Added Calcium For Your Chickens

If you have chickens then you are probably well aware that they need a good supply of calcium so that the shells of their eggs remain strong.  If chickens do not have access to enough to calcium they will actually use the calcium from their bodies.

Many people confuse grit and calcium and it is important to know what you are providing for your birds.
Some grit is insoluble which means it is not broken down by the chickens digestive system and sits in the gizzard to help break down food particles.  If your chickens free range then you may not need to provide this as they can pick up their own from the ground.
You can also buy soluble grit that is often crushed shells and provides chickens with a good source of calcium.

Our chickens free range so our only concern is to provide adequate calcium ( our soil is very low in calcium) and I like to do this by recycling all the egg shells back to them.
When using eggs I place all of the shells in a small oven tray and if it is winter I sit the tray on top of the fire place and the rest of the year I place the tray in the oven.  I like to dry the shells out completely so that there are no soft patches of egg white left on the inside of the shell.

Once they are dry I crush them to a fine powder in my mortar and pestle.

I then store all my crushed egg shells in a container and mix a few table spoons into their layers mash every few days.

This this method costs me nothing, we rarely have eggs with thin or soft shells and the egg shells have another use passing through the chicken and then going into the compost.  

Do you feed our egg shells to your chickens?
How do you ensure they get enough calcium?

Farewell Big Red

Big Red was our rooster and this week he went to chicken heaven.

We got him as a chick when we first moved here 6 years ago and he was a beautiful proud rooster with a lovely nature.  He never tried to attack us and he was easy to handle.

Big Red had not been his usual self for the last 2 days and was just not as active as he normally was but he was still coming out to the food dish so we gave all the water a good dose of apple cider vinegar and garlic and fed them a garlic worming mash filled with turmeric.  We were also going to dust the chickens again for mites the next day.

The next day all the hens were out and about and Big Red was no where to be seen and I found him in the chicken house sitting on the ground.  When I picked him up he was very dopey and then I discovered his rear end was covered in maggots.  Oh no fly strike.  We think it was partly due to all the wet weather and un-seasonally warm weather we have had but he must have had a dirty butt to attract the flies in the first place. Fly strike can happen very quickly (maggots hatch in 8 - 12 hours) so things can get out of control quickly.

I will not go into detail about fly strike but there is a good article here, but beware it contains pictures so if you are a bit squeamish be prepared to scroll past.

There are suggestions of washing out the wound and treating the chicken until it is healed but from the look of things it had gone beyond that and he was suffering.  So we decided to put him out of his misery which was hard (but the right decision) as he has been a member of our farmyard from day one.

We have checked all of the hens and they are all ok but I will be keeping a sharp eye out and doing a lot of looking at chicken butts for the next few weeks.

As much as this is not a good news story I think it is important to share because if it prevents the suffering of other chickens then that is a good thing.  We have never had this happen before but we will be on our guard from now on.

Have you ever experienced fly strike with your chickens?

My Chicken Has A Swollen Wattle

Last Thursday I noticed that one of our hens had a very swollen wattle and it looked like she had a grape hanging off her face.

I suspect she got stung by a bee or a wasp as the other side was not swollen and she was behaving normally.  Swollen wattles could also be a sign of foul cholera but I was pretty sure it was just an insect bite  or sting.

I caught her and put some arnica cream on her wattle to help with the inflamation but all it seemed to do was attract the dirt.

The swelling has mostly gone and she is still a happy little chicken, just not as pretty as usual.

Have any of your chickens ever had swollen wattles?

Making Chicken Saddles

Our rooster likes to play favourites with our hens and about a year ago he injured one our hens quite badly which I posted about here.
After a bit of TLC and some time in a fancy outfit, aka a chicken saddle, her feathers grew back and she was good as new.

But recently a couple of our other chickens have been the objects of his affection.  So this time I thought I would make my own chicken saddles (I brought the last one and the domes were not holing any more and it was starting to fall apart),

For the fabric I used the bottom of the leg from a pair of Op shop jeans I had brought for Hubby that didn't actually fit.
I cut the shape based on the previous one and instead of using domes I used elastic which means they do not come undone like the domes do as they wear out.

I used the whole thickness of the pant leg so I had a double thickness of denim and only had to sew the edges I cut.
You don't really need to sew up the edges but it stops the dirt getting trapped between the layers.

