Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens (for now)

[thistlewick]

Okay yesterday was a great day, a record 16 eggs were laid! Thing is, there was an anomaly;

I have 17 layers, but because I have some unique egg layers I know who lays what, basically - and 2 unique layers did not lay. So did one of my 'basic brown' layers lay 2, or was one laid LATE last night and I found that in the AM and it was added to the daily total?

I think the latter hahahah oh well.

I got some pics of *some* of the rest of the babies -- here they are;

named Cher - a Sapphire Olive Egger

named Heather; Sapphire Olive Egger

Helga, a Vorwerk - we aren't 100% sure she's a pullet but we're hoping haha

Ayu, our Ayam Ketawa - not sure if pullet either, but maybe!

Phillipe- French Black Copper Maran - or maybe Phillipa?! We don't know

Francois, another French Black Copper Maran - no idea if boy or girl

Elayne, a Calico Princess

Sapphire Olive Egger - still no name yet

The ISA Browns don't have names but here is one, she's freakin cute;

Actually wait I think this is our Cinnamon Queen; it is really hard to tell them apart.

 

[TwoCrows]

Okay yesterday was a great day, a record 16 eggs were laid! Thing is, there was an anomaly;

I have 17 layers, but because I have some unique egg layers I know who lays what, basically - and 2 unique layers did not lay. So did one of my 'basic brown' layers lay 2, or was one laid LATE last night and I found that in the AM and it was added to the daily total?

I think the latter hahahah oh well.

I got some pics of *some* of the rest of the babies -- here they are;

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named Cher - a Sapphire Olive Egger
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named Heather; Sapphire Olive Egger
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Helga, a Vorwerk - we aren't 100% sure she's a pullet but we're hoping haha
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Ayu, our Ayam Ketawa - not sure if pullet either, but maybe!
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Phillipe- French Black Copper Maran - or maybe Phillipa?! We don't know

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Francois, another French Black Copper Maran - no idea if boy or girl

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Elayne, a Calico Princess
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Sapphire Olive Egger - still no name yet

The ISA Browns don't have names but here is one, she's freakin cute;
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Actually wait I think this is our Cinnamon Queen; it is really hard to tell them apart.

Congratulations on all those eggs, 16 is a great haul!

Gorgeous chicks, love the feather patterns on all of them!

 

[thistlewick]

So Toffee has a boo-boo

I posted about it in the Injuries forum and the pic of it is on that post but I'm not going to post it here.

I cleaned it out with saline and today we're gonna get some neosporin -- you'd think I'd have this on hand but no. I didn't have hydrogen peroxide, either. Just rubbing alcohol and I am NOT doing that to the poor girl.

She's acting normally, laying, eating, pooping, foraging. She just limps a little and this bump under her knee. It looks infected - like maybe something bit her and then it got infected. I dunno - we will see how it goes.

Never a dull moment on this little farm! And we're adding sheep soon it's gonna get worse! lol

 

[TwoCrows]

So Toffee has a boo-boo

I posted about it in the Injuries forum and the pic of it is on that post but I'm not going to post it here.

I cleaned it out with saline and today we're gonna get some neosporin -- you'd think I'd have this on hand but no. I didn't have hydrogen peroxide, either. Just rubbing alcohol and I am NOT doing that to the poor girl.

She's acting normally, laying, eating, pooping, foraging. She just limps a little and this bump under her knee. It looks infected - like maybe something bit her and then it got infected. I dunno - we will see how it goes.

Never a dull moment on this little farm! And we're adding sheep soon it's gonna get worse! lol

I took a look at your photo, poor girl! It looks like a wound and possibly another bird is bitting at it? I would use a saline rinse and or vetericyn spray on it. I would keep her separated from the others as chickens love to go after blood. It should heal up fine in a couple of weeks.

 

[thistlewick]

I took a look at your photo, poor girl! It looks like a wound and possibly another bird is bitting at it? I would use a saline rinse and or vetericyn spray on it. I would keep her separated from the others as chickens love to go after blood. It should heal up fine in a couple of weeks.

