Carol's Chickens

In my last post I thought that Shadow was improving and then she went down hill again. I now think she is improving again and I am hoping that perhaps she is over the worst.

Shadow had a really mucky bottom and the poop was cream coloured. I have been cleaning her bottom towards the end of each day. The day she got better then worse her mucky bottom had a very strong sickly smell.

This smell got stronger the next day and I could smell her as soon as I opened the chicken door to check on them at bedtime. I think that if she had an egg stuck or laid internally that the smell may have been due to infection.

I have been doing research even though I have done so many times before and read that it is possible that an egg without a shell can be reabsorbed into the body but the egg is ideal for bacteria to thrive and therefore cause infection which needs antibiotic to treat it. This is why I feel the tylan is so important for Shadow.

I switched up to hand feeding and giving tylan water to her beak from once a day to twice a day from then. This seems to have boosted her. The poop around her bottom has now changed to a normal brown colour and the smell has become much weaker.

Shadow squeaked every time she tried to poop and I knew it was hurting her. When I cleaned her yesterday afternoon I saw that she had a red spot on her bottom where the poop had made her sore. After cleaning her bottom I smeared vaseline on the skin around her vent to protect the skin. I will do this every time I clean her. Talk about up close and personal!

Yesterday Shadow briefly joined the flock in a dust bath which is a good sign and at bedtime I saw her eat a few pellets for the first time since she became unwell. These things make me hopeful that the worst may be over.

I have also read that if this happens to a hen once then it can happen again but I have to take this one step at a time and cross my bridges as I get to them.

This is the first time that this has happened without a soft shell that I have in the past been able to pull out. I can only surmise that this is what has happened by my research and my instincts. Either way the important thing is to do every thing I can to get Shadow well again.

Shadow is still struggling with pooping which isn’t good. She isn’t out of the woods yet but I am a little more hopeful than I was a few days ago and I am still keeping everything crossed for her.

Yesterday I continued with Shadow’s treatment. In the morning I separated her on the top of one of the nest boxes and dropped chopped tomato and sunflower hearts in front of her and she ate some.

Then we syringed the tylan water into Shadow’s beak. I then cleaned her mucky bottom again with a bowl of warm water and cotton wool pads. I cleaned her as much as I was able and dried her with the cotton wool.

I decided to give Shadow tylan water to her beak twice a day until such time as I see her go to the water herself. We did this again at the end of the day.

By the end of the day Shadow was looking brighter. She was vocalising again and actually came up for some sunflower hearts with the rest of the girls at the end of the day.

I am now wondering if this is not egg related after all. I have to say I think tylan is a miracle cure and I am so glad that I still had some in stock and that I decided to give it a try. I am now feeling cautiously optimistic that Shadow can get better.

This morning Shadow came to the sunflower hearts with the other girls.

I decided not to separate her for feeding as she had some seeds but we did give her the tylan water to her beak again.

Again I cleaned Shadow’s mucky bottom with warm water and cotton wool pads and dried her feathers as best I could.

For the first time since Shadow had looked unwell I saw her go to the water herself so there was no need to give her a second dose to her beak. We are not out of the woods yet though. I have yet to see Shadow go to the food dish and having a mucky bottom is a sign that things are not right with her.

I am more hopeful than I was a few days ago though so I am just keeping everything crossed for her. I will report back again soon.

EDIT

I think I may have spoken too soon. I just went out to give the bedtime seeds and Shadow didn’t come up with the other girls this time. Shadow is sat on a log looking very miserable and her eyes are closing.

I am back to thinking that maybe it is an egg problem after all. Maybe the tylan just gave her a boost. This is so sad. We will have to see what tomorrow brings.

The day before yesterday Shadow was in the nest box for most of the day. She had been in there all morning so at lunch time I lifted her out and gave her some sunflower hearts. Shadow returned to the nest box until the end of the day but there was no egg.

I assumed that Shadow had got her timing wrong and didn’t think any more of it but yesterday morning when I gave out some sunflower hearts Shadow didn’t come running with the rest of the girls. She was sitting on a log looking miserable and hunched. I realised she was having an egg laying problem.

Shadow’s egg shells have been a bit thin recently and this is typical of a soft shelled egg. At the end of the day she put herself to bed and I hoped that there would be a soft shelled egg in the shed in the morning.

