Carol's Chickens

We have to give Pebbles her antibiotic twice a day. Rather than stress her by trying to put it into her beak we decided to put it on some sunflower seeds in a little dish. It is sticky so will stick to the seeds.

I decided to put Pebbles in the cat box in the morning and evening with her own dish of seeds laced with her medicine at the same time as the other girls have their seeds/corn.

The vet called this afternoon to let me know what the specialist thought after seeing the video and hearing the recording of Pebbles. Her opinion is that it is probably viral and she thinks it’s a form of bronchitis. She suggested we carry on with the antibiotic but that I call her straight away if Pebbles worsens.

My greatest fear is the other girls catching it but she thinks that as it’s been several weeks since Pebbles first started to wheeze it seems they may not catch it. She said the youngest two are most at risk as the older birds will have built up some immunity but that there is no point in separating Pebbles as the other girls have already been in contact with her. If any other girl shows any symptoms I am to call her straight away.

The vet said if Pebbles doesn’t respond to the antibiotic after a few weeks we could try a different one and she could also take a swab from inside her beak to check for anything bacterial. She also suggested that I worm the three little girls as I had just done the bigger girls before I got them. I had intended worming them next time round which will be March but the vet said it would be best to do it now as any worms could make them more vulnerable to virus and any virus could make them more susceptible to worms.

Tomorrow lunch time I will add some flubenvet to chopped grapes and give it to the three little girls on top of the little coop while guarding them against the other girls.

While we were talking I said that Pebbles eye seemed fine today so it may just have been coincidence and perhaps she had rubbed or scratched it. Other than the wheezing she seems fine and is eating well and drinking and pooping.

I am so glad that I have found such a good vet and I am really impressed with her.

Toffee is not her usual self either but I think this is just down to old age. She is spending periods of time in the chicken shed especially in the afternoons. She also has a slightly mucky bottom and is producing very wet poops (which is why the mucky bottom). She is eating and she came out for a mixture of corn and seeds this evening. She looks fine and still complained, which she always does, when the treats ran out which is a good sign. She also had a peck at some pear that was on the patio.

I think that as long as she doesn’t appear to be suffering in any way and is still eating, I will just leave her be and keep a close eye on her.

In other news, Pebbles has got the hang of going to bed without help ever since we added the extra perch so at least that is one problem solved.

I felt this post was a bit dull without any photos so this one was a few days ago when I gave the girls a dish of mash. The little girls wait until the bigger girls have had their fill and then they have the mash to themselves.

Three little girls have the dish of mash to themselves

The little girls love me to hand feed them spinach but they all move so fast that most of the photos came out blurred. I did just get one close up of Rusty.

Hand feeding Rusty some spinach

I will continue with the new regime, keep updating and keep everything crossed.

This morning I took some photos of the three little girls perching together on the high perch.

The three little girls like to perch high up

A close up on a high perch

It has now been two months since we lost Caramel. It has been one month since I gave Pebbles the baytril antibiotic for a week after I noticed that she was wheezing.

Her wheezing got better and after some research I found that some people had this with their girl and thought that they had something stuck rather than a respiratory problem.

Pebbles always used to get hiccups after food from the day she came to us but after this bout of wheezing she has never hiccuped again. I started to think there might be a connection. Recently the wheezing started again and I wondered if she had something stuck somewhere and it had moved a bit.

She has been lively, eating well and showing no other symptoms, so I thought that I would just keep an eye on her.

I got home at lunch time today and my husband said that he had noticed that sometimes Pebbles had one eye closed. This alarmed us both because of Caramel having a swollen and closed eye before she got really very ill.

I kept checking on Pebbles and sometimes she would be sitting with one eye shut and then they would both be open again. She was still wheezing and later in the afternoon she was occasionally rubbing at her eye.

We decided it would be best if I took her to the vet. After what happened with Caramel I am a bit paranoid about leaving it too late to catch a potential problem. I managed to get an appointment at the end of the afternoon.

The vet said that it was possible that Pebbles started to get better after a week of antibiotic but that it wasn’t long enough and therefore she had relapsed again. She said it can take two or three weeks with anything respiratory to clear completely. She said the wheeze appears when Pebbles breaths out but she couldn’t see a blockage. She took her temperature and said it was the high side of normal but still within the normal zone.

