Buffy RIP

Sad week this week. Buffy went to the vet yesterday and we took the decision to let her go. She was so thin and couldn't stand. It has all started a week or so ago, when I noticed that she remained seated with her legs under her when I went in to give them treats, collect the eggs and generally check everything and. play with them. Normally Buffy would be crowding around with the others, waiting for me to give her her treats in her favourite place, on the edge of a particular piece of wood. I did sometimes hand feed her but she was so vigorous at pecking that mostly I wouldn't last very long.

The others were normal, Lucia has now decided that when I crouch to fill up the footballs with treats, her place is next to the treat bowl pecking corn as I scoop it out. Funny how. their little brains remember routines. Cordelia always heads straight for the perching tree where there is a doughnut shaped bowl that I fill with maize and Porche sometimes eats corn with buffy, sometimes with Lucia and sometimes with Cordelia.

But Buffy wasn't herself. I didn't want to spook her so I walked slowly over and offered her treats in my hand. She seemed fine and walked over and gently pecked a few times. I should have spotted that this wasn't normal and picked her up to check.

Same happened the next day, last Wednesday, but I still wasn't worried. I thought she'd just developed a new routine.

Thursday I was due to drive down to Cornwall and  Buffy seemed to be having difficulties standing and was rolling over to her right and splaying her left wing. The others were starting to peck her which is a sure sign that there was something amiss.

I got Ant to assemble the hospital eglu as I had to leave, and put Buffy in it.

Over the weekend while I was away, he checked her daily. Tried to get her to eat sweetcorn (she wouldn't) so she was clearly not a well chicken.

I arrived home on Monday and gave her a thorough check. She wasn't egg bound, and her crop was empty. She was painfully thin. Chickens are very adept at concealing deteriorating health. I immediately phoned Scotts Vets - they specialise in exotics including chickens, and was able to get an appointment with a lovely and very good vet, Megan. I then gave Buffy some chicken tonic and used a syringe to drop a few mm of water to try to stop her dehydrating.

The vet was very good. She loves parrots and it was very clear that she was experienced with birds.

After a full examination, nothing obvious showed itself so the other other possibilities were cancer or something neurological. Yes we could leave her with them to stabilise and try to find out what it was, but after spending 3 weeks nursing Willow to ultimately have her die anyway, we felt it was kinder to have Buffy put gently to sleep. Megan the vet agreed and so we left sans Buffy.

Two chicken deaths in a week - Lulu and then Mapp

They have lived to a good age - 8 years I think. No sign of any problems, then on 21st November, I find poor Lulu, my white bantam silkie, passed away. Then yesterday, 24th, Mapp a lemon booted Sabelpoot popped her little sabelpoot clogs.

I still have Lucia (lemon Booted sabelpoot), Porshe, (porcelain booted sabelpoot) and my two young bantam silkies Buffy and Cordelia.

It seems to me that my chickens last much longer when I cut down on the wet treats, and give them daily corn treats and maize. 

Broody Buffy, broody Cordelia, poorly Willow

My three new chickens settled in well after the early scare with Cordelia. Thank goodness for Nutridrops, now renamed Poultry Power by Nettex.  Took a few days, but she eventually recovered. I initially put them in with my five existing girls, but the booted sabelpoots bullied Cordelia mercilessly - sometimes you could not see her for three teeny chickens on her back pulling her feathers out - so I moved the three of them into the green eglu with the tunnel run on the other side of the garden. 

Within a very few days, Buffy became broody and has been broody ever since! This is going on for 3 months. Last week Cordelia joined her in broodyness, so poor Willow was outside on her own.

I noticed about 3 days ago that Willow was inside the eglu during the day with the other two, although she was not broody. I realised something was up and since yesterday have been treating her with Nutridrops. She has got very thin and has green runny poos - very green and runny and sticking to her feathers. I've not washed it off yet because I don't want to stress her, but she is definitely not herself.

Her comb etc is still nice and red, and she does walk, but prefers to just sit around. I had her out on my lap today and was able to tempt her with a little sweetcorn so am hoping that the Poultry Power drops are doing the trick. I've locked all three out of the eglu to encourage them to eat and drink. Buffy and Cordelia may have done so, but within a very short time, the three of them sit in an unhappy chickeny pile by the shut door of the eglu waiting for me to let them in again. 

