Sandy's Pink Ladies

[sandy]

After spending 3 hours carrying 134 boxes up from the basement at work decided to clean out the cottage when I got home so my legs wouldn't seize up. Blanche has a lovely toasty bedroom of new straw which she snuggled up in tonight while Megan,Maureen and Violet still insist on sleeping outside on the perch. I bought a lot of oyster shell cheap today to fput on the really muddy bits in The Ped HOuse. Naomi Num-Num had a ride on my shoulder again while poo picking, my has she got a sneeze on her! Her eyes and nose are fine but I will keep a close eye on her. All okay in my house except Gwen looked rather hefty, she gets a daily check over since I have got paranoid about losing so many rescue girls. Comparing her to Olive she is fine. Gave the girls some watercress tonight, not impressed and someone must have eaten some carrots yesterday because there was bits of carrot in some poo. 6 eggs today, two huge must be Olive and ? always used to be Deirdre and Ruby who did the whoppers.

[aishakali]

Hi Sandy
Glad to see your feathered family is doing well. We had a bit of a hiccup with Tatty Sal. She had a nasty respiratory infection, but luckily I caught it quickly and anti bis put her right after a few days. Trouble is she has now has only partial sight. I keep everything in the run in exactly the same place so she gets around ok and eats and drinks fine, but she cant see to pick anything off the ground. I have to hand feed her mealworms etc or she'd never find them. She's also going through a moult so is getting it all ways poor little soul.
Other than that they all seem fine (says she with her fingers crossed!) though they're not keen on this cold weather and tend to stay in the run. I think thats what I miss with Sal, whenever I went to the gate she would come racing out to see if I had anything nice but she stays in the run now and waits for me to go to her :-(
Have a lovely Christmas Sandy,
Love Lyn x

[sandy]

Gwen and I have a lot going on at the moment but we will be posting soon

[KarenE]

Sounds intriguing!

[sandy]

I was so looking forward to some early nights, you know tuck the girls up by 4.30 and then you can get into your jimjams for the night. Hmmm forgot last year I was working 2 and a half days a week and now I am 3 full days and 3 half days of which I dog walk so still dark when I get home! It has been taking me a full hour to change the waters, poo pick put the food away , collect eggs from the cottage where only Blanche sleeps so easy and check on them all in of course both houses. I cant leave the waters to the morning as no time. Extra time has been taken up with putting Sally to bed she has started sleeping on top of the duckhouse again and now sometimes Callie is with her! A few nights ago I extracted Iris from her bed for a good 10 minute crop massage. Phew , and I have been writing on their wall chart WAG for quite a few days(worried about Gwen), worry always makes me feel even more exhausted. Today Gwen seems perfectly Megan,Blanche,Beth,Violet and Maureen chasing and pecking normal so lets hope it lasts, hate any signs of illness when I am going away. Yesterday I sprinkled 10kg of oyster shell in The Peds house mud and some in mine. Daddy Ped came down with some cement he had left over from making a new doorstep to fill up some holes in the dark! He asked what I was doing, shrugged and said okay carry on. I cleaned out both bedrooms today in between playing with some small children who I had to lie to and say my girls were asleep in the middle of the day as far too muddy for little ones. I put some straw on top of the bedding in the cube which Olive immediately rearranged all over the rungs. I put straw in when I am going away as at least the poo drops through it better. I had massive egg orders for last friday to fulfil them I had to have 5 eggs from The Peds on loan. To save time I asked Daddy Ped to get some pellets when he got his which he did and wouldnt let me pay for them so that was handy. They are all in the girls plastic containers. I am well stocked up with stalosfan and acv as Naomi Num-NUm still a bit sneezy. Girls had a sprout tree today, I tok photos but will post at a later date.
Well I will attempt to post while away on my phone, I mean it cant be that hard if Gwen,Remie,Ginger,Wiggy,Lily and Phoebe can manage it
Happy Christmas everyone if I cant do it

[By Halves]

Phoebe? One of mine is called Phoebe! I can't imagine her knowing how to post on a phone though...

[KarenE]

Sandy, how is Gwen Hen?

[sandy]

