I have hens!! Can anyone recommend a good book?

[CarolineW]

Hi there,

Please come to a Henschool course and then you will feel confident about keeping your 'girls' Hen School - Hen Keeping Courses

I'm really interested in this, Henschool. I'll talk to my husband to see if he's on for the drive when he gets in later.

[CoraxAurata]

One died, but the other we're hopeful for. We couldn't get hold of the Ukadex fast enough - it would have taken at least a week to come - and it wasn't available locally. However, searching for it led me to a forum which recommended a poultry saddle or duct tape over the wounded part, and aftershave over the none wounded part. We tried that, and it seems to be working so far. Fingers crossed!

Close and detailed inspection of the ones being bullied showed up that one had sour crop. So we inspected all the others to see if any of the others had it, and found another one with it too. We've treated them, but as it's a fungal infection, I'm assuming that it could easily spread to the others?

At the moment we have them all on pro-biotic powder in their water. Is there anything else we should do to help the girls to avoid it?

Its not something I'm familiar with I'm afraid, but your chooks aren't on bark chippings are they?

I would also check the dates on/quality of your feed(s) if the grain is very dusty maybe wash it?

Thats all I can think of just now....

[CarolineW]

They're actually in 2 different places, in 2 different groups. One group are in the garden in an aviary, and they ARE on bark chippings, so I'm assuming that we should change that PDQ?

The other half (where there was also a bird with sour crop) is on our allotment, where they are on grass. We moved the coop yesterday (we move it every week).

I'm assuming that they arrived with it from the farm, as they are kept in different locations. Does that sound probable? The feed is good quality and fresh - well within its dates - and not dusty. Will be keeping a close eye on that, though, now that it's been brought to my attention.