Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by HenPen »

I was feeling really quite pleased with myself earlier this week. Miranda was acting strangely - well actually not strangely for Miranda, 'cos we've seen it all before. I went outside and she was hogging the nest box. She did actually lay an egg but she wasn't coming out. So I picked her up and took her outside, then collected the eggs. Once the chooks had finished all their treats, she started nonchalantly but determinedly heading back into the coop (it really is funny, she looks all "What, me? No I'm not going anywhere..." but she is going at a sort of power-walking pace and glancing guiltily back at you over her shoulder). Oh and she was making that deep broody noise. When she found the eggs were gone, she started banging around the nestbox in fury.

I happened to have taken out one of those large plastic trug things with several inches of water in, as I had planned to rinse off the feeder and drinker. It was a lovely warm, sunny afternoon and I had heard that it is best to catch broodiness as early as possible (and this must have been the first half an hour of it), so I dunked her. Well not all of her, just enough of her undercarriage to cool her down a bit. And it worked. So far, so good. >fi< >fi<

But as is so often the way with chicken keeping, now we have a whole new problem. Wiggy Woo has got scaly leg. }hairout{
Earlier in the week I had started to suspect something wasn't right about her legs, but wasn't sure, so I had been keeping an eye on her. And today I noticed she was limping a bit. I picked her up to check she hadn't injured her foot - there was no obvious sign of injury - and double-checked the scales. Yep, a few of them were a bit raised. All wasn't well. (She also hasn't laid for a week and a half. Not sure if that is a symptom. But I guess if she has been uncomfortable, perhaps it is connected.)
So then I had to go in and enlist my daughter, and get a pot of Vaseline type stuff - shhhh it's called Baby Bottom Butter!! Embarrassing name, sorry Wiggs, but on the plus side, it's all natural, olive oil not petroleum based so, hey, look upon it like having a massage at an organic spa!
We had all the fun of rounding up a naturally flighty and skittish chicken who had already been fooled once that day and wasn't falling for bribery with treats again. So round and round and round we went, with her moving like greased lightning (despite the limp) finally catching her after about five minutes when she tried to hide behind Cupid, who is really tiny, while Wiggy is without doubt a bit of a heffalump.
Once caught, we slathered her legs and feet in Bottom Butter... and then worried she would slide off her perch in the night. I have checked and she is still on there!
I guess, when we have more time tomorrow, we will need to do all of the others and Wiggy Woo again. That'll go down badly - she doesn't think much of me at the moment {cry}. I think I had better buy grapes, cos there's sunflower seed bribery and then there's )c( GRAPE BRIBERY )c(

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sandy
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by sandy »

A trick I used with broodiness was a cold ice pack in the nest, of course the other girls who were not broody were less than impressed. Hmm can you do a photo of the Wiggy Woo Woo's legs? Star has scaly leg mite next door but she has never limped?
The Pink Ladies..Audrey,Ingrid-Bergman,Madeleline,Norma-Jean,Dora,Janice,Jo,Robyn,Chrissy and Joyce
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Sunny Clucker was ere July 12-21 2012
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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

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I will try and get a photo but at the moment but I am not sure if you will be able to see much - having caked their legs in gooey stuff then let them out for a dust bathe, all the chickens look like they are wearing dirty boots!

But the limp was just what got me to pick her up - sorry, I wasn't meaning that I thought that was a symptom of scaly leg. Actually I spent a long time watching her yesterday and she got onto my lap, then flumped down to the floor like the heifer she is, after which she was favouring her leg even more. I am fairly sure she has become such a heavy girl that she may have sprained something just dropping the short distance from the garden bench which is in the run. Poor Wiggles. All the others are so light on their feet, that sort of distance never fazes them. Maybe I should rig up a ramp.

I am in two minds whether it definitely is scaly leg - if it is, it is very early and not much raising of the scales going on - but I feel quite happy that I am using something very gentle on the girls, so it will act as a prevention if nothing else.