I am triply glad I cleaned it up yesterday then, and it was clean today no blood that I saw this morning.

Our Rooster Chuck was pecking at the bloody footprint she left on the step to the hen house, now I know why! lol

We are gonna spray her with the antiseptic spray tonight and then smear some neosporin on it. If I notice any pecking I will separate her.

 

[thistlewick]

R.I.P. Toffee, found her dead this evening by the base of a tree. Not entirely sure what happened. But we put her in a bag in our freezer in the garage so we can bury her tomorrow (3-4 feet down, we know)

We *loved* you so much Toffee <3

Just looking through these I am weeping, gosh I love her. She is our most photographed chicken because she did the silliest, bravest things. It may have got her killed. But damn she was so so loved.

 

[TwoCrows]

R.I.P. Toffee, found her dead this evening by the base of a tree. Not entirely sure what happened. But we put her in a bag in our freezer in the garage so we can bury her tomorrow (3-4 feet down, we know)

We *loved* you so much Toffee <3

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Just looking through these I am weeping, gosh I love her. She is our most photographed chicken because she did the silliest, bravest things. It may have got her killed. But damn she was so so loved.

Oh gosh, I am SO sorry!! It's always traumatic to find them dead. No wounds or anything? She may have had heart failure, it isn't all that uncommon. I've had a couple of birds with heart issues in my flocks. She was a beautiful gal.

 

[thistlewick]

Oh gosh, I am SO sorry!! It's always traumatic to find them dead. No wounds or anything? She may have had heart failure, it isn't all that uncommon. I've had a couple of birds with heart issues in my flocks. She was a beautiful gal.

Yes she had an abscess on her leg and it had been bleeding day before yesterday and when we found her last evening.

She was not acting like anything was wrong, and only picked up a limp in the last day. The abscess, however, had been there awhile -- but we didn't notice it because it was not very big (saw it in some pics we took of her earlier in the month) and she was not limping.

We have resolved to pay closer attention to all of our birds from now on, we feel like we missed something and failed her

 

[TwoCrows]

Yes she had an abscess on her leg and it had been bleeding day before yesterday and when we found her last evening.

She was not acting like anything was wrong, and only picked up a limp in the last day. The abscess, however, had been there awhile -- but we didn't notice it because it was not very big (saw it in some pics we took of her earlier in the month) and she was not limping.

We have resolved to pay closer attention to all of our birds from now on, we feel like we missed something and failed her

Paying attention definitely helps however we can't always know exactly what's going on. Chickens are masters at hiding illness, and things happen beyond our control.

 

[thistlewick]

So impulsiveness is the name of the game at our ADHD household lol

And we were GOING to already get an incubator this summer, but, Toffee passing away kind of spurred us on. We had several of her eggs this week and we thought, oh man - let's try and hatch some of her babies!!!!!!

So

We put it up on our bonus room, which has it's own thermostat - so we set the room temp to 74-76 and then did all the things -- let it run for 4-5 hours, then add the eggs, test to make sure they rotate (they do) and then restart the timer.

There are 3 Toffee eggs in there. The freshest one was under Tilly (who is broody again ) and she decided to move it yesterday and it fell and broke. Pissed me off, that!

But we did have one that was 1 day old and then a couple that were probably 5-6 days old, which I don't have much hope for... but I put them in there anyway.

Also one random brown one, no clue whose egg that is and 1 from Sophia, which was laid yesterday so very fresh (I want to cross my EE Chuck with my FBCM Sophia to get Olive Eggers)

SO in about a week I will Candle and see how it's going.

Humidity was high at first -- 56 -- and I had to open the window full and it didn't even lower so I think I put too much water in initially but this morning it has gone down to 52. I will keep a hawk's eye on it.

I did read that sometimes people like it low, between 40-45 for the first 18 days instead of 48-55. I will do some more reading.