karen's chicken diary

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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

Reading through LLs diary about Scary and Wiggy being happy solo chickens - I think Little Will would love to be a solo chicken. She follows me around, because she knows I keep treats back for her, and on Friday she hopped into the house all on her own and spent ages pottering about and exploring. She seemed quite happy all on her own. Today she snuggled up against my leg and did a bit of preening.

Dory Grey meanwhile spent the whole time whittering at me to hand-feed her treats (she insists I pick and feed her clover whenever I'm sitting down) while Mango came over and did the same.

Last night we had a barbie - I always do far too many prawns on skewers and so as usual, the girls ended up chasing around after each other for the last ones. I did them a selection box of treats to distract them - cucumber, courgette, strawberry hulls, aubergine, tomatoes, salad leaves, raisins etc. Didn't work - they spotted hubby's hamburger bun and that was it. They've finished off their selection box this morning, whilst eyeing up the barbecue in case it spits out prawns again.

Everyone seems much happier for their harkermecting, still a bit of huffy breathing but maybe it's also the heat too. At least they've stopped inflating the skin round their noses (if you know what I mean) and hopefuly the worms are out too. No more evidence of wriggly poos at least!

Just been up to the loitty to do some striming, ended up doing a bit of weeding too and now I'm knackered!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper

bikesandbirdsbob
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by bikesandbirdsbob »

Good to read all good .
Question is what is Strawberry hulls . New one for me being a southerner .
Guessing the green bit at the top or grown in the Hull area.....
bob
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

Strawberries grown in Hull {rofwl}

Yes the green tops when you slice them off. I'm not so tight that I wouldn't give them whole strawberries, but these had gone into Pimms and they weren't getting them! Although Dory does like to end her barbecue evenings with the Pimms-ed cucmber and strawberries...
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

Uggg. Horible time at the minute. After many years of chicken keeping, I finally have the dreaded red mite - I always hoped this wouldn't happen as getting rid of them in my coop will be a nightmare due to the many nooks & crannies. I'm hoping it was a fairly early invasion but it's bad enough and my skin is permanently crawling. Horrible things!

I stripped the coop yesterday and drenched it in smite, then puffed de everywhere. We've burned every bit of straw (a new bale too, and I am wondering if that's what they came in on, as they were crawling round the plastic bag) cardboard and the wooden perches and plastic nestboxes were jetwashed and then have been Smited loads of times. Again this moring the whole coop was resmited, the perches rejetwashed and resmited too. There are loads of dead ones but I came out with more on me again this morning so definitely still in the coop. I am considering geting predator mites, except all the smite and de wil probably kill them off too. Need to ivermectin the girls again later. I did all this last week (not knowing we had mites) but obviously I've been too lax in my routine and the hot weather hasn't helped

I feel like I need yet another shower now!

Anyone got any more tips?
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
bikesandbirdsbob
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by bikesandbirdsbob »

Hug your chickens more.
Take a few red mites for the team .
More on you less on the chickens.
Not sure but after the dust has been on a while give them a wash and dust again when dry .
Just have to keep going at it till winter helps.
Bob
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sandy
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by sandy »

Karen i have a job lot of DE and spread it all over bedding, dustbaths and birds reloigiously , seems to be working . Hope you get on top of it.
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

We have been smiting and de-ing every 2 days, plus the girls are harkermectined every week. Hoping this is getting on top of things and I was feeling optimistic until hubby said today he felt things dropping on his head }hairout{

I too have seriously considered - and still am - predator mites but I think the smite and de would kill them off before they had a chance to do their job

Girls seem to be doing well although I am worried about little Will - she's been laying softies lately, is moulting/growing new feathers, has a few wrigglers in her poop and apparently laid a lash yesterday. She has a very dirty bum. So hubby has put her on tylan today and we'll worm when back from hols in a week (I have been away all week and this with work and we're off on hols next week)
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

It's definitely moulting season - Dory Grey has lost her tail! I came back from London yesterday and she's lost big chunks on her breast and now the tail. I read chickens are supposed to moult in a certain order but Dory never seems to pay attention to the rules and just pops them off from wherever she fancies.

No sign of the others moulting yet

Little Will is still the same, hubby has been dosing with tylan so hopefully that's knocking any infection on the head. Her bum seems to have cleaned up a bit, although I will worm them all when I'm back next week.

