Midder's Bok Boks

[julieann]

I love the picture of your children in the garden with the chickens, it paints a picture of a happy carefree childhood

[Midders]

My 3 1/2 year old son is responsible for the names of my chickens! Both my kiddies are mad on super heros so we have Batchick the chestnut ranger . my little girl loves Batman or "batbat" as she calls him. She spends much of her time dressed as Batgirl and so now we have Batchick. Have to say Batchick wouldn't make much of a super hero as she is rather ditsy!
Sportacus is the super hero in kids program 'Lazy Town.' Sportacus is a brave, sporty, healthy eating super hero who gets kids to exercise and eat veggies. My little boy thought our Amber looked like a 'brave leader ' so that's why he chose to name her that. She is by far his favourite !
Incredible Red is named as such as she is a little red ranger. I think the incredible bit of her name is an ode to the Hulk!

And Mrs Kevin Cakes is named after my friend Kevin. When ever we go to see Kevin he always has a cake for my son and so from a young age , my son refered to him as Kev-cake. He is a lovely man and is delighted to have a chicken named after him!

Names explained!

[Midders]

I spent the afternoon in the garden putting up the Omlet chicken fencing. Designed to keep chickens in and away from garden plants ( the girls have pretty much stripped our garden in no time at all!) so, I thought this fencing was a, rather pricey, but good way to split the garden in two. They can still free range when we are home but they won't completely kill the garden. So, it took me a while to out it up as both kiddies insisted on helping! The chooks stared at me from their run, their eyes urging me to hurry up so they could come out and play. Finally got it up, let them out and it took Soartacus maybe 3 mins to escape!!!! She hopped onto the top of the coop and took a flapping leap over the top!
£70 well spent....
She seemed to know it was an illegal jailbreak as I picked her up, put her back and she didn't attempt to escape again. We will see what tomorrow brings.

[Midders]

My Omlet chicken fencing has arrived so, in theory, the girls are now confined to their side of the garden. We now have a chook side and a kiddie side : a poop free side and a side where the girls can poop freely and I can do only 1 poop pick per day as opposed to 20!
Within seconds of it being erected, Sporticus lived up to her name and showed me she can fly despite the clipped wing! She simply flew over the top and into the now out of bounds bit of garden and started pecking for goodies. I picked her up and put her straight back, she didn't struggle, it was as if she knew it had been an illegal jail break!
Then about 20 mins later Batchick was out too, didn't see how she managed to escape but she did!
Incredible Red then jumped on top of the coop and then onto a piece of 5 ft trellace which she used to then hop onto the neighbours 6 foot fence. She didn't jump into his garden thankfully but after about 20 mins of cruising up and down the fence as if to tease me, she then jumped onto our shed roof and into the illegal bit of garden. She made a bit of a fuss when I scooped her up and put her back- I definitely heard some chicken swear words ! Mrs Cakes is the only one who has not attempted to escape. She is also the only one laying so is zooming up the charts to being Best Chicky!
Actually, we may have another layer as the egg I collected yesterday was really rather large, biggest yet. 'Well done Mrs Kev Cakes',said I. Today's egg was rather a lot smaller so I wonder if another chicken laid this one? It was white so if it was a different chicken then it must have been Sportacus. Who knows!
Batchick has a cold, bless her. She has a runny nose and I heard a sneeze this afternoon. I immediately googled her symptoms and, satisfied it is just a cold, I added some chicken vitamins stuff I got when I purchased the girls into their water. They seemed to like it. Maybe the yellow tinge made them think I had given them lemonade! Hope she is less sniffley tomorrow.

I am now experiencing more wild birds in the garden. Not pretty wild birds but wood pigeons and magpies who are coming for spilt corn. My children are very good at spilling corn! I have nothing against any living creature, we are all vegetarians here, you know!...but I am worried that these wild birds will pass on lice and nasties to my girls. Am I unduly worried? No sign of Foxy at least- although my neighbours report his whereabouts and I have heard him and his foxy friends screaming in the streets.

I love the new conversations I now have with people. Conversations that start with " oh, do you keep chickens too?" And then we are off chicken talk, coop chat, egg banter. I love it! I now look at sheds , wendy houses and interesting out buildings and think " ooh, that would make a lovely coop."

Anyway, I have just ordered 3 more poles form Omlet in a hope that these poles make the fencing a little less baggy, a bit more taught and a lot less easy to escape from.