And of course - no eggs!

Sadly, also, the inevitable came to pass and Velvet died on 10th July. She had been going downhill for about 3 weeks, unable to hop up onto a wooden sleeper, so I knew the end was coming. I didn't have many photos of her so made sure to take a few, and she died 3 days later, so I'm pleased I did.

New Chickens

Collected the new girls on Saturday. When I got them out of their box, they were a bit hot and bothered. Particularly the buff silkie seemed very upset and just sat down and didn't walk around. The other two appeared fine.

The girls upon arrival

Easter Sunday morning was a bit of a crisis. The buff silkie (Buffy) was fine, as was the pencilled Wyandotte (Willow) but the Cuckoo silkie (Cordelia) was just sitting in the nest box and wouldn't move. I picked her up and placed her in the run and set the trails camera going to record what they were doing. Willow was pecking her quite a bit and she looked very sad so I took her out and put her on her own in in the outside open run with the green eglu, next to the WIR.

She mostly sat hunched unless I went in and scattered seeds, then she'd scratch about in a desultory way. I sat watching her for some time as the weather was fairly good. I gave her water periodically using a syringe. 

I got my Nettex Nutri-drops only to discover that their best-before date was July 2018! I started a thread on the Omlet forums for advice. One said probably OK, just maybe not as effective. Another said she had found that after first dose of Nutri-drops her hens went downhill and died. I decided to go out first thing Monday to try to buy some new drops from the farm shop. Another chicken keeper suggested I contact the breeder. I ordered some Poultry Power (used to be Nutri-drops) from Amazon - delivery between 8th and 12th April!!!! 

Cordelia in the outside run

I contacted Meadowview chickens using their online chat, and Charlotte replied very fast and was very helpful. Apparently they are on crumb, and I'd given them pellets. I decided to get some crumb from the farm shop on Monday to encourage them to eat as I'd not actually seen any of them eating from the Omlet Grub feeder. Charlotte said she'd happily take her back, but by now I just wanted the little hen to recover!

Sunday night, Cordelia spent the night alone in her eglu. 

Spent most of the time sitting, tail-down

Monday morning she was still lethargic. I was very worried and posted an update on the Omlet forums. Advice was she was probably stressed as Silkies are prone to stress (and apparently sensitive to cold which I didn't know). I was advised to keep her warm so I brought her into the house in a cardboard box. Bought some layers mash from the farm shop, but they didn't stock Poultry Power (replacement for Nutri-drops). I put mash, corn, porridge and water in with her, none of which she seemed interested in. 

I continued giving her water with a syringe. 

By Monday evening (Bank holiday Monday) I was really worried. I cracked and gave her the past best-before date Nettex Nutri-drops. She immediately seemed to perk up and showed some interest in the corn in her box. I could see a difference in minutes. After an hour or so, I put her in the eglu with the other two to sleep. 

On Tuesday morning(6th April) - Buffy and Willow emerged from the eglu but Cordelia stayed in roosting. I took her out and gave her water and Nutri-drops. I put her back in the coop and she emerged of her own accord and scratched around with the others. Those Nutri-drops are amazing, even when out-of-date.

Throughout Tuesday I checked her periodically during the day. I gave her water. If I put her out in the run she would scratch for a bit. All three chickens tended to go back in the eglu as it was bitterly cold, windy and, at points, snowing!

All three hens pottering about

On Tuesday evening I gave her more water and another dose of Nutri-drops and bed for the night in the eglu with the others. 

Wednesday morning I gave her more water and Nutri-drops with a syringe and popped her at the end of the run. She and the other two scratched around. I gave them corn and sweet corn. They seemed happy.

Wednesday afternoon - checked them again. They all seem very happy. Enjoying treats and drinking from the old fashioned drinker. I'm sure I saw Cordelia eating some layers mash I'd put on the ground to encourage her. 3 days is the minimum Nutri-drop dosage, so as this is day 3, I plan to stop. Fingers crossed that disaster has been averted! All three new chickens are behaving like normal hens.

