Growing my little flock

[DonyaQuick]

OMG this year continues to kick my butt in weird ways! Things were calming down. My husband is working on a new bachelor flock setup, Tengu and Squeak are starting to settle out with see-but-no-touch, Goober is periodically revenge-pooping on Squeak WHY IS HE SO WEIRD being himself, and Vanilla Bean is actually quite happy being back by himself as he gets attention from me each day. That's all still the case, but...

HOLY SMOKES Coco just went full broody and she is SO MEAN! Mean mean mean mean! Still a darling with me, but anything chicken-shaped better run. Scruffy was the opposite - she's actually become a very gentle broody despite being otherwise feisty. Unfortunately Coco doesn't want to tolerate another broody in any of the nest boxes, so Scruffy moving doesn't resolve it. Junior seems completely unsure what to do about this. I let Monster try to wade in and break it up for a bit, but Coco is relentless and Monster was starting to panic and get a bit rough since they're basically the same size (so for him it's a bit like trying to fight another rooster), so I'm going to have to broody break her for a few days and then decide whether to try her back with the main flock or see if she'd like to go back to Vanilla Bean. I had in mind that I might move her back with him anyway once there were some other pullets but maybe I'll have to switch that around.

Also got Harley and Raven making broody noises now...blergh. When it rains it pours I guess. Might have to worry about Harley following through. Surely not Raven though. I'm not sure it's even possible for Raven to do the broody thing, since she has so far completely rejected the concept of a nest (I still retrieve a little green egg from Raven's private parking spot on the floor each day...).

 

[fuzzi]

OMG this year continues to kick my butt in weird ways! Things were calming down. My husband is working on a new bachelor flock setup, Tengu and Squeak are starting to settle out with see-but-no-touch, Goober is periodically revenge-pooping on Squeak WHY IS HE SO WEIRD being himself, and Vanilla Bean is actually quite happy being back by himself as he gets attention from me each day. That's all still the case, but...

HOLY SMOKES Coco just went full broody and she is SO MEAN! Mean mean mean mean! Still a darling with me, but anything chicken-shaped better run. Scruffy was the opposite - she's actually become a very gentle broody despite being otherwise feisty. Unfortunately Coco doesn't want to tolerate another broody in any of the nest boxes, so Scruffy moving doesn't resolve it. Junior seems completely unsure what to do about this. I let Monster try to wade in and break it up for a bit, but Coco is relentless and Monster was starting to panic and get a bit rough since they're basically the same size (so for him it's a bit like trying to fight another rooster), so I'm going to have to broody break her for a few days and then decide whether to try her back with the main flock or see if she'd like to go back to Vanilla Bean. I had in mind that I might move her back with him anyway once there were some other pullets but maybe I'll have to switch that around.

Also got Harley and Raven making broody noises now...blergh. When it rains it pours I guess. Might have to worry about Harley following through. Surely not Raven though. I'm not sure it's even possible for Raven to do the broody thing, since she has so far completely rejected the concept of a nest (I still retrieve a little green egg from Raven's private parking spot on the floor each day...).

Chicken Drama, like a Soap Opera...

 

[2ndTink]

Yup, coop drama at its finest!

 

[DonyaQuick]

I feel like I should document what I did with Chungus a bit ago, in part because I just had to repeat it with Goober the past few days, and google was about zero help in both cases. So...maybe this post will turn up in someone else's googleage some time later.

Long story short: I think Chungus and then Goober my have actually had minor poisoning from meadow buttercups. While I know this plant is present much farther away on my propery, I have never seen it sprout up anywhere near the chicken enclosures. After treating Goober, I found brand new, small buttercup plants heavily mixed in with other perfectly edible plants (namely dandelions) VERY close to the bachelor flock enclosure, which is an area where both flocks forage.

This is what I was dealing with:

• Bird found dehydrated and weak some time after foraging and eating wild plants. For Goober, it was a mere 4h after foraging.
• Difficulty pooping - serious impaction for Chungus, less serious for Goober but he was still a bit impacted.
• Weakness increasing rapidly. I mean weak almost to the point of limp at the worst. I honestly though Goober was going to die he was so bad at the worst point.
• Increasing amounts of mucous in the poop as symptoms worsened.
• Very obvious wincing in response to internal gurgles (stuff moving through clearly hurts)

I concluded it's buttercups because...

• They are known to be toxic to many animals including birds.
• They are the only clearly bird-toxic plant in the foraging area.
• They cause serious digestive problems, intestinal lesions, and dehydration.
• They often aren't an issue until crushed up (which would take place in the gizzard for a chicken - mammals get mouth reactions from chewing but birds don't chew)
• Some sources say neurological issues can happen, like weakness or ataxia

Buttercups are supposed to taste very bitter, but animals can end up ingesting them anyway - I suspect my birds ate small bits accidentally during foraging frenzies on the lush amunt of dandelions in the area. Goober is Chungus's son, which makes me wonder if there could be some lesser ability to taste those plants that was inherited (of course I can't know that for sure but it's a bit much of a coincidence given the birds are in different flocks).

