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spicycauldron

Tired ex-battery hen - on the way out, or in need of a rest?

I noticed yesterday that Hyacinth, one of our ex-battery hens, was sleeping during the day, which is quite unusual, out in the enclosure. She was clearly not in any pain, eyes closed, close to the ground, while the other hens wandered around her. She was left well alone.

Later, she went to bed in the coop around 6pm—around two hours earlier than the young ones go to bed, and four hours before her three fellow ex-bats. She displayed none of her usual skittishness when I picked her up and stroked her, and made none of her usual catalogue of sounds then, or today. She has been, and is, completely silent. But again, she seems not to be in any pain. She gives the impression of being worn out, simply exhausted.

I have run the usual first aid checks. Hyacinth’s eyes are clear, there is no discharge from them, or her mouth, or her back end. She has no obvious mites on her.

This morning she didn’t emerge from the coop, and I went in there prepared to be unsurprised if I found she’d passed away in the night. But no, she was still with us—just sitting near the door, watching the others excitedly having their breakfast. So, in case of disease, I took her out without any protest involved, to isolate her from the flock, and she is now resting on fresh straw in a cat box without lid in the kitchen.

She’s pooped a perfectly normal-looking poop, nothing visibly wrong with it. But that's it, just the one. I offered her some greens, which she pecked at, once, but didn’t eat and hasn’t shown any interest in since. Neither was she interested in water until she'd been indoors a few hours warming by the oven's open door. The food pellets I’ve tried her with have been ignored.

She didn't appear to be egg-bound but I gave her a warm bath just in case. She didn't sit down in it, but she seemed to enjoy it and that was when she took water for the first time, drank it from the washing-up bowl in which she was standing! I didn't use anything other than warm water, so that was fine. I also examined her inside and out for signs of an egg being in situ. Couldn't find one but to be sure, I gave her a dose of warm olive oil up the, er, jacksie.

I gave her a very small dose of cod liver oil orally as well. Since then she seems to have picked up - marginally - and has been taking a few sips of water every hour when offered. Well, most of the time. I've been concerned she isn't drinking enough, so have three times given her a syringe of water orally as well.

She hasn't minded all this, though she has shown some spirit where getting her beak open was concerned.

When I first brought her in the house, for a couple of hours her body was cold but her comb was very hot. The warming-by-the-oven routine didn't seem to work, so I gave up on that and placed an old clean towel over her. That helped, and she warmed up consistently all over her body.

Is she dying? Does she perhaps have some disorder or disease? Is she simply exhausted and needing a rest? She has been an excellent layer at the expense of growing her feathers back, unlike two of the three other ex-bats. The other baldie has a far worse appearance, but is feisty as hell and our number one layer.

The affected hen does not appear to be in any pain whatsoever. She's just now, as I type this, started pecking at the carrier box as if she's going after invisible flies. It's odd. She is comfortable but does not want to move, though she occasionally turns round in the box and can stand if she wants to - when one of the household cats walks by, for example. But she isn't stressed by the cats, and seems completely at ease with her situation.

My friend Jo suggested I try her with some liquified layers pellets, maybe just a diluted syringeful? Or is she okay to go without food for some time? I'm worried that she will get weak without sustenance, but there's no fear of her getting dehydrated.

If she's dying, then it seems a very odd and calm way to set off on life's last journey...

spicycauldron

I forgot to add, her tail has been down all day and yesterday but this past hour it has started to rise a little... suggesting to me she feels no longer, er, very, very, very tired but, er, just very tired... *boggle*

@Calli

Is it possible to put some nappy cream/vaseline around the ends of the perches where they meet the henhouse walls over night? Red mite live in the crevices of the hen house and come out at night to feed of the hens - it could just be that she is 'drained'!

To prevent lice I put louse powder in the dustbaths but this won't work for the mites who don't live on the birds

Best of luck - it sounds as you are doing everything you can for her.

spicycauldron

Thanks Calli, yes, I can do that, and will. I already use a talcum powder-like herbal preparation for red mite, dosing the henhouse with it every couple of weeks. I haven't ever seen any, but of course that doesn't mean they're not there.

