What did you do with your flock today?

[WarWagon]

I'm suiting up after my coffee and will do all food and water and give the coop a looking over. It should be almost 60°F today so everyone will enjoy some warmer temps!

 

[ValerieJ]

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.

It's coop cleaning day for us. Well, it gets cleaned every day, but we need to change out the straw and put in fresh nesting herbs. The chickens will all be excited to get some fresh straw to dig through.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.

It's coop cleaning day for us. Well, it gets cleaned every day, but we need to change out the straw and put in fresh nesting herbs. The chickens will all be excited to get some fresh straw to dig through.

Oh that sounds delicious ♡ fresh staw and nesting herbs would make me want to snuggle in... maybe even lay an egg

Merry Christmas eve to you too!

 

[ValerieJ]

Both coops are clean and fresh smelling. I had a lot of help from a couple hens spreading straw as I was laying it out.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Here are my BIG LADIES!!!! This is Priscilla (L) and Magdalene (R) (half sisters) . They will be 3 years old in March/April 2025. Never been bred. Half Saanen/Nubian

Absolutely beautiful and i love their jackets a couple of lucky girls forsure.

 

[SkyAJK]

I'm also not comfortable taking my chickens to my local vets unless it is for something straightforward. On the whole, they are pretty clueless and I will treat easy problems myself. I took a poultry health and management course a couple of years ago which has helped me a lot and i made a vet friend, who is lovely and doesn't mind me asking daft questions.
One of my roos, Stan, has breathing issues. He sounds like he smokes 60 cigarettes a day, at times. And yet no-one can tell me what's wrong with him. He's happy in himself and other than his asthmatic-type breathing, he is in very good health and is not sick in any way. He has seen 3 different vets and had different treatments. Nothing has worked.
Alice was one of my Shetland hens not one of my ex production girls. I believe she had infectious bronchitis 6 months before she started internally laying. The vet I saw about her symptoms had no clue about chickens and diagnosed a bacterial infection, prescribing antibiotics. And I didn't know any better at the time.

I shared your view about the Vet too. I am not comfortable with them. The thing is that antibiotic needs prescription, there is no way around it. I got some of my mom's antibiotic that she no longer need - Amoxicillin. I collect antibiotic like gold for just a day when my chicken needs it, but as usual it has to be the right antibiotic for the illness. Early this year I took my sick hen to a vet and 250mg tablet of Amoxicillin for 5 days cost$65. The hen was euthanize in the end.

 

[SkyAJK]

Merry Christmas To All.
Every day now, I say a prayer for my flock of chickens to be harmonious and love each other. My flock without a rooster is turbulent, and I still have not seen any hen takes up the leadership job in the flock. I have seen my bottom girl moved up a few knots in the hierarchy.

It is hot weather we have here and my flock drink a lot of water and they don't poop at all, the blast watery pooops. So messy as flies are just buzzing at those.

 

[ValerieJ]

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. So sorry @SkyAJK for the challenges in your flock!!!

 

[Shetland lover]

Here are my BIG LADIES!!!! This is Priscilla (L) and Magdalene (R) (half sisters) . They will be 3 years old in March/April 2025. Never been bred. Half Saanen/Nubian

Oh! They are too adorable

 

[Shetland lover]

I shared your view about the Vet too. I am not comfortable with them. The thing is that antibiotic needs prescription, there is no way around it. I got some of my mom's antibiotic that she no longer need - Amoxicillin. I collect antibiotic like gold for just a day when my chicken needs it, but as usual it has to be the right antibiotic for the illness. Early this year I took my sick hen to a vet and 250mg tablet of Amoxicillin for 5 days cost$65. The hen was euthanize in the end.

We have the same issue here with antibiotics and I do the same - hoard any I can get. I occasionally get lucky searching eBay but they're not appearing on there as often as they once did. If I have any friends going abroad, I always ask them if they can get me antibiotics - India is good for this and perfectly legal (as far as I know) to bring back a couple of packets for personal use.