Updates

Where to begin, there are so many updates, I will go through them in order.

Firstly Peaches and Barley have discovered the new perch my husband put in a few days ago. They now like this spot for catching a bit of early morning sun.

Peaches and Barley on their new perch

Today I saw them go to this perch and they jump to the bistro table/rain shelter then jump to the perch. Clever girls!

I have also given them mash for the last two days and they love it and empty the small dish through the course of the day.

Barley finds the mash

Peaches joins Barley at the mash

The next move today was to let the chicks have a bigger area to explore. After lunch today I opened up the extension half of the run by removing the hatch but shutting the gate to keep the rest of the flock out.

Peaches in the new area

The chicks soon explored the new area. I didn’t get many good photos as they look so small in the big area and still won’t let me get too close to them.

At one point when I checked on them they were sitting in the sun in the new area against the wire with the main flock sat next to them on the other side of the wire. This was lovely to see.

Before bedtime I shut the chicks back into their usual area and opened the gate again. I did my last poop pick of the day and was horrified to find what I thought was a worm in a poop. In two and a half years of chicken keeping this is the first time I have found anything like this. It was like a very thin rubber band. long, thin as cotton and the colour of a rubber band.

I only wormed the girls in spring but since then have added four new girls plus the two chicks. My husband wondered if this could be why Honey laid a soft shelled egg for the first time.

Tomorrow I will start a course of Flubenvet in mash for a week. I will also ask the vet if I should treat the chicks too or if they are too young at seven weeks. Now that I know they like mash it would be easy to do but I need advise first.

The next development was Honey taking up the penguin stance again and looking unwell. Despite two days of mash with limestone flour and cod liver oil it looks as if she is about to lay another soft shelled egg. I am wondering if my husband is right and a dose of worms has effected her laying. I will ask the vet about that tomorrow too.

Then finally the good news is that Amber is looking better. She is now able to peck at apple which was the only thing she couldn’t eat after her face swelled. She is looking much brighter in herself and the swelling on the right side of her face has gone down.

I took a series of photos of Amber and Honey together to show Honey’s tail down stance and Amber’s improved right cheek.

Amber’s left cheek is still quite swollen

Honey in the background has the tail down stance and the sad eyes that I am so familiar with in Amber.

Amber’s right cheek has gone down

Amber is looking much better

Amber’s improved cheek and Honey looking sad

Amber only has a small lump on her right cheek now rather than the whole cheek being swollen and Honey behind her is not happy at all.

I checked at intervals and again as they were taking up their bedtime positions. Honey still hadn’t got her egg out and this was a very sad thing to see.

Poor Honey still trying to get her egg out

The other thing that I had forgotten to mention was that Emerald only ever laid one egg on her second day with us. I then found a dozen black feathers in the coop where she was sleeping and since have found a few black feathers in the coop and run from time to time. I think this means she is moulting although she doesn’t actually look any different. She is a little fluffy under her wings and the lack of eggs and looking a bit sad makes me think this is an early moult. I know that the game birds may moult earlier after being broody so suspect this is the case.

I will report back tomorrow on Honey’s egg situation and any information I get from the vet. It seems just when everything was going smoothly something else comes along to rock the boat. I hope I can get this sorted out quickly and get things back to normal.