So she might be a vampire victim? There's a thought I hadn't considered!

Louisdog

Does she feel thin? Is her crop normal? I had one go downhill like that and she turned out to have a sour and impacted crop.

spicycauldron

Thanks for responding, Louisdog. It's appreciated.

Her crop feels like its full, and I wouldn't think it should feel like that after a day now without food (she ate yesterday). It also... how can I put this... feels like... Well, imagine if she had a big letter B on her chest. There's a smaller bump above a bigger bump. It feels very odd.

She's had cod liver oil early today, and a dose of olive oil late afternoon, which I recall reading can help with crop problems in helping them clear.

Yes, she does feel thin but unfortunately with an ex-bat, that's not a particularly useful indicator as they're stick thin when they arrive and some take months and months and months to gain any weight at all, especially if they're producing lots of eggs, which is when you don't get the feathers growing back so quickly either. Our two scruffiest ex-bats are our most prodigious layers.

spicycauldron

Her breath doesn't smell, which is supposed to indicate sour crop, isn't it?

I have read that the oils should start to help, if there is something clogging her up inside the crop.

Louisdog

It does sound worrying that her crop feels like that. You'd expect it to feel completely empty, like when they first get up in the morning.

I cannot imagine what would cause the crop to be B-shape in profile, v odd.

We had a pekin with an impacted crop which had also gone sour, and the oil and massage remedy didn't work so I took her to the vet and he put his finger down her throat and felt a lump of food and grass, he tried to pull it out with tweezers and no luck so he had to cut her open under GA and remove a huge lump. Could your bird have eaten any long grass or a bit of material or leaves or something else unusual?

With the pekin I was advised to give her a probiotic to get the crop going so I tried live yoghurt and also Avipro powder.

Does her breathing feel ok, no sound of a rattley chest or anything? I had one bird die of a chest type infection which came on very suddenly, a few years back, in the summer.

Has she been wormed lately? Just clutching at straws really.

Is she still a bit more perked up? Have you tried tempting her with sweetcorn or anything, I sometimes give mine Tesco Value sweetcorn which they seem to love. Or grapes!

Fingers crossed she improves, poor thing.

Louisdog

Angel (daft name, her mate was a buff so was Buffy, hence Angel!) didn't have smelly breath. Her lump was nearly the size of a tennis ball, grass and food, the vet said it would not have moved on its own. I think hers was a particularly extreme case though.

spicycauldron

I massaged her crop for, oh, at least ten minutes, very gently, and felt grass in there. It has reduced in size, considerably, and is no longer B-shaped but more like a flattened little oval. She seemed relieved while I was doing it, and strangely drank water throughout the whole routine. More than she has all day.

It was as if she was communicating, "that's right, there's the problem'" - sounds strange, I know, but it was the look in the little thing's eye... She was telling me I'd found the problem, I am convinced it's something in the crop now. Thanks everyone.

She's having no food today, just water and maybe another oral dose of oil last thing tonight or first thing in the morning. I'm very hopeful that the crop will go down, and is the source of her listlessness. She's still sleepy but far more alert when I go near her than previously.

Louisdog

That sounds like great news, I do hope she continues to recover Smile

If you do decide to try the yoghurt, my lot seem to love the strawberry flavour! Very Happy

Make sure it's "live" of course.

@Calli

Good news it does sound like impacted crop after all!

I have just changed the bedding in the houses and am watching like mad for signs of that too.

Chickens huh! Such a worry Confused

I think we need a poll on the livestock with the most problems......

1.Sheep
2.Chickens
3.......

Louisdog

3. Ducks!

Mine seem to be fox magnets and also won't shut up!

spicycauldron

Got up this morning to find her awake, more alert than yesterday but still with a crop too large given she's not eaten for a day (but smaller than it was before I massaged it yesterday, and administered the olive oil).