Today there was no sign of an egg. Shadow wasn’t able to compete with the girls for the treats which is always the case when they are feeling out of sorts. I checked Shadow and she had a mucky bottom which is also always the case with an egg problem.

In the past when there has been a bit of an egg shell showing I have been able to pull it out but there was no egg shell showing. I am heart broken at the thought of losing her. Shadow is a favourite. She is so pretty and so friendly. She has a lovely nature and is the easiest girl to pick up. I don’t know why this is happening to her when she has never had egg laying problems before.

I know that if I do nothing and she has an egg stuck we will lose her so I felt that I had to try to help her. I decided on a three pronged strategy. First I wanted to get her to eat something to help keep her strength up. Secondly I decided that as I still have some tylan, that is in date, I would put that in the water for five days. I have read that occasionally an egg can be reabsorbed and an antibiotic could stop an infection. Thirdly I decided to give her a warm bath.

I have never found that the bath treatment has worked for me but other people have had success with this and I felt that I had to give it a try plus it would clean up her mucky bottom.

First I separated Shadow on top of the metal table and gave her chopped tomato and sunflower hearts which are her favourite things. She wouldn’t take them from the dish but had some when I dropped them in front of her.

Next I got everything ready to bath her. I also used a syringe to put some of the tylan water into her beak as she isn’t going to the water at the moment and I felt this would give her a start on the tylan.

I bathed her in a bowl of warm water making sure her vent was in the water. The muck had set hard on her feathers so I gently got that off. I couldn’t see any sign of egg or shell in her vent.

I wrapped Shadow in a towel on my lap and dried her as much as possible before using a hair dryer on the lowest setting to finish drying her. I put her on a towel in the bathroom to wait a bit until I was sure she was fully dry.

Shadow didn’t move from this spot and I was worried that she was traumatised so I decided it would be best to return her to the run. I put her in the nest box but she immediately came back out so I left her to it.

Only time will tell if she comes through this. I am very down hearted about it at the moment but there really isn’t anything else I can do for her.

I will be keeping a close eye on Shadow and checking her vent regularly. I am willing her to come through this. Please, please, please, get past this Shadow. I can’t bare the thought of losing her.

Yesterday I gave the girls their first fish treat of the new year.

Smoke and Shadow are both still laying. Smoke has had a good run and I keep expecting her to go broody any day now. Smoke has been laying for a month which is a really good run for her. Shadow has been laying for two months.

I have noticed that Spot’s comb is beginning to get pink. It’s not red like Smoke and Shadow’s comb but it was grey up until now and is now getting a slight pink tinge to it.

It will be interesting to see how soon Spot starts laying and how well she lays. It will also be interesting to see what size her eggs are. I am looking forward to watching her mature and start to lay.

I thought it would be interesting to compare this year’s egg count to last year’s. In general our girls lay less each year with some girls as much as halving their egg number each year but there are always anomalies.

There has also been a theory that I had that has been blown out of the water. I thought based on a sample of one, being Smoke, that perhaps a serama serial broody was more likely to lay through the winter.

Sugar turned out to be a serial broody too but hasn’t laid this winter. Shadow who has never been broody has laid this winter. I have now amended my theory.

The thing that Smoke and Shadow have in common is that they lay a lot more eggs than the rest of the girls. My new theory is that it is the seramas that are the best egg layers that lay in the winter. You will see this with the egg numbers.

So I am going to first list last year’s egg number for each girl followed by this year’s egg number starting with the oldest girls and working through to the newest and youngest girls.

I am including Ebony first because although we re homed Ebony in October she had already stopped laying so her number of eggs is still complete for this year.

Last year Ebony laid 115 eggs and this year she laid 59 eggs.

Last year Flame laid 138 eggs and this year she laid 77.

Last year Smoke laid 117 eggs and this year she laid 121 eggs. Smoke is the anomaly laying 4 eggs more this year than last.

Last year Spangle laid 59 eggs and this year she laid 31.

Last year Salmon laid 71 eggs and this year she laid 47.

Shadow started laying in February of this year and has laid 107 eggs.

Sugar started laying in March this year and has laid 57 eggs.