Having spent time sat watching them in the eglu, I realised how bitterly cold the wind is as it whistles up the slope. I've wrapped three layers of protection around the run to keep the wind out, and I plan to move the run up to a higher level, though when I stood there it felt just as windy. However it would be easier to erect a fence panel or two to give some protection from the wind. Maybe it won't be necessary. Once they've settled in, I plan to move them in with the other girls and only use the spare eglu when I want to move them out for a couple of days to give the WIR a thorough clean and disinfect.

Readying the eglu for the new girls

Good Friday - the Easter bank holiday weekend. After deciding which chickens I wanted to buy, I sat down to order them from  Meadowview Chickens to find, to my horror, that two of the breeds I fancied were already out of stock. Clearly everyone had the same idea and wanted to buy hens to collect over the Easter weekend.  I quickly made new choices. The buff bantam silkie was still available, I added a cuckoo silkie with black/grey banding which should be lovely. Then I went for a black/gold pencilled wyandotte. I've missed not having wyandottes since Agatha and Buffy passed away. This will be different as the wings are pencilled rather than laced. 

The Walk-in Run

I've arranged to collect them at 3pm tomorrow. This was the only collection slot available - fortunately it was the time I suggested. The roads are going to be full of people collecting chickens.

Today I spent the day in the garden getting one of my spare eglus ready for my new arrivals.  My current girls reside in a nice walk-in run with perches, treat footballs and even an unused chicken swing. I plan to have the new girls (it will be fun choosing names for them) in the green eglu and tunnel run for about 2 weeks as they acclimatise and develop their own group pecking order. Then I shall introduce them to the existing flock. Usually I do this when they are all in bed asleep. I collect the new girls one by one and pop them in with the established flock. They will get bullied, but it should be fine. They will end up getting along well together. The current flock aren't huge bullies, though a fair amount of pecking goes on at treat time.  

The green eglu ready for the new bantams

Old Girls

Things are moving forward slowly in terms of release of lockdown. We are both vaccinated with the first dose - I can feel those antibodies coursing through my veins. I spend today doing a bit of foot washing for the little sabelpoots - one of them had an enormous almost golf ball sized poop glued around her toe! It took about 10 minutes to soak off. I sit with the chicken between my knees with her feet in a bowl or bucket of water and gently stroke and prod the poop until it comes off. This bit took about 10 minutes. The chicken was amazingly patient. I have to let go of one side in order to fiddle with her foot, but they seem to realised I'm trying to help them and don't flap about. 

I did the other two for good measure, but I bet they'll be all poopy feet by tomorrow again!

I wanted to check how old the girls are, so took a look back at this blog. To my amazement, the two bantam silkies are 7 years old, and the three little booted sabelpoots are 6! They seem happy and healthy as anything. I don't really give them many wet treats, like sweetcorn, but they get a daily treat of corn which I sprinkle around so distract them so I can poop pick, then I fill their little football up and they kick that around a purple trug (to keep it clean and stop it getting buried in the aubiose bedding). 

However, it got me thinking.....should I expand my little flock? The girls haven't laid a single egg in weeks. That is fine, and eggs aren't the reason I have them, but it would be nice to have some new ones lined up. I'm thinking of getting another three bantams. I've found a place about an hour's drive where I can order them online (in view of no walk ins due to covid) and then drive up to collect them. I fancy a gold/buff silkie. They are such pretty things. I also fancy a black and white Poland with a pouffy head. Not sure what the last one might be. I've seen an interesting looking bantam faverolle but I need to look into their personality. Some, like Appenzellers, are terribly flighty and I really like my chickens to be friendly and people loving. 

This will be fun. I have a spare eglu all ready set up for them to settle in before I introduce them to the others. Watch this space!

    

 

Dustbathing chickens

Just trialling putting my little videos on YouTube and linking them from here. Not sure whether it is best to do that or embed them within the blogger post.