[Midders]

We found two soft eggs in the coop today along with the usual lovely white one from Mrs Cakes, so that must mean that 2 other girls are gearing up to get laying. Mrs Cakes' extra large egg that she laid this week turned out to be a double yolker- the hubby made short work of it at breakfast time this morning!

The girls have a kitty litter tray for a dustbath but I need to get something bigger as Cakes is hogging it and pecking any other hen who fancies a look in! They have also made their own dustbath in the grass but the plastic yellow one is obviously the place to be!

[sandy]

Love the photos of your children and the girls I shouldn't worry unduly about the wild birds, I get greent*ts coming in through the wire as long as they are regularly wormed shouldn't be a problem

[Midders]

Well, it has been 3 weeks and Batchick is still suffering with her runny nose , crispy wing feathers and now a crispy head and neck too. ( my little boy has begun calling it her 'poorly white bits') so this morning when I heard her doing a cross between a sneeze , a high pitched cough and a squeak I decided at trip to the chicken doctor was in order. Catching her and getting her into the Batbox was interesting. I ran out of masking tape before I sealed the top so had to use a whole roll of very unsticky sticky tape. I finally managed to get her and the 2 small children into the car and we set off in search of the chicken man.
The kids were really well behaved actually, they are only 3yrs and not quite 2yrs , I think they were worried about their dear little Batchick.
The vet had a look at her and said that sometimes, given though they have been vaccinated, the vaccines don't work and in Batchick's case the vaccine had only half worked which meant she was struggling with a virus which had caused a secondary bacterial infection. He has given her some antibiotics but he said she will probably get the infection repeatedly now she has had it once. Poor ol' Batchick.
I have to give her a tablet twice a day and so far have successfully given her two.
Maybe the whole experience will be a bonding thing for us as she hasn't liked to be touched up until now,she seemed accepting of me picking her up this afternoon.
The other 3 girls are fine so their jabs must have worked properly for them.

We can't eat Batchick's eggs for 7 days after finishing the course of dr-ugs. Thing is, she hasn't started laying yet, but if she does her eggs will be brown.. As are Sportacus' eggs and as will be Incredible Red's if she starts laying- so, my question is, how on earth will I know which is Batchick's egg??? Or will I end up throwing away all the brown eggs that are laid in this time frame???

[KarenE]

Poor Batchick. At least she's taking her Meds like a good girl. My old top girl Rexie wouldn't take hers, I had to hide them in bits of bread and such. Nearly as bad as the cat. How strange that the vaccination didn't work properly.

Hope she'll be on the mend soon

[sandy]

Poor old Batchick at least you had a good avian vet I don't know how you will tell with the eggs, I had to stop selling mine for the 7 days period when one of the 3 newbies was on baytril and I had no idea whos was who, better to be safe than sorry

[Midders]

I got back from work at lunchtime today and could hear alot of noise coming from the chicken run. My first thought was that maybe there was a fox in the garden or a strange cat that was upsetting them. I went out to see what was up and found poor Batchick being attacked by the other 3 girls!! They had pecked quite a patch at the base of her tail on her back and because it was bleeding they were goung crazy for it. I'm shocked as my 4 chooks have always been rather nice to each other. Incredible Red can be a bit of a grump but they ve never done this before.

I let the girls out of their run into their garden area, caught Batchick and applied some of the purple anti bac spray. Sportacus and Incredible Red were not so interested in her then but Mrs Kev Cakes kept having a go at pecking her so I put Batchick back inside the run. Then Mrs Cakes started pecking feathers out of the other two chooks and eating them. Is she lacking in protein I wonder? So, I then took Batchick out of the run and put Kev Cakes into solitary confinement in there to see if it calmed her down. This was fine for a bit but then the other two girls decided they wanted to peck Batchick again. Not really knowing what to do and not having any more space to seperate them, I swapped them over again and put Batchick back into the safety of the run. I figured if Kev Cakes was going to peck anyone then Sportacus and Incredible Red were more up for the fight than poor shocked little Batchick. My next stress was having to go out for a couple of hours as I knew I would have to leave the 3 girls in the garden enclosure which is not fox proof. I've not seen Foxy in our garden as yet but I am aware it's getting colder and it is inevitable that we will be paid visit sooner or later. Thankfully, on my return, the girls were still where they should be. They have gone to bed together this evening and I have had a peep in the coop and all is calm and quiet. I did consider keeping Batchick in a box in the house this evening but I had read that it might be impossible to return her to the others once I have taken her away. I also thought the stress of being in the house on her own might really freak her out. Poor Batchick, she is NEVER going to lay an egg at this rate!
I am now hunting for a chicken saddle but the ones I have found online don't go down the back far enough to cover her wound. I may have to glue on an extra panel maybe?