We got Spot in September this year and she hasn’t started laying yet as it was too late in the year. She should start laying in the spring.

The total eggs laid last year was 564 and the total eggs laid this year was 442

Smoke and Shadow have laid a much higher number than any of the other girls. It will be interesting to see how the pattern progresses next year.

It will also be interesting see if Spot turns out to be a good layer as hamburgs usually are. We no longer have Ebony but now have Spot so we will have another egg layer in the spring.

All that remains for me now is to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and to hope that 2022 will be a better year for everyone.

I always like to give the girls treats for Christmas morning. This morning they had yogurt which is one of their favourites. I have also stocked up on some fish for them over the festive period and they have had sprout tops from the allotments too.

Shadow and Smoke are still laying so we are lucky to have some eggs from them although it will only be a matter of time before Smoke will go broody.

There hasn’t been much to blog about recently as everything has been going along nicely in the chicken run with no drama which can only be a good thing.

We have had all our Christmas veg from the allotments with sprouts, parsnips and carrots plus beetroot for our salads and the girls have enjoyed the tops from the sprouts, carrots and beetroots.

I would like to wish everyone a happy Christmas and here’s hoping for a better 2022 for us all.

I thought it would be good to give the girls a fish treat and get some photos as I haven’t had much to blog about them recently. Mind you no news is good news as they say and it is good to have a happy flock.

After all the moulting a bit of extra protein is good for the girls as well as being a well loved treat.

Smoke promptly started moulting after she came out of her recent broody spell but she has stopped dropping feathers now. I think they are now all through the moult. Smoke started moulting just as the rest of the flock stopped dropping feathers. I seem to have been picking up feathers for a long time this year.

Smoke may start laying again now that she has stopped moulting. It is three weeks since she last laid.

Shadow continues to lay. She has laid eight eggs in three weeks so far. She started laying every fourth day then every third day and now every other day so she has hit her stride.

It will be interesting to see if Shadow continues to lay through winter or if she will take another break. It would be good to have both Shadow and Smoke laying at the same time to give us a few more eggs but any eggs at all at this time of year are a lovely bonus.

It is also lovely to see all the girls fully feathered for the rest of the winter.

Yesterday we were surprised to wake up to another sprinkle of snow. Surprised because it wasn’t forecast for us. But it was also a day of blue sky and sunshine.

I wanted to capture the sun on the snow and also realised how much is still flowering in the garden considering it’s December and we have had several frosts.

Despite the blue sky and sunshine the snow stayed all day as it was so cold. Overnight, last night, the snow vanished and it’s now much milder but wet. We have been having very changeable weather lately.

It was very pretty with the glorious sky and the sun but dull and wet is forecast for the coming week.

Last night we had our first snow of this winter. It snowed for about an hour and settled. This morning it was still here.

I’m not quite sure why I found this a surprise but somehow I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t think it will stay around for long.

Three days ago Smoke went broody after laying fourteen eggs in three weeks which is quite good for her.

Out of our current flock Smoke had been the only girl to lay through the winter up until now. We only got Shadow and Sugar last September at about three months old.

Shadow started laying in February, stopped in August and laid ninety eggs. Sugar started laying in March, stopped in September and laid fifty seven eggs. I had wondered if either of these girls would lay in winter and thought it most likely to be Sugar because like Smoke she is a serial broody.

However Smoke resumed laying at the end of October and Sugar didn’t so I then assumed that neither Sugar or Shadow would lay again this year. But a few days ago Shadow became much more vocal and I noticed that she had a lovely red comb and face. I started to wonder if she was getting ready to lay again.

Yesterday Shadow started going in and out of the nest box next to the one Smoke was in. I suspected she was about to lay. Shadow really wanted the nest box that Smoke was in. Smoke is our most aggressive girl and did not want to share with Shadow.

This process went on for some time before Shadow finally settled in the nest box next door to Smoke.

The next time I checked Shadow had laid her egg in the nest box next door to Smoke’s.

Shadow’s egg is on the left of a medium shop bought egg for size comparison. We had just eaten the last of Smoke’s eggs so I couldn’t compare them but Smoke’s eggs are completely round where as Shadow’s egg is oval shaped.

What a clever girl! I felt ridiculously proud of Shadow.