Our Chooky Journey

[Gardenwitch]

As many of you know we have recently brought home our 4 girlies; Isabella an Amber, Thomasina a Silver our son calls her Thomas, Black Betty a french Maran Cuvree, and Daisy a heritage skyline.

I've been following Isabella since we got her and shes been sneezing since the day we brought her home and has an orangy yellowy crusty goo from her nostrils and today Betty has been pecking at Isabellas nose cleaning it all out-gross So will contact the breeder - who is also a vet nurse, today and see what can be done. I hope this cant be passed on to the other girls!?

I also noticed that black Betty has this thing to peck at Isabella or Thomsina in the bum for no apparent reason and out of the blue no matter what they are doing! She doesnt do this to Daisy at all. At first I thought it was Betty establishing herself to the others in the pecking order. But today I had a look at Thomasinas bum and she has a couple dried bloody feathers that look a lil tatty I'm confused Thomasina and Betty seem to get along and cuddle a lot and groom each other but Betty will peck their bum when she wants it seems is Betty bullying them?

Thanks for any help or guidelines here, oh can someone reccomend a good chicken book to get for how to recognize and treat health complaints in chickens? Cheers xx

[Suechooks]

My favorite book is "Starting with Chickens" by Katie Thear. It's small practical and not too technical but there's lots of common sense in there. It was my bible till I discovered this forum! Still use it despite having bought about 10 others!
Maybe your chickens are bored? Maybe if you haven't done so already you could put some branches/tyres/straw bales etc to play on? Hang some greens up , give them something to scratch about in etc.
You could try an antipeck spray - there's another thread about this on the go at the moment.

[Flummery]

This was one of the reasons we decided to get 4 the same. They were raised with the rest of the day-olds as one flock and are now a small flock themselves. They all preen together, eat together, go in the sand pit together. And I've never seen any bullying - apart from the usual shoving, pushing, standing-on-each-other's-heads at treat time. They are definitely better with something to do/perch on/jump up at etc. I agree with Sue the Katie Thear book is well recommended (although I haven't got it!) I have a couple of good ones but they're by the bedside so I can browse and look at the pretty pictures at bedtime!

[Gardenwitch]

ok thanks i DO have Katies book and had a glance through again to see what I'm missing right now.

The girls are in a walk in pen area that has bark chippings over the dirt floor to scratch and play about with. I also give them their afternoon treat of mixed corn for them to scratch for in the late afternoon time (between 3-4pm) Thier ladder is down all day so they walk along or climb on that and jump off the side for fun.

I did try to hang in their pen some home grown lettuce leaves the other day but they did not seem interested at all. I think i need a mesh bag of sorts as well so they hang better in there. I better buy some oranges so I can keep the bag

So is it that my 4 are all different breeds is that why some of this is happening? I do know where we bought them from all the birds of several diferent breeds were all together as a flock similar in age and such. So I would have thought they were used to each other alreay.

Contacted the breeder/vet and waiting for a responce now. I did notice in the coop a couple of white feathers loose, that looks like Thomasinas, so maybe shes having a bit of a scuffle at coop time at night? I'll try to peek in on them tonight to see whats what. Thanks for all the insights and encouragement, you guys are the best! xx

[Suechooks]

I hang my greens in a wire hanging basket (75p from Wilkos). It saves them getting trodden underfoot and pooed on and also gives them some exercise. I put mine fairly high and put logs under so they have to stand on them to reach the greens.

[Gardenwitch]

cool idea, thanks! I suppose I'm just being slightly paranoid as we just got the girls but I want them to do so well and adjust nicely lol maybe i'm trying to hard

[RichmondHens]

A book I've had my eye on for a while but have not yet purchased is Diseases of Free Range Poultry by Victoria Roberts. She's the vet who does the vet column in Country Smallholding magazine, and is a poultry expert. I think her advice and guidance is first rate.

[Gardenwitch]

oh thanks for teh recommend got it bookmarked on my amazon list

[Hilary B]

If you can 'hide' the reddened patch from the one that pecks it (not sure how, but the antiseptic stuff we used to call 'purple spray' when we had sheep sometimes comes in a blue-green colour instead...), that may help. Chooks have a reflex reaction to peck at anything red (proving that nature intended them to include meat in their diet when they can get it).

[Nicos]

The purple spray which I got from the local farm suppliers in the UK certainly helped stop my chick from pecking it's toes ( long story- but it clearly thought it's toes were edible and pecked them so much that they bled..and then seemed drawn to the blood.)
The spray certainly helped to break the cycle of peck/bleed/peck!
Certainly worth a go!!

[Flummery]

Being paranoid comes with the territory! I expect you relax into it when you REALLY know what you're doing!

[Suechooks]

The purple spray is called "Gentian Violet" available as usual from horsey places!

[Nicos]

I had purple hands and finger nails for days!!!!

[Suechooks]

I had purple hands and finger nails for days!!!!

My jacket still hasn't recovered! The chook got better though!

[Gwyndy]

My jacket still hasn't recovered! The chook got better though!

I must confess that I was doing the spraying while Sue was holding the chooks. I missed!!! (But Sue hasn't been pecked so it must work!)