Hubby has also kept up the smite regime while I've been away bless him - not pleasant at all! We're hoping we're getting on top of it but you can't really tell. Every time we go near the coop we can feel things crawling on us but it's probably psychological trauma (I'm sure there's a medically diagnosable disease - red mite ptsd!) We shall have to tell our chicken sitter not to go into the coop!
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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kitla
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by kitla »

There seems to be alot of them about this year, I've been lucky & not found any. Last couple of times they infested us I had good results with poultry shield in a big garden pump spray that flushed them all out.(takes a day to dry out the coop though) Have you tried a pemethrin smoke bomb?
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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sandy
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by sandy »

I hope your intruders have gone, mine seem to have packed their bags thank goodness. How is little Willow? Hope she is feeling better
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

Little Will is fine Sandy, she like the others is having a little moult - apart from Dory who is having a medium moult. I am expecting them to start shedding more feathers soon. Egg laying has gone right down to 1 a day or so, a startling drop! I caught Little Will perching on the back of the garden chair earlier, trying to get to the little bunches of grapes growing in our vine - she can't reach them from the ground, even with her incredible springy legs, so she's hatching other plans. She is quite cunning!

Dory is looking and feeling quite sorry for herself, bless her little porcupine self.

Marley is in our bad books. She keeps on weeing outside the littler box. We've tried removing it and she's been fine going outside but suddenly has decided she won't, and after having caught her weeing in the cat bed, hubby's shoes and yesterday the plant pot, we've given her a tray back again. This morning she weed over the side again! So I've just ordered a fully enclosed one - she better use it! Truly she calls for the dreaded Waggy Finger! {warn}

My pet photography is coming on leaps & bounds. I am getting quite serious about setting up a little side business doing pet portraits and have been doing practice shoots over the summer. Here are a few examples

Image
Image
Image Image
Image

I'm still looking for practice shoots if anyone wants fancies a shoot for their pet? (Sandy, you are definitely on my list once I get my self into gear again to do some posh chicky portraits)
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
bikesandbirdsbob
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by bikesandbirdsbob »

My Staff is nothing like the first photo , Fatty , big and round . When she runs her belly stays on the floor . Very funny but not good for her health.
Cut her food down not a lot of difference.
Have a relative of SHMBO who is a pro photo -weddings and things .Travels all over the world doing weddings etc.
Need any advise help sure he can be assistance.
Bob
(As a business)
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sandy
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by sandy »

Excellent photos )like( You need to have a chat with Lord of the Lane he does photos worthy of National Geographic on fb.
I think you may need to be finding catch up for my cat from hell? Maybe find a solution for Marley's problem? My Ronnie is also a porcupine at the moment!
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
The Peds…Mork,Mindy,Bell,Saphire &
Vorky ,Blueped,Ginger,Ninger &Linky

Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
Sunny Clucker was ere July 6 2016 to Sept 9th 2017
Sunny Clucker is here , rehomed Aug 18th 2018/
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

well interestingly enough we think we may have figured out Marley's problem - bully cat is back. So much for them moving, he's come straight back into his old stamping ground, exactly what we feared as they've only moved to the back of us. We thought we would at least have 3 weeks peace as they kept him in, but they don't seem to have done so, and we hoped also that he'd extend his territory on the other side but I suspect he's trying to find his way back to their old house - well, he has I suppose.

I had to chase him away twice from our garden on Saturday and he was hanging round this morning as well }hairout{

Not sure My Cat From Hell (brilliant by the way, we love it!) can do much to help us there {cry}
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper
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KarenE
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Re: karen's chicken diary

Post by KarenE »

Very sad news - Little Will died in the night {cry}

She had seemed perfectly fine up until yesterday, chasing round the garden and being her usual self. But yesterday was very quiet and hiding away, so I brought her inside, gave her a bath which she loved, and then she fell asleep on my chest on the couch for a few hours. We made her a bed up, and it looks like she died in her sleep in the early hours of this morning

I can't help wondering whether we never got on top of the respiratory infection she had (if it was even that) or whether the smite and de and even red mite had something to do with it. Going to put the others on tylan just to be on the safe side.

Quite gutted to have lost her, she was a little sweetheart and we had such a good understanding - she knew I would keep back a handful of treats for her, so she would sneak off with me while the others chased around. She loved snuggling up next to me when we were sunbathing, making sure she was out of other beaks' reach. I'll really miss her

Goodbye little adventurous, brave Willow {hug}

Image
Karen
Alpha chick to: Smudge, Matisse and Bluebell
Chief servant to Marley the cat
Remembering Weeps, Rexie, Sage, Cassie, Toffee, Captain Gabby, Commander Nugget, Ronnie, Juno, Special Poetry and Reading Casper, Tigger, Tophenanall Rembrandt, Chestnut, Tiddly, Willow, Mango, Coco, Dorian Grey and Pokey.
Also my lost furries Charlie and Jasper

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