A few weeks in, a few more questions!

[Abbilee]

Hello everyone,

Well I've had my girls nearly a month now and we've all settled into our routine :) I've hit a few little bumps and just want to check I'm doing everything right.

You might have seen my post about the german shepherd dogs getting into the garden and scaring the girls (they were in their coop and run) and I am very aware this stressed them out a lot.
I gave them chicken vitamins in their water for 10 days and hope this helped.
I also noticed one of the girls had terribly runny poo. I did some reading and many suggested this was likely to be worms. When I picked up the girls, I was advised not to worm them yet as the rescue lady pointed out we don't know when they were last wormed by the farmer.
So, as I have some Verm-X around, I gave them that for 3 days. It has helped but Ella still has somewhat runny stools.
Is anything else I can/should do about this? How long should I wait till I worm them again?

I was often checking the girls' hoppers and noticed the pellets didn't seem to be going down. I gave them some pellets on the floor and they went mad for them. Then I realised after coaxing them they didn't seem to be able to get their heads in to eat from the hoppers!!
These are the ones I bought: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Galvanized-Grit ... 138&sr=8-7

I happened to have some bird feeder bowls, the kind you would use for a budgie, that just clip on to the wire, so I'm using these for now and have now ordered a more standard hopper, but am confused, did I order the wrong thing??

I've been putting apple cider vinegar in their water, do you do this all the time or just sometimes and how much do you put?

When the girls were rescued, I was out of the country and a kind lady offered to rescue them for me and then I picked them up when I got back. In that week she said they laid 3 eggs between them.
I had one egg here in the first week with me and then nothing since (it's been 2-3 weeks). Is this due to the weather or are they just getting settled in?
I have them mostly for pets but I admit I was very much looking forward to the eggs too!

I've been trying to get the girls used to being picked up. Pie is the easiest to pick up, once I've got her she doesn't tend to struggle and I can just sit her on my palm and stroke her with the other hand. Ella is getting used to me and doesn't seem to try and flap as much when I get hold of her, but I haven't tried to sit her on my hand yet, I think she'd try and flap and possibly scratch.
Salmon likes being picked up the least and squawks and tried to flap, so with both her and Ella, I'm trying to every so often get hold of them, hold them up briefly and then put them down again before they get distressed.
Is there a better way for me to get them all used to being handled? Will they get tamer than this? Also, I'm not even sure if I'm holding them right! I want to get them as tame and used to me as possible, as at the moment I don't think I would be able to examine them closely or treat them if anything was wrong (i.e. I've seen people say about smearing their legs with vaseline for scaly legs, don't think they'd let me do this).

As always, any advice would be very welcomed :)

[Mo]

They often have eggs 'in the system' when you get them -according to Defra it takes a week for the ova to ripen and a day from ovulation to laying.

But the disturbance will stop them for a bit before they get into their swing again.


I'm not sure what the problem is with the hoppers, possibly just that they are not used to food looking like that in a thing like that.

[pepi]

Ive never had a hopper like that, but it could be as Mo said, they werent used to this kind of feeder. As with every animal, hens need to get used to new things. But surely after a few weeks, you have seen them use the hopper? If its their only source of food, they must be eating from it??!?!? (sorry if Im sounding dim!) I used old dishes of all sorts to feed the girls with - mine eat warm pellet-mash - several times a day, or when they come tell me they're starving to death. When Im not around they have a hopper with an 'umbrella' top to keep the rain off, that I fill with pellets. This is available all the time (though I note that the blasted crows are enjoying it lately now too ) When I got this new hopper, I left the top off and encouraged the girls to feed from it by calling them for treats and putting the corn in there - just to get them started.

Cider vinegar in the water all the time - just a slurp depending on the size of your water container.

Some hens have a runny poo/dirty bum all the time - if you are feeding layers pellets and have wormed them, this could be the case with your hen. Worming a couple or three times a year with Flubenvet, Im not sure how often with the Verm-x. If there are no obvious worms in her poo, and you've just wormed her, I wouldnt do it again? Maybe a little dish of probiotic yogurt (and olive oil)? I give my girls some about once/fortnight - protein and good bacteria. Others here swear by maggots, but they are not available to me, and I dont think I could bear to handle them

You've only had them a few weeks, so they are probably not completely settled yet. When u say rescued you mean ex-batt? The eggs your friend got were probably in production system, so they will hopefully settle in to their new surroundings and food etc etc soon and start laying for you again.

Some hens tolerate being handled and some dont... I have some 7 year olds that HATE it still, and I have 3 youngish ones that I've never been able to handle - skittish nutters!! They will get more used to your handling and to you - takes time and patience!
Good luck!!

[Mad Chick]

Glad things are going well and they're settling in nicely

1) Verm-X is generally thought of as a preventative rather than to actually get rid of worms once present (in fact it is no longer sold as a wormer but a tonic), try Flubenvet - this can be bought either as a powder to be mixed in with their feed for 7 consecutive days 2/3 times a year or you can buy marriages pellets with it already mixed in. Don't feed anything other than pellets while being wormed with this so they eat their full dose. Cutting down on treats may also help with runny bums

2) Chickens are funny things when it comes to eating. I had a hopper similar to yours with my first chooks and never had a problem but the next ones wouldn't eat from it. We now have two of these and think they're great...
http://shop.widgits.co.uk/product_info. ... ucts_id=29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

3) I use apple cider vinegar for a week or so each month or more if they look like they need a bit of a boost.

4) As Mo said, these were probably eggs that were already in the system. Chooks are quite sensitive to change and being rescued and rehomed (twice in their eyes) is a major change. They will get going again but it may take them a couple of months - plus they will be putting a lot of their energies into growing new feathers so this will slow them down considerable with laying also.

