July 24th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, Mealworms, mites, parasites, sick, sleepy
Since I discovered the mites I have been cleaning out the bedding each day and lining the bottom of the coop with newspaper. When I removed the newspaper again today it was covered in tiny red mites. I also emptied the area that they lay eggs and gave it a good sprinkling of stalosan f.
In general the girls have seemed happier the past couple of days – I think the reason that they have been making so much noise in the mornings has been because they were being eaten alive by mites. When I let the girls out today they all seemed fine, but after about an hour I noticed that Meg was wandering around slowly and not scratching around in the mud like the others. I gave her some meal worms and some poultry spice, but she has been getting more and more lethargic as the day has gone on. She has spent the last few hours standing by herself under a tree.
Meg has been sitting all by herself for hours
I’m not sure if she is sick or just tired – the last few times that I went out to look at her she had her eyes half closed, and kept closing them for a while. I’m wondering if the mites have made her slightly anemic or something…
I hope she is just tired...
April 21st, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, Flubenvet, free range, parasites, poo, sick, treats
This morning when I got up Daisy was still not quite herself. When I opened the pop-hole this morning the other two girls jumped straight out but Daisy waited inside for a while. Whilst the other two were running around the coop Daisy was very slowly edging down the ramp and standing about all hunched up. I had a look in the nest box where the girls sleep today and there were some poos with blood on them in the nest box which made me even more worried,
Daisy is all hunched up
I posted about Daisy’s health on the forum and JuicyLucy said that it is normal to have bloody poos when you are worming them – she said the blood would be pink and stringy which is exactly how it looked. I was still worried about her so I popped home at lunch time and she seemed to be fine by then. I’m glad I went home because it meant I could relax this afternoon instead of being worried the whole time.
Flubenvet
When I got in from work I had the usual task of weighing out some more medicine for the birds. I must admit I will be glad when the treatment is finished – only a few more days to go now.
I let the girls out just after 6:00 and they all decided to attack the forget-me-nots that my parents brought up for me last week. I moved the pot up on top of the bench but they still finished off the bits that were hanging down low enough to be pecked. I think there are still enough of them left to just about survive!
Forget-Me-Nots
After dinner, the birds kept trying to jump in through the closed patio doors so I thought I’d go out and play with them for a bit. I gave them a few treats and two of them even sat on my lap at one point!
The red one is definitely getting a lot more tame. Daisy has always been the most tame and she will let me touch her, but recently I have been able to touch the red one without her minding too much. Today I was running around in the garden and the girls were following me and the red one was always the first to catch up with me. I would run across the garden and put some treats on the floor – both of the others would go straight for the treats but the red on would stand right close to me and look up at me. When I ran back to the other side of the garden the other girls would carry on eating the treats but she would run after me straight away.
When the girls started to go in for the night I suddenly realised I hadn’t cleaned the poos out of the house yet, so I quickly took the roof off and tried to clean it out before the girls went in. Before I could finish though they all ended up on top of the coop and getting in my way. One thing I’ve learnt about chickens is that they love to get in your way!
April 20th, 2009 . Posted in Chickens | Comments Off
Tags: Chickens, free range, sick, sleepy
The girls were out in the garden free-ranging today, and I went outside to find Daisy sitting down on the floor with her eyes closed. When I moved up to her she waddled off and I went back inside.
A little while later I went back outside to see what the girls were doing and I could only see the other two. I checked all of the usual places such as the side passage and the bushes down the back of the garden but she was nowhere to be seen. The only place I hadn’t checked was inside the coop so I lifted up the lid and there she was inside.
Is Daisy just tired or is she sick?
I am a bit worried about it because I have never seen the girls disappear inside the coop before bed time. One thing I did notice is that when she was laying down she seemed to have her butt in the air a bit so maybe she is trying to lay an egg. Also whenever I grab her she squats down on the floor but she has done that since I first got her. This could be another sign that she is coming into lay.
One other thing that I noticed today when Daisy was sitting down outside is that chickens close their eyes differently to people. Where people close their top eye-lids down over their eyes, it seems that chickens raise their bottom eyelids up! I’m still learning things about chickens every day…