Surviving Minnesota!

[MinnesotaNice]

For sure grab those city hens. You'll need to look them over for mites and lice. Watch them for illness. They say a week of seperation to be sure. Then let them go and sort it out. The newer hens will be on the young ones territory so things will balance out as it is sorted I would say as for pecking order.

x2

And sorry to hear about Dixie. It sounds like she's getting some great care. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

G'morning~ Silkies are just one of those odd breeds that is more like an angora rabbit, than a chicken. The hatchery stock is less likely to have the vaulted skulls and thus less problems. Its when you get into those super fluffy show birds that actually get the problems usually. For many years people thought in order to get those huge crests on them, they had to only breed from those abnormally large vaulted chicks. In fact, the genes that determine crest size are separate and you can get those huge crests on non-vaulted birds too. From my experience at least, those vaults cause nothing but problems from the start. The chicks have problems pipping and a lot of them can't get out of the shell. You see a lot go full term, but just never hatch. On juveniles under 4 months usually, you see a lot of cases of death or even wryneck from getting bonked on the head, pecked by another chick, etc. The cockerels aren't usually very gentle in their first mating efforts and this is the stage when they usually hurt those young pullets. Even last week I transferred the last of my babies out to the barn and not sure if I crowded them in boxes, but had 2 of them come out tucking their heads between their legs and I eventually culled them. On adults, the vaults often give the hens a tri-lobed mushroom shaped crest, instead of the nice round crest. On cocks, it will provide a nice backdrop for the crest and kind of hide bigger combs though. Still these birds are susceptible to a well placed peck or bonk to the head. I've had it happen in show birds on the way to shows if they jump up and hit their head in carrier or get too hot in there. If you have a low quality food, you will see vitamin deficiencies that can cause it too. Something as simple as storms and extreme swings in temp and barometric pressure can set them off. On the minor cases, I've seen people have luck treating with Vitamin E and selenium and/or prednisone. From what I've seen over the years though is those same birds will always resort back to the head bobble if stressed again.

An actual vaulted silkie skull:

Now this is a weird occurrence: Had a polish chick hatch about a month ago with no skin on the head. You really can see how there is no bone up there and brain is exposed. I've had a couple of these hatch like this over the years, just first time I grabbed pics.

Great information! I have two young silkies right now around 9 weeks old. One has an incredibly odd skull - I almost wonder if it's vaulted. The crest is very anterior....for lack of better wording. I still have them separate for my older chicks and laying hens. With this insight, I may consider different lodging for them.

 

[Dandelioness]

There's no-see ums in Canada. They draw blood without hardly a notice..then you have blood running down your legs or neck and you itch like crazy all of a sudden. a horrible insect.

We're excited to get you north Jerry. It's raining up here now...but the last two days have been gorgeous. Weather is a perfect 70 something. Breezes. We've had plenty of rain so you'll find plenty of water, no dusty roads, and probably a nice mosquito hatch. Good news though that the dragon flies are also hatched.

Okay I will share because it is a learning point for all. I have a silkie, Dixie in a mixed flock of large birds. After a couple messages with Destiny who breeds these birds. She says she does not recommend silkies with large birds in a mixed flock. Silkies with their crests have vaulted skulls and holes in the skull etc. She sent me a photo to illustrate this. I have a suspicion that one of my large hens was asserting herself with some scratch or something and nailed Dixie on her head in a vital area. She now has neurological symptoms. A head bobble. I noticed while on lunch at 1:00. Her neck would lay down..head bobble. What it is is brain swelling. I'm sick. She is a 4 year old feisty hen who has done well for herself until now. This occured while free ranging. When I got home from work. I gave her oil from a vitamin E capsule. She had a good dose of vitamins from a Merricks boost in the water founts this morning. It may have been a blessing in disguise that I started that today. IDK... I will give her a few days to readjust...hopefully have the swelling go down. I will also tell you all that the bobble seemed noticably less this evening. (about 4 hours later) So I'm keeping my hopes high that this will will go away with time. Will keep up with Vit E oil and vitamins in water to give her the best chance over these next few days.

Oh, my! Thank you for the detailed info. I have a silkie of about the same age (and temperament!) who has done very well in a mixed flock with large fowl. I even thought she'd be safer when free ranging rather than being in the coop if someone picked on her (thinking of hypotheticals while reading your post)... but your issue happened while the girls were out!! I will have to watch closely and assess whether to change things up in my flock. I have a few breeds, and they seem to form little sub-flocks when out and for the most part leave each other alone, but not always.