This is Speckles and as you can see she is not bothererd by her coat. If you look carefully in the first phot you can see a lot of pink skin peeking out the bottom and the last photo shows her tail feathers are all missing.  She was comp-letly bald across her back but she has now regrown half her feathers and I am hoping the others grow back soon.  The other day when it rained a lot her coat got wet so I took it off over night to let it dry (the denim held onto a lot of water and I did not want her getting cold) then put it back on in the morning.

Have you had to make any interesting outfits for the animals at your place?

Trimming Rooster Spurs

Our Rooster 'Big Red' has recently had a pedicure.  It had been a long time since we had trimmed his spurs and they had become a problem as had injured a couple of our hens.

Each of his spurs were about 2.5 inches long and  the last time they were trimmed we used a pair of sharp secateurs and it was not that easy, those spurs were tough.

So this time I had a chat to a fried about how they dealt with rooster spurs and she suggested we us an angle grinder.  Of course why didn't I think of that.

The benefits of and angle grinder are that 1) It is fast 2) It requires very little pressure to be applied therefore the rooster does not try and pull his leg away 3) The cut is very clean 4) You can smooth of any rough edges

5) It is easy

So here is the before photo, just look at that spur.  Yes we are very bad chicken owners to let them get that long.

And here is the after photo (sorry it is blurry Hubby got too close, unless he was trying to photograph the grass in the background) and you will see a tiny little pink spot in the middle which is the blood supply.

We left the spurs about 2 cm long as we were not sure how far down the blood supply went but it did not bleed at all.  I held Big Red and Hubby had both spurs off in about 30 seconds each including smoothing off all the edges.  Big Red did not even move during the process and was straight back to his girls like nothing had happened. But I am glad it was quick as boy is he heavy.  He is a 5 year old New Hampshire and at a guess he weighs about 6kg.

How do you deal with rooster spurs?

A Lost Lorikeet and A Sick Chicken

This morning when I went out to let Jessie off from her kennel I could hear a very loud screeching from the hedge and when I looked under the plants I discovered a baby lorikeet.
I could tell it was young as it did not have a coloured beak and had not developed many tail feathers.  It could not fly and was trying to push through the hedge.
I had just take Jessie's coat off so I used that to cover the bird and pick it up.  I know from experince that lorikeets have very sharp beaks.
I called the local wildlife carer and she said I could drop it off with her as she already had 3 others she was looking after.  Apparently the Rainbow Lorikeets have breed earlier than normal for the last 2 years and this means that there is not a lot of nectar around for them to raise their young.  This means they end up kicking the babies out early because there is not enough food .

We also have a sick chicken on our hands.  I noticed that over the past week 'Squawky' was not coming to eat with the other chickens as was quiet and subdued.  I thought that maybe she had worms or mites so I dusted her and wormed all of the chickens but she did not want to eat so the worming mash missed her.
So last night I caught her and put her in our home made wire cage so I could check her out today.
When we have a sick chicken I like to isolate them give them a bit of TLC and see how they go.  They either get better or go to chicken heaven, we do not take $15 chickens to the vet not even if they are our favourite.
There did not seem to be any mites but she was very thin and lethargic.  I offered her some mashed boiled egg mixed with yogurt but she was not interested.
Today I got her out of her cage and gave her a thorough inspection.  Her vent was normal as was her comb and her eyes were still bright.  I felt her crop (where a chickens food collects) and it was not hard so I knew it was not an impacted crop.  But her crop was soft ans squishy and I could feel food in there when I massaged it.  This told me that her crop had not emptied overnight and even though she had not eaten there was still food in her crop.  So I did the sniff test as I suspected she might have sour crop and peww stink! Yep I think I found the problem.  Sour crop is a yeast infection in the crop and the if you massage the crop and smell the chickens breath it smells rotten.
So now that I know (pretty sure) what I am dealing with I can try and treat it.  I just hope that I have caught it in time.

I will keep her isolated for a few days and for the next 24 hours she will be on water only and I will be giving her crop a gentle massage a few times a day.  After that I will try and get her back onto an egg yogurt mix and see how things go.  I have seen suggestions to use and not use apple cider vinegar end even red wine but I think I will stay away from the acids and will instead add a pinch of bicarb soda to her water.

Do you have any experience with Sour Crop?  What have you tried or had success with?

