped her carefully in the towel and carried her to the dining room where I had positioned a spare dry towel, hairdryer and small cardboard box to stand her in if necessary. I had ended up standing her on the towel on the draining board so it had become quite wet in parts, although it was a large towel and much of it was still dry.

I sat on the chair with her wrapped in the dry towel on my lap and put my hand across her beak to protect her eyes and started blow drying her head. She didn't seem to mind particularly, and I could be sure not to over heat the feathers because my hand was in the air stream.

Looking pretty for the camera

I then lay her on her back to dry her underside, legs, vent and tail. This took ages (about 20 minutes maybe, I wasn't timing it). As the feathers dried off, they fluffed up beautifully by themselves. I didn't use a comb or a brush on them as I wasn't sure that you should with feathers. I moved the air around, stopping periodically to check with my hand whether the feathers were drying.

When wet, the feathers look like little sticks. As they dry, the ends fluff out like a dandelion and if feather is fairly clean, ultimately the whole feather is fluffy. There were still some that I'd not cleaned properly that never fluffed up, particularly the feed feathers. However they all still looked much better than before.

Next time I'll be more confident and wash her more thoroughly. Still, I'm pleased with my first attempt.

My Christmas Wormery

For Christmas I received a huge present, sneakily smuggled in behind the Christmas tree without me noticing!

It took a while to unwrap, and as I did, I couldn't see what it could be, although the photographer could by the time I'd removed most of the wrapping paper

Finally revealed. My new Wormery.

I ordered the worms which arrived through the post on 10 th January. It looked as though they had been trying to chew their way out.

I followed the instructions carefully. Mindful that worms don't act so fast in low temperatures, I located the Wormery in its insulating jacket in the garage with a remote temperature gauge to check. The temp has regularly dropped below 8C but not below freezing. Nevertheless I was not surprised after a week to see that they hadn't processed the small amount of household waste. They had made a start, and at least they had stopped crawling up the sides of the bin to explore their new home.

I'll leave it another week before giving them a little more food. They are at least moving the soil around and seem happy enough, though how do you tell if a worm is happy? 

It has been pointed out to me that I need to keep my chickens and worms well apart :)

First week in my garden

Lulu, Velvet and Lyra settled in well together. Lyra was a little pecked and scared the first day but they soon settled in together. Very keen to get out of the run, and very tame. Indeed lulu seems to positively want to be picked up and cuddled, as does Lyra. I have decided to work on handling all my chickens m ore so they are all this friendly. When they have muddy feet in winter it is easy not to bother. Lulu needs a bit of a wash as she has dipped her head in the water I think then got it grubby. Washing them will be an interesting experience.

Here are today's photos as they roamed the garden whilst I cleaned their runs. 

Video - How to Clip your Chicken's Wings

I recently did a 10 week OU course on video creation - T156. This culminated in a 3 minutes video with a 2 minute behind-the scenes documentary. I am still awaiting the result - I think I should have passed. I rather ran out of time towards the end, I was travelling on business a lot. I decided that for my final video I needed to be in control of as many of the variables as possible, so it had to be at home. I decided to do something to do with my chickens as this would be in my own garden, and a short piece on how to clip a chicken's wings sprang to mind.

I'm no expert at this, but I have done it. I looked at other videos and articles to be sure that I did it correctly and then planned it out. Here is the finished product:

Eggs

Maud has been laying regularly for the past couple of weeks (blue egg). I think Amber has also started laying intermittently (the light brown egg) and already I have had two lovely little eggs from my new Silkies. I don't know which one is laying - possibly both. Definitely not the little Frizzle since she is still too young I think.

Meanwhile, on the drive into work a name for the Frizzle popped into my head. Lyra, as in the Golden Compass. Really suits her.

Three new chickens later….

My good friend "the Muminator" had asked me, on behalf of a friend, how to source chickens. Having described the various ways you can get hens, I found myself returning to the idea of getting some more myself. I've become really fond of my three beautiful Wyandotte bantams - they get every more beautiful the older the get. I have always fancied some more pure breeds…..and  my eglu total soon to be 4, it seems a shame to have too many eglus lying empty!