It wouldn't be awful to have a special silkie building/yard/run for them to brood and raise young... I think I will let my husband know we need a new building. Just a little one.

I hope she pulls through! I didn't care for them at all until a friend of mine suddenly had to move and needed someone to take her silkies... I cannot believe how much I love them now.

@Siggie - another resident herbalist! Me, too! Not a lot with chickens but the dogs, cats and sheep have been "doctored" up by me plenty! It's good to know of others who share an affinity for natural remedies, so you can bounce ideas off each other.

 

[Dandelioness]

I'm finally catching up from last weekend. I took of work Saturday and Sunday...... We had major storms roll through Friday night so everything was a mess up here. Just to the north of us a tornado and hail leveled all the crops, lots of huge trees down. I got lucky in just branches and leaves everywhere. Most people here in town got up to 5" of rain in a very short time so streets and basements flooded too. I got home Friday night to quick clean up the yard and catch birds.... We had a small poultry swap in New Ulm Saturday morning and then we headed straight down to Waverly IA for one of the largest bird/animal swaps in upper Midwest. You have to get there by Saturday afternoon to get a parking spot pretty much. People go around all night with flashlights buying. We brought the fire pit and caught maybe an hour of sleep before the worst run of people started at 5am. IA doesn't have a lot of the same restrictions as we do up here and thus you get to see a lot of cool stuff: descented skunks, fox pups, fallow deer, goats, pigs, donkeys, mini horses, many puppies of various breeds, all the smaller exotic stuff, and of course birds everywhere. Saw one guy with trailers full of trapping equipment. Many vendors there with plants and vegetables. Talked to people from MI, WI, IL, SD, and of course IA. The MN people roped off sections for all of us so when we rolled in we could have our own lil neighborhood.

Sounds like a fun event!

Significant difference in Dixie today. I think she may recover from this. Small tic with her head that's it. Sort of not noticeable if you didn't know better. She is high functioning. Eats, drinks, protects the Littles. Her neck stays up. Just every once in a while she turn her head side to side. But that's even slight from yesterday.
DH is a softy. He wanted me to hold on the culling. He said an axe is a lot harder to cure than this. Usually his advice is taken with a grain of salt because this is 'my project' and I've been reminded of that fact over and over. But I'm glad things are progressing nicely for her. I have a suspicion of which hen whacked her. Dixie is skiddish of the big girls. I know why.

I'm glad she's doing so much better, BC

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Thank you again Dande. Hopefully we'll have good reports on her to come.

Dixie is pretty protective of her self. Free ranging ..etc. Using cover. She's highly aware that things like to go after her. She is a bird totally inappropriate for my set up. But I've had her 2 and a half years with open door policy ...and I think she has a good life other than this whack on the head and being watched from the skies now and again.

Jerry you must have survived your weather event. Thank goodness...

 

[Violetsfeathers]

G'morning~ Silkies are just one of those odd breeds that is more like an angora rabbit, than a chicken. The hatchery stock is less likely to have the vaulted skulls and thus less problems. Its when you get into those super fluffy show birds that actually get the problems usually. For many years people thought in order to get those huge crests on them, they had to only breed from those abnormally large vaulted chicks. In fact, the genes that determine crest size are separate and you can get those huge crests on non-vaulted birds too. From my experience at least, those vaults cause nothing but problems from the start. The chicks have problems pipping and a lot of them can't get out of the shell. You see a lot go full term, but just never hatch. On juveniles under 4 months usually, you see a lot of cases of death or even wryneck from getting bonked on the head, pecked by another chick, etc. The cockerels aren't usually very gentle in their first mating efforts and this is the stage when they usually hurt those young pullets. Even last week I transferred the last of my babies out to the barn and not sure if I crowded them in boxes, but had 2 of them come out tucking their heads between their legs and I eventually culled them. On adults, the vaults often give the hens a tri-lobed mushroom shaped crest, instead of the nice round crest. On cocks, it will provide a nice backdrop for the crest and kind of hide bigger combs though. Still these birds are susceptible to a well placed peck or bonk to the head. I've had it happen in show birds on the way to shows if they jump up and hit their head in carrier or get too hot in there. If you have a low quality food, you will see vitamin deficiencies that can cause it too. Something as simple as storms and extreme swings in temp and barometric pressure can set them off. On the minor cases, I've seen people have luck treating with Vitamin E and selenium and/or prednisone. From what I've seen over the years though is those same birds will always resort back to the head bobble if stressed again. An actual vaulted silkie skull: Now this is a weird occurrence: Had a polish chick hatch about a month ago with no skin on the head. You really can see how there is no bone up there and brain is exposed. I've had a couple of these hatch like this over the years, just first time I grabbed pics.

