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Wonder if maggots did Belinda in too, dude. You've got a seahawks thing: are you up in washington state? The flies have been hellish on my property and I've literally been laying bait for them in the chicken pen (and putting up fly strips for the quail) so they lay maggots on the dead stuff, then the maggots get snapped up by the chickens. It's not because of poop, either. My whole goddamn neighborhood has shitloads of them.
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Jul 17, 2015 16:26
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Wonder if maggots did Belinda in too, dude. You've got a seahawks thing: are you up in washington state? The flies have been hellish on my property and I've literally been laying bait for them in the chicken pen (and putting up fly strips for the quail) so they lay maggots on the dead stuff, then the maggots get snapped up by the chickens. It's not because of poop, either. My whole goddamn neighborhood has shitloads of them. No we are in Texas but the fly population has been hellish. I blast my yard with Cyzmic CS every week to keep them down plus I have multiple fly traps. But with all the rain we had its drat near impossible. We checked all the other hens and gave them butt trims just in case but they are fine. Belinda didn't have anything on her when we checked her over, her crop was hosed up. Now that I have everything cleared up on Prissys butt it's a 4 inch split of the tissue, the maggots are inside the abdomen and just packed in there. She isn't bleeding but it's disgusting and I can't see how to get all the maggots out without killing her.
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Jul 17, 2015 16:45
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Jul 17, 2015 16:45
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The deed is done. That was fuckign awful. Jesus Christ. It was quick but what the gently caress. Oh god. Okay she's buried next to Belinda and she can't be in anymore pain because she's dead. Where is he "tears pouring down my face" loving emoticon. Edit: okay I'm calmed down again. I feel pretty bad about this but at the same time oddly satisfied that I saw to my hen and took care of her until the end. The end was bad, but it was quick, she didn't struggle. When the neck snapped she closed her eyes and trembled a bit and that was it. It was physically easier than I expected it to be. Emotionally it sucks but I feel good that it was quick and from what I can tell it didn't hurt her at all. I used the broomstick method, put her down on a board, put a broom handle over her neck by her head, braced it with my feet, tilted up her body and pulled. She was gone. Very fast. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 17:18
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Condolences, that's always a hard thing to do.
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Jul 17, 2015 18:03
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Thanks guys. On the bright side I get to go buy more hens! I'm thinking an Amercuana, a black sex link and a buff Orpington. Edit: talked to one the most responsible breeders here in town and tomorrow I'm off to pick up two dark brown leghorns and a barred rock. Not exactly what we were looking for but this late in the season those are pretty. Especially since the birds that died were my cuckoo marans, so I have a lack of stupid fluffy black and white birds. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Jul 17, 2015 |
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Jul 17, 2015 18:34
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Flystrike is loving awful, it recently got Tuxedo, one of my chicks. She was so fluffy I never saw the wound. It's shocking how fast the damned flies work. We've had hot weather and lots of thunderstorms/rain, so the bug population is exploding. Putting a bird down is very tough, I'm glad you were strong enough to do the right thing. I'm sorry you've had such a lovely week, things like this seem to happen in clumps. poo poo happens, and chicken keeping is a constant learning experience. Get some new chickies and enjoy them. 
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Jul 17, 2015 20:52
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Flystrike is loving awful, it recently got Tuxedo, one of my chicks. She was so fluffy I never saw the wound. It's shocking how fast the damned flies work. We've had hot weather and lots of thunderstorms/rain, so the bug population is exploding. Thanks VS. I also went and clipped all the butt feathers from the last 2. Gave them a thorough check, nothing bad there. It was disgusting though. The maggots were inside her abdominal cavity and packed in so tight I could barely work them out. Then when one would get lose it would crawl into her vent. She was basically completely infested. It was horrific. I'm on a fly destruction rampage. I feel bad for the good bugs in my yard but death must come to all flying insect  full chemical warfare has been engaged.
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Jul 17, 2015 21:19
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Errant Gin Monks posted:WHAT THE gently caress?!?! WHAT THE gently caress?!?! So, she advanced stage Flystrike? RIP Prissy. 