She's taken water more readily than yesterday as well, but it looks as if I'm going to have to do the oil/crop massage routine again this morning.

Not sure how I'm going to shift its contents if this doesn't work, because I would have thought she needed food fairly soon - lack of food certainly isn't going to help her get moving again.

Oh, and her temperature seems uniform this morning as well. Yesterday's cold body and hot comb was a bit weird to say the least.

spicycauldron

Aagh. I just noticed one red mite in the cat box, crawling over the straw. Just one. But of course, that means there must be more in the hen-house. I am fastidious about cleaning it, at least once a week, usually more, and I use dusting powder in all the crevices.

So, I immediately moved Madam to a new, clean cat-carrier, used the dusting powder in there and on her, and gave her fresh clean bedding.

But how I'm supposed to go treat the hen-house when heavy rain is forecast today, Friday and Saturday, I've no idea... It's hard enough to clean them out under these relentlessly miserable weather conditions...

Of course this doesn't mean a mite is to blame for the hen's listlessness/refusal to eat. Or does it? I know if there's one been seen, there must be many more in the actual hen-house with the other girls.

spicycauldron

I just, with the help of my partner, tried the 1tsp baking soda to one pint of water method of trying to clear the crop.

It looked more unpleasant in writing than it was in practice - she certainly wasn't distressed to be held upside down by the feet, by myself, while my partner massaged her crop downwards, firmly but gently, towards the beak.

It had the desired effect of making her throw up, and the crop is smaller, but there remains a core of what feels like gravel - probably is small stones and what have you - and the crop refuses to completely empty.

I'm guessing the evacuation attempt is supposed to clear everything, including grit and small stones?

The hen is now going to be left alone after that mauling, to rest. She seems a little easier after the procedure. We did notice that what came up didn't seem to have any solidity to it, being a grey heavy liquid, but oh my gosh, it STANK to high heaven.

You can only do this once a day, and the mineral oil twice a day, apparently. If the crop doesn't empty today, though, how long should I leave it before taking her to a vet to clear it? Obviously, the longer she goes without food, the weaker she's going to get.

Treacodactyl

I think the vet is a personal choice, some say take her to the vet right away others say they'll probably not be able to do more than you've already done.

When one of mine had an impacted crop it took several days of giving her oil and massage to clear the crop and a few more days for her to fully recover. She was, however, a huge bird that could probably have survived for weeks without food.

spicycauldron

Being an ex-bat and still quite bony, I've no idea how long she can last; that said, to get through a year in the cages she must have some serious resilience. Many die in the cages.

Although the crop remains obstinately occupied, albeit to a much lesser degree, this morning's procedure seems to have given her a bit of a boost. She's standing up a bit more often, her general alertness continues to improve, and she seems to know we're trying to help her, which helps us when having to do what appear to be quite violent and upsetting things to help her get right!

But man... what came out of her stank sooooooo bad, but there wasn't anything obviously, er, this ain't gonna sound nice at all... 'solid'. It was just black, like watered-down tar.

Does anyone know how much water a chicken should drink daily to avoid dehydration? She drinks a little herself, not a lot, and I give her syringes of water if she goes more than a few hours refusing to drink, until she goes to bed. But I don't want to OD her on H2O...

Treacodactyl

I don't have much experience to be honest but I wouldn't expect the crop to fully clear as the grit and stones should last until they are worn down by grinding the food. So I'd expect to be able to feel something just not a large lump. If you can feed her something she likes, ours tend to like fruit such as raspberries, it might get her going again.

As for drinking, one of ours is broody and she can go for hours without drinking and when I force her off the nest she'll drink a fair bit before going for hours more. I would err on the side of caution and not try and force too much water down.

spicycauldron

I wish I could tackle the hen-house, I've only seen one mite but that means there's going to be more in there if there was one in the cat carrier with the poorly hen. But it's impossible to even do a basic clean when the rain is so constant and heavy, day after day after day.