[NOT] Bumblefoot

After Maud died in spring 2018, I amalgamated my two little flocks of bantams into the bit walk in run. There are Lulu and Velvet the white and black bantam silkies, and Mapp and Lucia the lemon sabelpoots and Porsche the porcelaine sabelpoot. They soon settled in together, with Lulu and Velvet the most dominant and little porsche the bottom of the pecking order.

The weather has got colder, and a couple of weeks ago I noticed that Porsche was looking pale and not herself. Feeling her, she seemed thinner than the other sabelpoots so I gave her three days of chicken nutri-drops. That made an amazing difference. Her comb went a good shade of red, her eyes were bright and she seemed right as rain.

During 2018 I've felt really on top of keeping the chickens healthy. Now that they are all in the WIR it is much easier to keep their bedding clean. Every morning I go in and poop-pick and also use a trowel to fluff up their aubiose bedding. When it rains, water does get in despite the rain coverings, and the bedding can get damp, but if I fluff it up it dries really quickly. I can then easily sweep it up every few months, when it starts to look a little used and the chips are beginning to break down into dust, and put down fresh. I do this particularly with a view to stopping the chickens from getting muddy feed. The feathered footed sabelpoots in particular are very susceptible to collecting mud and poop on their feet and feathers. When the weather is fine, I let them out into an enclosed run with a little green eglu so that they can dustbathe and scratch around which they really enjoy. Now it is winter, I top up a seed tray so they can dustbathe in that and they seem to like it.

The WIR is quite fun for them. There is a nice perch, two blocks of wood for perching, a chicken swing that I have seen the sabelpoots using as well as the regular hentastic treats I put out for them.

As I've been spending lots of time daily with the hens, they have become more and more tame, so it has been really easy to pick them up and feel their condition. Imagine my horror today when I decided to give their feet a really good check (I'm always woried about scaly leg with the feathered legged breeds) and I saw that one of the lemon sabelpoots had what looks very much like bumble foot. The other has got round clods of mud on her toe nails! I feel like I have been so neglectful. How could this have happened. They must wait until I've gone, then quickly poop and then stand in it!

I've phoned Scotts in Bedford and made an appointment with the exotic vet for Monday at 10:45. I hope they can treat it. The Sabelpoots are all a bit shirty with me today as I've been poking and prodding them alot to check what is wrong, also it is bitterly cold, so I'm going to leave it until tomorrow then wash and blow-dry their feet. Then they will have Sunday to recover before I take one of them to the vets by car. Hopefully she won't get too stressed.

I guess this sort of thing happens to the best of us. It just goes to show the importance of checking ALL aspects of your chickens on a regular basis.

UPDATE
The vet pointed out the little red scab which was probably the point of entry for bacteria that had caused an infection. Chicken pus is thick and doesn't respond well to antibiotics, so best thing was to give her a general anaesthetic so the vet could open it up and clean it out. £200 later I have a chicken with no lump on her foot, a few teeny stiches, and my wallet is much lighter. All good :)

Last pictures of Maud

These photos were taken on 21st April, so I've dated this post to that date. I love the one of Maud listening to my Dad's old radio. Sadly, Maud passed away just days after this photo was taken. She had reached the grand old age of 6yrs and 9 months. My oldest chicken to date. She always was a character. Lovely hen.

Feeding eggshells to your chickens

There are many articles and blog posts about giving calcium supplements to your chickens. Egg laying is a real drain on calcium, and all chicken keepers will have encountered the odd wierd softie in the nest box, or inadvertently put their finger through the shell of an oh-so-fragile egg.

Dry the eggs fully

Some people give eggshells to their chickens, so I decided to have a go and share my experiences via my blog.

It takes a bit of planning. I normally throw the eggshells into the kitchen compost bin, so I had to train myself out of that.

Each time I use an egg, instead of throwing it away, I drop it in the sink. I then wash the inside out thoroughly. If you leave too much of the membrane inside, it can be difficult to crush the shell - it sort of sticks together. 

Crush the eggshells

It is important to dry the eggs before attempting to crush them. Some people bake them in the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. I simply leave them out for a couple of days before putting them into a plastic freezer bag.