[sandy]

Oh poor Batchick, thank goodness you came home when you did. How bad is her wound? I would put on gentian violet and flour or sudocreme. It is okay for her to spend a night indoors, mine have had to spend a night in hospital and 24 hours isn't long enough for the others to forget her. I would see if you think she needs separating over night just to make sure the wound isn't looking tasty to the others. I am afraid they are absolute raptors at the sight of blood, I would see how she is in the morning but please separate her if it is bleeding or sore even if it is in a box in the house.

[Midders]

Thanks for the advice Sandy. I kept a close eye on Batchick all evening and the others left her alone thank goodness. I''e ordered a saddle which should arrive in the next day or so. She isnt bleeding anymore and the purple spray seems to have put them off . The ring leader is my marigold, Mrs Cakes. I let them out as soon as it was light this morning, they usually have to stay in their run until afternoon as i am not in, but I changed our plans today so I could be around to observe, and seperate if need be. Kev Cakes is pecking at all the others now, not just Batchick She is stalking them then plucking feathers from their bottoms and tails and then eating them. I tried feeding them cooked egg to up protein but they werent interested. So instead they have eaten vast quantities of mealworms today, I hung up lots of different veg, threw food into the woodchip and spent a small fortune in the local pet shop on seed treat blocks. I have to say it did seem to keep Kev Cakes occupied and she spent less time going for the others. Batchick is looking pretty bare of bum but no more bleeding and now that it is drier I can see that the wound is not deep. They have gone to bed peacefully agin this eve but I know I will be out there spying on them later. I wonder what has caused the change in her behaviour? Shorter days and less time to run about in the garden?
I am a little worried about what to do when I have to be out for a whole morning again. I think once they are confined to the run again then te bullying may start again. I could leave them ou in their garden area but then they are at risk of mr fox. I am just hoping that the saddle arrives before Monday morning!

[sandy]

Perhaps Kev Cakes just picked up on the signs of weakness? I know some people use ukodex or any other foul smelling anti pecks spray to deter bullies. I do hope all settles down. I used to hang veg with gardening wire to amuse them, I got some hanging toys but only been played with once in 4 years! Hope all settles down please keep us upto date

[KarenE]

Hi Midder

If Kev Cakes is eating feathers, it could be a sign she needs more protein. It does sound like food and boredom may be a factor though. Maybe give them a big pile of leaves or something to scrat about in, hide treats all over the place etc etc

Sandy mentioned the anti peck sprays, might be an idea to try one out. I'm not sure which ones are effective - I've only used one once and I'm not sure I actually got any on a chicken. But if Mrs K Cakes is eating feathers then the nasty taste might also put her off

I've also tried hanging toys and a cd on a string but they showed no interest at all. Hanging cabbages and such though could be good.

[Midders]

I have successfully attached a chicken saddle to batchick! It wasn't easy and if my mate hadn't been here to help it would have been impossible- Batchick is hard to catch at the best of times! She didn't like the saddle at first and looked so sorry for herself as it made her walk all lopsided. I nearly took it off her but didn't and now I am glad as she looks very comfortable in it. The others are much less interested in pecking her now. I have also borrowed a dog cage that I have put next to their run. I have been using this as a sin bin! Kev cakes gets put in it when she starts on one of her feather plucking rampages. She seems to like it in there, in fact they all do, they crowd in once the door to the dog cage is open as if they have been missing out on something! I have spent a small fortune on mealworms to up the protein.I tried them on cooked egg but they wouldn't touch it, so I bought treat blocks, and treaty things and lots of veg that I hang all over the run when I have to go out. It does seem to be helping. I am out for a long time tomorrow so I hope Kev cakes behaves herself as they will all be in the run together. They have definitely been nicer to her today. I won't be back until late and it will be dark so I don't want to leave Kev cakes in quarantine in the dog cage as it doesn't look as fox proof as their run which stands on paving slabs. I will just make sure I hang up lots of goodies for them to occupy themselves. I like the sound of the bad tasting sprays and I will give them a go. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.