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Jul 18, 2015 01:08
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Inveigle posted:WHAT THE gently caress?!?! So, she advanced stage Flystrike? Probably, the thing is she was so adamantly hateful of us that she wouldn't ever let us get close. And yesterday she was not having any getting picked up, she ran and ate and did whatever like normal. Her butt wasn't covered with poop or anything she just had thick feathers around there. So we couldn't see anything. Today was the first day she acted strangely. And even today I had to chase her down and basically tackle the drat thing. I got her inside and cut off all her butt feathers and finally figured out what was going on. There was absolutely no bleeding, no bruising, the skin around the hernia wasn't discolored, it was just her insides were pushing out and there were a bunch of maggots packed into the cavity behind the organs. There wasn't even a bad smell it was loving bizarre. Anyway I spent an hour with q-tips trying to clean them all out of there while she was in the tub splashing clean water on her and digging but there just kept coming and after jamming a q-tip 2 inches into a chickens gaping abdominal cavity and pulling out maggots I think there isn't much recourse but to put it down. poo poo I have no idea what happened but it's loving awful to me because we try to take as good care of them as we can and she didn't act any different than normal until today. And watching behavior is the first way we figure out which ones are doing well and which ones aren't. It breaks my heart but I didn't see any other thing to do. Errant Gin Monks fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jul 18, 2015 |
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Jul 18, 2015 01:25
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Nature can sure be a mega bitch.
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Jul 18, 2015 02:38
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Oh my gosh I'm so sorry... That is possibly the most awful and gross thing I've ever heard. Also, packed full of maggots and still running around the yard?!? Chickens must be the toughest animals on Earth!
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Jul 18, 2015 15:27
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http://i.imgur.com/H54hEMA.webm
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Jul 18, 2015 18:52
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Happy little dinosaur.  Image from Imgur.
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Jul 18, 2015 21:11
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...now I'm paranoid and have to go out and check all my girls  Gin, you're a good chicken keeper and I'm sorry you've had to go through this.The flies in our yard seem to have moved on or died but last week they were all over the place. You couldn't blink without surprising a fly. It was awful. The thunderstorms have not been helping the situation and apparently there are more ticks than usual, too. Inveigle, how did they catch that chicken? If mine caught a mouse she'd never let me catch her!
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Jul 19, 2015 19:59
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Get some new chickies and enjoy them. I got me some brand new loving idiots. Two dark brown leghorn morons and a really really stupid barred rock. We put them in their new enclosure, filled it with a little bit of shavings and put in a watered and feeder... so they proceeded to break the wood chips into small pieces and eat it ignoring the food while fighting over oddly colored wood chips. Bunch of fuckwits. Might as well have been paint chips.
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Jul 20, 2015 06:09
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Errant Gin Monks posted:I got me some brand new loving idiots. Larry, Curly and Moe.
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Jul 20, 2015 06:59
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:Larry, Curly and Moe. Agreed.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:07
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I recently added a few new pullets to my small flock to a total of 8 birds. I did the introductions that's been recommended here and it went great. When the new ones were ready to be let out of their pen there was some light chasing and all that, but now they're all fine- happily sharing treat and dust bathing time. I'm curious though, when can I expect the new ladies to chill with the main flock 24/7? They free range on a whole acre but it's like two flocks. I'd really like them to be just one flock now so that they have the rooster's protection. Will the rooster eventually notice they have titties and invite them over, or should I start putting them in the main coop every night? Anyway here are a couple pics of my baby angels.  
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Jul 20, 2015 21:17
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That looks like my RIR just confused and dumb as heck. Also since she is now the new beta, my Australorp is the alpha, she has been attacking the cat that lives in our yard. They used to live peacefully since Belinda and Prissy tolerated him but Strawberry is having none of that poo poo. She chases him all over the yard whenever he gets close.
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Jul 20, 2015 21:29
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so, uh... One of my chickens started crowing this morning. So now I've got one unredeemably loud and idiotic hen, one broody egg-eating hen, and one transrooster. CHICKENS, GET IT TOGETHER.
