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My rooster just died ._. I don't know what was wrong with him, none of the vets around here will deal with chickens. I put wormer in their food and coat them in mite dust once a month, there were no worms in his poo and he showed no signs of distress, but he seemed to just waste way... Noticed a month or so ago that he wasn't crowing, he was walking a bit funny and his comb had flopped to one side, also his poo was watery, but he seemed bright and alert otherwise, eating and drinking, nice clear eyes and whatnot. He did seem more lethargic than normal. Kept an eye on him and noticed a couple of weeks back that he'd lost weight and his comb was going grey at the ends, so we gave him some ibuprofen and kept him in the bathroom for a couple of days, he ate, drank, crapped everywhere and generally seemed to perk up, his comb went more upright and a better colour, so we weaned him off the ibuprofen and put him outside with the girls again, he seemed ok, not "better" but not worse. He also lost all his rooster-grumpiness, instead of throwing himself at me claws and teeth, he'd run at me when he saw me coming and look in my hands for food. Noticed yesterday he didn't get up on his own, I took him out the house, set him by the food and went to college, honestly expecting him to be dead when I got home, I hadn't realised how much weight he'd lost... He also had a hard lump in his wattles. But he seemed ok when I came back, wandering around the garden and eating, he came up to greet me and frisk me for food. I gave him some more ibuprofen and left him to it. Found him dead in the chicken house this morning. RIP Thorax...
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Sep 28, 2011 18:18
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Chido posted:That's the thing, I don't see any sting on her face, You can try giving her a tiny bit of ibuprofen, 1/4 or less of a 200mg tablet wrapped in something nice, might reduce the swelling. My Rooster ate loads of it, (He looked like he was on his last legs so we figured it couldn't make it any worse) and there's a couple of studies and a few anecdotal posts on the internet if you look around. Asprin is fairly safe too, there's dosages here (Incidently, you can give dogs asprin but you CAN'T give them ibuprofen, they can't metabolise it, making it toxic) I think bee stings are acid and wasp stings are alkaline. So holding a compress with vinegar on the sting may help. (if you find it) Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Oct 3, 2011 |
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Oct 3, 2011 07:57
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I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't look for pets, if you're supposed to have one, it'll find you. A woman knocked on the door earlier, "Hey, I live round the corner... I have 6 chicks and a mother for sale, you want em?" Mostly Orpingtons, which is what we wanted! Gotta find names for em now...
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Oct 3, 2011 22:04
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Inveigle posted:Hi Nettle Soup! Be sure and post some photos of your new pet chicks and hen! We all love seeing photos of people's pet chickens! Gonna take pics yep, was pretty much dark when they arrived, our three remaining hens had already gone to bed and everything. The current older hens are Henrietta, Abigail and Daisy, chicks have no names yet except for... My special little brother, bless him, came in a few months back and pronounced our rooster as "Mr. Hardpecker", because "He pecks hard!" and my mum is determined to name that to whatever one turns out to be a boy (because there'll be at least one...) Mr. Hardpecker, Cock at Large. I think the mother is a white leghorn, what do you guys want to name her? Edit: Uploaded some pics from my phone here, proper camera is downstairs still. Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 17:47 on Oct 4, 2011 |
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Oct 4, 2011 07:30
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pPN7qy2080 Set up the camera in the garden and filmed them for half an hour, nothing major happens but it's a nice record of them. Do you think mother is getting bored of them yet? (I honestly don't expect anyone to watch that whole thing) Album of all the images I took is here: http://imgur.com/a/Ok74H Should I be cutting the mothers claws? They seem awfully long... She came with the chicks. So: Mother: Lydia (Leghorn) Biggest orange/white one: Lemon Tortie/Spotted one: Caroline (Named after our old cat) Tiniest Orange One: Sporticus (Named by my little brother, cause he has fluffy feet...?) Biggest orange one: No name yet, any suggestions? Two at the end who aren't in the video: Pekin: Tyrion (Hardpecker) Orange: Sparrow
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Oct 16, 2011 13:28
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Admittedly I didn't watch the whole thing but I did watch a few minutes here and there. They spend a lot of time digging in the dirt. Did you put down scratch or are they finding worms? I threw down a handful of corn at the start, and about 16:50 I give them a worm and they have no idea what to do with it.  Most of the video they're on the concrete patio though.I dug a bag of corn and sunflower seeds (some sort of parrot mix that'd started growing...) and a handful of corn into the bed where they move at the end, and I'd just dug it over so they were probably finding worms too.