Worming Mash For Chickens

This is a natural recipe that I have used for a while and it seems to do the trick.  It calls for fresh turmeric which I have but when I didn't I used the powdered spice and I did not notice a difference.
This recipe uses a lot of chillies but don't be concerned for your chickens as they are not bothered but the heat of chillies.  In fact they will strip a chillie bush bare given half the chance.

For 10 Chickens:

1 Litre of Full Cream Milk
6 Cloves of Garlic
4 Chillies
1 TBS Paprika
1 TBS Fresh Turmeric or Ground (if you do not have access to fresh)

Crush the garlic and chop the Chillies then add both to the milk along with the diced fresh turmeric and paprika.  Bring to a simmer the turn off the heat and leave over night.
The next morning reheat the mix to porridge temperature and if you have a stick blender use it to blend the mix.  If not it will not matter as the chickens will still eat the chillies.
Mix your worming mix with 2 grated carrots and 1kg of layers mash.

Feed this first thing in the morning to chickens who have fasted for 24 hours, a week before the full moon. This is also a good time to dust your chickens for lice, we use Pestene.

First Aid for Chickens

If you own chickens there is a good chance that at some stage you will need to administer some sort of first aid and it is good to know that you are somewhat prepared to deal with issues that arise.

Chicken Saddle in action

Before you read any further please note that I am not a vet and have no medical training.  These are just things that I have personally found helpful and I would suggest doing your own research.

There are a few things that I would say to new chicken owners about dealing with health issues and injuries:

• No matter how bad things look there is always hope.  Chickens are tough little creatures and they have the ability to endure quite significant injuries and behave like nothing at all has happened.
• Use the internet to look for answers.  I had never come across chicken pox before but by searching "white lumps on a chickens comb" I was able to use the images to diagnose what was going on.  I always look at a number of sites to see if I find the same solution being presented by a number of people.
• Stay calm.  If you can stay calm then you will have a much greater chance of success. 
• Keep the chicken calm too.  Wrapping them in a towel and covering their head loosely so they are in the dark will help with this.
• Have somewhere you can isolate an individual chicken.  A pet carry cage is ideal but a seperate chicken tractor or pen will also work.  The benefit of the carry cage is that you can keep an injured chicken inside where it is warm and free of drafts if necessary and they are also a little less mobile so will not stress themselves out.
• Finally - Keep some basic first aid supplies in the house that are suitable for using on chickens.  In my kit I keep chlorhexidine solution (often found in home first aid kits as you flushing or wound washing liquid.  It is far more gentle than hydrogen peroxide or rubbing alcohol.  A good antibiotic cream.  Non stick sterile pads, bandages, steri strips and tape.  Latex gloves.  Water based lubricant in case you have to deal with prolapse or egg bound birds.  Plastic syringes in case a bird gets crop bound and you need to get olive oil into them and massage their crop. Cotton buds and cotton balls, tweezers, scissors and nail clippers also come in handy.  Also a rather recent addition to our kit is a chicken saddle which is now being used on a second chicken and has been worth the $5 it cost.

What tips do you have for providing first aid for chickens?

Do you have a chicken first aid kit?  If so what is in yours?

Chicken Doctoring Update

Back in December we had a bit of a run where we were playing chicken doctors and I thought I would bring you up to date with how things are now 3 months down the track.

You may remember this post about one of our new additions to the flock who had chicken pox and was in a bit of a state.  She has since been named Squawky because of all the noise she makes when she sees you.  It is so funny how every chicken has its own personality.

This was Squarwky with full blown chicken pox.

This is Squawky now chicken pox free and quite a character.

The next photo is pretty shocking and you can read the full story here. 

But after some tender loving care, some time wearing a fancy outfit and going though her seasonal moult Miss Fancy has grown a new set of feathers and you would never know she had ever been in the state she was in the above photo.

Chickens are tough little things but there are few things that make caring for them when they are injured or sick a bit easier and I will post about that tomorrow.

Chicken Pox On Chickens

So our hen who was injured by the rooster is doing fine.  She has showed no sign of there being anything wrong and today when I checked under her coat the would looks like it is healing well.

However we were not off doctoring duties just yet but this time it was to one of our new girls.

She had been a bit lethargic since arriving and we thought it was due to the change in home.  Then she started looking really sleepy and sitting with her eyes closed.

I decided that it would be wise to catch her and have a closer look.