I last cleaned them out Monday, and try to clear all the wood shavings and straw from the house at least twice a week, with a complete clean once a week.

The poorly hen was removed to a different cat carrier, with fresh bedding, and first I dusted the cat carrier with red mite powder. I also put a little on her behind and around her neck area, under the wings.

I'm wondering if the mite may have come from the shavings though... But I would have thought they were heat-treated as they're so clean when they come all packaged up, I've always assumed there was some cleaning involved in the processing and packaging.

The hen-house is regularly dusted with red mite powder.

judith

Treacodactyl wrote:

I don't have much experience to be honest but I wouldn't expect the crop to fully clear as the grit and stones should last until they are worn down by grinding the food.

Don't confuse the crop and the gizzard. The crop should empty fully if all is working well - it is a bit concerning that there are still stones in there. That suggests there is still a blockage somewhere to me. The colour of what is coming up is also a bit of a worry - the black tarry nature of it suggests blood to me.
I don't have anything else to suggest though, other than to continue with the oil treatment and making sure she takes some water. (As to how much water, think about how they drink normally - they have about half a dozen beaksful and then wander off, so I would think that a small eye dropper quantity would be plenty).

spicycauldron

Thanks. That's exactly the amount I've been administering, so I will continue. She's warming in front of the fire right now and seems quite content. I'm not bothering her again for a few hours, letting her rest.

@Calli

In the mean time if you put the white cream on the ends of the perches the redmite get stuck in it and you get a clear picture as to the number present.

spicycauldron

I'm going to vaseline the perch ends after using red mite solution as a wash inside the coop later, plus I'm going to dust the birds just before they go to bed. Any blighters left will get a nasty fatal surprise if they bite my ladies after dark. Hell yeah... Twisted Evil

I'm also going to relocate the coop. Before the girls go to bed, obviously. Smile

@Calli

You do your chickens proud Andy.

Do you put cider vinegar in their water that can help too Very Happy

spicycauldron

Hyacinth passed away

Hyacinth seemed to be improving yesterday evening, but when we got up this morning we found her curled up dead. She's our first chicken loss. She was, of course, one of our first hens to arrive, one of four ex-battery hens, in February of this year.

We're very glad Hyacinth got to see the sun, taste worms and bugs, experience weather, have dirt baths, scratch, and dig, and walk around freely before she died. She knew she was loved and cared for.

I cried when I found her dead, because I worked so hard to keep her alive and get her better. But I'm very, very happy she got more out of life than 800 million other birds who remain incarcerated and, frankly, tortured so that lazy and greedy people can have cheap food and stressed-out, pale, flavourless eggs at a few pence each. I cannot actually be sad for Hyacinth when her life with us is set in that context, but her passing brings to mind all those millions of little cages, the horrors of intensive farming. And it is those thoughts--all the hens not as lucky as Hyacinth was in the end, the ability of so many people to simply not feel, to not give a damn--that make me shed tears today. Cruelty to hens is but an indicator of the much bigger, much more terrible, human problem.

Thank you Hyacinth for teaching us some things about chickens, and for all your lovely eggs these past months.

Her sisters and the purebreeds move to a new house in the garden this week, a much bigger one. Last night we smited what turned out to be a fairly minor incursion of red mites good and proper, taking two hours to eradicate, dust, spray, and vaseline the perch ends.

And Calli, I'm going to start the cider vinegar. I've been adding a clove of garlic lately to their water dispenser. But you saying I do my chickens proud... That was obviously read after finding Hyacinth dead, and so your words were a great comfort to me and a reminder that while death is a part of life, the manner of passing for humans or animals is the important thing to try to get right, along with the quality of life while you're around.

And I guess all that includes when animals are killed for meat as well, though I wouldn't know much about that personally being a vegetarian!

jamanda

What a shame Sad

But as you say, she had a better life towards the end than many, thanks to you.