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Jul 21, 2015 02:41
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Micomicona posted:so, uh... One of my chickens started crowing this morning. So now I've got one unredeemably loud and idiotic hen, one broody egg-eating hen, and one transrooster. CHICKENS, GET IT TOGETHER. Yeah, my head hen Dahlia used to crow, and occasionally mount the other hens. She also has the most majestic comb and I was worried originally that we'd gotten a roo, but she's just awesome and isn't having any of our gender-normative bullshit or something.
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Jul 21, 2015 18:09
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Micomicona posted:so, uh... One of my chickens started crowing this morning. So now I've got one unredeemably loud and idiotic hen, one broody egg-eating hen, and one transrooster. CHICKENS, GET IT TOGETHER. Sounds like a sense8 flock
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Jul 21, 2015 19:03
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Our turkeys have been laying, and we found the Prime Nest where the new pullets have been laying. My husband complains that the hens' eggs are too small -- they've been laying less than a month, so I'm not sure if he's just forgotten that they start small, or what. They're Jersey Giants - their eggs aren't going to be small for long. The turkey eggs are snazzy, though! They're about the size of a large chicken egg, and speckled. The cool thing about the speckles is that they're semi-liquid when they're just-laid, so they smear a bit, then dry out. I made probably the richest pancakes ever this weekend using turkey eggs. I wish they laid more, and they didn't poo poo so much, because I like the turkeys (they're quiet and they don't act like dicks) and their eggs.
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Jul 21, 2015 21:09
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From Imgur: a very pretty Wheaten Americaunas rooboy.
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Jul 21, 2015 21:54
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Ugh. My back neighbor was outside watching my hens this evening. I went out to say hi and she informed me ALL THE HENS had been roosting on the chain link fence that separates my yard from another side neighbor's yard. That neighbor coincidentally has a big aggressive dog I've been worried about. My back neighbor said she had been watching them and waiting until I came outside because she was worried and while waiting they got curious and flew up to sit on the fence next to her. My big dumb hens haven't had any trouble really with sitting on the fence until now. Guess I'm going to have to clip wings and monitor to make sure it doesn't keep happening or the dog next door is definitely having chicken for dinner some day in the future. Sigh.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:32
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Inveigle posted:From Imgur: a very pretty Wheaten Americaunas rooboy. I wonder what color he wants to be when he grows up.
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Jul 22, 2015 02:32
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An Abandoned Indonesian Church Shaped Like a Massive Clucking Chicken
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Jul 22, 2015 03:35
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It certainly is! Lots of cool photos at the source!
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Jul 22, 2015 04:00
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RetroVirus posted:I recently added a few new pullets to my small flock to a total of 8 birds. I did the introductions that's been recommended here and it went great. When the new ones were ready to be let out of their pen there was some light chasing and all that, but now they're all fine- happily sharing treat and dust bathing time. I'm curious though, when can I expect the new ladies to chill with the main flock 24/7? They free range on a whole acre but it's like two flocks. I'd really like them to be just one flock now so that they have the rooster's protection. Will the rooster eventually notice they have titties and invite them over, or should I start putting them in the main coop every night? Pretty hens! I'd coop everyone together if you want one flock. Feeding them all together tends to help them merge into one flock as well. Now that we have a large area for our chickens, I've noticed our flock being a bit more clique-ish--hatchmates tend to hang together. But mine all go into the same coop at night and for the most part get along just fine. Heh heh, chicken titties...
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Jul 22, 2015 08:23
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A gaggle of idiots! In order left to right. Jean, Pizza and Ken.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:02
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It's not too early to prepare for coming inclement weather. Make sure your chooks are ready and protected!
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Jul 24, 2015 13:05
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DarkHorse posted:It's not too early to prepare for coming inclement weather. Make sure your chooks are ready and protected! 
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Jul 24, 2015 17:33
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Pretty hens! I'd coop everyone together if you want one flock. Feeding them all together tends to help them merge into one flock as well. Thanks! I evicted the trio from their little set up and started putting them in the coop for the past couple of nights. Already I see all the birds being around each other much more and no chasing/sass! But boy howdy are they gonna be pissed at me when I introduce several new youngins in the coming two weeks.