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Oct 16, 2011 16:00
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The dogs got out and killed one of the chicks.  I didn't even hear anything, all I knew was when they bought me him. Poor Sportacus... It was my own fault, I was doing something in the front garden, the dogs were out with me and I forgot that the back gate was open and they were out of their little run (They'd really out-grown it)I don't think the dog really wanted to KILL it, I think she just wanted to play with it, she's the one that sometimes I'll look out the window and see her shagging one the hens, and all the other chicks were unharmed. Still a stupid mistake though. I blocked up any chick-sized holes in the main run and put them in with the three older hens and the two older chicks, the mum went into the house, called the chicks in after her and they even went to bed in the right house without fuss once it got dark. One of the older hens, I guess she's the boss-hen, and the mother fight every now and again, but it's quickly over and I guess they'll settle in. That night I opened the lid on the nest boxes to check they were all in, and in one there was one chick and the two older chicks, and in the other was crammed the mother, two chicks and one light sussex, it was like a solid wall of chicken.
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Oct 21, 2011 06:06
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Chido posted:My nieces spent the afternon with the people that adopted Roo's babies. We got videos! The chicks will be 3 weeks old this Friday. That grass won't last.  Finally penned in our chickens and seeded a new lawn, as there was nothing left. Now I have to work out how they keep escaping!
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Apr 12, 2012 12:33
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I think I'll buy some plastic sheets and make a chicken shelter.
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Apr 30, 2012 16:10
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Alterian posted:I hope you're being a bit facetious because chickens need more than just a roof. Shelter, not coop, they already have one of those but for some reason they prefer to stay out in the rain. At least it'll keep a part of the run dry for their food. We have horrible clay soil and it hasn't stopped raining in two weeks. And since I'm here, my eggs hatch in 6 days  (Another edit, I've taken chickens to the vet in a taxi, just shove em in a cat carrier and nobody knows any better. Not that the vet would deal with them anyway )
Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Apr 30, 2012 |
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Apr 30, 2012 16:29
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This is great for coop ideas: http://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/2/Coops/page/
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May 1, 2012 20:38
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My eggs are now in lockdown  I put in 12 eggs, one never developed, but the rest are due on may 5th! This is my first time hatching!
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May 1, 2012 23:24
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I no longer use straw or hay at all in my coop, not only can it apparently trap mites, the chickens poo poo on it and it mixes with the shavings and mud from outside and within a couple of days it's turned into a sort of wattle and daub flooring I have to shovel out in one massive piece.
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May 2, 2012 17:26
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Out of 12 eggs, 11 were viable and so far 7 have hatched. I think this is probably it. 1 - Rhode Island Red - Conquest 2 - Ancona - Abacus 3 - Buff Orp - Flora 4 - Buff Orp - Rover 5 - Vorwerk - Eros 6 - Buff Orp - Beatrice 7 - Polish - Christina
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May 7, 2012 00:51
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That's similar to what happened to my Roo. 
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May 29, 2012 21:21
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I just fed my birds loads and loads of corn last winter and not so much layer pellets, they seemed to do fine on it, the corn I get is a balanced feed and it's supposed to make them fat and raise their body heat isn't it? Only problem was the shells were a bit thin when they did start laying again in the spring, but that quickly cleared up. My chicks went outside at about 3 weeks and are doing absolutely fine despite the foul weather, they're in a covered run and don't seem to be suffering from the cold at all. They even put themselves to bed at night from the very first day, with no shooing from me at all! I didn't want to put a heat lamp in there due to the fire risks and it'd mean having a wire partly in the rain, which I didn't really want either.
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Jun 8, 2012 10:15
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The Barnevelder egg I have in at the moment doesn't look that dark, but neither do the Maran eggs.
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Jun 15, 2012 10:43
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For anyone who's interested and not following the chickam thread, my eggs should be hatching today/tomorrow.  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nettleschickhatch
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Jun 19, 2012 08:42
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Interesting here to see somebody actually breeding here!
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Jun 21, 2012 13:57
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Pretty red hen has a beak like a hawk!
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Jun 22, 2012 20:29
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Maximusi posted:drat, how do you know if a chicken is skinny or not? This makes me worry about mine. You pick a normal one up, then you pick up the skinny one and go "oh poo poo..." they should feel solid and meaty.
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Jul 2, 2012 11:19
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It's sad to lose any animal, but you did what you could for her and that's what matters. I'm sure she was happy til the end.