Crushed eggshells

Once I have enough eggshells in the plastic bag, I crush them using a rolling pin. This can take a little while, but it is worth it. I then put the crushed shells into a washed out jam jar and add them to my hens' food every couple of weeks.

My hens eat layers pellets with added vermix alternating with omega mash which they love. Sometimes I mix the mash with the pellets. They don't seem to notice or care if there is eggshell added or not. However I do notice the eggs have good strong shells. I haven't had a softie or delicate shelled egg since I've been doing this, but without having a control group of chickens that I do not feed eggshells to, I can't be absolutely sure that the extra calcium is causing this.

I recently read an interesting blog post from The Prairie Homestead on how to feed eggshells to your chickens which suggested feeding the eggshells to your hens in a separate container from their usual food so that the chickens could choose if they needed extra calcium or not. I may try this. I don't want to overfeed them with calcium.

Update 21 Dec. 16 - I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but using a blender speeds up the crushing. It does generate a lot of dust, but it saves all that rolling pin work :) Also, since giving the eggshells in a separate container, I find my hens gobble them down, so they are clearly keen on the extra calcium.

Red Mites!

Found, to my horror, that I had red mite in my pink Omlet cube housing four hens. I had cube and a separate pink eglu with separate run and 3 bantams. I dusted hens in diatomaceous earth, moved them to a clean red eglu that I also treated with poultry shield (PS) & diatom earth. This eglu is at the other end of the garden.

 I also checked the pink eglu and it appeared clear but I cleaned it with PS and dusted with diatom earth. I dismantled the cube & sprayed with PS that appeared to kill the mites. By this time they were everywhere and I was creeped out so I went inside, changed, washed my clothes and showered.

3 days later I checked both eglus. There were about 10 dead mites in the diatomaceous earth in the poop tray of the pink eglu. I suspect I may have introduced them myself when I was dealing with the cube. The red eglu appeared clear. I cleaned and retreated both eglus with PS and diatomaceous earth. I jet washed the cube and left to dry.

Next day I sprayed with poultry shield. Each time I checked, I would find a few more mites that I would kill. Meanwhile my bin was teeming with mites from the bedding I'd disposed of! Yeuch.

So I covered it with poultry shield which seemed to do the trick.  I am reassembling the cube bit by bit, spraying for mites as I go. I don't plan to put the hens back until November, but I would like it to be clear. I plan to use red mite concentrate on my birds, but have been using diatomaceous earth only so far. The four hens now in the red eglu are looking much better, nice red combs etc. However I'm sure that some of the mites will have moved across with them.

As I sit here in the garden, I have the odd mite (grey) wander across my iPad or arm. I checked the deckchair and there were two under the canvas fabric. Has my jet washing spread the mites across my lawn? Is it normal to have some level of mites in the environment and can I keep on top of them by cleaning my hens assiduously every 3 days?  I've read conflicting discussions. Can red mites live on me or on my cat? I've been washing my mite infested clothes, but can they survive water? Can they only lay eggs after a feed, and could they get a feed from me or my cat? When I catch them on my iPad, they are grey not red. Have I triggered some form of technologically adept red mite? Are they using my Twitter account to tweet their followers? :)))

I've had chickens for 10 years without red mite. This is such a shock. Yeuchy Yeuchy  Yuck Yuck

 I've been using a pink eglu cube for the past year and I wonder if it needs a more thorough cleaning regime. I've ordered every red mite product under the sun and read all manner of advice. The most helpful seems to be  http://poultrykeeper.com for advice. In particular this pageon  how to kill red mites and this blog post on how-to-get-rid-of-red-mites which described step by step how to clean and this page which lists the top 8 products, many of which I now have.

watch this space

Scary Cat!

My hens are all getting on very well on the patio. I enjoy being able to see them out of the french windows. I can keep an eye on what is going on. Butch (my ex-stray) potters around with me as I tend the hens, and they take no notice of him at all. Periodically a large grey Bengal Tiger comes around, rippling muscles and a predatory stare, and all the hens go beserk! They clearly recognise this cat as a danger.

A few days ago, the hens started squawking and Butch immediately became alert and ran over to the window where he growled at the grey cat who was stalking the chickens. Nothing more happened.