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Jul 25, 2015 01:53
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Errant Gin Monks posted:A gaggle of idiots! Aww, awkward teenagers! :3
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Jul 26, 2015 03:23
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The Cochin at the farm, Pants, is doing great with her tiny brood. Three gaggling mutty teenagers by her side at all times. Hasn't lost anyone she hatched. Best Mama.
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Jul 26, 2015 13:20
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Sunday 7/26 252 pm MDT There are chickens at Chickam! yay!
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Jul 26, 2015 21:52
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Alright. Let's try this again. The last straw with my NH Red was when he went for me when I had my (now 8 month old) daughter in my arms. I wasn't ever going to turn him into anything tractable. He was too aggressive. He met up with a crock pot and that's the end of that. So I found a new rooboy to replace him. He's young--about 5 months old--and I didn't stop to consider HOW young that really was. So here he is, at first trying to meet my established flock of hens:  This is Nigel. About three minutes before Phil there on the right handed the poor little guy his rear end. Each of the hens took turns opening a can of whoopass on him, and all he did was run and scream. Then it finally dawned on this idiot here that he's a lot closer in age to the two month old peepers than my 18 month old ladies. So now he's much happier over on the baby side of the divided run, being master of the peepers. He's a good boy--very gentle, pretty easy to handle, and good with the bitty pullets. He pecked them when they got in his face or pulled his tail feathers, but he didn't chase them and if they kept a respectful distance (yeah right) he happily ignored them. He has no idea what hand-fed treats are, which surprises me since the woman I got him from so obviously loved her chickens and handled him pretty often. But I'm sure he'll catch onto that quickly. So, how do I not screw this one up? Besides the obvious, which is the first mistake I made: Don't get grossly, hugely pregnant and spend the formative months of a roo's development inside my house, never interacting with the roo. I'd love some tips and tricks for how to make him love me. And also, I wonder, is there any way to integrate the two flocks without knocking my head hen out of position? If the roo if growing up with the babies, then he's going to have a head hen there and his favorite will probably end up being top girl. If I wait until the chicks are big enough to really hold their own against the older girls, I'm afraid the younger head hen will trounce my head hen. I've got orpingtons, brahmas and a cochin growing up and they're going to be bigger than my barred rock. Or should I just not worry about it and let them all figure it out?
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Jul 27, 2015 02:15
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Let the hens figure it out. Chickens don't remember much, so when the pecking order is reestablished it's not they pine for or mourn their lost spot. They just continue on being chickens.
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Jul 27, 2015 04:27
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Let the hens figure it out. Chickens don't remember much, so when the pecking order is reestablished it's not they pine for or mourn their lost spot. They just continue on being chickens. Yeah, this. Expect the hens to hand his rear end to him the first day or so, then they'll get over it (although their noses will be out of joint a bit at first). Your Head Hen should retain her spot, and expect HER to be the worst at teaching the new boy who she is. When I got Jack, my Head Roo years ago he was about 1 year old at the most, and my then-2 year old Head Hen whipped his rear end proper the first day, to the point where Jack ran and hid. After that they were inseperable for 9 years and died within a day of each other. It'll all shake out. Just don't make the mistake of putting them all together, then seperating out someone, then putting them back...taking them out again (unless of course someone is hurt)...doing that just upsets the flock and draws out the amount of time it takes for them all to get over themselves and calm the Hell down. Feeding them goodies together so that they all stand around in a group and peck up food helps to cement the flock bond, I've found. Tithe Nigel and show him respect (the hens will notice this) by offering him tidbits from your hand every so often as they eat, so he can in turn call his girls over and give the goodie to them. He may gobble up the bits of food at first, but as he gets older he'll start offering his tidbits to the girls and they'll learn to love him. I've got more on integrating new chickens in your flock here: http://jackshenhouse.com/NewBirds.htm Nigel is very pretty!
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Jul 27, 2015 12:21
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