I started simply browsing my favourite breeds on the internet I was beginning to think about some Frizzles, then I ran across the PreLoved website. In it there was an ad from a lady who had hatched some eggs from a breeder and who had a range of lovely looking breeds (no Frizzles) and who wanted to sell them to start getting her garden in order with a view to moving house. She said that she was selling them for a low price because she wanted to ask questions to ensure they went to a good home since they were, after all, her pets. This sounded like just my sort of chickens. She was based in Basingstoke, which is quite a way from where I live, but guess what, I was visiting my friend "the Muminator" who lived closer than I do, so I could swing past Basingstoke on my way home.

After a lovely long chat and a coo over some gorgeous chickens, I settled upon a couple of bantam silkies. As I was leaving I said that I would stick with two as this would give me room to get another two bantams should I find some Frizzles which I had originally been looking for.

It must have been fate, because we were walking past a shed full of Frizzle's as I spoke. All bar one were already spoken for, and this poor little baby Frizzle was stood alone. When I picked her up, she was so cute and showed a bit of feather damage where she had been bullied. I figured that as all the rest were going elsewhere, wherever she was homed she would be on her own, so on a whim I took her as well.

Apparently, when introducing a new chicken to a group, if you do it at bedtime and wipe all the chickens over with a damp cloth soaked in a vinegar solution (I used apple vinegar which I have to hand as a drink supplement) then when they all wake up, they won't detect that one of them doesn't belong because they will all smell of vinegar. I tried this last night when I introduced them to their new eglu. Fortunately it was dark, so nobody was able to see the odd sight of me crouched down with a chicken on my knees, carefully wiping a damp, apple vinegar scented cloth in her armpits and all over.

This morning they all got up. I've named the white one Lulu - she is apparently the top chicken. The little Frizzle spend much of the day running around hiding - she is smaller than the others. The black one seemed to peck at her more than the white Silkie. I've found that it is often the 2nd in command who will do all the pecking. Nevertheless, very minor stuff. I feel fairly sure that within a couple of days they will be fine together.

Here are some photos of my current flock arrangement. I've moved Nutmeg, Maud and Amber back into the big walk-in-run with the red eglu and just a 1m attachment. It works better I think than the 2m tunnel attached to the WIR and I've used cable ties to ensure a good fit.

Here's a little gallery of my new run layout and hens :)

Below is Lulu at the front, a white bantam silkie, black silkie at the back and my little grey Frizzle bantam in the middle.

Below: Agatha, Vera and Buffy, the beautiful Wyandotte bantams

Maud, Nutmeg and Amber, my medium hybrids. Nutmeg still seems to have puffy cheeks, and I've added citricidal to her drinking water. She seems none the worse for it though, no sniffles or behaviour change so I'll just leave well alone.

Here is the red eglu, converted into a chicken eglu and attached to the WIR with a 1m tunnel. I needed several cable ties and a brick to raise the back up off the ground to ensure a good connection. But it works well.

Wyandottes dust bathing

I have recently moved my eglus onto the patio. By winter, the ground in the fenced of run where they were located was getting soggy. The recent heavy rain, chicken poop and constant scratching had created a boggy mess so I shifted them to the drier patio so they wouldn't get so muddy. I feel a bit sorry for the hens restricted to their 2m runs and so let them out when I am around and it is dry enough to run in the fenced off area where they used to be. I've put fresh earth down and am tidying it all up ready to move them back when the weather warms up.

The hens enjoy running around in their run when I let them back in, and Agatha (silver laced), Buffy (buff laced) and Vera (gold laced) head straight for the drier soil under the WIR and start shuffling around dust bathing.

It is so difficult to get a good photo of chickens. No sooner do you point the camera at them than they decide to peck the floor and all you get is a view of their fluffy bottoms. They looked so cute so I was really pleased to get this half-way decent photo of them.