On closer inspection she seemed to have an eye infection on one side and I suspected conjunctivitis so I gave her eye a rinse with a salt water solution and we isolated her in a separate pen in case she was contagious.

Today when rinsing out her eye I noticed that her comb was quite swollen and lumpy, almost wart like.
But after doing a bit of a search on the internet it looks like she actually has fowl pox (chicken pox).
From everything I have read there is nothing we can do except that wait for time to pass and hope that she only suffers from the dry form (external only) and not the wet form which can cause internal issues such as breathing difficulties.  I looks pretty unsightly but at this stage she is still eating and drinking and will apparently be immune once it all clears up.  It is not able to be passed on to humans so no worries there but it could get worse for the chicken before it gets better.

We sure are being exposed to some interesting animal situations at the moment but that is part of life on a hobby farm.

Have you had to deal with fowl pox?
What was the outcome?

Chicken Doctoring - Lesson Learnt

This post is not for the squeamish or the faint hearted but if you are a chicken owner you might be able to learn from our mistake and not have to go through this your self.

On my return from New Zealand I discovered that we had another batch of eggs that our bantam was sitting on turn out to be infertile so we decided to buy some more hens.  These hens were to join our second flock which consisted of 3 girls and a rooster. 

I had noticed that our rooster had been working the girls a bit hard and 2 of the 3 had lost a lot of their feathers on their backs.  We decided that the best thing to do was to remove the rooster and give the girls a chance to grow their feathers back and have a break from the rooster.

We were going to move him that night as they are in a big enclosure and we knew it would be impossible to catch him during the day.  But that night there was a huge thunderstorm and we delayed moving him.

This was our mistake.

The next afternoon when feeding them I noticed that one of the girls had blood on her back and I knew that that one extra day had been a bad idea.

That night we caught and moved the rooster and caught the injured hen.  Ohhh Lord.  It was far worse than I had expected. (See picture below)

The rooster had obviously been trying to mount her and slipped off.  There was one big scratch on one side of her back but on the other side there was a huge tear right through her skin and there was a big, I'm talking 5cm across, gaping hole where the muscle was showing through.

Oh you poor little chicken.  The guilt I felt was overwhelming and I knew that we might have to dispatch her if I could not help her.

So I retrieved our first aid kit and got out a sterile pad, antiseptic cream, antiseptic wash and a elastic bandage.

While my husband held her with her head covered I washed out the wound then very gently tried to pull the skin back over the wound.  But it would not stay and I did not have any steri strips to hold it closed.  Then Hubby tells me he is feeling faint and queasy (oh boy) so I had to send him out side for some fresh air while I carried on.  In the end I had to cover the sterile dressing in antiseptic cream and use it to cover the wound as best I could.  I then used an elastic bandage to hold the dressing in place wrapping it over her back, behind her wings and under her breast.

The whole time she stood still and was completely calm.  We then returned her to her roost in the pen to wait and see what happened.

The next day I checked on her and you would not have known there was anything wrong.  She was still the boss and eating, drinking and running around.  We were due to pick up our new hens that day and I called the breeder and told her we would take an extra one because of what had happened to our hen.  She asked about out inured hen and how she was doing.  When I said she was eating and drinking and running around the breeder thought she should be fine, but just in case she said when we picked up the other hens she would give me an animal antibiotic injection to give her.

We picked up the new hens the following day (I will introduce you to them another day) and the antibiotic injection with 2 doses, plus some chicken fashion.

So that night we changed the dressing again and I gave her the first injection into her breast.  It is a 3 day antibiotic and she will get another dose then.  

So 3 days on from the injury she is still behaving like nothing is wrong and tonight we decided to  take of the dressing as it kept slipping.  Instead she is now wearing this lovely chicken saddle that we picked up from the breeder.

The straps go under the wings and clip on with domes.

Hopefully this will stay in place a bit better but I am worried about the wound drying out too quickly.  I know wound care used to call for letting them dry out but these days I think the theory is to keep them moist. The main issue is that I have to go away in a couple of days and will not be here to keep a close eye on her so I am trying to come up with a plan Hubby can deal with (without feeling faint).  I do not really want to separate her as she is top chicken, and so far there has been not pecking at her from the other hens but it is always a concern.  I guess I just have to hope for the best.

Well if you managed to get past the yucky photo I thank you and hopefully this post will men that if any of you see your hens in the same situation you will remove that rooster regardless of the weather.  I know I will.