Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[kcan2]

I didn't make it today and the eldest fed and watered the chickens.
The eldest can't get there until after dark, work and all that dreadfull business, so they're really only getting one meal a day while I'm sick.
The two bowls hold a bit over 400grams of feed which is just enough for non laying hens although a bit short for Henry who eats at least 100grams daily.
As you can see from the picture the eldest sent me, Sylph is hungry enough to eat after going to roost.
View attachment 3996735

So sweet of your eldest to get there and provide some care for the chickens, undeterred by work and dark!
Hope you are feeding yourself well as you get better. I once attempted to make some kind of fire cider vinegar/lemon juice/chili pepper tonic bomb shot for a family member whose cold was getting the better of their head. Since it has never again been requested, I concluded that it either scared off the cold, or the family member, perhaps both

 

[BDutch]

I didn't make it today and the eldest fed and watered the chickens.
The eldest can't get there until after dark, work and all that dreadfull business, so they're really only getting one meal a day while I'm sick.
The two bowls hold a bit over 400grams of feed which is just enough for non laying hens although a bit short for Henry who eats at least 100grams daily.
As you can see from the picture the eldest sent me, Sylph is hungry enough to eat after going to roost.
View attachment 3996735

What about J?
Can he/she only go there in the weekend?

This beauty came to the little stream behind our garden to hunt for a snack.
I didn’t see properly what the heron caught. But it might have been a frog or a salamander.

 

[lightm]

Need advice
Shad, hope you are feeling better and that you don't mind me posting here for some advice.
I posted this over at Bob's thread and may make a thread on this in the illnesses forum, but I feel like there are a lot of experienced chicken tenders on here so hoping you can help.

I am worried about Bernie.

I think I have posted pictures before of how Bernie can stuff herself to the point you cannot believe she can stand upright with the size of her crop.
This picture is from August, 2023 as an example.

Anyway, her crop really was huge yesterday afternoon when she was torturing a pumpkin, but because she is molting heavily on her body I thought maybe it just looked more prominent without a nice covering of feathers.

She is behaving normally - not acting ill at all.

Anyway, I am a worrier, so I got up at an unholy hour this morning to examine her on the roost and was disturbed to see that her crop had not gone down overnight.

I wasn't prepared with my frozen coconut oil 'pills' so I gave her a vigorous massage (it was Shad who taught me how to do that) which maybe helped a bit but certainly didn't empty her crop.

It feels quite firm but not rock hard - a bit like dough - and I didn't feel any fibrous lumps. Her breath does not smell sour. She delivered a slightly loose poop onto my foot during this procedure - loose but not alarmingly so.

I will prepare coconut oil pills to pop in her beak tonight after dark and will do some night time and early morning massages and will keep sniffing for signs of sour crop.

My question to all of you is whether hens are more susceptible to crop issues when they molt and it might just resolve itself?
I wonder if I am worrying too much, or maybe not enough.
I worry that crop issues are usually a sign of other underlying disease and Bernie may actually be seriously ill.
I have had one girl who clearly just ate too much long grass - but all my other crop issues have been the start of a decline for some other reason.

Any thoughts or advice?
Thanks in advance.

RC, I have a lot of advice to give. Somehow our hens are prone to crop issues.

1. Yes I have noticed our hens tend to have crop issue while molting. This is in line with what @Perris once cited from some book. A lot more is going on with chickens while they molt.

2. Meimei recently started a pretty hard molt and her crop was not not emptied for 3-4 days. We did not intervene because she was active. It all got resolved on its own.

3. Therefore I will wait and see. How is her crop today?

4. In addition to coconut oil pills, I have found a natural remedy being very helpful. It is called slippery elm. It can be bought in stores such as a co-op. It was subscribed by our vet to treat crop problems. It could be a coincidence but every time we used it it worked. (and we have tried many many things before when we were treating Light's crop problem such as acidified copper sulfate). I can provide more info if you decide to get it. It is usually in powder form.

 

[Shadrach]

What about J?
Can he/she only go there in the weekend?

I'm doing what's known as spreading the load.

 

[BDutch]

This beauty came to the little stream behind our garden to hunt for a snack.
I didn’t see properly what the heron caught. But it might have been a frog or a salamander.

Somehow the photo vanished.
Second try.

 

[kcan2]

Somehow the photo vanished.
Second try.
View attachment 3996834

So pretty!

 

[Molpet]

Somehow the photo vanished.
Second try.
View attachment 3996834

We have a similar/same heron. Great blue heron. Scares the poultry when they fly in or out .

 

[RoyalChick]

RC, I have a lot of advice to give. Somehow our hens are prone to crop issues.

1. Yes I have noticed our hens tend to have crop issue while molting. This is in line with what @Perris once cited from some book. A lot more is going on with chickens while they molt.

2. Meimei recently started a pretty hard molt and her crop was not not emptied for 3-4 days. We did not intervene because she was active. It all got resolved on its own.

3. Therefore I will wait and see. How is her crop today?

4. In addition to coconut oil pills, I have found a natural remedy being very helpful. It is called slippery elm. It can be bought in stores such as a co-op. It was subscribed by our vet to treat crop problems. It could be a coincidence but every time we used it it worked. (and we have tried many many things before when we were treating Light's crop problem such as acidified copper sulfate). I can provide more info if you decide to get it. It is usually in powder form.

Thanks light. I am just heading out to check on her.

 

[Sally PB]

4. In addition to coconut oil pills, I have found a natural remedy being very helpful. It is called slippery elm. It can be bought in stores such as a co-op. It was subscribed by our vet to treat crop problems. It could be a coincidence but every time we used it it worked. (and we have tried many many things before when we were treating Light's crop problem such as acidified copper sulfate). I can provide more info if you decide to get it. It is usually in powder form.

Would you please post this info? I'd like to have it for my chicken Rx file.

I have noticed larger, more solid-ish feeling crops during my birds' molts. I was starting to get concerned about Pip during hers, but held off from doing anything. It seemed better the next day, just a bit. I waited 3-4 more days, and it was significantly better.

 

[lightm]

@Sally PB @RoyalChick

This is slippery elm when subscribed to us by the vet. "Give 1-2ml by mouth once every 12 hours".

It was in liquid already (and yes very slimy) and administrated through syringe.

This year, we needed to treat more crop problems and bought slippery elm powder at some natural foods store. They are in the form of powder in capsules.

Each capsule is 400mg. With some conversion,
each capsule ≈ 10 doses worth of powder ≈ 5 days of usage.

A small accurate scale can be helpful. After getting the powder, I mix it with very little water and use a syringe to give it to our sweeties.