Sorry not been on here, well I bunked a day off of work monday as couldnt wait to get Gwen up the vets, only appointment was 5.20 pm so had to drag her out of bed. Chris did a full examination and said he could find nothing wrong with her so she just had a vitamin shot. Tuesday morning she looked awlful, I rang the vets and asked if I could have some meds, baytril maybe. When Chris took Beth up and Becky could find nothing wrong with her she gave me baytril for 5 days. Receptionist said they could only give out meds if I brought her up at 6.30 pm, well I wasnt going to drag her up again, she said she would get vet to ring me but he didnt. I know she isnt right, she is eating a few sunflower seeds and pecking at the pellets but so timid and quiet and usually hunched up with her eyes closed!
Anyhow I have to put up with the situation for now, at least he didnt find eyp problems which I suspected.
As it was freezing monday night , I put the 3 little maids(Karen you now have me singing the tune every night I check on them) Violet,Megan and Maureen into the mice snuggly warm cottage with Blanche and shut the door on them. As I was carrying Gwen over the bridge I could hear the commotion. All hell had broke loose, Violet was screeching at the top of her voice along with banging and tapping so I went back and opened up the cottage with 4 girls hurling themselves out. I had shut up the cube door so it was safe to put on the lights and allow the 3 maids to get back up on the perch and Blanche to return to the cottage. When I brought Gwen back home I popped her through the back way of the cube and went ot check on the maids and Blanche. Blanche was nowhere to be seen , after a frantic search bless she was lying on the cube ladder unable to get in! She has been back sleeping in the cottage but tonight was in the cube though on the plastic as Olive seems to have pushed all the straw up her end!
The girls have been getting 2 water melons a day as the water has been freezing half way through the day, thank goodness it is mild tonight.
Hoping 2015 will be a better girl health wise and just have to hope Gwen does get better and dosent suffer over the holiday period!Any loss of weight she will be up the emergency vets immediatley. Anyway she is snuggled between Beth and OLive tonight.
Happy New Year everyone xxxxx
Off to start on the peroni

[KarenE]

Sandy, here's hoping Gwen pulls through. She couldn't be coming into a big moult could she?

Enjoy the peroni (love a peroni!) and happy new year!

[whistling a certain Gilbert & Sullivan song!]

[sandy]

Gwen still with us, comb is a weird colour though not purple or blue! Mind you I have smothered so much vaseline on it I expect she is picking up any old rubbish. Missing the lovely icy weather as back to muck and sludge in The Ped House. When I can actually open the giant stalosfan tub I will be scattering it about(probably have to leave for Ped dad to open) . Am aghast, after poo pickery and sanitising THREE of the Ped girls have no bum feathers Candi,Shandy and Naomi Num-Num. Frontlined them Dec 6the and started worming today. Cannot understand it! My absolute goal was to ensure all Ped girls kept ALL their feathers, I am flummoxed Gwen pottered this morning, head under wing tonight. Blanche has returned to the cottage to retire at night and the maids still perching. Sounds naughty of me but how easy to poo pick and have lovely clean bedrooms if all the girls would sleep outside on the perch 4 eggs today from my lovelies

[KarenE]

The PED girls could be feather eating?

Oh dear, what is wrong with Gwen? I wish she could tell us. Is she eating at all? Try her with some scrambled eggs and tomato juice. Any signs of a moult? If her comb's gone a funny colour, it couldn't be frostbite could it? The chicken chick had some photos of early stages, the combs had gone kind of fawn/beige before they went black.

Wet and muddy here and we keep forgetting to fix the little leaks in the girls run roof so that will be a swamp as well. It seems to have been raining for months now, roll on spring!

[sandy]

Busy day yesterday, changed all the girls beddings in both houses and new straw in the cottage, my Blanche is a lucky girl she is back sleeping there on her own again! Found a broken egg with a soft shell and one of those weird putty eggs which Violet grabbed starting the Benny Hill chase. So wet and muddy, bought tons of grit and sand for Ped girls house to stop me sliding about. Grabbing a piece of twig from under a pllet was quite shocked that it moved! Found a big hole but it seems to be an attempt to escape hole as the wire deep in the ground in intact.Lots of dropping too thank goodness it is still the mice family. Gwen just nibbles at food, she will run for treats but hangs back unless they are shoved under her nose but will peck at any lowlies who try to take advantage.


I am convinced the weird colour of her comb is dirt probably stuck to the vaseline. Had to go and retrieve my camera during morning poo pick, love it when they dustbathe,they always do this when I turn the lights on. Water from buckets...







Ooh dear here comes psycho Olive

Blanchie decided to abstain




Yep Olive upto her usual tricks

Blanchie is such a friendly little soul and so pretty

The Gwenner had a nose in the background, pleased to say she did have a dustbath later. I found a weenie bit of baytril left over from Beth's ,popped some water in shook it up and gave some to Gwen. Also have been getting her to eat half a packet of fishy cat food as she is definetly lighter. I picked her and Beth up under each arm at the same time to test, no point picking up Olive, I would get a hernia!
At least Gwen is showing an interest and tucking them up tonight hurray, lots of brown feathers all over the place so you may well be right Karen.

[KarenE]

How is The Gwen of Hens now Sandy? we're both right and it's a moult. Can't blame her for wanting a low profile if Olive is stalking the run! Who is the poor girl Olive pecked - is it Beth?

[HenPen]

A great big Wiggy bird told me you'd had a car accident Sandy. Hope you are ok

Is Gwen any better?

[KarenE]

A couple of medium sized birds and one little White one told me that too. Hope you're okay and not too badly hurt?