Lulu watching from the door of the cube

Today I heard loud howling and looked out of the window to find Butch standing between predator cat and the large eglu cube. All the hens were hiding inside the cube - the little sabelpoots were in their eglu run huddled together keeping very quiet. Lulu, my bantam silkie, was peeking nervously out of the cube door. There was a clash and butch and grey cat fought (much white Butch fur flew) then they parted and butch stood his ground. I took the two photos as the grey cat stalked away. It looked for all the world as though Butch was defending the chickens. Do cats do that?

Grey cat slinking away

The hens seemed very grateful, and eventually came down and started pottering about their business.

Rats

Well, I've lived here for three years now, so I supposed I've done well. Spotted a void under the skirt of the run for the 5 hens and sure enough, there seemed to be a distinct rat trail into the run. This was confirmed a few days later when one morning, waking up before dawn but with the poultry lamp still shining red into the run, I spotted a rat making regular trips to and from the hens grub bowls. Was it one rat going to and fro, or was it a series of rats. Initially I thought it was a single rat taking multiple trips, but when I looked, there was simply a route under the eglu into the run - there wasn't a rat burrow, so I now think there was a series of rats attracted by the food.

So, I bought some more bait. However I know from chatting to a pest controller that rats are very intelligent and take ages to become confident in a new bait box. So I did the most sensible thing. I moved my five hens into the eglu cube on the patio next to the three sabelpoots in their eglu. Then I removed all the food from the end of the garden. So there is now nothing more to attract the rats.

After a few weeks I will fill in the entrance run and see what happens. I expect all rat movement to reduce and for them to move on to where there is more food. I may well keep the hens on the patio. At least the rats cannot get anywhere near the food and therefore will not be attracted and will not breed!

In some ways it is a shame. Rats are such intelligent creatures. But they have no place here as they breed really quickly so it is up to me to make sure that they don't have access to enough food to make their numbers grow.

Winter weather is here

Spend a lovely 3 hours today pottering in the garden sorting out the chickens. I'm now down to 7 - Maud and her little trio of bantams, Lulu, Velvet (silkies) & Vera (wyandotte) in the large walk in run. Then in a separate run on the patio, I have my lovely babies Mapp & Lucia (lemon sabelpoots) * Porsche (porcelain sabelpoot). I keep them on the patio because they have very feathery feed.

Last weekend I spend an amusing hour or so washing their feet one by one. They had got all clogged up with poop which had solidified in globs on the feathers. I didn't want them to get poorly feet so carefully washed each one and dried them with the hair drier. I then popped them all in the pink eglu 'hospital' run which is also on the patio.

Then I moved their eglu cube and swept and shovelled everything away to the compost, moved it to a new position on the patio and today restocked it with wood chip.

This morning it was slightly frosty. The patio run water had a small crust of ice - easily breakable, but the big run water was more frozen. So - today I did a full clear out of the big run with my new rake - restocked with clean wood chipping, changed all the water and poopy trays and installed the infra-red poultry heater for the big run.

Snow is forecast overnight. I'm a little worried about my new chickies, but I've shut their door and will check their water first thing. I am wondering about buying some heated pads that you warm up in the microwave and which purport to last 10 hours. I have only one poultry lamp, so the little cooks are at risk of frozen water. However being nearer the house seems to keep the water warmer. I'll see how it is tomorrow.

I sometimes marvel at how much fun it is simply letting all the hens out to run loose in the garden whilst you potter about. Maud seems to get on really well with the newbies, so I could probably put them all in together if the weather gets really cold.

Booted Sabelpoots

It was my birthday on Wednesday, and my daughter came round last night for a girlie barbecue and then today we went to The Barns near Moggerhanger to buy some new hens. Last year I lost Nutmeg, Agatha and Amber, then with Buffy dying this year I was down to 5 hens.

