I thought I'd start a chicken thread, this is something I should've done from the beginning to document them. Feel free to post about yours too.

I'll start with a photo of my gang, as you can see poor Goldy (the Plymouth Rock with the yellow legs in the middle) is not molting gracefully

Bird of Prey directly circling my yard this arvo, nervous!

Why is it that if I try to go near them to check for lice, rub oil on their combs or give medicine they run a mile yet when I am out in the veggie garden with a heavy and sharp firemans tool breaking up the soil they are right there in my way?

Another rant I noticed a poo with tapeworm segments:




How this happens is that a chicken eats an insect such as an earthworm that has eaten tapeworm eggs and then the chickens digestion hatches these tapeworms which adhere to their intestinal wall. After about 3 weeks the tapeworm is fully mature and starts releasing segments from its tail which can appear in the poo as above. These segments in the poo are alive and wiggling (ewww). As the poo and segments dry up, the eggs inside each segment are released but in order for a chicken to recatch said tapeworn an insect has to come along and eat those eggs and then the chicken has to eat the infected insect which their digestion then hatches the tapeworm eggs... rinse and repeat...

Now where my rant comes in to this is that, because commercial chickens are raised in cages inside sheds and never see sun, soil, fresh vegetable matter or insects they don't contract worms. Because of this no-one tests the safety of wormers in chickens. So to use a wormer you basically need to get one for either another ornamental bird or large livestock (e.g. cows, pigs etc) but because they have not been tested in chickens there is no documented safety on their meat or eggs so you're left on your own to guess how long you have to withhold eggs etc and because it hasn't been researched they all say do not use on chickens for meat or eggs.

It might sound all dandy that caged chickens don't have worms but obviously that's not how chickens are meant to live but if you give them a proper life you are guaranteed worms.

ARGHHHHH

My Blue Australorp that was broody for weeks just came onto lay so now I have 4 out of 7 laying

6 out of 7 now back on the lay!

No they didn't develop but I will likely do it next broody especially if one goes broody in early Oct as my wyandottes which hatched on Nov 1 haven't stopped laying so Id love some more to hatch around that time so they can lay whilst everyone else is moulting

I haven't wormed them with medicine yet, I've been giving them lots of spices and they all seem to be going back on the lay so maybe its helping, I will keep a close eye on their poos and health. They're all seemingly very healthy at the moment.

I'm going to reach 5 cartons of eggs by the end of the day!

I used up half a dozen yesterday and I fed them a couple back this morning with their warm morning porridge

Last chicken laid this morning and I suspect she has laid before also so now all 7 are laying again!

Poor chickens, I was wondering why they weren't drinking their water this morning and just noticed that it's frozen! (so is our hot water for that matter!)

frozen.jpg

We've had one other heavy frost but this would be the heaviest as its the first time this year that our hot water froze! Poor Garry and Ryan had to go to work without a shower!

Ours finally defrosted at 10:45!

When we lived at Nairne it was worse, frozen hot and cold water was a regular event!