5) All chooks take to being handled differently - some will happily sit on your knee while others scream blue mur.der if you go within 6 feet of them! Just take things very slowly, sit in the run with them for as long as you can, sprinkle some corn near you to get them used to being near and gradually get them closer and closer. If sitting on the floor, put some treats in your lap and sit very still to encourage them to come to you. Patience, patience and more patience - don't push them or you may scare them off. Do it at their pace and hopefully they'll be eating out of your hand and jumping up for a cuddle soon

[Annie]

If they have access to greenery that they ae not used to , this could be causing the runs for your little one.
A month down the line I think you would be safe to worm them with flubenvet which is a good all round wormer and the one most of us on here use.
The eggs will arrive, I am sure, all in good time, they just need to be certain of their routine and the days to get longer and warmer. As Mo said they arrive with eggs in the 'system' when your eggs are being laid at least you will know they are from happy healthy hens.
When they are laying again they will stoop when you are behind them and this is the easiest way to pick them up as they don't resist. They need to feel safe when they are lifted so make sure you have a firm but gentle grip over the wings, you can hold them by straddling them across your arm, a leg each side and held close to your body, that way one wing less to flap about.
Do you spend a little time with them in the garden/run ? If you take a deckchair out and sit for a while, their inherant nosiness brings them too you, then bribe them with a few healthy treats probably the best is dried mealworms, they will quickly start eating from your hand and it foes build up the trust.

[Abbilee]

Thanks for all the replies!

I had wondered something along the lines of eggs in the system and am glad to have that confirmed, I just had wondered if I was doing something wrong or if it meant there was
something wrong with the girlies that I hadn't recognised.

I had seen the girls eat from the hopper initially, which was why I wasn't worried, but then when it wasn't going down I took it out when they were FR'ing and held it for them and it looked like they couldn't fit their heads in to get at the pellets.
I've now got one of the more standard hoppers and the girls are fine with it!

I've got flubenvet already (I bought EVERYTHING as soon as I planned on getting hens) and will start them on it tomorrow morning! The runny poo seems better but I'll still feel better when I know they're wormed and hopefully that'll totally firm everything up.

I've been spending lots of time in the garden with them and sitting around with them, Pie and Ella are pretty tame and Ella is getting tamer which is really nice. It's really funny, Salmon is the smallest and scruffiest but is top hen and Pie who is biggest is at the bottom of the pecking order, I always thought the bigger one would be in charge!

One more thing, I bought sharp sand and put it in a container but the girls seemed to have no concept of dustbaths and were just eating the sand (I was finding a LOT of it in their poo). I took it away as I was worried this might hurt them, should I persist?

[manda]

Thought I might add a bit about ACV and the digestive system .

The natural pH levels in chickens is between 2.5- 8 depending on the part of the gut.

If you give ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) constantly the pH level is held at around 4 in the crop.

From the crop the feed goes into the Proventriculus (also known as the ‘true stomach’) and it's where digestion begins. As with our stomachs, hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes (e.g., pepsin) are added to the feed here and digestion begins.
By the time it moves onto the gizzard and lower, the levels return to normal ones for a chicken....so ACV won't change the pH of the gut as such.

There are studies that recommend just adding the ACV for one day each month, others that say 2-3 and others that say one week every month.....The one thing that is known is it reduces the pH of the crop which will reduce the risk of sour crop (unless they get an impaction and then even ACV will struggle to stop that)......At the end of the day its down to the individual to make their own choice how often to use it...if cost comes into it then once a month is good in whatever amount.

The dilution should be 2% = 20mls per litre or a glug

If you're interested then here's some lit on natural remedies for chooks...quite interesting reading.
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/afspoultry-files ... medies.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One more thing, I bought sharp sand and put it in a container but the girls seemed to have no concept of dustbaths and were just eating the sand (I was finding a LOT of it in their poo). I took it away as I was worried this might hurt them, should I persist?

Might be they are feeling the need for more insoluble grit...just a though...they need it in the gizzard which is the mechanical part of their digestive.

This is a good run through of the digestive system....CAUTION DOES HAVE BITS FROM DEAD CHOOKS IN IT....but it gives a good explanation of the function of the different sections of the gut.
Chicken's Digestive System

[MuddyHell]

Abbilee - it sounds like things are going really well and the clucks have you well trained
I don't have much to add but thought I would mentioned how strange my last two new girls were when we got them. They didn't recognise corn or cabbage to begin with - they do now ! they have never taken to the dustbath which all the others loved to use, which is probably just as well or they would all fight over it! we had a similar galvanised hopper which they all loved, but we switched to two hanging plastic feeders so that everyone could get round them. We have one small feeder and one large one, they all prefer the smaller one (my OH thinks the pellets must be much tastier in there compared to the larger but otherwise identical feeder !!!)
The bottom line is, they all have funny foibles and will usually just suit themselves

[Abbilee]

Manda - Thanks for all the info, I will sit down and read this as soon as I can concentrate (just got back from work). I've been meaning to learn how their digestive systems work and just generally learn some more about them.

The girls have oyster shell grit, is there anything else I can or should give if this isn't enough? Will the sand hurt them?

MuddyHell - My girlies don't yet recognise dried mealworms! They are very funny, daft creatures, I'm constantly amused by them and the odd things they try to eat or get into. I use a small blue bucket to dump poo and soiled stuff in when cleaning them out and they keep coming over and trying to get in the bucket to scratch around when I'm cleaning them out :)

Following my worries about the lack of eggs, the girlies have just started laying again, I got an egg yesterday and another one this morning! Very happy, I think it's my favourite girl, Pie, as she's stooping when I come up behind her, but Ella also stooped a little the other day, I wonder if she's going to start soon too.
It's so exciting checking for eggs, like a little present every day :)