Tavascarow

Sad news but I know she couldn't have been cared for better.
I put a broken up bulb of garlic in the cider vinegar & let it pickle for a few weeks rather than putting it in their drinking water.
I had some young birds free ranging that found my bulbs of garlic drying in the bottom of my polytunnel & demolished it so maybe some chopped in their food would be even more effective.

marigold

Sorry to hear that.

Mrs Fiddlesticks

very sorry to hear about your chicken as you tried so hard to sort her out. As you say she had a happy and loving retirement; you couldn't have done any more for her.

lowri

Sorry to hear about Hyacinth, and after all your good work too. The posting was most interesting in general, I am off to put cream on the ends of the perches as I have always worried about red mite.
I lost 2 Black Rocks (ex free range egglayers) in the last year, but through overfeeding! Having had fox trouble, I had 6 of them confined to barracks, a biggish run and plenty of green food to peck, etc, but the trouble was I didn't cut down on the pellets and mixed corn enough, they both died of heart failure and they were very heavy and full of fat! I felt awfully guilty and have been scrupulously careful about measuring their food ever since.
Has anybody, who feeds mixed corn, noticed how the proportion of maize in it has increased? It must be because of the wheat shortage.

Andy B

What a shame, you tried your best. Many wouldnt. Crying or Very sad

@Calli

Andy,
So sorry to hear the sad news.

I stand by all I said about your going that extra mile for your birds and your example in this thread is to your credit.

It is also a fact that hybrids are bred purely for their laying capacity and so 'wear out' and die younger than purebreds. Quite a sobering thought that humans not only create short lived hybrids but that their short lives are not the natural chicken lifestyle....pecking around a field with access to grass and fresh water.

Oh and garlic is a great addition too!! Very Happy

spicycauldron

Well, I buried her, without fuss, under the apple tree we only planted in January - we've been in this house since December - and thought that made sense so she can simply return to the earth, and it's a nice spot to remember her.

That apple tree has a remarkable number of apples growing on it, we didn't expect any at all in its first year.

You're quite right on the hybrids being bred to be unnatural point, because Hyacinth was our second-best layer and second-most tatty ex-bat. The best layer, Hermione, is absolutely the most tatty bird. My partner and I theorise that the energy all goes into the eggs and not into growing feathers back or even putting on weight.

The other two ex-bats are now gloriously fully feathered, and have some meat on their little bones, but we get an egg from them maybe once every other day.

I am a tad concerned now about the remaining tatty girl. She, like the gal we've just lost, is very bony but she always, always, has a great big crop. Last night it was almost as big as her body after they all had a feed! She seems absolutely fine, as in happy and doing what she should be doing, but I am worried in case there's a problem there or a developing one. But equally, I don't want to distress her with remedies for impacted or sour crop if you should only do that when a problem becomes obvious and interferes with their ability to enjoy life.

Do you think we should do something, or is it possible all is fine with that one? Or just keep an eye on her, and, as we would anyway, act on the first obvious sign of distress or illness?

joanne

Hun - I think you know the answer to this - just let her do her thing and if she goes off colour - then do something - She is still really tatty and some chooks simply have bigger crops than others - If she is bright and alert and doing what chickens do - then she's fine - All you can do is preventative stuff - so garlic, cider vinegar, oregano - regular worming and keeping the house free of red mites

@Calli

I am sure knowing your standards that she has access to grit and oyster shell?

You can also give them some of the probiotic little drinks - as a boost ( you know the little danone/yakult ones?) Kale/cabbage greens too?

I use a mixture of game pellets ( for the hard feather birds - it has a much higher protein content) as they can give that extra boost when the birds are moulting. Which all mine appear to be doing Rolling Eyes

spicycauldron

Yes, they do have access to oyster shell and plenty of greens, too. And Jo is quite right, I know - I guess after this morning's events, I'm a tad nervous in looking at the remaining flock. So long as the other tatty is happy, and not showing any signs of anything at all being wrong, I'll leave her be and enjoy watching her and the others as always.

