Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.
- Thread starter Bens-Hens
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #12
Good evening.
Sadly, we had Pepper euthanised today, her paralysis was getting worse, this morning she seemed very weak in the neck. All hope of any sort of recovery was lost. The local avian vet put her down for free.
On a little happier note, the remaining birds all seem healthy, withe the two pullets nearing full size they are standing their ground with the older birds more and they seem to be quite happy.
I have been looking at designs to build a mobile coop (tractor) so we can isolate birds easier, or keep younger/new (and vaccinated) birds in.
I will share what ever I come up with in the coops section when I do get a round to making one.
Sadly, we had Pepper euthanised today, her paralysis was getting worse, this morning she seemed very weak in the neck. All hope of any sort of recovery was lost. The local avian vet put her down for free.
On a little happier note, the remaining birds all seem healthy, withe the two pullets nearing full size they are standing their ground with the older birds more and they seem to be quite happy.
I have been looking at designs to build a mobile coop (tractor) so we can isolate birds easier, or keep younger/new (and vaccinated) birds in.
I will share what ever I come up with in the coops section when I do get a round to making one.
- May 11, 2010
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Very sorry.
Will be watching for your new coop. I am starting one myself as soon as this Ohio weather gets a bit warmer. Hope your remaining birds stay happy and healthy
- Thread starter
- #15
Thanks very much, a sad part of chicken ownership I guess.
I have been keeping a close eye on our remaining five birds and they seem to be in good health.
I read the other night that you can gauge a pullet's proximity to egg laying by the space between her hip bones. The pointy part either side of her vent)
We were told that Latte' and Mocha were about 18 week old when we got them a couple of months go, and Pullets begin to lay around 20-22 weeks old. There are no markings of external ways to measure their age (that I have found) so hearing this way of 'feeling' was exciting.
The theory seems accurate. For those that have not heard of this is said that if the gap was one fingers width between the bony points it would be 4 weeks+ until laying would commence. 1 1/ fingers width 2-4 weeks, 2 or more fingers wide less than 2 weeks.
I gathered up Olivia, our only known laying hen and measured her hips, well over two fingers...made sense. I gathered up Latte', the bigger of the two pullets and measured her hips, one finger. Her little body is not close at all to passing an egg, Mocha was the same. This perhaps confirm that the age described may not have been as accurate as the seller advised.
It's not a huge deal, just was expecting to be able to have some more home grown produce sooner. Time will tell now if that way is as accurate as they say!
As for the coop, I am leaning towards something small, just for a few chicks or one or two hens if they need quarantine. I have been leaning towards an A Frame design that I can move around the lawn area. Something simple and low cost.
I will share when the time comes.
I have been keeping a close eye on our remaining five birds and they seem to be in good health.
I read the other night that you can gauge a pullet's proximity to egg laying by the space between her hip bones. The pointy part either side of her vent)
We were told that Latte' and Mocha were about 18 week old when we got them a couple of months go, and Pullets begin to lay around 20-22 weeks old. There are no markings of external ways to measure their age (that I have found) so hearing this way of 'feeling' was exciting.
The theory seems accurate. For those that have not heard of this is said that if the gap was one fingers width between the bony points it would be 4 weeks+ until laying would commence. 1 1/ fingers width 2-4 weeks, 2 or more fingers wide less than 2 weeks.
I gathered up Olivia, our only known laying hen and measured her hips, well over two fingers...made sense. I gathered up Latte', the bigger of the two pullets and measured her hips, one finger. Her little body is not close at all to passing an egg, Mocha was the same. This perhaps confirm that the age described may not have been as accurate as the seller advised.
It's not a huge deal, just was expecting to be able to have some more home grown produce sooner. Time will tell now if that way is as accurate as they say!
As for the coop, I am leaning towards something small, just for a few chicks or one or two hens if they need quarantine. I have been leaning towards an A Frame design that I can move around the lawn area. Something simple and low cost.
I will share when the time comes.
- Thread starter
- #16
Hi all!
Well, back again and still keen.