Good tip about the ice pack. )t' thanks
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sandy
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by sandy »

Bear with me doing on fone lots of good wishes for speedy recovery wigsy woo
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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Bridgets Mum
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by Bridgets Mum »

OK, I know I'm possibly the dimmest person on earth, but why does it matter if a hen goes broody? I realise that it's a problem if you are interested in maximum egg production, but does it matter otherwise? We used to have a hen that went broody regularly (imaginatively called Broody) but we just let her get on with it. I do have vague recollections of offering her food and water.
Am I the dope of the year?
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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

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No, I do get that and in fact it was my plan, when she went broody the first time, to let her get on with it. But i didn't find it so simple.

She didn't like anyone else in the nest box, and she's pretty big - when she is all puffed up, she takes up three quarters of it, so that was throwing the others a loop, poor things. ( All of mine like solitude when they are laying. It's quite funny to watch them go in one at a time in the summer mornings. Queuing! How terribly British!). I even tried making up nest boxes elsewhere for the rest of them, but they didn't like that. The group dynamic went to pieces, Amber's bullying of Cupid increased without Miranda, as she is top hen and seems to keep the peace. She had to be got out for food and water, but wasn't staying out more than a few minutes, not long enough to eat much food or drink more than the tiniest bit, and she was getting terribly thin. It went on for about three weeks.

Since I have to go to work, I just prefer to know that when I can't be there, she is doing her chickeny thing: eating, drinking, not wasting away, being Boss Hen and not being horrible when the others need to lay... That's all. I'm not egg obsessed.
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Bridgets Mum
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by Bridgets Mum »

Thanks for the information HenPen. There's obviously far more to this than I anticipated but I can well imagine the disruption caused by changes to the group dynamics. No one is showing any broody tendencies at present but I am now prepared.
Thank you for giving me such a detailed response. Laners are the best!
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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by HenPen »

I am sure you know loads more than me! I am such a newbie - only a year in and still feeling my way. Like you say, Laners are the best. I don't know where I would be if I didn't have such a wealth of experience to call upon and everyone is always so kind.
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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

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I have been thinking that the "Eggstremely odd eggs" bit of my diary title was past it's sell-by, but apparently not, because we have been having a strange old week of it!

A couple of nights ago, at 7pm, I went to check they were all tucked up in bed and found Cupid just getting up off a freshly laid egg. Bit late, I thought, but that wasn't the really odd bit. This on the left is what her eggs normally look like - and on the right is what she had laid:
Image
I have always fancied having a chook who laid white eggs - perhaps she knows and is just eager to please!

And then there was the Mysterious Case of the Eaten Eggs. Monday and yesterday, I went to collect the eggs and found one egg, one squished up shell (in two pieces) and yolk everywhere, including on the untouched egg. The shell seemed pretty thin, although once you have thoroughly crushed an egg shell they do seem quite delicate. My money is on Amber as egg eater - since the undamaged egg looked a lot like hers - and Ginger or Cupid as the layer of the egg which was broken, although if it was Cupid that would mean that she layed a white egg at 7pm on Sunday and a second egg by 11am on Monday, which is some fast moving!

Today - in a bid to nip the egg eating in the bud - my daughter rushed out first thing and came back with a perfectly normal egg in all other respects, but with a crushed and very brittle, crumbly tip.
Image
Not enough of an issue to have broken it when it was laid, but it would have broken if another hen had sat on it and laid an egg on top! So that, I think, explains that. Bit of a relief. Don't want )de: Amber the Bum Pecker )de: developing any more bad habits, thank you very much.

Talking of the bum pecking, Cupid is still sporting a rather disconcerting Brazilian, while Ginger is fully feathered. Today, while I was being a good Hen mum and giving the girls some yummy grapes, Ginger mistook my finger for a grape and it reminded me that she has the hardest peck of the bunch (Miranda is very lady-like and gentle, all the others are a bit desperate and pecky, but none of them really hurt like a Ginger bite!). That probably explains why, having caused one bald patch on Ginger, Amber has settled for a softer target. Poor old Cupid.
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Chookaholic
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by Chookaholic »

"Cupid is still sporting a rather disconcerting Brazilian," {rofwl}

This made me chuckle..... but poor chooks having their bum pinched !

