Thursday, January 23, 2014

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.







Monday, January 20, 2014

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 :)


Saturday, January 18, 2014

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. 





Wednesday, January 15, 2014

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:

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

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.

Monday, January 13, 2014

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.


Thursday, January 9, 2014

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.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

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.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

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!



Thursday, January 2, 2014

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.