New Omlet Walk In Run

My Omlet WIR has just arrived and I'm feeling a little daunted by the task ahead of me. I posted on the Omlet forums for advice on any tips or advice on pitfalls and got some entertaining responses such as the following which really made me laugh.

• I haven't assembled one of those but surely there's only one method with assembling flat pack stuff…
• Rip open all the boxes with your bare hands and strew the bits about the grass 
• Throw the instructions aside, laughing in the face of needing such trivial assistance! 
• Spend 15 hours randomly trying to match bits up. 
• Give up and have a glass of wine before admitting defeat and retrieving the instructions.

 Or is that just me?

After containing my excitement until the end of the working day I finally got out at 6pm thinking I could get 3h assembly work in and finish tomorrow evening.

I got two side panels assembled to form a corner and was feeling very pleased with myself (OK, I was using the instructions). Then I cast around for the door section. As I did so I spotted the eglu hole panel.

Oh dear - I had purchased a WIR to fit my eglu classic with run, however what I've been sent is a WIR to fit an eglu Go without a run. I'll have to get on the phone to them tomorrow. Trouble is, I'm off on holiday for a week and was hoping to get it all assembled before I went. Darn, darn, darn. 

And what do I do with all that cardboard and run pieces while I'm away???? The thought of putting it all back is not appealing. Thank goodness I took the advice and had a bottle of wine chilling ready 

Chicken Dates and lifespan details

Having just lost four hens, I decided it would be interesting to make a record of when I got each chook, anything distinctive about them, such as ex-batt or bantam, and how old they were when they died, to get a practical idea of lifespans.

NB: I left my flock of 7 with my ex-husband in 2011. Unfortunately, he neglected them and then had our local farmer kill 4 of them before I was in a position to re-house them :(

7/8/2007
First Hens bought from Omlet and delivered by the Omlet Chicken Chauffeur:
Saffy - ginger ranger - died summer 2008 aged 1 year. One morning couldn't stand, looked like a stroke. Dead next morning.
Patsy - ginger ranger - killed by ex May 2011 aged 4 years

7/4/2008 Two hens bought from Adam and Anna of Cambridge Poultry 
Amber - Amber star, lovely sweet natured hen - killed by ex May 2011 aged 3 years
Nutmeg - Maran cross (I think). Tendency to be broody during 1st couple of years. Top hen. Still alive (4Apr13) now aged 5 years. 15Feb14 Badly swollen cheeks and lump on head and on neck. Not responding to Tylan (antibiotic) and metacam (anti-inflammatory). May try stronger antibiotic. Seems well otherwise.
23Jul14 died aged 6 years. Not a bad innings.

16/1/2010 Three ex-batts collected from RSPCA centre at Potters Bar
Butterly - killed by ex May 2011 aged 3 years
Margot - killed by ex May 2011 aged 3 years
Flora - died summer 2012 aged 4 years

July 2011 Two hens from Ann at The Barns poultry centre (POL - approx 14 weeks old)
Amber - Amber star from the Barns died 14/12/14 aged 3 1/2
Maud - Grey, lays blue eggs. Breed to be added when I look it up

9/7/2011 Two Silver-Laced Wyandotte bantams from last years' hatching bought from Ann at The Barns poultry centre. Lovely lady and great centre. Both about 1 year old
Daphne went back to The Barns next day and despite antibiotics was dead within the week. New Daphne arrived 10/7/11, died 13/1/12 aged about 6 months having, I think, had a stroke
Agatha found dead one morning, peacefully sitting outside the eglu on 23/10/14 aged about 3 1/2 yrs.

Agatha - very friendly, already following me around after a couple of weeks
Daphne - rather featherless around the bottom and suffering from runny poos so maybe give her less treats. Not as brave as Agatha, but beginning to come over.

14/1/2012 Two lovely new Wynadotte Bantams - Buffy the Buff-Laced and Vera the Gold-Laced. sourced from The Barns poultry centre. Sadly, Daphne II had to be put to sleep at the vets yesterday. I think she suffered a stroke and never fully recovered. I didn't want Agatha spending more nights alone in this extremely cold weather we have been having.

20th Feb 2012 - I now have 7 chooks. Four medium hybrids and three wyandotte bantams. I keep them separately for the moment.

Summer 2012 - Sadly, Flora died this summer. As the last of the ex-batts, I think she had simply reached her natural lifespan. One day she was looking very peaky and not moving around much. Made sure she was comfortable for the night and found her dead the next morning.  Then there were 6.

5th April 2013 - Still currently keeping my two little flocks of 3 hens separately. I'm a little worried in case the larger hens, Nutmeg, Maud and Amber, bully the little bantams Agatha, Buffy and Vera. However having had them close to the house on the patio for winter, I'm planning to erect the large walk in run so may combine them soon.

11th Jan 2014 - Didn't combine the 6 hens except when free ranging in the open run during the day. Amber in particular beats up Buffy, jumping on top of her if she catches here. Sometimes find them all in the same eglu when they go to bed mind, and I have to move them around. Today I collected 3 new bantams, two Silkies (one black one white) aged about 1yr and one lonely little Frizzle aged much less, maybe just months, who seems to be settling in with the Silkies. Names currently Lulu (white) Velvet (black) and Lyra (little grey Frizzle). They were wormed 5 months ago. Now up to 9 chooks in 3 eglus.