I have kept myself pretty busy with a little project and the family and I have worked hard on decisions with moving forward with our flock.
First things first, I had mentioned I was keen to make a small mobile coop. Apart from some little finishing touches it's pretty much complete. I settled on an A Frame design with swinging wheels, my wife can move it and it's big enough for a heap of small birds or a couple of hens.
It measures 1m wide, 2.1m long and 0.8m high, has an enclosed area with 3 roosts at different sizes and heights. It also has a covered pen area and a plain wire area. Each area is 0.7m long. Also included two doors, latches, rope handles and three hanging hooks.
Was primarily constructed from materials picked up during the hard waste (annual curb side collection)
Wall's and skinned with floating floor boards.
Alfresco and yard area. Timber was gathered from a few places, all being thrown out.
Easy access, also shows the hinged axle in the 'lowered' position, I had to buy the latch and screws.
The three roosts, two low thin ones and a larger higher central one, made the best job given the roof line tapers in / birds heads space.
Jacked up and ready to roll, wheels came from a old BBQ being thrown out down the street
Front door drops down and has a little ladder built into it.
Added a couple of old hook Dyna bolts to hanging cords, lamps or feeders from, thought better to add them now then later when there are occupants....and poo present.
All up, took half a day of gathering, and the best part of a day to fabricate, Total cost of $24.
So all has been peachy right? No not quite.
Found two green poop's yesterday and a hen wit a 'dirty vent area' This morning a different hen was croaky, and was still making the same sound this afternoon. It was very hot today (42c, about 108f) and not sure if that contributes.
I have been trying to find some answers but there is so much conflicting information it's hard and time consuming to wade through. Once again we suspect our issues have stemmed from the much older rescued birds.
Tomorrow morning I will get some pictures of a 'fresh sample' and post it in the chook health area for a group consensus.
To end this evening's posts on a positive, yesterday we purchased an incubator, a Hova-bator 1632 (an the pro's wince!) It is quite sizable and came from the paper and a good price. The morning was spent setting it up and dialing it in to the right temp then visiting a local breeder to chose some fertile eggs.
We came up with a strategy to end up with 4 pullets of our choice (well, from what breeds were available)
3x Light Sussex
3x Gold Laced Wynadotte (also had a Silver/blue laced in there so we could end up with a blue)
3x Ausralorp's, possible variations of colour and she had a couple in there, and
3x Rhode Island Red's, I thought they were quite a plain looking bird like our Isa's, bu seeing them in the flesh I was pleased with the auburn plumage.
So from that we hope to get 4 girls, would be a miracle to get one of each but given our luck I don't see it panning out that way.
I made a fancy spread sheet to track the turns and temps and now we have a LONG 21 days, look forward to our first candling session.
More pics tomorrow and see what the experienced folk have to add about what sprang up the last two days.
Thanks for reading, Ben
Well, back again and still keen.
I have kept myself pretty busy with a little project and the family and I have worked hard on decisions with moving forward with our flock.
First things first, I had mentioned I was keen to make a small mobile coop. Apart from some little finishing touches it's pretty much complete. I settled on an A Frame design with swinging wheels, my wife can move it and it's big enough for a heap of small birds or a couple of hens.
It measures 1m wide, 2.1m long and 0.8m high, has an enclosed area with 3 roosts at different sizes and heights. It also has a covered pen area and a plain wire area. Each area is 0.7m long. Also included two doors, latches, rope handles and three hanging hooks.
Was primarily constructed from materials picked up during the hard waste (annual curb side collection)
Wall's and skinned with floating floor boards.
Alfresco and yard area. Timber was gathered from a few places, all being thrown out.
Easy access, also shows the hinged axle in the 'lowered' position, I had to buy the latch and screws.
The three roosts, two low thin ones and a larger higher central one, made the best job given the roof line tapers in / birds heads space.
Jacked up and ready to roll, wheels came from a old BBQ being thrown out down the street
Front door drops down and has a little ladder built into it.