This is how I treated and what I saw:

• Small improvement from taking plain water by pipette - not enough to stand or start walking around again.
• HUGE improvement within 2 hours of taking water with a product called Respirtory mixed into it. This was after a whole day of decline for Chungus and about 5h of decline for Goober.
• Impactions only passed after treatment with medication. Impactions for both birds contained finely ground vegetable matter from the foraging.
• Treatment with that medication has to continue for 5-10 days. Longer treatment means increased risk of fungal infection.
• Probiotics are often recommended with it because of the fungal issue - I tried this with Chungus on day 5 in amounts smaller than what was recommended and it went VERY BADLY. It gave her serious digestive pain again and really bad gas. I didn't use any probiotics after that and won't be doing in the future.
• Chungus required the full 10 days of treatment. I did this fully indoors to minimize risk of fungal issues. Possibly because of the probiotics incident, her poop didn't go back to normal until about day 7-8 and included noticable pieces of shed intestinal lining even for a couple days after treatment ended.
• Goober I suspect will be ok after 5 days; we're on day 3 now and he's totally back to normal including healthy-looking poops. He was only indoors for 1 day because his improvement was much faster.

Needless to say, I have destroyed every sneaky buttercup sprout I could find in the areas where the chickens go. I used one of those long-prong tools to remove the long taproot so they don't come back. I have not found any other toxic plants during that search aside from greater celandine, which my chickens have actually nibbled in tiny amounts periodically for years now with no ill effect (I suspect they are acutally self-worming with a bit of that but that's another topic for a different thread).

 

[2ndTink]

Wow, thanks for the information and the reminder that buttercup is poisonous. I just saw some by the coop last night, off to pull it...

 

[DonyaQuick]

The beaaaans are back in town!

Coco's pretty much un-broodied and there are some HOT days on the horizon where it will be a lot healthier for her to be outside in the shade and breeze than in the broiling house. I decided I didn't want to risk another random brawl between Coco and Scruffy with Monster in the middle - that's how her feathers got scratty. She had mostly accepted Junior and liked her eggers of course, but she had issues with Monster for some reason. So...back to Bean Town. Easiest re-integration ever. Bizarrely easy really. Coco growled at Vanilla once, he danced for her, she completely ignored him like he's not even a rooster, and uh....that was that. They're just going around together now like old friends. Definitely just friends so far though and nothing else LOL poor Vanilla. But look at that silly puffed out chest pose though - he's a happy boy. He was starting to be kind of a sad boy by himself since I wasn't able to give him much attention for a few days due to the buttercup fiasco.

 

[2ndTink]

Prefect pairing! He looks quite proud again

I have a little spicey silkie hen I moved into the breeding flock because they have a big run and we haven't finished the run for the pen she is in, she wanted outside so bad. The rooster dance for her and she just ignores him, she too busy eating and she definitely has her priorities heavy on the food side.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Prepping for chicks...built a new, very sturdy 3x2x2 enclosure with 1/4in HWC to use for integration. It's big enough I can also put a nest box in it to get Scruffy used to being in the house for a couple days prior. Assuming she accepts the chicks, I'd then move her with them into the 4x4x4 cube I've used before for broodies and chicks, and then the new 3x2x2 box would become a way for them to collectively spend some time each day with the main flock in the coop. Both halves of the top can open, so I can reach easily anywhere. It's also sturdy enough that adult birds can pile on top and it won't have any trouble.

Meanwhile...new bachelor pad in progress.

 

[fuzzi]

Prepping for chicks...built a new, very sturdy 3x2x2 enclosure with 1/4in HWC to use for integration. It's big enough I can also put a nest box in it to get Scruffy used to being in the house for a couple days prior. Assuming she accepts the chicks, I'd then move her with them into the 4x4x4 cube I've used before for broodies and chicks, and then the new 3x2x2 box would become a way for them to collectively spend some time each day with the main flock in the coop. Both halves of the top can open, so I can reach easily anywhere. It's also sturdy enough that adult birds can pile on top and it won't have any trouble.

View attachment 3843932

Meanwhile...new bachelor pad in progress.
View attachment 3843971

Looks good, but how heavy is it?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Looks good, but how heavy is it?

It's actually surprisingly light compared to what I expected. I don't have a way to weigh it exactly, but it's certainly a lot easier to shift around than a standard size feed bag or even a single cinderblock. Probably a bit more than what it's like carrying a couple gallons of milk, so I'm guessing it's somewhere around 20-25lbs. I've already moved it quite some distance a few times no problem.