Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[elizajay]

This morning the cat that scared Victoria Plum came back and caused a rumpus amongst the hens. OH saw it attacking one of the hens and went out and chased it and I went out the front to chase when it emerged. I did it a bit too effectively and it ran out in front of a car and the driver gave me a filthy look after braking successfully.

I hope the cat remembers the trauma and doesn't return.

[RichmondHens]

Oh dear, better get your water pistol ready for the next visit.

[petal]

brinsea electric hen is good jess morris (our buff orpington is even better!!!!

is there a slight twist to his neck RH, torticollis(spelling?!)?

Hi RH,
I'm sure your boy doesn't have this but the stance is exactly what my boy did when he had E coli on the brain. He was like it all the time though not just at night.....Good luck?
C
PS did you see my request for an electric hen recommendation?

[RichmondHens]

No twist as such. He is spending more time looking at the sky, like they do when there is something flying overhead, but out of the house he is virtually normal. I can't imagine my birds are any more immune to E coli than the next persons JM so yes could be a possibility. I'm not convinced its a vitamin deficiency, this tends to affect chicks and growing birds. He and his harem of 6 hens get ad lib layers pellets (Marriages) and ample room to range and forage. The one thing i did notice was when I held a finger near his eyes to test for blindness he didn't flinch at all, I could touch the eyeball. I thought that was unusual, but he can't be totally blind as he is eating and drinking normally and even chasing the ladies although I've not noticed him actually treading for a few days. Oh well, will see how he goes.

[frias]

The touching the eyeball thing is strange. Some people use this method to make sure an animal is dead! So it's not a good indication after all.
Let my girls out to freerange and thought they were unusually quiet. They had found the polystyrene box with sprouts growing in it. Totally ignored the sprouts and devoured the box! Must have thought it was popcorn.

[Snadger]

Chooks coming back into lay again. Had to buy eggs from Tesco's recently so I warned them that if they didn't get there act together...................Amasing what a few stern words can accomplish!!!!!!!

[scorpius]

Hows your boy RH? Sounds like he may have had a stroke? or has he banged his head or some other trauma? could be nerve damage.

[RichmondHens]

He's much the same Scorpius, thought he was showing an improvement yesterday but when I went to let him out this morning he was crouched in a corner doing his usual head back thing. I did wonder whether he has had a mild stroke, hard to say. He is virtually normal outside during the day, it's only when he comes in to roost (and he can get up the ladder ok too, no problems with co-ordination). He doesn't seem to be able to perch so I have removed the perches and put a deep bed of shavings on the hen house floor, and he goes and sits in one corner and within just a couple of minutes of being inside he slowly tips his head right back till his comb is touching his back feathers and he is staring at the ceiling, it is quite odd, I have never seen this sort of behaviour before. I have tried tickling him under the chin and gently pushing his head into a more normal position but he is quite resistant and seems to want to sit like that. There has been no trauma that I know of, at the moment this particular group of birds are in a pen quite close to the house (clearing some ground for me) so I look at them quite a lot as I am in and out.

[Feral007]

Does seem weird RH.

Speaking of weird. Neither of my Tic Tacs has started laying. One looks to be a rooster, but the other still looks hennish. But this afternoon I head some knocking on tin from their direction.
Looking over the fence, I see Frank standing at attention in the doorway, and the hens and the little rooster standing at the side of the tin chookhouse. No further noise while I was watching.
Daughter went to lock them up for me and she said one of the younger ones was tapping its beak on the tin side. For no reason that we can tell.

[petal]

it liked the sound? musical birdie? sharpening its beak, perhaps.
Rh, our buff orpington (David Pownall bred!! aaaargh! )cockerel is dodgy too- sulking still from his punch up with the brahma. Swelling on head gone down but still grumpy - !

[Feral007]

Well it made quite a loud sound petal. None this evening that I've heard.

I'm going down there with a hammer shortly, we'll see how they like loud sounds then

[Feral007]

Excited to report that I've arrived home with the ex battie's! 4+ hour drive with me, after the rescue lady met met about 1 1/2 hours south of sydney where she lives. They werent really happy transferring cages, but settled once we were off. Had wet towels draped over the cages and the ute windows open a bit - evaporative air conditioning
When we got home the one in the open wire cage was extremely distressed. As soon as I touched it's cage it started calling out very loudly and didn't stop till we put it out of the cage. The others refused to come out of their cages so had to take the cages apart.

We'd put the roosts about 3 inches off the ground but they were having trouble jumping over them to get to the nest boxes (packed with hay) so we put the roosts on the ground. Two had quite good feather cover, one of them went straight into a nest box and'didn't come out again.
The two with only half feathers kept wandering around, pecking sons feet and making him laugh, then they kept standing in the torch light and looking up, stretching their heads as high as they could. Seeing as they have no tails they did look quite unbalanced. 3 settled into nest boxes (6 boxes) 2 chooks in one box and the other one at the extreme end from them. And one lay down in the hay next to the feed bowl.
I'm thinking that théy'll be in for a rude shock in the morning when Frank starts crowing loudly, then the cockatoos, rosellas, magpies, crows, and other assorted birds start making a racquet!

One of them was in her nest box crooning away to herself. Very cute.

[elizajay]

Good luck with the new hens Feral, sound like lots of new experiences for them.

[Feral007]

Have been down to let my old chooks and Frank out, he was making a racquet and I thought the new ones would be wondering about it all.
Three of them were standing up in the house, but one is still hiding in a nest box, thought I'd let her warm up in the sun a bit and see if she came out then. Don't want to stress her by getting her out unless I have to, but she will need to drink.

One of them was standing in the feed tray and pecking quite slowly and looking quite determined.
The other two were just looking up, looking down, and looking at each other.

Will go down later when it's warmer and refill their food trays and water bowls and take some photos.

[lettucegrow!]

How wonderful. It will bde lovely to see them develope their little characters and spread their wings! Looking forward to some pics.