It's been a while - have you missed us??

Well we are back! And mite free - yay! Ok, so it took an awful lot of cleaning and treating the coop, ending in us having to bring in an exterminator to do the coop and run! Wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be, but cost enough. Mind you if I had done that from the start rather than buy loads of mite treatments first it would have been cheaper. Lesson learned, the only way forward when it comes to mites is Ficam W. Expensive, but does the job. Also need to stop feeding wild birds as these can transmit red mites.

Other than that, life has slowed down. At least one of the girls (Myrtle) is now going through a moult. Luckily she hasn't stopped laying. We are averaging 4 eggs a day now, which I think is still good given that we are coming up to 2 years now.

Just need to get them to start going into the coop on their own at nights now as its getting cold, yet they still try to sleep on top of the coop! Stupid birds!!

Arghhhh! The Dreaded Red Mite

So as you can tell from the title, we have mites! Whilst they are species specific for feeding, the little blighters can still crawl on us, and bite us, just not feed. Needless to say there are a lot of showers here at the moment!

Emma noticed about 6 weeks ago the girls started sleeping on top of the coop. An initial check in the day showed nothing. Turns out they come out at night! Checked early evening and found a few small black mites. Looks like the recent 'warm' weather is bringing them out. As they can live up to 8 months without feeding and once they do start laying eggs, which hatch every 5-7 days, its a case of getting on top of the cycle. So for the past few weeks we have been cleaning the coop with a multitude of anti-mite stuff (the latest being poultry shield) and then dusting with diatomaceous earth (DE) to help kill them. We are also dusting the girls with DE and adding it to their dustbath. Its proving to be a nightmare!

The problem with mites is that they can cause the chickens to become anaemic and as their health suffers, so does egg production and it can kill them. As they are still laying often we are hoping we are dealing with it before it gets too bad. Plus Emma is giving them extra treats and vitamins.

If the poultry shield doesn't work, we will be giving Ficam W a go. If that doesn't work we will have to replace the coop with a plastic one. Nightmare. As I said - Arghhh! Mites!!!

For those who don't know what a red mite looks like, I have put a picture below...











I hope it doesn't make you feel too itchy...

Edith update

We've just taken Edith to the vets to be checked out because although she spent the whole of last night on top of the coop (I think just to prove that she hadn't broken it) she was still holding it funny and Emma wanted to get her checked out...

So, off we went to the vets (Emma, Emilia and I) with Edith in a cat-box in the boot and went to see the only vet in the practice with chicken experience (I don't know if I should ask him what it's been doing with these chickens to get this experience!)

Anyway, 10minutes and £40 later we have a diagnosis...






...I feel this needs a drum-roll...









The diagnosis is...










...A swollen elbow. Possibly from a knock.

So we've got to give her a weeks supply of Metacam anti-inflammatory and not eat her eggs for 2 weeks. Hers are the dark brown ones for those who've forgotten / didn't care in the first place.

So for anyone who buys the eggs, the dark brown ones are off the menu for the rest of May.


*You can all sleep soundly tonight as I know you we're up worrying about poor Edith last night :-)

Edith has a damaged wing!

It looks like Edith had damaged her wing. No idea how. We let them all out yesterday morning and Edith was holding it in this funny position.

Emma has gone on her forums and we've had lots of diagnoses like "Angel Wing" which is a developmental abnormality normally found in ducks with a poor diet (fairly sure it's not that!) or broken which we don't think it either as I've seen her fly to the top of the coop which she couldn't do if it was broken.

Anyway, we'll see how she is tomorrow and maybe take her to the vets.

Fingers x-ed for poor Edith

Update from the menagerie

Right, Internet. I thought it was probably about time for an update.

We've kind of a routine... When I'm working, Emma does the chickens and I walk the dog. Emilia sits in her bouncy chair and watches mummy and the chickens. I've put a photo on of what she sees.

Emma has also realised that we don't actually eat any of our eggs so has started having boiled eggs for at least 1 meal a day!

Other than that, there's not a lot to report. We're still getting lots of eggs and all chickens are well (but looking forward to the summer as their run is still sodden. Last week looked like it was going to dry out but the the rain came... Again!

Its All Change Now

So life has definitely changed!

On 21st December our daughter made her way into the world - on her due date! Emma was in hospital for 2 days, from waters breaking to baby being born and discharged. That gave me two days to get the house ready!

Once baby was home we tried (still trying) to get into a routine, especially where the animals are concerned. Not long after Doris stopped laying. We also noticed lots of white feathers so wondered if she was moulting as this can obviously interfere with egg laying. Most days we are able to get the chickens cleaned and let them out for a run and have also got back into the routine of giving them their afternoon treats! Result being after 2 weeks of no eggs - Doris has laid this morning!

Will be interesting to see how the routine changes over the coming months!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

and its fair to say the girls are not liking it!

Been a bit quiet on the blog front lately. Emma is now in her last month of pregnancy and to say she isn't enjoying it is an understatement! She is now (in her own words) Huge! She is also struggling to walk due to her SPD/pelvic girdle pain (she's actually been given crutches by the physio its that bad) and she has been in slow labour for 3 weeks now. Lots of contractions but they dont progress. This now means that she struggles to do general house chores which means they get picked up by the rest of us (did i mention we now have a cleaner??). Em tries to do the chickens everyday but it doesnt always happen - and she hates it.

Anyway, back to the chickens! We have been having A LOT of frost lately and they do not like it. We have no greenery in the garden as it is (thanks to the girls eating it all) so when they do get to free range they struggle finding anything, or scratch at the ground (as its just frozen). They try to get to the seed that's down for the birds, so that keeps them occupied, and also chase off any wild birds that come into the garden - they are quite territorial! 

We are starting to give them a handful each of mixed corn before bed - apparently as its high protein it helps keep them warm at night when they are digesting it. We have also filled the coop with more bedding to try to keep it warmer. Its getting to -4 at nights now. We overslept the other morning and didnt get up until 7.45am to let them out. Normally by this time they would be awake a clucking, but nothing. Emma did wonder if they were still alive! When we opened the coop to let them out, they were not impressed and took a while to come out! 

We are still averaging between 3 and 5 eggs a day (usually 5) but I think thats more due to their age! This time next year may be a different matter.

So to try to keep them occupied, we have had a cabbage hanging from the run (they like this), brussel sprouts (they dont like them) and Emma also gave them a bowl of (dolphin friendly) tuna and grated cheese - its fair to say they LOVE that. Turns out chickens will eat pretty much everything!!!

Tomorrow we are trying them on pomegranates!