Added a couple of old hook Dyna bolts to hanging cords, lamps or feeders from, thought better to add them now then later when there are occupants....and poo present.
All up, took half a day of gathering, and the best part of a day to fabricate, Total cost of $24.
So all has been peachy right? No not quite.
Found two green poop's yesterday and a hen wit a 'dirty vent area' This morning a different hen was croaky, and was still making the same sound this afternoon. It was very hot today (42c, about 108f) and not sure if that contributes.
I have been trying to find some answers but there is so much conflicting information it's hard and time consuming to wade through. Once again we suspect our issues have stemmed from the much older rescued birds.
Tomorrow morning I will get some pictures of a 'fresh sample' and post it in the chook health area for a group consensus.
To end this evening's posts on a positive, yesterday we purchased an incubator, a Hova-bator 1632 (an the pro's wince!) It is quite sizable and came from the paper and a good price. The morning was spent setting it up and dialing it in to the right temp then visiting a local breeder to chose some fertile eggs.
We came up with a strategy to end up with 4 pullets of our choice (well, from what breeds were available)
3x Light Sussex
3x Gold Laced Wynadotte (also had a Silver/blue laced in there so we could end up with a blue)
3x Ausralorp's, possible variations of colour and she had a couple in there, and
3x Rhode Island Red's, I thought they were quite a plain looking bird like our Isa's, bu seeing them in the flesh I was pleased with the auburn plumage.
So from that we hope to get 4 girls, would be a miracle to get one of each but given our luck I don't see it panning out that way.
I made a fancy spread sheet to track the turns and temps and now we have a LONG 21 days, look forward to our first candling session.
More pics tomorrow and see what the experienced folk have to add about what sprang up the last two days.
Thanks for reading, Ben
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #17
Well, I am BACK!
WARNING ** Poop pics!**
Time for another update, I am not certain f this is in the right location, mods please move if it is n the wrong spot.
It has been a week, and much has happened, some good and some bad.
Flock update. One of the older birds who has never layed for us continued with bad diarrhea, while another rescue bird also developed diarrhea, hers was green and yellow, sometimes black.
For fear of loosing more of the flock (I now need to use that term loosely as we are so few now) I culled two of the rescue birds with doubtful health.
Our GLW (Mocha) also began to have green/yellow droppings, but a boost in garlic, honey and D.E. seems to have cured her very quickly and she was strutting her stuff, and the roost poop status returned to normal within a couple of days.
Now, some exciting news, this incubating business is DRAINING lol. SO exciting, but stressful. I regret buying the incubator we did, it is hard to manage and seemly impossible to stabilise. Last night was our very first candling session. I made a candling box from an old post box ad a borrowed lamp from the kitchen. It was so exciting, the wife and I huddled around this box looking in.
We did not have very high hopes with the trouble I have had with the incubator. The breeder said to expect to loose 4 of our 12. I would have been happy if 4 had made it given the incubator conditions. Blow me down, 7 of them are away so far! We lost all 3 GLW and one each of the other two breeds but that is better than I expected, so we are stoked.
Everyone loves a few pictures, so here are some so far.
This is a sample of what the two birds were doing. They are now gone, leaving just the two younger pullets and one rescue birds that was 'wheezy', she has since come good with the addition of the above natural supplements.
On with some positives. Our incubator, MK I
I did not trust the cheap thermometer/hygrometer so I double checked it to a medical one I had and knew was accurate. Good thing I think as there was over a deg C difference. We also put the 5 'no go' eggs back in to help stabilise the temp, and just in case we were wrong about what we were seeing. We will remove them before day 18.
Here is the candling box I made. Pretty simple, I know you can use use a torch, but I wanted the best light given our inexperience. This worked well and I am pretty sure we are correct in our results.
Our only laying birds dropped this one the day she began breathing normally again, then missed a day and is now back to normal big brown eggs.
