Chicken Coop News

Well, Esmeralda (she needed a name if she was to receive this level of care) is doing well in her private room in the garage. Food and water all her own, no one pecking at her, a little space heater on to keep her toasty as the nights get colder again. She is quite lively. Her primary care physicians (Matt & Wendy) checked out the wound today and do not feel she is ready to return to the flock yet. I won't go into the details, but it is still not a pretty sight. I have been advised to locate some purple spray, which is an antibiotic used on dogs in Florida who have been stuck by wild pigs. This advice from Jeanne's Florida daughter. So we will try that, and I'll look for some on Thursday as I return from downstate.

I plan to purchase feed then also with our egg money. I think I will return to the old place for the feed, as theirs is courser and I have read that they like it better that way. I will get at least one bag from JK Feed, then stop at the place that orders organic and put in an order for that. We probably have enough to get one bag of organic and one of regular at this point. But we also need a new bag of scratch. So unless someone wants to add some cash, we may need to wait until the next round to get the organic in enough quantity to make it worthwhile starting. We have exactly $40 in our egg money. Regular feed is about $12 a bag at JK Feed, ($11 at Hilltop, but not course enough) scratch is $8 at both places, organic at Hilltop is $25 a bag. So if I get two regular at JK which totals $25 and one scratch, plus the purple stuff, I will be spending about $35 of our money. Some of us are not in a position to put extra cash into this right now, so maybe it makes sense to keep the girls on what we know for at least this next round and work toward funding the more expensive stuff when we can get a more affordable plan. It is possible for me to get it for $20 a bag downstate, but I would have to haul it here. Could help with ice in the winter.

Then there is the issue of Pete. Several of our members are ready to let him go. He scares small children, has been known to attack from behind, though not recently. Jeanne's swift kick set him straight after he body blocked her three times. But he is rather rough with the girls, and it may be that winter confinement makes it even harder on them. He may have drawn blood on the first hen, thus enticeing the others to go after her and finish her off. We don't know. So I am asking for input on this, and also asking if anyone wants to begin finding a new home for Pete. He is beautiful and behaves better than some roosters, however he does not help much with the overcrowding they experience through the long winter. Let me know

Frank fixed the broken heat lamp and we have strung it over the water container to prevent the freezing that occurs on really cold nights, so it is on tonight. If it is not too cold I am just leaving the red light on. However, I did buy a timer. It is sitting by the egg log in the house. The heat lamp can be plugged into it, and it should be set to go on at about 3 AM and off at 8 AM. This would give them less light before roosting, but still keep the water from freezing and keep them laying eggs. We are averaging 18 a day now. I hope someone else will figure out how to get into the package and set the timer. Thank you in advance.

We are out of town Wednesday and Thursday. Matt & Wendy are doing chicken care and Keith Sr. (Keith Jr helped with cleaning on Monday) is taking a turn at coop cleaning on Thursday. We are not planning to sell any eggs this week, at least until the weekend, so there will be enough for members needs. 

from Peggy, physicians assistant and food delivery provider

Re: Coop medical update

Wow, nice work everyone.  Let us know what is needed as far as structure for the temporary area, who knows what we have in our pole barn that might help!

The girls and I will talk to our friend with chickens --I recall one in particular that had a problem with the canibalism,  I will get in touch and report back. 

We will look in on the girls (and Pete) on Thursday.

Good night,

Amy

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:14 PM, <hildaheron@aol.com> wrote:

Our wounded hen is now in a luxury recovery pen in the garage, complete with nest box, yard, food and water, created by Matt and Wendy this afternoon. She is up and walking around, which gave us a chance to actually see the wound better. It is not a pretty sight. It looks like you can see right inside her, so recovery, if it occurs, could be longer than we hoped. Doesn't look like the Vicks would be a good idea for awhile. Frank brought over a red light bulb, 25 watt, and we put it in the coop and turned off the regular one. Most of them are roosting, with only four wandering around. Hopefully the red light will subdue their canabalistic tendencies. Temp in the coop after about an hour of this was 35, so they should be ok for tonight. The hen in the garage is blessed with a space heater which is on the counter. I'm sure we would be laughed right out of the room by seasoned chicken farmers for all our pampering, but we can't help ourselves. Daffy has been buried by Jeanne. No one seemed to weigh in on any other plan and no one wanted to eat her. She will at least return to the land as compost. May all sleep well tonight. Wendy and Matt will work on making some kind of way to get into the temporary pen tomorrow, as it may not be so temporary. For tonight it is working well. Total egg production today is 17, with a possible few still under the hens, but we didn't want any more drama with them tonight.

from the medical team

--
amy daniels moehle

Coop medical update

Our wounded hen is now in a luxury recovery pen in the garage, complete
with nest box, yard, food and water, created by Matt and Wendy this
afternoon. She is up and walking around, which gave us a chance to
actually see the wound better. It is not a pretty sight. It looks like
you can see right inside her, so recovery, if it occurs, could be
longer than we hoped. Doesn't look like the Vicks would be a good idea
for awhile. Frank brought over a red light bulb, 25 watt, and we put it
in the coop and turned off the regular one. Most of them are roosting,
with only four wandering around. Hopefully the red light will subdue
their canabalistic tendencies. Temp in the coop after about an hour of
this was 35, so they should be ok for tonight. The hen in the garage is
blessed with a space heater which is on the counter. I'm sure we would
be laughed right out of the room by seasoned chicken farmers for all
our pampering, but we can't help ourselves. Daffy has been buried by
Jeanne. No one seemed to weigh in on any other plan and no one wanted
to eat her. She will at least return to the land as compost. May all
sleep well tonight. Wendy and Matt will work on making some kind of way
to get into the temporary pen tomorrow, as it may not be so temporary.
For tonight it is working well. Total egg production today is 17, with
a possible few still under the hens, but we didn't want any more drama
with them tonight.

