Bumble foot

On February 27, 2020February 26, 2020 By CarynIn chickens

I was sitting with the chickens, and noticed one of them had swelling between her toes. An examination of her foot showed a soft lump and a plug of mud in the center. She was walking fine, but I caught her up and rinsed the foot with wound spray and picked out the mud, then I wrapped it up. When my eldest got home, we unwrapped it and I was able to work the rest of the plug out of her foot (ew). We rinsed it well with wound spray, put some gauze on it, and rewrapped it. I had to wrap around her toes, but I was able to wrap in in such a way that she could still walk and she perched just fine that night.

We checked on her foot the next day and the swelling is down and the hole is healing up! We wrapped the foot back up. My understanding is that this is bumble foot. The chicken (or duck) gets something foreign stuck in their foot and it gets infected. This is actually the second foot I’ve picked a mud pack out of. The first one was on Seashell and it was already mostly healed; the mud plug didn’t come out with extra … stuff. Heavier breeds are more prone to this malady since there is a larger impact on their feet when they jump down.

Chicken in the straw

On January 29, 2020January 25, 2020 By CarynIn chickens

Since it is too cold to sprout seed in the chicken runs, I put out a bucketful of straw and threw in some scratch to give the chickens something new to do. Oh did they have fun! By the end of the day, all straw was evenly distributed in the run.

Modified scale

On January 22, 2020January 20, 2020 By CarynIn chickens

Modified kitchen scale for weighing chickens

I replaced the glass top of my scale with a short piece of 1×4 to make it easier to weigh the chickens. We were using a small piece of rubber shelf liner on the glass, which was functional, but still hard for the hens to stand on, then the glass popped off, so I needed a different solution. So I routed a circle in the middle of the board to fit the screw knob and glued the screw knob to the board. It is much easier for the chickens to stand on this to get their weight for health checks! They are still restless, though, so weights have a definite error factor.

Speaking of health checks, since I fixed the scale, we were able to finally do the monthly health check. Magic and Pooh’s weights are down, but Cloud and Navi’s weight is up. Navi’s pendulous crop is back, but doesn’t seem to bother her. There were many dirty bums, so I think I need to cut back on scratch and treats. The weather is honestly too warm for scratch anyway. We treated some foot injuries and are keeping an eye on them. Everyone is walking Ok, for Faverolle waddles. They are really cute when they run, though.

I still have a lap chicken!

On January 20, 2020January 16, 2020 By CarynIn chickens

I was a little afraid after the summer when it was too hot for laps, and after the holidays when life was hectic, that I wouldn’t have anymore lap chickens, but I do! Magic is my girl, and if I sit down she will hop up and make herself comfortable. Some of the other hens will hop up and look for treats, but Magic settles in for a snooze. Ah.

Fancy

On January 6, 2020January 3, 2020 By CarynIn chickens, Uncategorized

I had some shredded Romaine lettuce left over from Taco Tuesday (it really needs the capitals in our house), and wanted to feed it to the chickens. My rope net bag’s holes were too big, and I really don’t like throwing it down on the ground. But I do have some scrap and stained lace doilies. I ran a ribbon through the edge of a stained doily and made a small bag. The holes in the tatted lace were small enough to hold the shredded lettuce, but large enough for the chickens to get pieces out.

Chickens inspecting their new lettuce bag.

They are French hens, it seems appropriate to have fancy feeders.

Critters and Craft

Category: chickens