So, we are expecting, and the mobile coop I made last week is small , but kind of like a kids 'big bed', so we needed a crib/cot. I made this little brooder box from two draws and some left over scavenged timber from the mobile coop. I know it's no Hilton, but it should do the job. Materials cost $8, plus the drinker ($15), ceramic globe ($15) and the flexible neck lamp was new from Big W ($10) Bedding is red gum from the breeder.
The more I wrestled the Hovabator, the more I found myself on the net looking at new incubators. I decided to have a crack at making my own. I purchased these materials. I am mostly complete so far, but am waiting on some hardware to come in so I can complete it.
I have on order a Incu-kit DC 12 digital fan/controller,
Egg turner motor, and
Quality thermometer/hygrometer with a remote sense wire.
Below is it as of earlier, it is now drying as I painted it with a sealer and will also coat it in water based white to battle the humid conditions.
30mm Styrofoam case, timber floor and auto egg turner frame. Case has two double glazed windows and remote water tray fill points. We should not have to open this until candling, and then again at day 18 to remove the turner frame before hatch.
I have enjoyed making it, using new materials I have been able to make it look nicer, but could do a better job with some more tools......I guess every handy man says that! hahahaha
Life was on the up, until somehow our GLW Mocha hurt her leg last night. At first we thought it was Marek's again, bu this is very different. She is limping, but seems to be in pain in the upper leg. She is mobile, eating but seems in pain. Seeing her walk looks like a break, but I cannot feel anything wrong in that leg. We will keep her under observation for another day and then asses f we need to visit the vet......again!
Another update when something else happens, thanks for reading
WARNING ** Poop pics!**
Time for another update, I am not certain f this is in the right location, mods please move if it is n the wrong spot.
It has been a week, and much has happened, some good and some bad.
Flock update. One of the older birds who has never layed for us continued with bad diarrhea, while another rescue bird also developed diarrhea, hers was green and yellow, sometimes black.
For fear of loosing more of the flock (I now need to use that term loosely as we are so few now) I culled two of the rescue birds with doubtful health.
Our GLW (Mocha) also began to have green/yellow droppings, but a boost in garlic, honey and D.E. seems to have cured her very quickly and she was strutting her stuff, and the roost poop status returned to normal within a couple of days.
Now, some exciting news, this incubating business is DRAINING lol. SO exciting, but stressful. I regret buying the incubator we did, it is hard to manage and seemly impossible to stabilise. Last night was our very first candling session. I made a candling box from an old post box ad a borrowed lamp from the kitchen. It was so exciting, the wife and I huddled around this box looking in.
We did not have very high hopes with the trouble I have had with the incubator. The breeder said to expect to loose 4 of our 12. I would have been happy if 4 had made it given the incubator conditions. Blow me down, 7 of them are away so far! We lost all 3 GLW and one each of the other two breeds but that is better than I expected, so we are stoked.
Everyone loves a few pictures, so here are some so far.
This is a sample of what the two birds were doing. They are now gone, leaving just the two younger pullets and one rescue birds that was 'wheezy', she has since come good with the addition of the above natural supplements.
On with some positives. Our incubator, MK I
I did not trust the cheap thermometer/hygrometer so I double checked it to a medical one I had and knew was accurate. Good thing I think as there was over a deg C difference. We also put the 5 'no go' eggs back in to help stabilise the temp, and just in case we were wrong about what we were seeing. We will remove them before day 18.
Here is the candling box I made. Pretty simple, I know you can use use a torch, but I wanted the best light given our inexperience. This worked well and I am pretty sure we are correct in our results.
Our only laying birds dropped this one the day she began breathing normally again, then missed a day and is now back to normal big brown eggs.
So, we are expecting, and the mobile coop I made last week is small , but kind of like a kids 'big bed', so we needed a crib/cot. I made this little brooder box from two draws and some left over scavenged timber from the mobile coop. I know it's no Hilton, but it should do the job. Materials cost $8, plus the drinker ($15), ceramic globe ($15) and the flexible neck lamp was new from Big W ($10) Bedding is red gum from the breeder.
The more I wrestled the Hovabator, the more I found myself on the net looking at new incubators. I decided to have a crack at making my own. I purchased these materials. I am mostly complete so far, but am waiting on some hardware to come in so I can complete it.