I wonder if since they have bigger skulls if they have bigger brains, if they're smarter. But they act dumb because they can't see.

 

[Siggie]

@Dandelioness - yay!! yes I am actually a self study on herbal remedies but I am contemplating taking a course professionally. My grandmother taught me most of what I know and I would really like to expand on that! I would love to talk herbs with you

@Bogtown Chick - sent you some info on the herbs

I would love to take the 8 birds but right now I have no place to quarantine them? I could set up a make shift coop inside the barn temporarily but they would have no direct contact with my flock.....I need to think on this a bit to see how I can manage this. IS it warm enough that I can get away with leaving them in an outside coop? Because I have about 8 2'x6' gridwall panels lined in extruded plastic that I can connect together to make a walk in cage of sorts. I can then set it next to my run so they can interact. The only issue with that is a raccoon could probably chew through the extruded plastic mesh if he really had a taste for a chicken dinner??? IT might take him a bit though. The actual bars are 4"x4" on the gridwall. I used them for walk in cages when I used to breed sugar gliders.

Hmmmmmm....this might work. OK, I've got it! I will make the barn their coop and arrange the grid wall panels to enclose part of the lean-to area that the horses stand under (this will make them mad but oh well) and carry the panels around so they will enclose about a 4ft area outside my run and then they can interact through the hardware mesh.....how does that sound?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Hahaha....Siggie. You're like me. You figure things out as you type or talk. LOL. On the fly. Well I should tell you that you would want the 8 seperated and not physically visible or in contact with your own birds. Sort of a isolation time until you're sure of their health. (Which I'm guessing is good if they were pampered by a family in town--but you never know.)

Thank you for the good info on anti-inflammatory herbs/spices. I'll get those going for Dixie Stix.

Lunch time report: She's quite recovered. I'm a little hesitant to call it a full one as Destiny says they can relapse. But She looks darn good out there! Hardly a tic or bobble to note at all. Crazy! I still gave her vit E oil and she thoroughly hated it. She got down...started plucking grass blades, dandelion, plantain...drinking water....chicken feed. LOL. So much drama. I don't think she liked the viscosity in her mouth. I'm suspicious that Daisy the Buckeye or Lucy the BLRW nailed her. They are very forward on her. They are big powerful birds too. A rooster would settle these behaviors as well. So many things Tootsie did for me.

 

[duluthralphie]

Siggie ,, Outside would work if you can stop the physical contact. I have a small coop and cage within a dog kennel, the birds can see each other but not contact each other, in addition to a building I use in the winter. I had it approved by the Lady Vet JJ fell in love with, she said it was fine as long as they could not touch. I have about 3 feet dead space between them.


When I get Mr T he will be going into this area as I hate to have a bird locked in a building during the summer.



I have a sad story to tell. I have discovered a person can own too many birds. I went to Monticello today, to CUB, which just happens to hooked to the Runnings store.... I bought some groceries because as we all know I am the perfect husband. I even bought the WWD a squash, I do not care for them but thought I would make her one for tonight. One of my purchases was sweet potatoes and another was frozen Veggies. I bought the good veggies with Peas, corn, carrots and lima beans. I put the 2 sweet potatoes in the plastic bag and the veggies on top of them.


When I got home I tried to take as few trips as possible. I started for the deck and the sweet potato cut a hole in the bag and torpedoed itself into the sand. This allowed the veggies to follow. They hit the ground bursting open and spreading for about a 4 foot circle. I screamed "NO" in reaction to this. My birds are use to coming running when I yell because that is how I get them to the deck for treats and left overs. I had a stampede of birds rushing me and grabbing the veggies.


They picked faster than I did. I only managed to save about a cup of the bag. and there is a little poop and sand mixed into that. I will wash it off though, and because I am the perfect husband present them all cooked up to my Dear Judy with her squash.......That will teach her to swipe my cookies!

 

[Dandelioness]

 

[Siggie]

OMG!!!! ralphie you made me laugh out loud here at work!!! There were people walking by the post office and they looked in the window to see what the heck was up with me! Based on your vocal remarks about your wonderful wife (me thinks he does protest too much)....I would have to say - I think you are full of &#$p and that you absolutely adore your wife and she adores you! (only because as a fellow retired officer - I know just how irresistible we are) but I just love to read your posts

they make me smile.


I can absolutely make it so the birds can't touch only see each other....I do know the birds were pampered and I am hoping we have no issues when we bring them here because I was kind of wishing mine would grow faster so they would lay some eggs! Getting these birds would solve that problem