She said it seemed unlikely to be connected to Caramel’s illness because of the time lapsed and because Caramel didn’t have any wheezing but that the eye connection seemed odd. She recorded Pebble’s breathing and said she would talk to a specialist as she was at a loss with the symptoms of a respiratory problem and a possible eye problem.

She gave me more baytril and said to give it twice a day for three weeks and she would call me to let me know what the specialist thought. She said to call her if any of the other girls showed any symptoms.

I asked about treating the whole flock but she said that she preferred to treat only the girl with the symptoms unless there were symptoms appearing with more of the flock.

We gave Pebbles her first dose of the baytril before I returned her to the bedtime perch. It’s a shame I didn’t know before that the baytril needed to be given for a longer period of time as I could have continued after a week last time.

I just hope that we have caught it early enough to treat this time. Pebbles has been eating well and behaving normally in all other ways. I do find it odd that two girls from the same breeder have gone down with a similar problem and my biggest fear is it spreading throughout the flock. I can’t even bare to think about that.

I am keeping everything crossed and will be watching the whole flock very closely.

For the last few days the weather has been horrendous. It has rained all day and all night and although the entire run is roofed the rain blows in through the sides and most of the run ends up wet.

It has been cold and wet and miserable. Toffee has taken to perching in the chicken shed in the afternoons. I have never known this before and was a bit worried about her. She seems absolutely fine and I wonder if she is just feeling her age.

Although we have only had both Toffee and Emerald for three years we didn’t really know their age when we got them. The farmer used game birds as his broodies for his wyndottes but was happy to let us have a couple as he had plenty of new game chicks.

Toffee always looked like an older bird and we felt she had a bit of a grandmother air about her. She may have already been several years old when we got her.

Toffee has been spending her afternoons here

Are you looking at me!

Just chilling

I think perhaps as the outside perches have been wet she likes to perch here late afternoons as it is warm and dry. I have never known the girls to go indoors during the day before apart from to have a brief scratch in the shavings.

I will be keeping a close eye on Toffee but she seems fine in herself and only does this late afternoon, before bedtime. Maybe she feels she has had enough by then and needs to retire early. Maybe this means if the little girls were cold in winter they may do the same thing.

If it was really cold I would pin the shed door open and then if any girls wanted to go in and shelter it would be lighter than with the door shut.

At the moment though I will leave it closed because if Toffee is happy to settle in here a bit early then I think that it is okay to let her decide and leave her to do what feels comfortable for her. As always I will be keeping a close eye on her.

I love to see the girls perching together. The bigger girls perch together and the little girls perch together. The two groups never mix on the same perch but they do perch near each other.

The three little girls perch together on the lower perch by the ladder

The five bigger girls perch together on the higher perch by the ladder above the little girls

This is another favourite perch of the little girls

Closeup

They do look cute perched together.

We have been having an ongoing problem getting Pebbles to go in to bed on her own for a while now. I have tried putting her in early and she just comes out again. I have tried leaving her and she stays outside until after the door closes. I have resorted to putting her through the pop hole and blocking it until she perches up.

This was not satisfactory and I needed a rethink. There has to be a reason she isn’t going in on her own.

I decided to try adding another perch lower than the existing one to form a sort of ladder. The little girls move up the outside ladders easily. There seems to be a two fold problem with the bedtime perches. Freckles can’t easily judge the perch and always flies too high then drops back down on to the perch. I worry that she could hurt herself.

Pebbles has to have her position next to the door and if there isn’t a big enough space there she can’t judge the jump up.

The little girls’ perches

A new perch added

I put Pebbles on these perches several times to show her. Once she had jumped down a curious Emerald decided to check it out.

Emerald tries out the new perch

I decided to stay with the girls at bedtime so that I could see what happened and take photos. The bigger girls always go in first. I think the little girls wait until the big girls are settled to make it easier for themselves which is understandable.

As usual Rusty went in first and was soon followed by Freckles. To my surprise Pebbles followed them a few minutes later without any help from me.