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Jul 7, 2012 19:04
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Not had a good day Lazarus has taken ill, she's behind the other chicks in development and spends most of her time asleep. I kept her inside for two days until I thought she was ok, and put her outside. When I went out to check on her she was comatose. She's waking up now she's been in the warm again but I don't hold much hope. Second thing, when I went out this morning, Christina didn't come out with the others. I checked in the house and I guess the older hens attacked her. I've given her ibproufen and baby rice mixed with sugar, salt and egg yolk, but she's not making any noises or moving much. She has blood on one ear and the eye on that side is almost totally swollen shut, although the eye is still in there and intact, and she can open it a tiny bit now... She's been lying on the sofa all day. I don't want them to suffer, but no vet around here will look at them, and I'm kind of at a loss what else I can do... I never should have named it Lazarus... Edit: Lazarus died about an hour ago. Nettle Soup fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Jul 20, 2012 |
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Jul 19, 2012 18:19
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I would guess that too. Hopefully that's what my Flora's gonna look like when she grows up!
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Jul 28, 2012 22:13
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Chido posted:Something in your hand = chicken death trap/monster/omfg what the gently caress is that it's gonna eat me AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Unless it's Flora, at which point the only reaction is FOOOOD! If I go in there they all follow me around and she tries to eat my shoes.
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Jul 29, 2012 23:02
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Saying that, I'm not sure my last batch of hatchees aren't ALL roosters  I know Ruth is... Somebody's gonna have to go to the petting zoo.
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Aug 3, 2012 11:01
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The big hens and the big chicks are in together. I still have to put them to bed at night, they all roost on the roof like that picture I posted in the chickam thread. The little chicks are still way too small and are in the enclosed run.
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Aug 3, 2012 15:04
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My chicks are all out of the enclosed run today, mingling with the big hens. I haven't put them all in the run together, just given them the run of the garden, which is a sort of neutral zone. Flora came and sat on my lap earlier!
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Aug 9, 2012 17:29
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That Ancona roo looks just like a smaller version of my Abacus. His comb and wattles are amazing, I should go take a pic of him.
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Aug 11, 2012 12:23
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The boys, Abacus and Eros perch on the top of the 7ft fence. I really need to do their wings, but the garden it's backing onto is empty and neglected anyway, nobody's been in there for years. (Except for me, to retrieve chickens  ) They get up there by jumping onto the top of the old chicken house first.
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Aug 12, 2012 15:14
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We paid £100 for the big chicken house we're using at the moment, and around £300 to get a fence put across the garden so they stopped destroying everything. We also have four dogs, though, so foxes are deterred, and the garden is fenced in on all sides by 6-foot fences. We were ok with the original £100 house on it's own so long as we remembered to lock them in early, except for the fact we didn't know the nestbox floor was a liability. I guess being in the UK we have a few less predators to worry about though.
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Aug 19, 2012 14:31
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Isn't that true of all chickens?
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Aug 21, 2012 11:23
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Heh, they're fine, my camera ran out of batteries is why I haven't taken any new pics... I may have a couple soon.
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Aug 22, 2012 12:35
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Candling eggs lets you see the growing embryo inside the eggs after they've been sat on a few days. You can tell if eggs are fertile by cracking a few open and looking for the spot on the yolk. I don't think leaving eggs there will encourage them to go broody... Candling won't help determine if an egg is fertile or not unless it's been under a hen or in an incubator for a few days.
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Aug 22, 2012 18:56
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I've no problem with people raising their chickens for meat. The only reason I don't is I went into it with the idea of them being pets, not food. On top of that, I wouldn't know how to kill them humanely or deal with the cleaning. I'd much rather eat my own chickens than a chicken I don't know where it's been or what kind of life it's lived. But I think that's what coyo7e meant, it's not as easy as you seen to think, you can't just wave your hand at the bird you want for dinner and have them turn into a supermarket plucked cleaned and dressed chicken. (Unless it's Chidos Roo, at which point "plucked, cleaned and dressed" has a totally different meaning )
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Aug 24, 2012 00:40
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I had to wash Christina when she was sick, she didn't really like the washing bit but she really loved the hairdryer.
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Sep 2, 2012 14:52
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Anyone here got any experience of keeping hen on woodchip? We need something to stop the run being such a muddy mess.
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Sep 5, 2012 14:40
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Nettle: I've never run chickens on woodchips, but straw stays pretty dry on top and works well for us...my chickens always managed to scratch around my garden bed woodchips and pretty much got to the dirt, but straw tends to just spread around and interlock better. Seems we're gonna go with gravel, looking around, seems it'll come out to about the same price but it won't need replacing nearly as often and shouldn't have the same mould risk. Sorry about your roo.
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Sep 7, 2012 00:54
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I have collected a ton of feathers off my chickens the past couple of days, I never realised how many they lose!
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Sep 9, 2012 10:25
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Mum's decided that when a chicken gets sick, it's like they've stepped onto a down escalator, and nothing you can do will get them off it. You can prolong the ride but eventually they reach the bottom and die...
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Sep 10, 2012 11:29
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