11/1/14

Lulu White Bantam Silkie aged 10/11 months 

Velvet Black Bantam Silkie aged 7/8 months

Lyra Grey Bantam Frizzle aged 4/5 months or 16-18 weeks

23/1/14 Nutmeg died aged 6

23/10/14 Agatha the silver laced wyandotte bantam died aged 3 1/2

14/12/14 Amber died aged 3 1/2

I have now combined my remaining 6 hens in the WIR as I didn't want Maud on her own over winter. They seem to get along OK as Maud never stomped them as Amber did. She is definitely top chicken, and the others are a little careful around her, but they all seem to get along OK. I now have 6 hens: Maud, and the bantams Lulu (white silkie), Velvet (black silky), Lyra (grey frizzle), Buffy (buff-laced wyandotte) and Vera (gold laced wyandotte).

8.6.15 Buffy died aged 3 1/2 

11.10.17 Vera died aged 5 yrs 9 months

a few days after last photo taken on 21.4.2018 Maud died aged 7 yrs 9 months

Spring 2014 - I collected 3 lovely booted sabelpoots from the Barns. Mapp and Lucia are lovely lemon sabelpoots, Portia (or Porsche as I originally called her) a lovely grey booted sabelpoot. I'm not certain when I picked them up as they were listed against

3.1.15 Picked up Two silkies, Lulu (white) and Velvet (black, and a little grey frizzle from a lady near Woking. I had to wash Lulu when I got her home as she was all muddy. What a lovely tolerant chicken she is.

25.3.20 I now have a lovely little flock of 5 hens. The two bantam silkies, Velvet and Lulu, and the three booted Sabelpoots, Mapp and Lucia (lemon) and Porche (grey). Mapp and Porchia are the very friendliest of chickens, following me around even when I've put seed treats down in the run for them.

4.4.21 Realised that my flock of 5 are 6 years (Lulu and Velvet) and 7 years (Mapp, Lucia and Porche) old. This is really good going, but decided to expand my flock with the addition of Buffy II (buff bantam silkie) 20 weeks, Willow (red pencilled bantam wyandotte, 16 weeks) and Cordelia (cuckoo, bantam silkie) 20 weeks.

10.7.21 Velvet died today, aged 8 years 2 months. Fortunately, as with Maud, I got a lovely photograph of her about 3 days before she died. 

30.8.21 Willow died aged only 4 months after a mystery illness and a lot of expensive vet treatment.

16.5.24 Buffy died aged 3 years, having to be put to sleep at the vets as she was just too poorly. 3 years used to seem a good lifespan until I've now managed to get my remaining 2 sabelpoots to 10 years old. Fewer wet treats, like almost none, seems to be the key.

3/6/25 Lucia died aged 11 1/4 years. I had a lovely photo of her from exactly 6 days ago doing what she enjoyed, eating treats directly from the tub as I filled up her little football. She looked healthy and was a good weight, so I guess 11 1/4 years is a good lifespan for a chicken. 

Moving house and a fresh start

Something of a bad period on the chicken front. Amber died a month ago, Margot and Butterly (two of the exbats) died two weeks ago and Patsy died last week. Having moved out of Fox Cottage November last year, I don't think Dave was looking after them properly - they were out of water one weekend, and it seems odd that they should all keel over within weeks of each other.

Rescue was in order, so after checking with the estates I am renting from, who were fine with livestock, I've just moved Nutmeg and Flora to my new house yesterday and they seem fine. I didn't anticipate that I'd be renting for quite so long, however that is the way things go and at least I have them with me now where I can care for them properly. Now I've moved them I plan to worm them again. At the moment they're happily scratching up their new domain from the pink eglu. I need a receptacle to mix up the flubenvet in. Last time I wormed them I didn't really see much sign of worms - just one or two, so I'm hoping for the same this time but I do want to get it done.

Thinking about expanding my diminished flock with another Amber star and a couple of wyandotte's if I can source them. They are so pretty. I suspect that Nutmeg and Flora will soon go the way of the others as they were all of a similar age.

I'm thinking of selling my green eglu now I no longer have a walk-in-run, and getting an eglu cube...

Flubenvet - Worming again

Just a quick note to say that I've wormed the 6 hens for a week starting Monday 16th August.

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.

Worming Time

I've been using Vermex - but I've read that it isn't 100% certain. Now that the newbies are fit and well, I've just started a 7 day treatment of flubenvet, bought from my vets. I made up 12kg of feed. This is enough to fill all three grub containers and the feed bucket. I estimate that this should last 6 chickens 7 days. Making a note of this for reference.

New Feathers

After last weekend's traumas cleaning out the eglus, I gave them a quick empty mid-week and then pottered around giving them a really thorough clean this weekend. The roosting bars needed only a quick wipe down, little and often is, I think, the answer. The sun was shining so I took a few pics of the newly feathered ex-batts.

In the first pic, they're enjoying (and wearing) a pasta treat.

In the second pic, the feather regrowth is really evident.