Chickens are strangely absorbing and kind of calming to watch doing their 'stuff'.

Jonnyboy

Unfortunately batt's have a hard, stressful, short life. I think MJ had quite a few losses early on.

So whilst you are doing a great thing in giving them a chance at a 'normal' life when they are considered useless by the industrial system, there is an inevitable downside to have the poor things.

spicycauldron

Absolutely. You're well advised when adopting them that they could last a day, a week, a month or many years. But it's more likely than not that our remaining ex-bats will be lucky to see a year with us and I'm pleased that Hyacinth got almost five months of living a more natural and relaxed life. She thoroughly enjoyed herself, I think. If they get longer, fantastic.

Can't be anything but happy about that, eh? And I am, have been since we got them, happy about that. And very, very happy for them. Smile

Jonnyboy

That's exactly the right attitude to have.

Louisdog

Sorry to hear about Hyacinth, Andy Crying or Very sad

But like others have said, at least she got a nice, albeit short, retirement. And a dignified death and burial; I think losses in the actual cages can go unnoticed for several weeks Sad

Re your other tatty hen Hermione; some of mine have ginormous crops of an evening, how does it feel in the morning? Do they have access to any long grass? I started mowing the grass in the run since Angel had her impacted crop.

At the time, the vet told me that the best thing you can do for your chickens as a small henkeeper is buy some electronic kitchen scales and weigh each bird weekly or fortnightly and record it, and investigate any significant weight loss, because he said by the time they exhibit symptoms it's often too late to save them. Unfortunately I bought the scales (only a tenner) then haven't actually got around to weighing them, which is stupid I know.

Sorry again about Hyacinth, it sounds like just one of those things and you have been particularly unlucky considering how well you birds are kept.

Cheers
alex

lettucewoman

but I reiterate all you said about her being happy for her last few months...

...made me cry a bit tho' Sad

cinders

Sorry to hear about Hyacinth too

i was really hoping everything would be ok and have been reading with interest

spicycauldron

Well, thanks again to everyone for kind thoughts and sage advice. We've been building the new hen-house all weekend, discovering that what we once thought was hard work was nothing compared to the task in hand! It's huge, we're converting a kiddies' playhouse shed, and it's going well but we hoped to be finished by Sunday night. No such luck. It will be done a bit at a time every night now, until Thursday when we expect it WILL be finished!

We need to add roof, perches and a fake floor that can be lifted out when cleaning (it's going to be able to be folded up a bit to get it out). We need to build nest boxes as well, but there's no rush as the only hens laying this year are the three remaining ex-bats and they never use the boxes in their current house, not ever! They lay them right at the back, so you have to really crane inwards to get at them.

We've hinged one wall entirely, so that it can be opened up to allow for easy getting at all the nooks and crannies, and to air everything. We weren't sure that would work, but it does, brilliantly!

It's a shame Hyacinth isn't still around as she'd love the new digs, but doing the building work has been a welcome focus distracting me and my partner from the sad events of last week.

I saw a falcon snatch a fully grown starling in the garden today, first time I've seen one locally although our local poultry breeder's had trouble. I'm glad the new run will have a lid, but am worried the big bugger might take a fancy to one of the younglings between now and Thursday. Especially the araucanas, which are not much bigger than pigeons.

The falcon - I say that, it might be a different bird of prey, I'm no expert, in fact I think it was a fair bit bigger than a falcon, come to think - got a good sight on the hens, so knows they're here. But I'd never seen it before today. Reason to worry?

judith

spicycauldron wrote:

Reason to worry?

Possibly. Depends how big your chicks are. Could you put some pea netting or some such over the run in the meantime?

Louisdog

The new hen house sounds really great, hope you get it finished soon, these tasks always work out more mammouth than you expect!