How strange that one of your chooks is laying different coloured eggs! I didnt even know this was possible im going to google like mad now ! )t'
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KarenE
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by KarenE »

Hey HP, my little Gabbsy laid eggs just like that - I don't know if it was related to her laying again after a moult and I've no idea why they were topless (so to speak). The eggs inside were perfectly fine.

Poor Wiggly Woo Woo, I hope she doesn't have scaly leg but don't tell me she needs to go on a diet??! yike*

And brazilians are all the rage in my little flock. At least 50% of my girls have made that lifestyle choice.
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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by HenPen »

KarenE wrote:Poor Wiggly Woo Woo, I hope she doesn't have scaly leg but don't tell me she needs to go on a diet??!


She would never forgive me! She lives to eat. Anyway, she thinks she is just big boned. :-D

The crumbly egg was our only egg yesterday, which is unusual. Three eggs so far today, and one was a bit rough on the end but not fragile, so maybe it is a passing thing. >fi<

Funny you should mention moulting, Karen, as - apart from Amber and Wigs - they are all looking a little tatty so I wouldn't be surprised to get that pillow fight effect in the coop and run any day now.
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by Thomassio »

Hehe! I've been thinking about trying to put my girls on a diet, I have no intention of ever entering them into shows, but if I did, I would be laughed at, they are little fatties! The truth is they live for eating, with short breaks for napping!
Really strange about the eggs changing colour! I just always assumed a chook lays the colour she lays for the whole of her 'career'!
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sandy
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by sandy »

Hi HP had a very odd egg from Deirdre(on my diary) regarding broodiness I discouraged Amanda-Jayne because she was in the nestbox where the top girls wanted to lay and they pecked her comb causing blood all over the bedding!
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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HenPen
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Re: Henpen's hens and Eggstremely odd eggs

Post by HenPen »

You would be forgiven if you thought, from the remarks about her in the diary and liberal use of )de: , that Amber was always on my naughty list. Well, I do feel sorry for poor old Cupid, because having a bare bum in this weather can't be much fun - but to be fair she does her share of pecking too, and today I noticed even perfectly-preened Amber has had the tips nipped off her tail feathers, so they are probably all at it a bit.

Anyway, I am feeling very warm and fuzzy about Amber today as she spent half an hour sitting on my lap, preening and dozing. Wiggy was a little envious but after hovering for 10 minutes hoping Amber would jump down, in the end she settled herself by my foot. Not long afterwards, all the others snuggled down for their preening and snoozing session around me too, so I would have looked like a proper Mad Chicken Woman if anyone wandered past. I'm thrilled as this is, of course, the look I am going for!

Funny isn't it: Wiggy's favourite person is my daughter (who chose her), Amber (who was my choice) seems most likely to sit on me.
Ginger and Cupid are all about food and don't really do lap-sitting because foraging is a full-time occupation - although they will jump on you and frisk you for treats. But that, after all, is just a different type of foraging.
Miranda prefers her own space, thank you very much. She will sometimes get on the bench next to you but no snuggling.

I think Wiggy is going to moult again. No eggs for weeks and she looks pretty pale.

Cupid is still egging but is looking seriously moth-eaten, feathers hanging loose all over the place. But her eyes are bright and she seems very alert - it doesn't seem to be getting her down. You get the impression it would take a lot to get Cupid down.

Miranda is only laying about every other day.

And today we had another thin shelled egg. My current main suspect is Ginger. I looked through the grit container and all the oyster shell was gone, so I guess someone is really needing a boost - I have refreshed the oyster shell in the grit and will be looking into getting limestone flour.

We will have had the girls a year at the end of April. The time has flown and wow, what a steep learning curve!

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