Our Chooky Journey

[MaureenHall]

Sounds like it has to be a bit of sin-binning time for Black Betty!

[Gardenwitch]

i know, we have seperated betty from the others within the pen still so the others know shes there, but it seems to made it worse when we get her back out she heads straight for bella!

[Gardenwitch]

Does anyone know who has POL Cream Legbars for sale in the essex area? We're thinking of adding 2 more girls to our crew by November

[julesapple]

Mine came from Wiltshire, so a bit too far from your neck of the woods. You could try the breeders list in the Practical Poultry magazine.

Or maybe here

Keeping Chickens or Poultry at Home, Backyard Poultry Keeping and Laying Hens

Jules

[Gardenwitch]

thanks jules just got my recent edition today so will be checking there too

[CoraxAurata]

Bark chippings can carry fungal spores which cause resiratory illness in chickens.....

[Gardenwitch]

good to know corax thank you but bella hasnt been right since we got her from the start, still we live in hope at the moment but if shes not producing by months end we'll be bringing her back to the breeder.

[Gardenwitch]

Hi everyone, well our original 4 ladies are doing well, have laid beautiful eggs until they molted a few weeks ago and we've come to realize bella is the lowest on the hen rankings and does not lay eggs at all. Betty is a bulllying bird in general an no ammount of seperating from others has helped. Daisy is our top hen of the group, while Thomasina is a great layer They have all grown well and adjusted to life in our garden.

Now we just aquired 2 more POL hybrid hens (RIR/Sussex Cross) for about 2 weeks now from a farm near a RHS gardens in Essex. Upon getting them home we realized Gwynne has a slightly deformed beak but she is able to eat/drink well. and Buffy had an injured toe that seemed to have been re-fixed into place! Gwynne and Buffy get along well with Daisy as a group and can see the other three girs from our originall crew without having to get chased and attacked all the time, especially Buffy bless her!

But we've just noticed now that Buffys injured toe (its the middle claw on the left leg) is falling off! Upon looking at it and cleaning it its right on the closet joint to the claw nail, its only attached by a bit of skin and tendon it looks like and has gone clean through the bone.

WHAT can we do? We dont have a vet around us that helps chickens, and were worried if we take off the toe the rest of the way it might injure Buffy, or bleed excessivly. We have cleaned it throughly with salty water and sprayed the purple ventian spray over it. Any other advice? PLEASE Thank you for any advice

We hope to have these dealings sorted soon as by mid- december we're rehoming some battery hens too.

[Glutton4...]

Hi Gardenwitch - my Horse Vet is fab with Chooks - he's between Halstead and Sudbury, if that's not too far for you. It's too far for me really but a good Vet is a good Vet!

PM me if you want his details,

[Gardenwitch]

thanks glutton it is a bit of a drive but i can at least call them

[Gardenwitch]

what a few days!

Well we've finally rehomed Betty and Bella, to a lovely farm theyll have more room to free range so they should be better. Buffy bless her had an emergency visit to a vet, and her toe has been removed as it was falling off! She is recovering nicely and we'll be keeping an eye on it to watch its healing. Hopeing all can settle down for a bit now

[Gardenwitch]

Happy January 2010 everyone! Well the ladies have reheirarched themeslves, we have 4 girls all producing at their different times lol. Our heritage bird is still in a moult of sorts bless her but I figure she'll be all set come Spring time to be going ahead again.

For now we have Thomas and Buffy and Gwenn, all producing again, giving us on average 2 eggs a day for the last few weeks now. I bought 2 dozen eggs thinking our wouldnt be laying anytime soon then I no sooner had the store bought eggs on hand our ladies starting laying every day lol! So we've had a small glut but its been lovely to keep them on hand and have eggs, hard boiled, egg mayo, and fried eggs, omlettes etc especially these very cold days over the last week.

We've been giving them extra hearty food at night to help them stay warm and they are all past their pickerings to keep warm togther so theyve bonded in the end and no worries at all; its been lovely

We'll look to add maybe 4 more girls in spring time but for now all is very well indeed, rough start for us but the chickkies are a joy, now to find some land for a small holding! I'd love to keep bees, pigs, sheep someday

[RedThorn]

Hi
good to see you again! Happy enough ending it seems. so chuffed for you. Don't we allwant the extra land all the best for the new year