We had a buzzard used to sit and watch my hens, and I saw it fly down and land in the run a few times, it never got anyone, they seemed to be very watchful and got inside whenever it took flight. It gave up and left us alone fairly quickly, hopefully your falcon will too. Can you put something out there to make it scared of the chicken area, just for the next few days? Hang some shiny CDs, or is that for other birds? Or a bit of card with a big bird of prey drawn on, or some eyes. Or just hang and old coat out. Anything new that makes it wary, to tide you over for a few days.

hth
alex

Edit: Or just something they can run under if they feel threatened? Even a garden chair? Doesn't the bird's hunting success rely on landing on the prey, if it misses it can't chase and kill on the ground can it?

spicycauldron

I tried that and our little blighters pull it down, plus I can't get complete coverage where they are without going out buying new netting... Which, having splashed out on the new accommodation for them, I can't right now.

I may have to confine them to their current run, just to be on the safe side. Someone locally, I believe, from the poultry breeder I know who's suffered losses, is breeding rare birds of prey with official sanction. I suspect it was one of them.

The breeder has gone berserk at the local authorities and has written to her MP. She's fully supportive of rare birds being saved from extinction, but says little thought if any was given to existing businesses such as hers in the area. I don't have an opinion, but can see her point certainly. It's cost her not a small sum to get all her chicks under cover on a permanent basis until fully grown, and she's had some nasty losses.

spicycauldron

They've got access to their enclosed run, via the door I leave open when they're out in the wider enclosure so I guess that counts as suitable cover, then? I know this big bird landed on top of its prey and took off with it into the sky. I turned and saw it because of the victim's pitiful screaming. I know it's nature, and the big bird was magnificent, but very scary as well. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with it! Smile

Louisdog

I know it's nature but I hate seeing predators catch prey. Silly, I know.

spicycauldron

My partner reminded me last night that it was a red kite attacking and stealing our local breeder's chicks. As the bird I saw yesterday definitely was way too big to be a falcon - it certainly couldn't sit on someone's arm! - then I'd say it's likely it was the red kite, or rather a red kite as there are a group of them being bred locally. It was a stunningly beautiful and very scary-looking bird.

I'm glad that the new run we've built alongside the new hen-house has a mesh lid, as we might raise chicks next year and I'd hate to lose any to airborne predators. The adults ran away screaming when they saw the bird of prey, so they must have been instinctively fully aware of its potential for harm. One of our cats was sat on the path watching the scene and had a look I swear was of complete astonishment!

Poor cats... Ever since the chooks arrived in February, they've learned some birds are too big to eat... and now, they've found out there are even bigger birds! Smile

lettucewoman

spicycauldron wrote:

kites are easy to recognise - they have a well forked tail. they are beautiful birds, but it must be worrying when you have chicks. I thnk the hens will be ok as long as they have somewher to hide - the kite can't or won't chase them on the ground.

lottie

We have red kites and buzzards flying round every day and they have never taken anything not a chick or a duckling and they are totally free range---they cut the field next to us yesterday and there were 2 kites there all the time for the mangled rodents though.

Vanessa

Phew what an ordeal! Sorry it ended sadly, SpicyCauldron. As everyone has said, you cared for her so very well, no-one could have done more for her than you did.

My lovely Cream Legbar coq is currently being nursed back (I hope) to health. Not sure what was wrong, but suspected coccidiosis (difficult to do droppings exam, as they free-range over such a large area). Anyway, he was hunched-up, very quiet, pale ... and SO thin! He's now isolated, and, now he's showing signs of recovery (preening, and today he crowed Very Happy

), is being fed fishing maggots bought specially for him, as a treat each evening.

It IS a worry keeping chooks ... and I'm involuntarily watching the rest of the flock so carefully for signs of abnormal behaviour! Wouldn't be without them though ... I get so much pleasure from watching them Very Happy

Louisdog wrote:

Angel (daft name, her mate was a buff so was Buffy, hence Angel!)

Not all THAT daft, thank you. We also have a "Buffy and Angel" combo Embarassed

spicycauldron

Now there's a topic for a thread... the names we give our chickens (those of us who name them)!

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