Converting a Rablu to an Eglu

Having moved my hens onto the patio and cleaned their eglus, I decided it was time to clean up the red guinea-pig eglu that a friend gave me. I had used it last winter during the complex process of moving 6 chickens from my old house, 5 miles away, to my current house.

Chicken Moving Process:

1. assemble red guinea-pig eglu & 1m run on patio
2. after dark (when hens asleep) collect 3 wyandotte bantams from green eglu at old house 
3. drive back home and put hens in red eglu
4. next day drive to old house and disassemble green eglu and run and put in car
5. drive back home and assemble green eglu on patio
6. that evening, drive to old house and collect 3 big hens when asleep in eglu
7. drive home and put hens in green eglu
8. next day drive to old house and disassemble pink eglu and run and put in car
9. drive back home and pile eglu to one side and collapse with a glass of wine. 

After this procedure, the bantams spend several weeks in the guinea pig eglu, quite happily. When I finally assembled the pink eglu and moved them into that, I couldn't face cleaning the red guinea-pig eglu so it has languished ever since.

There was a sale at Omlet - and conversion kits had dropped from over £70 to about £50. There was lots of other stuff on sale as well, so I put together a big order. When the conversion kit arrived it had very clear instructions with it….for everything except actually converting one eglu type to another. However it seemed to be simply a matter of unscrewing 4 big screws to detach the base and screwing in 4 new ones to attach the new base form.

The red poop tray slides in the back and the roosting bars slot in neatly on top, with the nest box shown just inside the door.

Having a fully functional chicken eglu as a spare emergency "hospital" eglu if I need to isolate a poorly chicken, I now find that another friend has offered me her green rablu plus run and warm jacket.

With two eglus - I wonder if I could get some more chickens. 

Off to browse the internet to see what breeds of hen are around.

Winter Quarters & Eglu Cleaning

With the rain we have been having recently, I decided it was time to move my 6 chooks onto the patio. That is where they spent last winter, and it was easy enough to clean the patio when they moved to the end of the garden, but meanwhile they were close to the house, had hardstanding with woodship to walk on so didn't end up caked in mud, and were a little sheltered from the elements by the proximity of the house. It was also useful that one fateful morning when a fox decided to attack the two eglus! Fortunately he didn't succeed in getting in, but I was able to run downstairs, turn the lights on and face him down through the french windows. Chickens were unsettled but unharmed.

It was good time to move them. The chicken end of the garden had turned into a dustbath during the summer, and both eglus were covered in black dust. Jet washing them with my new jet-washer made a huge difference, they were like new. So now my hens are happily on the patio.

My pink eglu hasn't looked this pink since it was new!

Nutmeg's swollen ear

I tried to get some photos of nutmeg this evening. I'll take more tomorrow and post a question in some chicken forums, and maybe give twitter a go too. I have checked against earlier photos of her (like all chicken fans, I have lots of photos of my hens) and her left ear??? back of cheek, seems to be rather swollen. The other side is similar but the left side sticks out most. She is happy and behaving and eating normally. Hope it is nothing serious. The other hens all look fine.

Maud and Nutmeg

I have just downloaded a blogger app to my iPad mini, so I hope to start posting more regularly to all my blogs. Once you have several, like when you have several twitter accounts, it becomes essential to have some way of switching quickly between them or you done use them. My wordpress app means that I blog readily to my work related wordpress blog Research Essentials. Hopefully this blogger app will redress the balance between that and my many blogger blogs.

Maud is not yet two years old. She was laying beautiful blue eggs up until March this year when she just stopped. Christmas she suddenly began laying again and already has laid 3 eggs! Wierd.

Nutmeat meanwhile must be at least 5 years old. She moulted recently, and I noticed her comb was looking very pale, as was Agatha, another recent moulter. I therefore started lacing their feed with poultry spice. It has been about a week and I have noticed a difference. Nutmeg is very much more red, tho still with some pale bits. I shall carry on.

Meanwhile, I'm a bit worried about Nutmeg. Although she is still behaving normally, her ears/cheeks seem swollen or sticking out. One side is worse than the other. I need to check my old photos of her to see if this is usual for her as I just don't remember.