We spent a lovely time wandering around the breeding pens looking at all the chickens. Then we walked around the sale pens shortlisting our favourites. It was hard. Eventually I settled apron the bantam sablepoots. There was a big cage of new arrivals aged 12 weeks near the front. But which ones. We had seen a breeding trio of lemon sablepoots which were gorgeous, but the variety in the mixed cage was very tempting. There were a couple of cages of 6 week old bantam lemon sablepoot chicks which we really fell for. In the end I chose two lemon and one bantam porcelain sablepoot. Porsche is the porcelains and Mapp and Lucia are the baby lemon sablepoots.

'

It will be interesting to see how they cope with their ever growing feet feathers.

Three booted sabelpoots

So, my birthday treat to me. Three lovely new Sabelpoots. Mapp and Lucia, the lemon sabelpoots, and Porsche a lovely porcelain sabelpoot. So young! The two lemons are only just out of the barn, at about 6 weeks. Porsche is 8 weeks. 

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 😃🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔

Beautiful little flock

The improvement in the appearance of my ex-batts has been amazing. Margot looks like a normal hen - she was always the most feathered. Flora is looking OK, but she seems to have a very bald neck and top of head. I remember Patsy looking like that when she moulted - I find it hard to believe that Flora should be moulting so soon, but as she seems otherwise well I shall just watch and see. Utterly butterly has grown an entire new set of fluffy feathers all over her bottom and even her stumpy tail feathers are beginning to regrow. her wings still look a little skeletal, but I'm pretty pleased with them all.

Here is the Photo Album that details their recovery.

Amber is a bit of a worry. She seems to have dirty bottom feathers and one of the hens is laying softies - my suspicion is that it is Amber. I've been giving her doses of limestone flour and I chicken-spice them up periodically but nothing seems to change. She seems very well in herself so I shall give her bottom a wash in warm soapy water today and not only take a close look, but see if that will do the trick. I've been reading the chicken clinic forum on the omlet website - and people often suggest that this could be a sign of worms. However I wormed them all quite recently with flubenvet. Still, if I see no improvement in a couple of weeks, another worming probably won't do them any harm.

Snow again

Blizzard conditions outside. The two little flocks are still separate. However upon being let out, the newbies have all trotted over to the WIR and are wandering in and around that. I think that because of the nice new roof, the floor is all clear of snow and they like the organic pellets. Dave is a bit worried about moving the green eglu into the WIR this week, but I'm sitting at my desk looking out at them from the upstairs window, and I see very little bullying. They seem to be wandering around together fairly happily so I think that when it stops snowing, I'll shift the eglu into the WIR and watch what happens. I'm off to Nepal for 3 weeks on Saturday, and Dave doesn't usually work from home so I want them all to have a reasonable area to move around in during the week.

Integration going well

I've worked from home since Tuesday this week. Today is the third day. After introducing them late Monday, I let the roam together all Tuesday. I occasionally spied on them from various windows to see what they were up to but there didn't seem any big conflicts.

Tuesday saw Nutmeg making quite aggressive approaches to the three ex-batts who scuttled away in a little group like elderly ladies. By Wednesday it was better. If the two little flocks came near each other, one might make a slight dash for the newbies who would run away, but nothing more serious than that.

Today is Thursday and no sign of aggression, except I did see one of the ex-batts appearing to peck at the front chest of another ex-batt, where the new feathers are coming through. The other ex-batt didn't seem to mind at all, so not sure what is going on there. Preening perhaps?

At one point, all six were in the walk in run (WIR). There was no conflict at all. It is quite funny, the ex-batts seem really keen on the layers pellets I feed the established hens, and Nutmeg, Amber and Patsy love to gobble up the ex-batt crumb. I think I shall stop buying that from now on as the ex-batts are clearly able to eat the normal organic layers food.

It is now pouring with rain and I looked out to see the most comical sight. Each set of chickens seems fascinated by the accomodation of the other set, with my original hens spending alot of time exploring the new green eglu and run. I now have the three ex-batts sheltering under the pink eglu in the WIR, and the three original hens sheltering under the cover in the ex-batt's run.

I shall introduce the green eglu to the WIR next week, probably on Monday so I can watch what happens Monday and Tuesday. I'm in the office on Wednesday so my overall aim is that all six chickens can be in the nice dry WIR when we're away from the house during the day.

The WIR is starting to look a little small now mind. I wonder if we should build another.