I have on order a Incu-kit DC 12 digital fan/controller,
Egg turner motor, and
Quality thermometer/hygrometer with a remote sense wire.
Below is it as of earlier, it is now drying as I painted it with a sealer and will also coat it in water based white to battle the humid conditions.
30mm Styrofoam case, timber floor and auto egg turner frame. Case has two double glazed windows and remote water tray fill points. We should not have to open this until candling, and then again at day 18 to remove the turner frame before hatch.
I have enjoyed making it, using new materials I have been able to make it look nicer, but could do a better job with some more tools......I guess every handy man says that! hahahaha
Life was on the up, until somehow our GLW Mocha hurt her leg last night. At first we thought it was Marek's again, bu this is very different. She is limping, but seems to be in pain in the upper leg. She is mobile, eating but seems in pain. Seeing her walk looks like a break, but I cannot feel anything wrong in that leg. We will keep her under observation for another day and then asses f we need to visit the vet......again!
Another update when something else happens, thanks for reading
Hi! Welcome to byc... I know, bit behind the welcome wagon... Going to make a few suggestions...
Natural apple cider vinegar in their water. Everyday/time you change the water. 1/8 cup per gallon is good. Poultry drench on those really hot days. Hose down their shady area to give a bit more cool to those spots. Freeze oatmeal filled with berries, peas, egg chunks, then give it to them to nosh on. Nice way for them to cool off. Even misting them will help. 106 is hot. It can stress the girls big time, and later you could have heat related illness, organ failure (kidney and liver) from over heating.. Don't feed high energy foods during the hottest part of the day. Also, pro-biotics is always good, especially when poopy butt issues occur..
you can have older birds vaccinated for mareks...
If you get your chicks vaccinated, keep them away from your older birds for 5 months... May be a pain in the butt... But, may be worth it too.
like your coops. Great job on them.
Natural apple cider vinegar in their water. Everyday/time you change the water. 1/8 cup per gallon is good. Poultry drench on those really hot days. Hose down their shady area to give a bit more cool to those spots. Freeze oatmeal filled with berries, peas, egg chunks, then give it to them to nosh on. Nice way for them to cool off. Even misting them will help. 106 is hot. It can stress the girls big time, and later you could have heat related illness, organ failure (kidney and liver) from over heating.. Don't feed high energy foods during the hottest part of the day. Also, pro-biotics is always good, especially when poopy butt issues occur..
you can have older birds vaccinated for mareks...
If you get your chicks vaccinated, keep them away from your older birds for 5 months... May be a pain in the butt... But, may be worth it too.
like your coops. Great job on them.
Last edited:
Oh, about Mocha, she may have landed wrong, or fell... If you have it, aspirin... Will help with the pain, and stress of the injury. Low dose aspirin, crushed and added to a treat, like yogurt, just for her...
- Thread starter
- #20
Thanks very much NovAman.
We have set a sprinkler up down there that runs lightly, bit of mist but they seem more keen on the puddles and run off.
We have been keeping an eye on Mocha, she seems to be steady, no real improvement, no worse. Have tried a few things to help but she seems more happy to be left alone.
The weather is cooling off a bit now, but we will make a few frozen treats for the heat.
We have also been keeping an eye out for a ACV supplier, I found some in the supermarket but am told that's the wrong stuff, so I am still looking for a local supplier.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, was beginning to wonder if 'my mic was on' hahahaha
We have set a sprinkler up down there that runs lightly, bit of mist but they seem more keen on the puddles and run off.
We have been keeping an eye on Mocha, she seems to be steady, no real improvement, no worse. Have tried a few things to help but she seems more happy to be left alone.
The weather is cooling off a bit now, but we will make a few frozen treats for the heat.
We have also been keeping an eye out for a ACV supplier, I found some in the supermarket but am told that's the wrong stuff, so I am still looking for a local supplier.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, was beginning to wonder if 'my mic was on' hahahaha
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