Rusty was first up to the new perch

Freckles hopped up easily

Rusty and Freckles do a bit of beak to beak contact

Freckles moves up to the top perch and Pebbles hops on to the bottom perch

Rusty gets ready to join Freckles

Rusty hops up to the top perch

Pebbles gets ready to hop up

They settle in their usual positions

I was really pleased with this. I feel that all three girls were able to get up much easier. I think it’s much better for Freckles and I think it’s easier for Pebbles to get into the position she wants. Pebbles was also able to linger on the lower perch while Rusty and Freckles sorted themselves out then she made her move.

I think perhaps she wasn’t going in because it wasn’t easy enough for her to take the position she likes. I am hopeful that now it is easy for all three of them to get to the perch the bedtime problem will be solved at last.

Even if she doesn’t go straight in tomorrow night I think it won’t take long for her to get used to it but I am hopeful that having gone in on her own tonight she should do it again tomorrow.

I am much happier with this perch arrangement as it is now really easy for all three little girls to get to the bedtime perches. Sometimes I have to just keep watching the girls and mull over a problem for a while before fine tuning to get it just right. I am quite confident that this is now going to work.

I took the water bottles away three days ago and I have been worrying about whether Freckles and Rusty have been drinking from the water dish.

I have given them mash and melon and grapes as well as spinach so that they have had some moisture from their food.

Every time I went in to the run I didn’t see them take a drink of water. On the other hand I didn’t see several of the other girls take a drink of water either. I saw Peaches and Speckles drink yesterday and yesterday morning, first thing, I saw Pebbles drink but that was all. Just because I don’t see them drink doesn’t mean they aren’t drinking and they look happy and healthy but I just wanted that reassurance of actually seeing them drink.

Mid morning, yesterday, I went in and I was so pleased to see Freckles, Rusty and Peaches at the water dish.

Freckles and Peaches have a drink of water

Rusty and Peaches have a drink

Rusty and Freckles have just had some water

Rusty has some water

I am now happy and satisfied that Rusty and Freckles are drinking without the water bottles.

This morning I sprinkled some of their sunflower hearts near the metal water container.

Rusty and Freckles by the other water

Three little girls by the water

Rusty takes a seed from the water

A sunflower seed had dropped into the water and Rusty picked it out. This has satisfied me that they know there is another water. It would seem that they just prefer the china water dish. I would have thought this water would be easier for the little girls to reach but they seem to prefer the other one.

It doesn’t matter which water they prefer as long as they are drinking. I am happy with that.

The little girls have become much braver about getting their share of treats. With most of the treats that I leave on the patio such as spinach, mash, fish or apples, the little girls wait until the bigger girls have had some and moved away, then the little girls have the treat to themselves.

Today I put four little dishes of yogurt on the patio and the little girls were quite bold about helping themselves to their share.

Four dishes of yogurt

Pebbles was the first of the little girls to have some yogurt. Emerald is at the fourth dish which she is hiding. Peaches is more interested in the water at the moment and Toffee hasn’t bothered to come to the patio at all.

Rusty decides to join in

Rusty is very brave to have yogurt next to Speckles. They both have yogurt beaks.

Bold little girls

I thought Pebbles and Rusty were quite brave to hold their position between Peaches and Barley.

Barley has her share

Although Barley is at the dish the little girls move back a little but they don’t run away. Barley and Rusty both have yogurt beaks in this photo.

Eventually the little girls move on to another dish

I am quite impressed with how bold these little girls are. They hold their position quite well against the bigger girls. They no longer run from them but just casually move on to the next dish.

The little girls are perfectly capable of getting their share of the treats. They are quite used to moving away a little and bouncing back to an easier position. They are not intimidated for long.

I have found that when it comes to training chickens some things come much easier than others. When it comes to treats they cotton on the fastest but other things sometimes take a bit longer.

I give the girls some sunflower hearts in the morning and some corn at bedtime in winter and reverse this in summer as digesting corn is supposed to help keep them warm in winter. I am careful to measure out a small amount per hen so that they don’t get fat.

Right from when we first got the little girls I could see that they couldn’t compete with the bigger girls for this treat and were chased away so I slipped them their portion on the patio while the bigger girls have theirs thrown in the run. They picked up on this straight away.