from the medical team

Chicken Coop medical report

Friends, Our injured chicken is doing just fine today, but it was a
dramatic morning. She is eating and drinking, with a dish of her own
which is getting filled lots. She also laid an egg in the box, which
Jeanne was able to retrieve. I had the brilliant idea of trying to make
her box a bit bigger, and while I had it partially open she flew out
into the living room. Jeanne was outside, so I screamed for help and
she came running. Then began a real mess. She was very lively and did
not want to be caught. Before it was over she had knocked the can of
her feed off the counter, landed by the kitchen sink and proceeded to
knock off a glass and a plate, shattering both. I finally got her
cornered by the microwave and we put her back, then cleaned up the
mess. She has now been banished to the garage, which is where she laid
the egg. She is still in the box that is too small. Wendy and Matt are
trying to find something to contain her that is bigger. We want to try
a red light to keep the others from seeing blood once we put her back
and Frank is bringing one home from work. We still need to let the
wound heal a bit before putting on the Vicks. One of the Wyandottes
seems to be a pecker, and will need to be watched. She may need
isolation rather than the victims. Jeanne and I are headed out to a
meeting, so any visits to the girls would be appreciated. Just take
care with our patient. She is in the box under the light. She is very
fast. We will return in time to put the flock away. Will need some help
doctoring and Wendy and Matt said they will be available.

From Nurse Peggy for the intensive care staff

Chicken Coop Emergency room news

Well, things are getting tense here. Seems our girls are getting into
cannibalism. When we came home tonight and I checked on them to see
what they were up to in the night time, I found another Araucana was
being picked on and had a big wound in its side near the tail. May
explain the demise of the first one. So I went into panic mode and got
Jeanne out there with me. After much difficulty and no cooperation from
any of the girls, we were able to finally catch the wounded one. This
was only after she made the mistake of getting into a nest box. Pete
was busy doing his rooster thing, which kind of got in the way also.
We put her in a box, got some straw into it, and she is now in the
energency room in the house, with water and food. She has been treated
with triple antibiotic cream and is resting in the living room. From my
reading it seems they do this for a variety of reasons, like boredom
(they haven't been out much these last few cold days), too much light
(we did up the wattage with the freezing weather), not enough protein
in their feed (don't think that is an issue here), the sight of blood
may get them started (the vent on the dead one did look like it had
been opened, and they may have started on this new one as a
substitute). We are told to remove the wounded chicken until the wound
heals. We have a temporary solution to that for tonight. Anyone have a
bigger box, a cage, or something we can put in the garage to keep her
happy? It isn't going to be so cold for a few days. If we can get the
wound healed a bit, we can put Vicks Vapo-rub on it and they will leave
her alone. This worked when the little chick got picked on last spring.
Trick we learned from Patty at the Emu ranch. Since the temperature in
the coop seems to be 40 now, I took out the heat light and the 100 watt
and left only a 75. We may have to reduce the lighting further if they
keep this up. The book says to add extra light to the morning hours
rather than at night, so they get up on the roosts before it gets dark.
I tried turning off the light altogether tonight, but they were still
wandering around, so when I went back to check, half of them were
bunched up on the floor. I turned the light back on, hoping they would
get on the roosts again. I don't know if the one in the house will
still be with us in the morning, but this is the best we can think of
to do right now. It is 1:00 AM. All advice and nursing help welcome. I
have to be in TC tomorrow by 12:30 and we both have a meeting in
Frankfort at 4:00.

Peggy & Jeanne, chicken ER nurses

Chicken Coop News

Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 5:52 PM

Friends, It is with great sadness that I report to you today that we have lost one of our feathered friends. This morning I found one of the Araucanas, I believe it is the one I called Daffy, and the one Matt memorialized with his close up, dead and buried in the straw under the roosts. The cause of death is not known. She was already rather stiff, and it looked like the others had actually buried her in a way. I almost didn't see her. Hopefully they didn't also do her in. They were acting rather subdued, and kept checking in that corner after I removed her, so they might have also been sad in their little chicken ways. The temperature in the coop was 28 when I opened it, and the water was a bit frozen and not coming out well. Hard to know. The temperture alone would not have been too low, but maybe she didn't get enough water. She also may have just been a bit weak in body as well as intelligence. Anyway, I miss her already, and I don't know quite what to do with her either. She is currently in a feed bag in front of the tractor, if anyone else wants to check her out so we can figure out what happened. Her back end does look a little ragged, and chickens do sometimes damage each other. Some of the hens have been going after each other as they establish the pecking order. We have never discussed what to do in the case of mortality. We've had such a long run without it, maybe we forgot it would come up someday. So here it is. The girls still managed 20 eggs today. No olive one, and I suspect that is the one we lost. Please post on the blog and web site, and let me know your thoughts on where she should go next in the cycle of life. We will keep her frozen. I personally do not want to just throw her out for the coyotes. But I also am not ready to eat her either. I do think we need to return her in some way to the soil eventually. Let me know.

Peggy, with the unpleasant task of mortician now.

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