Morning and evening I throw the sunflower hearts/corn out into the run and the bigger girls go after it. The little girls wait by my feet until I sprinkle theirs on the patio. It works like a dream and all the girls get their fair share.

The bigger girls have their corn in the run

The little girls have theirs on the patio

What is taking longer to sort out is getting Pebbles to go in by herself at bedtime. I don’t really understand what is going on here because she used to go in by herself but has stopped doing so. I am having to go up once all the others have gone in and guide her through the pop hole and block it while she takes her place.

I am finding it frustrating that she used to go in and now she doesn’t. I don’t know why this is happening and left on her own she would get shut out and end up on the outside perch or on top of the little coop.

I don’t know how else to train her to go in. I have tried putting her on the perch earlier and she just comes out again. I have tried leaving her alone and she perches outside. I can easily put her on the perch, but I want her to do it herself, so I am just guiding her in at the moment and waiting for her to get the hang of it.

I am wondering if she is ever going to get the hang of it. It is frustrating to have seven out of eight girls going in by themselves. It means I couldn’t leave them overnight but then it’s unlikely I would be away overnight anyway. Even so it would be better if she would go in just in case we were ever to be away.

I also removed  the water bottles today as I want the little girls to get used to the water dishes because in frosty weather the water bottles will freeze quickly. I have seen Freckles and Rusty drink from the china water dish so I know they are able to do this. Oddly enough I have never seen them drink from the metal water drinker.

I am keeping an eye on them because I worry they may not drink enough while they get used not having the bottles. Today it rained a lot and they drank drips from the wire but they like to do that at any time. I didn’t see them go to the water dishes during the afternoon but then again I didn’t see the other girls go to them either.

At bedtime Freckles was clearly looking for the water bottles.

Freckles goes to where the water bottles were

She can’t work out why the bottles are no longer here

Freckles did have a quick drink from the water dish

I would have liked to see her drink more but it shows she does know the water is here. I tried to show both Freckles and Rusty the metal water drinker by dipping my fingers in it in front of them but they just ignored it.

Tomorrow I will be around more during the day so I will be watching them. A farmer once told me that chickens will always find the water but after the first day we had these two girls and they wouldn’t drink at all before I put in bottles, I am not so sure. I know how entrenched in their habits they can become.

And so the training goes on with some successes coming easily and some not so easily!

Today I went to the woods for some more twigs. I decided that it would be best to have a supply so that as I dig up the leeks I can replace them with twigs. I decided to store them in one of the terracotta pots to keep them tidy.

A pot of twigs

Our patch of leeks

I will be digging up a couple of leeks to go with our Sunday roast. These will keep us in leeks for a while yet.

No cat poop in the garden today, hurrah!

We have a real problem with cats doing their business in our garden and every winter we have to do something to protect the vegetable plot or it will become a giant toilet.

We try to keep the rest of the garden as full as possible to leave no space for the cats but even this doesn’t always stop them. Sometimes they actually do their business on top of a low laying shrub which is horrible to clear up.

We have in the past put net or chicken wire over the veg plot in winter but it looks unsightly and sometimes the cats poop on top of it which is even worse to clean up. They are very determined.

We have tried all deterrents to no avail.

What we did notice during the summer was that the pea twigs stopped them. Maybe it inhibits them being able to squat. This gave us an idea. We could fill the veg plot with twigs over winter. We didn’t mind the look of it and if it would keep it cat poop free we would be happy with that.

We went in to the woods and gathered a bundle of twigs.

We collected a pile of twigs

One side of the veg plot has twigs planted

At this point we got rained off so had to leave the job to finish another day.

The next thing we did was empty the last two potato bags and put the compost in the chicken run. I have now bought the soil level in the chicken run back to what it used to be.

I emptied the two terracotta tomato pots back into the holes that they came out of and cleared this side of the plot of all but the leeks.

The first side is completed now that the potato bags have gone

The other side planted with just the leeks remaining

The finished plot

As I take out the leeks I will fill the space with more twigs until the entire plot is covered with twigs. We have found some cat poop in the bigger gaps between the twigs so today I have filled in the gaps with small twigs. I will keep going until it stops the cats completely. I am hoping this will now solve the problem.

We now have a winter veg plot full of twigs. I think it looks okay.